What do you think?
Rate this book
Sweet Baby Lover: A True Story of Love, Death, and Hope
“Is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?”
"This is a love letter, a memoir, a beautiful book about what it means to go on the journey of a lifetime."
Seth Godin, Author
Jule Kucera spent her childhood in a fearful orbit around her alcoholic, bipolar father. In her thirties, she married a charming narcissist who began disappearing on their honeymoon. When she divorced him, he stalked her.
Jule vows she’ll never again give her heart to a man who will only use it against her: love is an illusion that ends in pain. Instead, she devotes herself to her work as a corporate executive and to creating a beautiful nest for herself. Her Chicago home is brick the color of butterscotch. The walls are covered with her own colorful paintings, Jule’s way of staking her claim on her home and her life. But the building needs work, and she hires a friend of a friend for the project.
Trent Price is divorced, with not much more than a high school diploma, a weathered Chevy truck, and a ten-year-old daughter in Michigan. His torso, slashed with scars, looks to have endured a brutal accident, but there is even greater damage within.
As she watches Trent work, feelings buried years ago come to life. Jule leaves a note in Trent’s toolbox—an offer that brings together their damaged bodies, tattered pasts, and flickering hopes. When Trent unexpectedly blurts “I love you,” Jule must choose between the safety of her curated life or risk everything for yet another man who could hurt her.
This tender memoir, plainly told, is perfect for fans of The Year of Magical Thinking. With mature situations and language, it is one woman’s honest account of her remarkable journey to love, through loss, and at last, to peace.
“What happens when two hearts of gold collide in a wounded world, determined to tell the truth and love each other no matter what? Jaw-droppingly vulnerable, laugh-out-loud funny, divinely human.”
Jill E. Harris, Writer
“Can a heartbreaking tragedy still bestow a fairytale ending? This page-turner of a memoir delicately reveals that even love lost can mend a broken heart.”
Katie Robleski, Author & Artist
"This is a love letter, a memoir, a beautiful book about what it means to go on the journey of a lifetime."
Seth Godin, Author
Jule Kucera spent her childhood in a fearful orbit around her alcoholic, bipolar father. In her thirties, she married a charming narcissist who began disappearing on their honeymoon. When she divorced him, he stalked her.
Jule vows she’ll never again give her heart to a man who will only use it against her: love is an illusion that ends in pain. Instead, she devotes herself to her work as a corporate executive and to creating a beautiful nest for herself. Her Chicago home is brick the color of butterscotch. The walls are covered with her own colorful paintings, Jule’s way of staking her claim on her home and her life. But the building needs work, and she hires a friend of a friend for the project.
Trent Price is divorced, with not much more than a high school diploma, a weathered Chevy truck, and a ten-year-old daughter in Michigan. His torso, slashed with scars, looks to have endured a brutal accident, but there is even greater damage within.
As she watches Trent work, feelings buried years ago come to life. Jule leaves a note in Trent’s toolbox—an offer that brings together their damaged bodies, tattered pasts, and flickering hopes. When Trent unexpectedly blurts “I love you,” Jule must choose between the safety of her curated life or risk everything for yet another man who could hurt her.
This tender memoir, plainly told, is perfect for fans of The Year of Magical Thinking. With mature situations and language, it is one woman’s honest account of her remarkable journey to love, through loss, and at last, to peace.
“What happens when two hearts of gold collide in a wounded world, determined to tell the truth and love each other no matter what? Jaw-droppingly vulnerable, laugh-out-loud funny, divinely human.”
Jill E. Harris, Writer
“Can a heartbreaking tragedy still bestow a fairytale ending? This page-turner of a memoir delicately reveals that even love lost can mend a broken heart.”
Katie Robleski, Author & Artist
289 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 26, 2014
29 people are currently reading
232 people want to read
About the author
Jule Kucera
3 books5 followersAfter writing for Fortune 150 companies for almost thirty years, Jule Kucera now writes to explore the wild and noble territory of the human heart.
