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I'm Connie Paglianiti — a former high-flying event manager who once worked with Hollywood icons, elite brands, and global audiences. From the outside, my life looked glamorous. But behind the scenes, I was unraveling. After being betrayed by people I trusted — including a conman who left me over a million dollars in debt — I spiralled into gambling addiction, made one devastating mistake, and ended up behind bars.
I wrote From the Shadows Into the Light not to glorify my past, but to own it — and to shine a light on what happens when shame, silence, and stigma take over. This book is my truth: raw, unfiltered, and deeply human. It’s about falling hard, but rising with grit.
What inspired me? The countless people — especially women — who feel like one mistake defines them forever. I want to show that redemption is real, second chances matter, and even from the darkest places, you can rebuild.
Now, I speak on stages, teach event management with lived experience, and lead the Breaking Chains movement — to challenge judgment and fight for real rehabilitation.
If you’ve ever been judged, silenced, or told you don’t deserve another shot — this book is for you.
Reviewed by K.C. Finn for Readers' Favorite
From the Shadows into the Light by Connie M Paglianiti is a raw and courageous memoir chronicling a dramatic fall from grace and a hard-won journey back to self-worth and hope. Once a celebrated event manager, trusted by high-profile clients and industry leaders, Connie's life took a devastating turn after betrayal, addiction, and incarceration. But instead of letting shame define her, she lays bare the painful and often redemptive truths of stigma, resilience, and the justice system. From her childhood in a strict Italian household to her rise in the events industry, her descent into gambling addiction, and her eventual imprisonment, Connie’s unflinching honesty and inner strength illuminate a path from self-destruction to personal redemption. Her story is both a warning and a beacon, reaching anyone who has faced public judgment and wondered if healing is truly possible.
Author Connie M Paglianiti writes from the heart, and that raw quality is evident on every page of this unflinching and powerful personal testimony that confronts addiction and incarceration with rare honesty. This is a work that leaves itself open to potential judgment and criticism, yet because there’s something so open and vulnerable about the author, you want to see Connie succeed and come safely out on the other side of all the self-destructive problems she has. The storytelling style is sharp and emotional, leaving no issue unexplored and taking readers through the pages of her life with a novel-like, cinematic sense of detail, infused with grit, humour, and heart from cover to cover. For anyone who has ever been in similar circumstances, it makes for a deeply moving look at shame, justice, and second chances from a woman who refused to give up, and there’s a sense of honor and wisdom that I certainly felt Paglianiti had earned by the end of the story that was so uplifting. Overall, I would certainly recommend From the Shadows into the Light for memoir fans everywhere as an empowering reminder that even in the darkest times, redemption is within reach.
