Steph Jagger’s ‘Unbound’ Takes Readers On A Journey of Self Discovery [REVIEW]

Steph Jagger in New Zealand when the clouds rolled in and everything started going downhill. (Photo courtesy Steph Jagger, Facebook)

What does snow have to do with self discovery? Steph Jagger explains in her new memoir, Unbound, as she seeks to unleash her authentic self and stop fulfilling the expectations others set for her.

Harper Wave

From the beginning, I could relate to Jagger’s story, primarily because we had similar childhoods. Her older brother Charlie always played by the rules and did the right thing in any situation, which ultimately made him a tough act for her to follow. (My own mother often says that my older brother was also the perfect child, so I felt Jagger’s pain there.)

Other family anecdotes also ring very true. The youngest child and only daughter in a family with four sons, Jagger always felt she had a lot to prove, and understandably so. When her siblings came to meet her for the first time as an infant in the hospital, her oldest brother said, “She’s going to have a lot to live up to.”

Then there was the time Jagger’s mother told her sister about Steph’s first period… within earshot of her brother and his friend… all while she sat there at the table. Talk about a mortifying experience! As if puberty weren’t hard enough.

Jagger’s transformative journey from awkward teen to independent woman is vividly chronicled here, and she ties it all to her passion for skiing 4,161,823 vertical feet. She also populates her story with all the varied, colorful characters she meets along the way. Each of them, in his or her own way, assists her in peeling back the layers to reveal her true identity, an act that is both difficult and frightening.

I particularly love how Jagger encapsulates this catharsis when she writes:

“We don’t find out who we are in flat, steady, featureless parts of our lives. We find out who we are when we are pinned between rocks and hard places, when we’re set loose on steep slopes—a test to see if, once and for all, we’ll break free and ski our own line.”

I could relate to that, and I know you will too, because it is in this stage of life that we really examine our inner workings, our precepts of who and what we are, and begin defining our own story and forging our own path.

If you enjoy candid, witty, thoughtful and sometimes bawdy memoirs that plumb the depths of the human psyche, you won’t want to miss Jagger’s Unbound. This is a story you won’t soon forget.

Steph Jagger
(Photo by Melissa Skoda, MCS Photo)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Steph Jagger splits her time between Southern California and British Columbia, where she dreams big dreams, writes her heart out, and runs an executive and life coaching practice.

She holds a CEC (certified executive coaching) degree from Royal Roads University and believes courageous living doesn’t happen with one toe dangling in, but that we jump in, fully submerge, and sit in the juice. Think pickle, not cucumber.

Visit Steph’s home on the Web at stephjagger.com, like her on Facebook, and follow her on Instagram.

UNBOUND: A STORY OF SNOW AND SELF-DISCOVERY
By Steph Jagger
304 pgs. Harper Wave. $25.99.

You may purchase this book at one of these fine online retailers: HarperCollins, Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Unbound is brought to you in association with TLC Book Tours.