Simply Verona: Breaking All the Rules

by Verona Van de Leur

At the tender age of 15, Verona van de Leur took the gymnastics world by storm to become the greatest gymnast the Netherlands had ever produced. Her remarkable talent brought her gold medals, money, and fame. Although she seemed like a young woman on top of the world, Verona’s life soon spun out of control. Abused and exploited by those closest to her, when her gymnastics career came to an end, Verona suddenly lost everything that she had worked so hard to achieve. Living on the streets of Holland, the one-time world champion gymnast was homeless, penniless, living out of her car, arrested and jailed, and contemplating taking her own life. But from the depths of her despair, Verona emerged to rediscover herself and to become a successful, albeit controversial, entrepreneur. She returned to gymnastics, entered the world of adult entertainment and modeling, and went on to start successful business ventures that ultimately turned her life around. Now, for the first time, the controversial international gymnastics star, Verona van de Leur, tells her true story to the world in this no holds barred autobiography.

475 pages, Paperback

Published November 15, 2020

Reviews

[Nicole]

This was a really insightful memoir about the world of gymnastics

I have to be honest I did not know who Verona Van de Leur was before I picked up this book. I read this book because it had themes of mental health. But I'm so glad I did decide to read it as it was incredibly eye opening

Verona talks about her experience being a gymnast, and the physical but also mental abuse that she experienced during her childhood and teenage years, as she trained to be a very successful gymnast.

Verona talks a lot about her family and the troubles she experienced as a result of the gymnastics world. She also talks about what happened to her after she quit gymnastics and other careers she embarked upon.

At times, this book was really sad and heartbreaking. Reading about how her family treated her was really tough to read.

One problem I did have with this book was that it was quite long and probably could have been edited a bit more. Obviously, this is her life and all the details are incredibly important to her, I just personally felt some sections went into too much detail

I read the hardback edition of this book and found it really challenging to read, as it's an old style of binding. Plus the pages are very white. This is just something to keep in mind, if you do have issues with your hands

Overall, I learnt a lot about the gymnastics world, which I knew very little about before. Very insightful and interesting, just wish it was shorter

TW: physical and mental abuse, discussions of suicide and eating disorders