Avis Cardella loves fashion. When she was very young, she fell in love with name brands, beautiful clothes, and magazines. She saw her mother as the epitome of grace and beauty and wanted to be like her. While Avis was in her early twenties and in a tumultuous marriage, her mother died. What follows Avis is her choices in seeking to fill the hole left behind.

This memoir is beautifully and honestly written. She makes no excuses and places no blame on others. She makes choices based on her need to anesthetize her feelings about her loss. She becomes involved with rich, powerful men and enters the world of freelance fashion writing, while climbing the ladder of the rich and famous, spending all she has and then more while she seeks to numb her grief.

The author carefully addresses her different relationships and how they each served a purpose. Her downward spiral takes a couple of decades and her uphill climb is a process.

As our country is pushed into recession, "Spent" is written in a timely manner. Although full of designers the average woman may have heard in passing but would not be able to identify, the reader can identify with loss and searching for healing.

I really enjoyed the book. The author has a unique voice and writes with feeling and reason. She is able to connect her ideas and experiences clearly and finds healing and change within herself. She admits to slipping along the way, but her strength to admit her own choices are to blame is empowering.

A copy of this book was provided by Valerie at Hatchette Book Groups in return for an honest review. I am under no obligation to give a positive review.