My Letter to Fear

Essays on life, love and the search for Prince Charming

Non-Fiction - Memoir
154 Pages
Reviewed on 04/09/2014
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Author Biography

Patricia Steffy attended Kenyon College and American University. She is a recent refugee from the corporate world where she worked as an analyst for a law firm for more than 16 years. An escape plan started to develop as she pursued her interests as a writer and producer through Circe’s World Films.
She has been involved in co- and exec-producing a number of feature and short films ranging from broad comedy to psychological drama, including the award-winning short "Touch." She is currently developing "Dating in LA and Other Urban Myths" as a web series. The series is based on her long-running blog of the same name which can be found here: http://www.datingandothermyths.com.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Faridah Nassozi for Readers' Favorite

My Letter to Fear: Essays on Life, Love and the Search for Prince Charming is a nonfiction book in which Patricia Steffy compares the goals and expectations of women she interviewed, as well as her own, with reality. She looks at the different expectations she has had through life and what the actual outcomes have been. Each chapter of the book looks at a different chapter/event through which she delivers different messages on life. Through these chapters/letters, she talks about things like how giving in to fear holds us back from achieving greatness, the importance of self discovery, taking the first step, preparing for your next step, self-doubt and how it impacts our lives, believing in yourself, realizing that you deserve better, effects of living in denial, not being afraid to let the person inside us come out and shine, and many other important life challenges and lessons.

My Letter to Fear is no ordinary memoir. It is the work of a hilarious author who takes you through the different chapters of life as she reflects on life expectations and delivers vital life lessons; giving you her interesting and sometimes bizarre perspective on life. The unique writing style and tone of the book make for an engaging reading experience as you move from one chapter to another, each chapter giving you a look into a different important aspect of the lives of the women interviewed, as well as Steffy's, and delivering a different message each time. I absolutely loved reading the book as I moved from one hilarious chapter to the next.

Michelle Randall

Are you reaching out for all that life has to offer or are you sitting back wondering why you haven't achieved what you wanted? My Letter to Fear is a collection of short essays where each chapter is really a different topic and focus, but Fear connects them all. Some of the chapters are funny, with past experiences recounted for the benefit of the reader to prove a point, while others are words of encouragement or even chastisement. Each addresses the many ways that we allow fear to stop us from becoming all that we want or deserve to be in life. Ms. Patricia L. Steffy does a fabulous job in putting all these different essays or chapters together into a cohesive book that is not too stuffy, but gives the right amount of correction and encouragement.

My Letter to Fear is a collection of essays, each chapter is a different essay, and written to stand entirely alone. As the author, Ms. Patricia L. Steffy researched her own life and collected stories from others. You never know which essay is about her or someone else, but they all provide the gentle encouragement that is needed to push the reader to action. This book is about realizing that fear is holding you back from accomplishing what you want in life, and addressing that fear and moving on. Now it doesn't give you step by step self help advice, it is more a gentle, funny way to help you realize what you are doing. I found it to be a fun read. Some chapters are more laugh inducing than others, but in the end, if the reader has opened their mind and read with a willing heart, they will realize that there is at least one chapter that relates to their life and there is something they can wok on. I feel this is a great book for all readers, including the young adult and college age reader; in fact it might do them more good than the older reader, but it is still worth the read.