Book Review - The Girl Among Thorns by Linda Settles

A true-life story of courage and endurance:

Sometimes it's hard to remember what life was like before "the secret" began to happen. Sometimes it's easier to forget the moment, the day, the nightmare that changed everything. And we go on...talking, laughing, and living just as if it didn't happen. But it did happen, and that changed the course of our history.

Chelsey Ann Davenport survived "the secret" and she was determined that none of her siblings would ever go through what she did. She thought she could protect them from the thorns.

My Thoughts:

Wow...what a chilling story this is. Chelsey Ann Davenport is a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of her father. It begins at the age of five. She feels that she must endure her fate to protect the other members of her family. She suffers so her brothers and sisters and her mother will be spared from her father's violent angry beatings. Her mother is aware of what is going on, but is powerless to stop it. Chelsey is able to confide in a counselor at school, but other than that, she endures her abuse quietly, all the while wishing that her father would die. The quiet strength that she exudes is to be commended, and one can only hope that her spirit is not permanently broken from years of suffering at the hands of someone whom she should be able to love and trust. This is a heartbreaking story with an uplifting ending.

Very Good!

• Paperback: 290 pages
• Publisher: Edict House Publishing (May 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979023866
• ISBN-13: 978-0979023866

About the Author

Linda Settles, counselor, author, wife and mother is also a survivor of sexual abuse. She writes on this topic to reach out to others who have been victimized in the past and help them face the future with the determination of a survivor, the courage of an activist on behalf of others who may suffer still, and the hope of a wounded warrior who will not be satisfied to live any longer with the limitations imposed on her by the pain of her past. Linda lives in the mountains of Virginia with her husband and two daughters. She is active in her church and in recovery ministries. She is a writer and a speaker at womens conferences, to recovery groups, and in abuse recovery workshops.