Publishing October 13th, 2026 | Paperback and Hardcover | 322 pages
They thought they buried me. They didn’t know I was a seed.
After decades of chronic illness and relentless physical pain, Janielle Lucas was desperate for relief. Traditional medicine offered temporary solutions but no real healing. Then, one unexpected invitation changed everything: A friend asked her to try a hot yoga class.
For the first time in years, Janielle felt alive in her body. Convinced she had found a path to healing, she immersed herself in hot yoga, experimenting with escalating heat and humidity. The more intense the room became, the more her symptoms disappeared.
Eventually, she opened her own studio in Philadelphia—a sanctuary devoted to healing through intense hot yoga. But just as her studio began gaining momentum, her dream unraveled. A crooked landlord, escalating harassment, and a disturbing series of legal battles pulled Janielle into a world she never expected: one marked by intimidation, betrayal, and a court system that seemed to function less as protection and more as an accomplice. As the pressure mounted, so did her determination to survive—and to understand why this practice was transforming not only her body but her entire sense of self.
Taking Heat is a powerful memoir of resilience, telling the story of one woman’s journey through illness, trauma, corruption, and reinvention—and how she found healing in the fire meant to destroy her.
Janielle Lucas is an author, a speaker, a wellness innovator, and a partner at a mutual fund advisory firm. After overcoming serious health challenges, she developed a pioneering wellness practice that combines extreme heat exposure, breathwork, movement, meditation, and sound frequency healing.
What began as a personal path to recovery ultimately led her to a series of events that challenged her safety, identity, and life’s work. Her memoir chronicles a remarkable journey of healing, perseverance, and the determination to reclaim her voice in the face of extraordinary adversity.
She lives in Miami Beach with her eighteen-year-old soul cat, Baby, and believes that our greatest challenges can become the catalyst for our greatest transformation.