Jeremy and Jinger Vuolo have carved out a carefully curated public image since the end of Counting On, and this is a continuation of that careful curation. I haven't seen either of the Duggar family's shows, but I'm familiar enough with the (publicly available information about the) family—my background is different enough from theirs (exception: my parents also kept the TV in a closet, which might be the only thing I have in common with the Duggars) that I find it weird but fascinating—to have a good sense here of what is 'new' information and what they're leaving out.

In short: while I'm not sure what was on the show proper, there's not that much in the book that hasn't been reported in (sold to?) various magazines. More background on Jeremy's life pre-Duggar, and a better sense of what Jinger's dating restrictions looked like. Some of it makes a bit more sense in context (when you're on national television on the regular and there are a lot of people who think fame makes a very sheltered, naïve girl desirable, it's not the worst idea to have someone else—in this case, her father—do a bit of initial screening). Some of it left me scratching my head: apparently the thing that kept Jim Bob Duggar from approving their courtship—for four months—was a disagreement about free will. Details are very vague (though I'm sure someone more Bible-literate than I am could make some inferences), so I have to guess that the Vuolos found it politic to not go into why Jeremy thinks Jim Bob is wrong and what Jinger believes.

What I found most telling, though, was this passage, from Jeremy's perspective (no page numbers because Overdrive is terrible):

"So, what does this passage mean to you?" the [Bible study] leader asked.

What does it mean to me? I didn't know what that meant. I didn't grow up asking questions like that about Scripture. God's Word is his authoritative self-revelation to the world. I had never thought to ask what it meant to me, but simply, what does it mean? Up until that point, I'd assumed that everyone understood it the same way I did. I was only twenty-two years old, certainly not the oldest or most mature person in the room, but I felt that I had to speak up.

"Well..." I said slowly, searching for the right words. "What does it actually say?"

I could feel the rest of the group staring at me. This wasn't the kind of question they were used to discussing.

I kept going. Without realizing what was happening, I was suddenly digging into the passage, explaining what it meant with an authority I didn't know I had.

Read this line again: Up until that point, I'd assumed that everyone understood it the same way I did. It's telling to me, and rather sad, that the takeaway here does not seem to be 'so I started to explore what other people believed and why, whether or not my own beliefs changed' but rather 'so I used it as an opportunity to try to convince people of the beliefs that I'd never questioned'.

So...if you're at all familiar with the brand they're building for themselves, there aren't a lot of surprises here. I don't begrudge them the decision to keep a lot of private things private (living a semi-public life should not rob you of privacy, and it feels particularly unsurprising that the various scandals brought about by Jinger's oldest sibling are discussed in only the vaguest and most fleeting of terms). I'm not sure who the target audience is here, but it's probably not me.