Jule believes:
• In the power of love and truth.
• Who we were doesn't determine who we are or will be.
• Brave isn't a feeling but an action.
• The family that fits us might not be the one we were born into.
• Our bodies and our earth deserve our care.
Jule lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, grateful for her broad community of dear friends and one local lovely little library. To connect with her, visit Jule's website at julekucera.com, or follow her on Instagram @jule.kucera. She'd love to hear from you.
Jule believes:
• In the power of love and truth.
• Who we were doesn't determine who we are or will be.
• Brave isn't a feeling but an action.
• The family that fits us might not be the one we were born into.
• Our bodies and our earth deserve our care.
Jule lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, grateful for her broad community of dear friends and one local lovely little library. To connect with her, visit Jule's website at julekucera.com, or follow her on Instagram @jule.kucera. She'd love to hear from you.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 29, 2014
I didn't like this book for various reasons. The premise of how her relationship started was pathetic and sad and she failed to give any real detail as to how it evolved into something substantial. In fact, I felt she left too many gaps in describing ALL the relationships in the book: with her boyfriend, his daughter, his parents, her parents, etc. Although it was a fast, easy read, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.
November 4, 2019
First of all, what a page-turner. Even when it was after midnight, and I knew I needed to sleep, this book was so hard to put down. This weekend, I gave in, and read the rest in one long sitting on a leisurely Sunday. After I finished, I had a long talk with my husband about what each of us wants if we unexpectedly die. It helped me feel less sad.
What I love most about Jule Kucera's writing style is that it's almost like a blank canvas for the reader. While the context is extremely emotional, she approaches the telling of her dark, messy, and inevitably tragic story, with distance and simplicity. Without asking, she invites us to apply our lens to her tale. She makes room for our own dark, messy, and perhaps even inevitably tragic experiences. She allows us to grieve with her, with ourselves, and with others touched by tragedy.
For example: there's a thread about the relationship between a father and daughter: a father who would do anything for her, a daughter who plays him to win her game, and therefore he too must participate...play the game. *Unlike* this father, I grew up with a dad who wanted next-to-nothing to do with my sister and me, so I felt quite the pang as I watched this relationship unfold. But I also found myself trying to find solace in and gratitude for my stepfather who has and would do anything for me, and yet always felt slightly out of place.
While I loved every page, it was the final pages...the Secret that Jule has to reveal...that put the book at 5 stars for me. Life isn't clean, it isn't easy, and it's nothing like the fairy tales we long for. And it's ok. Let me repeat that. It's ok. The years that Jule spent with Trent are the kinds of years we've all endured in one form or another. They build us to be the rich, textured, and flawed people we are. Why? So we can be more empathetic and catch our fellow friends when they, too, stumble in the pain and darkness. And so we can cut ourselves a break when we do too.
What I love most about Jule Kucera's writing style is that it's almost like a blank canvas for the reader. While the context is extremely emotional, she approaches the telling of her dark, messy, and inevitably tragic story, with distance and simplicity. Without asking, she invites us to apply our lens to her tale. She makes room for our own dark, messy, and perhaps even inevitably tragic experiences. She allows us to grieve with her, with ourselves, and with others touched by tragedy.
For example: there's a thread about the relationship between a father and daughter: a father who would do anything for her, a daughter who plays him to win her game, and therefore he too must participate...play the game. *Unlike* this father, I grew up with a dad who wanted next-to-nothing to do with my sister and me, so I felt quite the pang as I watched this relationship unfold. But I also found myself trying to find solace in and gratitude for my stepfather who has and would do anything for me, and yet always felt slightly out of place.
