“Combat Love is a compelling and candid account of a time in Alisyn's youth where risk and danger were more present than security and comfort. It’s a heartbreaking and raw account of living on the cusp of things going very wrong. Readers will reap the rewards of Alisyn's story of survival.” 

—Jake Tapper, CNN Anchor and Author of The Devil May Dance and The Hellfire Club

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“Combat Love is far more than an audacious coming of age story. It’s a reminder that beneath a successful adult’s polished exterior is the wildness of youth, vulnerability and loss.  Camerota shows us the hard-earned work of finding your voice. So, while you might pick up Combat Love because of the author’s familiar face, you won’t be able to put it down for her candor, wit, and storytelling. In an embarrassment of riches, Alisyn Camerota is as singular a writer as she is a broadcast journalist.”

 — Adrienne Brodeur | Executive Director
Aspen Words | Aspen Institute bestselling author of Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me

CNN Anchor Alisyn Camerota’s memoir Combat Love is a story of longing, leaving and the lure of bright lights. Set on the Jersey Shore in the free-range 1980s, Camerota is thirteen when she becomes spellbound by a local punk rock band named Shrapnel and instantly becomes a diehard fan. Combat Love chronicles Camerota’s harrowing close calls and wild misadventures at clubs like the iconic CBGB, against the backdrop of sex, drugs, and punk rock. When Camerota finds herself on her own at sixteen, she relies on the good will of strangers, friends, and song lyrics for life guidance.

Combat Love is also the story of a mother and daughter, entangled and estranged, bound together then pulled apart, each searching for her own identity and independence. With her signature wit and hard-won wisdom, Camerota captures the raw emotions and high stakes of our teenage years, walking the line between shelter and risk, nurture and neglect, trauma and healing, forgiveness and redemption.

Camerota retraces her missteps and longings down a winding, gritty path toward her big dream of becoming a TV reporter. Compelling, heart-wrenching, funny, and pulse-pounding, Combat Love is an anthem of hope and resilience for anyone who’s ever searched for that elusive place called home.

“Emmy Award–winning CNN anchor Camerota chronicles the loneliness, betrayal, and abandonment that led her on ‘a lifelong search for that elusive place called home.’  A candid chronicle of hard-won survival.”

— Kirkus Reviews