Description: "Observing the care with which my son treated his children, I thought to myself, 'the cycle of craziness is broken.' The trail of our suffering has come to an end." This is the story of a courageous young woman who grew up in a home headed by a sexual predator and an abused mother who lost her mind when Christine was only fourteen, disappearing until she was a mother herself. It recounts the secrets and lies that were designed to protect the darkest family secret of all, which had the effect of making the eight children strangers to each other, and then prisoners of the passions that disordered their lives, and set them against each other. Christine's story is filled with intense dramas--the horrifying revenge of the chosen son, the struggle between mother and daughter to the edge of the grave, and finally, the saga of Christine's climb out of the family wreck: how the birth of her child provided a new compass; how the family traumas failed to derail her quest to free herself and her new family from the chains of the past. The climax of her tale is a showdown with her siblings set off by the dark revelations of the sister at the center of the family secret. This is an inspiring, beautifully told story of individual courage with life lessons for others seeking to break free of similar circumstances.
Brief description: Almarie Guerra is a bilingual actor based in Los Angeles. She was born in Puerto Rico and was raised in the U.S. from the age of eight. She grew up on amazing Latin American literature and developed a love for the spoken word through nightly storytelling rituals with her family. Now, she gets to share her passion with listeners from all over the world by narrating audiobooks as well as working in theater, commercials, TV, and film. Her favorite narration opportunities, however, occur at bedtime each night, when she reads stories to her two girls.
Review Quotes:
"Courageous, heartbreaking, infuriating, and ultimately victorious; a significant contribution to the cycle-of-abuse literature."
-- "Kirkus Reviews"