When we first connected with the food allergy community, someone who kept popping up was Erica Dermer. Otherwise known online as Celiac and the Beast. Even though she doesn’t have a food allergy, there are some similarities between allergies and celiac disease. She is an amazing advocate for gluten-free awareness and she soon became known to me as one of my rock stars.

I first met Erica at the Food Allergy Bloggers Conference (FABlogCon) in 2014. (To learn more about this FABulous event, check out our blog post here.) It took place in our own backyard of Denver. It was such a thrill to meet her in person after interacting with her online. A couple of years later, we swapped one of our “It’s Not A Diet, It’s My Life” mugs for a copy of her book. She even autographed it for us!

I haven’t taken the time to read in a while (except for a book club with my son reading the Magic Treehouse books). The next FABlogCon was coming up, and I wanted to read it so we could talk about it in person. It turned out it was the 5 year anniversary of when the book first came out, so it was a celebration! I read a chapter each night and Tweeted about it. That way people could read along with me, or I might engage them enough so they would want to read it themselves. (As a side note, I wrote part of this post next to Erica during one of the FABlogCon sessions!)

Read the rest of our review on the main blog here!