Gregory shares her personal journey of faith, recovery, and her return to Boston in new memoir
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., March 24, 2017— On April 15, 2013, Rebekah Gregory and her five-year-old son were waiting at the finish line of the Boston Marathon when the blasts of the terrorists’ homemade bombs went off only three feet away. Though Gregory’s legs took the brunt of the blast, protecting her son from certain death, she feels that in a way, her entire life has been a series of smaller blasts, preparing her for that monumental, unthinkable day. In her new memoir, Taking My Life Back: My Story of Faith, Determination, and Surviving the Boston Marathon Bombing (Revell, April 2017), Gregory brings readers along her personal journey through abuse, mistakes and pain, and into the arms of Jesus.
The book launches on April 3 with a 6-city book tour and major national media attention that includes: TODAY, FOX & Friends, Inside Edition, Hallmark’s Home & Family, The 700 Club, PARADE, Wall Street Journal Lunch Break, Fox News Radio, FIRST for Women, Guideposts cover story, Simple Grace, Homelife, Life: Beautiful, Janet Parshall, and much more. Gregory will be signing books and appearing on media outlets in NYC, LA, Boston, Dallas, Houston & Louisville.
Written with New York Times bestselling author Anthony Flacco, Gregory vividly recounts her horrifying experience on the day of the Boston Marathon bombing, her desperate desire to locate her son despite the paralysis of her personal injuries, and her extensive and trying path to recovery which included 18 surgeries, 65 procedures and the eventual amputation of her left leg.
“Writing this book was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but it’s real and honest—and I think that’s what we need in life,” said Rebekah Gregory. “I share deeply personal stories about things I hadn’t fully healed from yet, but the writing brought healing. I hope others will find encouragement and hope from the challenges I’ve experienced, and know they’re not alone.”
While she’s known as a survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing, Gregory wants readers to know that there’s more to her story and the faith that sustains her. A victim of domestic abuse, Gregory’s childhood was marked by violence, a strong impulse to please and pacify her father’s outbursts, and a formal, hollow relationship with God and the church. But through the love of Christ, her committed stepfather, the birth of her son Noah and a fateful car accident, Rebekah found the kind of faith that has transformed her into the wife, mother, and woman she is today.
Taking My Life Back is a stirring memoir that tells of Gregory’s spiritual and physical recoveries, including her triumphant return to Boston two years later to run part of the race, and explores the peace we experience when we learn to trust God with every part of our lives—the good, the bad, and even the terrifying.
“While we cannot predict what will happen to us or if a bomb will go off at a marathon we’re attending, I believe we can take comfort that God is in control.”
About the Author
Rebekah Gregory is a woman and mother whose life was forever changed due to the bombings at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. This act of terrorism may have claimed her leg, but it could not claim her spirit. She is now a powerful motivational speaker who encourages people all across the country with her message of faith and hope. She lives in Houston, Texas, with her son, daughter, and her college-sweetheart-turned-husband, Chris Varney.
Anthony Flacco is a New York Times and international bestselling author with six nonfiction books and four novels to his credit. He holds an MFA in screenwriting from the American Film Institute, was selected for the Walt Disney Studios Screenwriting Fellowship, and spent a year writing for Touchstone Pictures. His last book, Impossible Odds, is in development at Warner Bros. with Clint Eastwood directing. He lives in the Pacific Northwest.
Media Contact: Shanon Stowe
931-307-1988; shanon@iconmediagroup.com
