Based on a true story, Breaking the Silence is the winner of numerous awards, including the Pinnacle Book Achievement Award and Mom's Choice Gold Medal Award in Inspirational Fiction. This inspirational novel will leave readers in tears and cheering for Joan as she tries to overcome her demons. Joan Eastman was born like any other girl. However, her existence would prove to be a life of great pain. Growing up, she was treated differently by family members, powerless to defend herself against them. Feeling she had been dealt a wicked hand by the "powers that be", she spiraled into despair and recklessness. She became a victim of agonizing circumstances and self-hatred. Not giving up, she becomes aware of a greater spiritual being that protects her and she begins to awaken to it. Soon after getting married, she finds herself pregnant. She learns to understand nothing is hopeless; that with a changed view and increased understanding, there is real hope in every situation, no matter how difficult. As she and her husband look forward to the birth of their child, she writes in her diary as a way of expelling all of the evil memories from her past. On bed rest for the duration of her pregnancy, she endures tests and tribulations that, at first, she couldn't begin to understand. But even as high as the hurdles in Joan's life are, she doesn't look back, and pulls the pieces of her life together…for herself and her unborn child.