
I Thought It Would Be Better than This
Rise from Disappointment, Regain Control, and Rebuild a Life You Love
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Narrated by:
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Jessica N. Turner
About this listen
Learn how to recover from life’s disappointments and rebuild a life you love.
What happens when you look at your life and think, I thought it would be better than this? You know you can’t stay where you are, but have no idea what to do next.
When Jessica N. Turner, a mom of three, lost her 16-year-marriage after her husband came out as gay, her life shattered. With grit and determination, she picked up the pieces, chose hope and courageously rebuilt a beautiful next chapter.
During this process, Jessica discovered universal tools that can support you, no matter what you’re facing. Using thoughtful reflections and exercises, vulnerable storytelling, and practical takeaways, Jessica will help you:
·Evaluate your disappointments, heartaches, and unmet expectations so that you can move forward in healing.
·Talk candidly about your feelings to forge healthier and more meaningful relationships.
·Practice forgiveness and empathy for yourself and others so that you live with more love and less pain.
·Regain control over the parts of life where you have agency instead of passively waiting for things to happen to you.
·Discover creative practices to cultivate daily satisfaction and contentment.
· Learn to love yourself and the characteristics that make you unique so that you can be more confident and content.
I Thought It Would Be Better Than This is a manifesto of hope that will empower you to transform your circumstances and move forward with intention and purpose.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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Story
If You Were My Daughter is a story of learning to hear your own voice, of one daughter's return to wholeness, and a story of accepting that a mother's best can still fall far too short. Richmond illuminates how the stories we're born into shape the ones we tell about ourselves—and reminds us that we have the powerful permission to develop a new relationship with what is difficult in our lives.
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Awake
- A Memoir
- By: Jen Hatmaker
- Narrated by: Jen Hatmaker
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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An Avid Reader Press book. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every listener.At 2:30 a.m. on July 11th, 2020, Jen Hatmaker woke up to her husband of twenty-six years whispering in his phone to another woman from their bed. It was the end of life as she knew it. In the months that followed, she went from being a shiny, funny, popular leader, to a divorced wreck on antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds parenting five kids alone with no clue about her own bank accounts.
By: Jen Hatmaker
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Muse
- The Magnetism of Women Who Stop Abandoning Themselves
- By: Dr. Amanda Hanson
- Narrated by: Amanda Hanson
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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For too long, womanhood has been defined by patriarchal structures that keep us women small, quiet, and at war with our bodies. It’s time for a radical return to true, self-led womanhood. In Muse: The Magnetism of Women Who Stop Abandoning Themselves, Dr. Amanda Hanson examines the history and current systems that put women in the position of living their lives based on their worth to men. She then guides us through exquisite rituals and practices to reclaim our womanhood and build our most beautiful lives.
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Such a POWERFUL message!!
- By Kindle Customer on 05-01-25
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I Was Told There'd Be a Village
- Transforming Motherhood through the Power of Connection
- By: Melissa Wirt
- Narrated by: Melissa Wirt
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Melissa Wirt thought she had everything—her own company and a beautiful family. But during a personal crisis, she realized: despite having created an online community reaching thousands of moms, she’d somehow, become utterly isolated. In I Was Told There'd Be a Village, Melissa describes how she began making small changes—leaving behind an Isolation Mindset and developing a Village Mindset.
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I feel heard
- By Dominic Orlando on 04-12-25
By: Melissa Wirt
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What If I'm Wrong?
- Navigating the Waves of Fear and Failure
- By: Heather Thompson Day
- Narrated by: Heather Thompson Day
- Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Are you tired of living life scared or following the status quo? Heather Thompson Day challenges listeners to remember what it felt like to believe in themselves before the world told them who they should be and what they should do. What If I’m Wrong? explores the chasm between our dreams we once had and the reality in which we are now living. Writing from personal experience, Heather dives deep into what makes us feel overwhelmed or defeated by the hopes we once had, the disappointments we should have overcome, the goals we expected to accomplish, and the person we wanted to be.
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All of it! Footprints in the snow !
- By Venessa Smidt on 05-07-25
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Everyday Intuition
- What Psychology, Science, and Psychics Can Teach Us About Finding and Trusting Our Inner Voice
- By: Elizabeth Greenwood
- Narrated by: Talon David
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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We rely on our intuition, even though we don’t fully understand what it is, how it works, or if we can even trust it. In this fresh, mind-opening book, Elizabeth Greenwood takes us on a sweeping investigation into the subject, exploring how, in our data-driven world, we can harness intuition in our day-to-day lives. Digging deep into her personal experience as well as insights from neuroscience, psychology, feminist texts, psychics, and everyday people with extraordinary intuitive ability, Greenwood explores what we know about intuition.
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Love this book!
- By Paulette P. on 05-18-25
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Stretched Too Thin
- How Working Moms Can Lose the Guilt, Work Smarter, and Thrive
- By: Jessica N. Turner
- Narrated by: Jessica N. Turner
- Length: 4 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Full of compassion and encouragement, Stretched Too Thin will empower women with useful insights and tools to thrive as working moms.
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Not as helpful as I expected
- By T. Groth on 10-09-18
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Enough
- Climbing Toward a True Self on Mount Everest
- By: Melissa Arnot Reid
- Narrated by: Melissa Arnot Reid
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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At twenty-seven, when Melissa Arnot Reid accepted a tank of oxygen just short of the summit of Mount Everest, she felt ravaged by defeat. Driven by a relentless, lifelong quest to prove to herself, her family, and the world that she was enough, she had set herself an incredible goal—to become the first American woman to summit Everest without supplemental oxygen. The failure battered her spirit and left her struggling to keep her tenuous grip on hope.
