Carried: A Mother’s Love After Loss: A memoir of Grief, Devotion, and Enduring Love by Dorthy DeJesus New Release and Review

 

What does it mean to remain a mother when your child is no longer physically present—and how do you keep living when love has nowhere to go?

In Carried, the author shares a heartbreakingly honest and deeply intimate memoir of motherhood shaped by loss. Through gentle reflection and unfiltered emotion, she invites readers into her journey of grief—one marked not only by pain, but by devotion, meaning, and a love that refuses to disappear.

This memoir explores how loss changes the language of love, how grief becomes something you carry rather than overcome, and how remembrance can coexist with forward motion. It speaks not only to those who have experienced profound loss, but also to those seeking to understand that grief is not something that ends—it is something that evolves, lives alongside us, and reshapes who we are. With tenderness and strength, the author reveals that the bond between parent and child does not end—it transforms.

Carried is for mothers who grieve, for parents navigating unimaginable loss, and for anyone learning how to sit with sorrow—whether their own or another’s. Honest, compassionate, and quietly hopeful, this memoir offers comfort, validation, and the enduring reminder that love lives on, carried in the heart forever.

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About the author

Dorthy Marie DeJesus is a Connecticut author whose writing is inspired by love, loss, resilience, and hope. Her debut memoir, Carried, shares the heartbreaking journey of losing her son, Isaiah, while honoring the unbreakable bond between a mother and child. Through honest and heartfelt storytelling, she hopes to bring comfort to those navigating grief and remind readers they are never alone. Dorthy believes that our deepest pain can coexist with love, healing, and purpose. She is also the author of the upcoming novel What the Storm Couldn't Take, a story of survival, healing, and finding strength after life's greatest storms. When she's not writing, she enjoys spending time with her family and believes every story has the power to change a life.

My Review:

This is a story that is emotional, raw and heartfelt. I have felt loss before, but I could never understand how it feels to lose a child. A child that that brought nothing but joy and love into the world. Isaiah is a beautiful soul. The bond between mother and child can only be understood if you live it. I learned a lot from this book about healing and compassion. You never know when someone is done grieving and it is not your decision to decide the time frame of grief. There are chapters in this book that I think every grieving mother should read, especially the later ones. The author talks about grief, guilt, family and love. I really liked that the author wrote letters to her son. It was enlightening to read what the author was feeling, in all it's sadness and love-felt emotion. This is definitely a book to read with tissues. It made me want to give extra hugs to the people I care about. I am giving this book a 5/5. I was given a copy to review, all opinions are my own.

Beautiful Oblivion by Addison Moore Excerpt

Beautiful Oblivion Synopsis:

From the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Addison Moore:

Some people just don’t belong together, or at least that’s the world would have them believe.

It was supposed to be just for the summer…

Reese Westfield comes from a world of old money, country clubs, cotillions, and expensive cars. She’s tired of dating Warren McCarthy just to make her father happy. Reese has long since had her eye on someone else, and this summer she’s determined to make it happen.

Growing up in Lake Loveless there has always been a strict monetary divide—there was the rest of the Lake and then there were the Waterman’s. Ace Waterman has worked for everything he has, and he doesn’t have a lot. He breaks his back doing grunt work while putting himself through college. He’s used to life passing him by.

Reese has loved Ace from afar for as long as she can remember. The summer of her freshman year she comes home with plans to land Ace in her bed at least for a few short weeks, and, if she’s lucky, forever.

Ace has loved Reese for as long as he can remember, but their friendship has never graduated beyond platonic, so when Reese comes home from her first year away and proposes the two of them have a summer fling, Ace is quick to comply. The rules: no strings, no expectations, just something hotter than the sun to set the sheets on fire.

But when their worlds collide, and neither of them is willing to admit to having true feelings, it becomes clear to Ace he’s nothing more than a dirty little secret—that the summer fling was just something meaningless to pass the time.

Reese wonders if she can ever stop trying to please her father, and it’s only through her mother’s letters that she finds the answers she truly seeks, but will they be the ones she wants to hear?

As summer draws to a close, Ace and Reese are still very much enraptured even though the time has come to douse the flame and move on—but neither one of them is prepared to leave this BEAUTIFUL OBLIVION.

Addison Moore Bio:

Addison Moore is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author who writes contemporary and paranormal romance. Previously she worked as a therapist on a locked psychiatric unit for nearly a decade. She resides on the West Coast with her husband, four wonderful children and two dogs where she eats too much chocolate and stays up way too late. When she's not writing, she's reading.

Excerpt:

(Ace’s POV)

Her mouth curves with a slow smile. She seals her hips to mine once again and my gut flinches because it’s torture having her so close and not being able to touch her the way I want, the ways I’ve meditated over for so many years.

“I want you to be my first, Ace.” The smile melts off her face as her lips come in close again. “I want to know the things you know, do the things you do—with you.”

“Reese,” I let it out in a heated whisper. “You need to do those things with someone who means something to you—someone special. Don’t waste your time with a guy like me.” I came within an inch of calling myself a loser which I don’t believe for a second, but, in a way, I think my dad has been right all along, Reese doesn’t belong with someone like me.

Buy Links:

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Please check Amazon on your post date for a link :) 

Links:

Blog: http://addisonmoorewrites.blogspot.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AddisonMoore

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Addison-Moore/140192649382294?ref=br_tf

Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4096668.Addison_Moore

Beautiful Oblivion Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18467189-beautiful-oblivion?ac=1

Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Addison-Moore/e/B004VHVAFW/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1381970852&sr=8-2-ent