Bulletproof by Maci Bookout

When 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom first came out, I never missed an episode. I was a big fan of the show and Rebecca and I loved our Teen Mom & Wine nights throughout a few years. As the show became repetitive (how many times is Janelle going to wind up in jail) I eventually died out on watching it.

A couple of the mom’s have written books and for the most part it hasn’t caught my interest. This past year Maci announced that she had written a book. She had been one of my favorite mom’s on the show so I decided to pick up a copy of Bulletproof.

Synopsis

When a good southern girl becomes a single teen mom, how does she hold onto her dreams?

New York Times bestselling author Maci Bookout was just a normal, slightly overachieving high school girl in Chattanooga, Tennessee. But then she got pregnant, and everything turned upside down. Even as she rose to fame on MTV’s hit series Teen Mom, Maci was struggling to balance life as a single teen mom with her own hopes and dreams…all while honoring her own sense of independence.
This is the true story of how she took charge of the unexpected to build a life for herself and her son Bentley, and managed not to go crazy in the process. Because sometimes growing up is an act of will…and Maci’s will is bulletproof.

My Thoughts

I won’t lie, as a long time fan of Maci & Teen Mom I was really hoping for more of the juicy gossip. There wasn’t a ton of gossip and for the most part the book backed up a lot of what happened on the show. What we did get to read about was more of Maci’s thoughts on specific situations.

When MTV showed Kyle and Maci breaking up there never really seemed to be a clear cut fight or end to their relationship. I just assumed MTV wasn’t there when it happened. As it turned out, there really wasn’t a big fight to end their relationship. It just ended one night.

To me the most interesting part was her relationship with Ryan. They always seemed to be the couple who didn’t fight, didn’t get into it and really had it together in order to get Bentley through life. Ironically, Bulletproof showed a lot of the opposite. Maci and Ryan don’t seem to have it all together and Maci seems to have a much better relationship with his parents when it comes to Bentley.

I know a lot of what we saw on Teen Mom was dramatized, a lot was edited & there was always more to the story. Throughout Bulletproof, Maci reminds readers of what it is like to have her entire life on TV. It was nice to hear her say on more than one occasion that she wanted to be “just Maci” and live her every day life.

She has always been one of my favorites out of the Teen Mom group and I think Bulletproof backed up all of the reasons I liked her. Maci worked hard to get life together, raising a little boy & maintaining some sense of a normal life.

Are you a Teen Mom fan? Have you read any of their books?