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Astonishingly brave story about finding oneself through darkness
- By Meg Taylor on 05-07-25
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The Next Day
- Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward
- By: Melinda French Gates
- Narrated by: Melinda French Gates
- Length: 3 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In a rare window into some of her life’s pivotal moments, Melinda French Gates draws from previously untold stories to offer a new perspective on encountering transitions. Melinda will reflect on some of the most significant transitions in her own life, including becoming a parent, the death of a dear friend, and her departure from the Gates Foundation. The stories she tells illuminate universal lessons about loosening the bonds of perfectionism, helping friends navigate times of crisis, embracing uncertainty, and more.
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So much wisdom
- By Michelle Hicks on 04-16-25
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The 10
- A Memoir of Family and the Open Road
- By: E.A. Hanks
- Narrated by: E.A. Hanks
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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From Vanity Fair and The New York Times contributor comes a beautifully written, deeply felt memoir recounting the solo cross-country journey she made along the Ten across the American southwest: a mission to uncover both what harrowing violence may or may not have happened to her late mother, but also, to look within and discover who she herself is—where her mother ends and she begins.
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E.A. Hanks’s writing never flinches—always fresh, vulnerable, and deeply honest
- By Jonah Evans on 04-09-25
By: E.A. Hanks
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High Functioning
- Overcome Your Hidden Depression and Reclaim Your Joy
- By: Judith Joseph, Mel Robbins - foreword
- Narrated by: Judith Joseph, Mel Robbins
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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We're all familiar with what depression can look like, but there's another, lesser‑known face to this illness. High functioning depression (HFD) doesn't conform to the image of depression that typically comes to mind. As a result, people with HFD often have no idea why they are suffering, or what to do about it. In High Functioning, Dr. Judith Joseph reveals that what we’re feeling is not simply “negativity” or stress, and radically shifts the way those of us with HFD see ourselves, empowering us with five simple tools to reclaim our lives from this widespread yet poorly understood condition.
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Useful strategies you can implement immediately
- By Dara Krynickd on 04-17-25
By: Judith Joseph, and others
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Exit Wounds
- A Story of Love, Loss, and Occasional Wars
- By: Peter Godwin
- Narrated by: Peter Godwin
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Peter Godwin’s mother is dying. Born in England, and having spent most of her adult life as a doctor in Zimbabwe, she now lies on a hospital bed in the partitioned living room of his sister’s London home. Peter has spent his life missing his Zimbabwean childhood, a longing that does not diminish as he reflects on his time as a journalist on the frontlines of combat around the world, or life in New York with his English wife and transatlantic children. In his mother’s final months, he must come to terms with everything his family was and wasn’t.
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Exquisite Memoir
- By Susannah 111 on 05-10-25
By: Peter Godwin
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A Better Share
- How Couples Can Tackle the Mental Load for More Fun, Less Resentment, and Great Sex
- By: Morgan Cutlip
- Narrated by: Morgan Cutlip
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Relationship expert Dr. Morgan Cutlip helps couples view the mental load—the endless and mostly invisible work of managing a household and family—as a shared enemy to conquer versus a problem they have with each other, offering practical solutions for navigating the most common pain points couples struggle with. Through research and stories based on real couples, A Better Share guides listeners out of the endless stress and resentment cycle and into a relationship where sharing is caring, having fun together is a priority, and great sex isn't a thing of the past.
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A Must Read!
- By BC in TN on 05-09-25
By: Morgan Cutlip
Must read for women
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A must for anyone at any age!
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Authentic feelings
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What strikes you immediately about "I Thought It Would Be Better Than This" is Jessica's unwavering authenticity. There's a vulnerability woven into every word, a sense that she's genuinely laying bare her heart and experiences without pretense. Watching her story unfold on Instagram offered snapshots, but the book provides a rich and nuanced tapestry, allowing us to understand the deeper currents that have shaped her life.
Beyond her honesty, Jessica bleeds empathy. Her ability to articulate her own pain while holding space for the complexities and potential pain of others is truly remarkable. When she delves into her story of trauma, it's handled with such care and concern, not just for herself but for all those involved. This is not a narrative of blame but a testament to the human capacity for hurt and healing.
What resonates most profoundly is the overarching message of hope that permeates the book. Despite the problematic terrain she navigates, Jessica is a powerful reminder that moving forward is always possible. She doesn't shy away from the messiness of life, the moments when our expectations fall drastically short. Still, she beautifully illuminates the opportunities within those moments – the chance to start over, rebuild, and discover a new path forward.
"I Thought It Would Be Better Than This" is more than just a memoir; it's an invitation to embrace vulnerability, extend compassion, and hold onto hope even when circumstances feel overwhelmingly bleak. This book offers a deeper understanding and a richer connection for those who have followed Jessica's journey online. For those new to her story, it's a powerful and moving testament to the resilience of the human spirit. I walked away from this book feeling seen, encouraged, and with a renewed sense of possibility. It's a book that will undoubtedly stay with me for a long time.
Better than expected (and I had high expectations)
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Honest advice
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Hearing in the author's own voice is so moving
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Captures the brutality and the hope of pain well
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