With unflinching poise, Ava Norwood paints a chilling picture of abuse and neglect at the hands of religious cultists in the book award-winning author M.G. Miller calls "...a brooding tale of fractured faith and tortured trust." Reared in the harsh discipline and judgment of the Tabernacle of the Living Word, young Annabeth Showers endures unspeakable humiliation and physical abuse. She fears her church, her parents, and the vicious God the Tabernacle reveres. She believes marriage to Roger Hogan is her door to freedom. But matrimony to an older man she barely knows is not the escape Annabeth imagined, and she is irrevocably locked into a dark world of fear and discontent. Her body is under his control, but her mind and spirit rebel. Once she has a brief taste of true joy, she employs every tactic she can muster to leave her crippling existence, even if it means bloodshed. Even if it means death.

Author Biography

When Ava Norwood developed a rare disability, she stepped away from a busy career in counseling and turned her mind and talent to writing. Unable to interact with the world at large, Ms. Norwood now finds fulfillment creating strong characters caught in desperate circumstances. Ava Norwood lives in the South with her best friends-her husband, her dogs, and one crazy cat.