Life has a way of interrupting even the most carefully imagined future. We make plans with hope, certainty, and the belief that if we love deeply enough, work hard enough, and hold everything together with enough strength, life will unfold the way we expect. But sometimes the path changes without warning. The life we pictured begins to fall apart, and we are left standing in the middle of a story we never thought would belong to us.
That Was Not the Plan by Gabriella Bogialla captures this truth with honesty, warmth, and emotional depth. It is a story about love, heartbreak, motherhood, family, friendship, and the long journey of rebuilding when life refuses to follow the script. Gabriella writes from the heart, taking readers across different countries, homes, relationships, and seasons of change, while showing how a person can lose the plan and still find herself.
At the centre of the book is a woman who experiences joy and pain side by side. She falls in love, builds a life, becomes a mother, faces betrayal, navigates divorce, and learns how to protect her child while also trying to heal her own broken heart. Her journey is not presented as simple or polished. It is messy, emotional, sometimes funny, sometimes painful, and always deeply human.
One of the most moving parts of the book is the way Gabriella explores the meaning of home. For her, home is not only one place. It is Madrid, Marbella, Doha, Lebanon, London, Italy, Nigeria, and every person who helped her feel safe along the way. Through each move and each life change, she discovers that home is not always built from walls. Sometimes it is built from family, friendship, memory, laughter, food, culture, and the people who show up when life becomes difficult.
The book also speaks powerfully about motherhood. Gabriella’s love for her son becomes one of the strongest threads in the story. Even when she is hurting, she chooses stability, patience, and grace for him. She does not pretend that this is easy. Instead, she shows the emotional strength required to carry personal pain while creating a safe world for a child.
What makes That Was Not the Plan so relatable is its honesty about starting over. Gabriella does not present healing as instant. She shows that growth happens slowly, often through tears, uncertainty, and unexpected courage. Her story reminds readers that losing the life they planned does not mean losing the possibility of joy.
This book is for anyone who has faced heartbreak, moved through change, rebuilt after loss, or wondered whether life can still become beautiful after everything falls apart. Gabriella’s memoir offers comfort without pretending that pain is easy. It reminds us that even when life does not follow the plan we made, it may still lead us toward strength, love, and a deeper understanding of who we are.
Available Now On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H8MFZ5ZT/
