Want April to bring the Rooms Framework to your audience?
“The Room to Be Brave is a moving and beautifully written memoir that balances honesty and strength. The author’s openness gives the story real depth, and it gently reminds us that healing often starts in the places we avoid.”
—Early Reader
Early Praise
“This memoir is not just autobiographical, but is meant to inspire readers to be brave in exploring the hidden rooms that we all carry and shape us for better or for worse, and to remind us that it is never to late to rebuild, no matter how broken we might believe ourselves to be.”
—Early Reader
"This memoir is remarkable. It's courageous in the purest sense, not because of what you endured, but because you allow us to witness it. You've crafted something powerful, transformative, and deeply human."
— P.S. Bartlett, Beta Reader
"Your story not only helped me understand you but also helped me better understand myself. That is the greatest compliment I can give any memoirist."
— Beta Reader
"I felt completely drawn into this story because the honesty hit me hard. It's messy, honest, and real—dark, and funny, and unafraid."
— Beta Reader
“I felt pulled in right away because of how real and open it sounded. It felt like she was talking directly to me.”
— Doris, Early Reader
“Each memory lands with its own emotional hit — real, heavy, and honest without ever feeling forced.”
— Early Reader
“Your honesty made me ready to follow you into every room of the story.”
— Early Reader
“The balance of humor and pain gives the chapters so much emotional power.”
— Early Reader
The Room to Be Brave
A Memoir
Coming January 27, 2026
About the Book
What if healing meant walking back into the rooms you've spent your whole life trying to escape?
In The Room to Be Brave, April Day Garcia invites readers into the invisible house we all carry—the one built from memories that shaped us, moments that broke us, and rooms we've kept locked for far too long.
Every memory lives in a room.
This memoir introduces what April now calls the Rooms Framework — a way of understanding memory, identity, and healing through the inner rooms we carry.
In these pages, the rooms become real—places where her story unfolded and where pieces of herself were shaped, lost, and found.
The apartment where Child Protective Services came.
The stranger's couch where she woke up ashamed.
The living room where she decided to leave California for good.
Some rooms hold laughter and light. Others hold shame, grief, and fears she thought she'd buried.
April once believed healing meant closing doors. Now she knows it means opening them—slowly, honestly—and letting in the light. Through surviving a brush with death, recovering in a body she didn’t recognize, living with chronic illness, navigating divorce, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her mother, she’s learned that bravery isn’t about feeling brave.
It’s about showing up for yourself again and again, even when you’re exhausted.
This memoir isn’t about perfection or completion. It’s about the messy, ongoing work of piecing yourself back together—room by room, breath by breath—and finding the courage to step into the spaces you thought would break you forever.
What’s Inside
Part One: Childhood
The rooms where it all began. Growing up in California, a little girl learns which doors to lock and which memories to keep hidden.
Part Two: Iowa
Leaving to start over. Discovering that new walls don’t erase old rooms.
Part Three: Rick & New York
Finding love. Building a family. Creating a life while still carrying what hasn’t been opened.
Part Four: The Breaking
When depression floods in. When the mind and heart fracture. The journal, the breath, the therapy—and the first steps toward repair.
Part Five: Recovery
The truth about alcoholism. The harder truth about getting sober. Learning that healing doesn’t mean forgetting—it means finally being brave enough to remember.
This Book Is for You If…
You’ve ever felt broken, stuck, or afraid to look back
You’re carrying rooms you’ve avoided for years
You’re navigating healing from trauma or addiction
You’re trying to break inherited cycles
You believe in choosing joy — even when it’s hard