New Memoir by Jean Berry is Released

In her new memoir, "Girl in the Mirror" (published by Balboa Press), author Jean Berry uncovers the dark secrets her family has kept hidden for so long. Detailing the sexual abuse she endured as a child and her family's refusal to acknowledge it, she takes readers on a journey from victim to victor as she breaks free from her family.

On the outside, Berry's strict Catholic family appeared perfect with two loving parents, two sons and five daughters. Inside the house, however, was a nightmare. Both parents were alcoholics, and Berry was sexually molested by her father's favorite employee and later a neighborhood boy.

When Berry was 15, she finally mustered the courage to tell two of her sisters about the abuse, but they remained indifferent. At 17, she told her mother but nothing changed. Her family refused to discuss the abuse and denied anything had happened.

"It wasn't until I saw clearly the trap my family and many others have fallen into - the one of what other people think is more important than what we ourselves think - that I came to my senses and accepted at last the very things that I could change for the better for me, which meant walking away from my dysfunctional unsupportive family and their suffocating repression of my feelings and into the land of personal freedom!" writes Berry passionately.

It is Berry's hope that "Girl in the Mirror" brings comfort and support to other victims of sexual abuse. She reminds readers that they can take back control of their lives and live as victors not victims.

"Regardless of whether public justice is served or not, with awareness and clarity, we can make decisions, big and small, that are best for us," says Berry. "I have surmounted my pain through sheer determination; I refuse to let my family keep me down."

"Girl in the Mirror"
By Jean Berry
Hardcover | 5.5 x 8.5 in | 228 pages | ISBN 9781452588131
Softcover | 5.5 x 8.5 in | 228 pages | ISBN 9781452588117
E-Book | 228 pages | ISBN 9781452588124
Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author
Up to recently, Jean Berry was living a normal life working full-time as a business consultant. In 2010 she relocated back to her birthplace to where her childhood abuse had taken place. Her story details her family's denial of her abuse both then and now.

Balboa Press, a division of Hay House, Inc. - a leading provider in publishing products that specialize in self-help and the mind, body, and spirit genres. Through an alliance with indie book publishing leader Author Solutions, LLC, authors benefit from the leadership of Hay House Publishing and the speed-to-market advantages of the self-publishing model. For more information, visit balboapress.com. To start publishing your book with Balboa Press, call 877-407-4847 today. For the latest, follow @balboapress on Twitter.

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