While I loved every page, it was the final pages...the Secret that Jule has to reveal...that put the book at 5 stars for me. Life isn't clean, it isn't easy, and it's nothing like the fairy tales we long for. And it's ok. Let me repeat that. It's ok. The years that Jule spent with Trent are the kinds of years we've all endured in one form or another. They build us to be the rich, textured, and flawed people we are. Why? So we can be more empathetic and catch our fellow friends when they, too, stumble in the pain and darkness. And so we can cut ourselves a break when we do too.
April 30, 2023
Sweet Baby Lover has so much to say about life's risks and joys, about how we show up for those we love, about how relationships offer deep transformation if we're open to the invitation. Jule's voice is clear and resonant. Her SBL is so vividly described it's as if the reader is riding shotgun in the cab of his truck or paddling their kayak following his sure lead.
I was rooting for this pair, even as the warning signs appeared. How many of us have rushed past our own warning signs, in our own lives? SBL gives us companions for this bumpy journey of life, where we're all doing the best we can, with what we know, trying to heal the hurts we've endured.
I was rooting for this pair, even as the warning signs appeared. How many of us have rushed past our own warning signs, in our own lives? SBL gives us companions for this bumpy journey of life, where we're all doing the best we can, with what we know, trying to heal the hurts we've endured.
January 23, 2017
I started the book, and closed it again after 40 pages. "Life is too short to read a bad book" (James Joyce).
February 19, 2015
this is the second book i have read lately that is based on real events in the author's life. Both have disappointed. The blurb suggest the memoir is haunting and beautiful, that it portrays the meaning of a journey. These journeys simply do not come across. Is it because it is not our journey? To be fair i have no idea why this woman started out on this journey with their "best friend's man, who was a drunk, self abuser and had masses of debt. I think i would just have gone for someone else. There is no mystery to the ending the first paragraph tells us he dies and the only part with any depth of understandable emotion is that which takes place after his death with the family.
It was not a difficult read but neither was it riveting or transformational
It was not a difficult read but neither was it riveting or transformational
April 11, 2024
When you start reading this touching biography, you will not put the book
down until you are at the end. You will have deep insight into the inner
struggle of a woman who, on the one hand wants to do what is socially
expected but on the other, is drawn to what she feels she must do. You
will be pulled into the heights and depths of this dramatic and wonderful
love story. I highly recommend this book to everyone who wants an inside
view of the life-changing experiences of one woman, how she finds her way
to herself and figures out what she truly values. An amazing and
surprising story.
down until you are at the end. You will have deep insight into the inner
struggle of a woman who, on the one hand wants to do what is socially
expected but on the other, is drawn to what she feels she must do. You
will be pulled into the heights and depths of this dramatic and wonderful
love story. I highly recommend this book to everyone who wants an inside
view of the life-changing experiences of one woman, how she finds her way
to herself and figures out what she truly values. An amazing and
surprising story.
Read
January 4, 2015This was an honest book. It is the raw, honest, tragic and heart wrenching truth of losing a love. Anyone who has ever lost a love to death understands the deep, gut wrenching sorrow of loss and grief. It's so easy to be judgemental and harsh and negative when you have not felt the pain of loss or the freedom of love. This is a true and honest book and I can NEVER criticize honesty. Bravo Jules.....Bravo.
October 26, 2014
Couldn't finish it. I'm not a fan of the secret affair going on between the 2 main characters. I don't like how the woman didn't seem to care that she was having an affair with her friend's husband. Not interested in finishing it.
November 12, 2014
Amazing story. Thank you for showing that no matter what, you know you did everything you could.
September 27, 2014
How one woman loved an imperfect man and kept herself in the process. Quite insightful.
October 18, 2014
Loved reading this as I love true stories, would recommend this to anyone who thinks they re having a hard time, this book makes you realise how lucky we actually are
December 27, 2014
Poorly written. This would be a good book for an adult that is just learning to read. I struggled to finish it.
April 29, 2015
just okay. more of a journal than a story. kinda depressing.
September 6, 2020
I have such mixed feelings about this book. Parts of it were touching. Parts of it were gross. Parts of it were super frustrating.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews