Unbroken: A Memoir

All the furniture in the house got wrecked except this one old wooden china cabinet in my grandmother’s kitchen, which somehow remained standing despite all odds. One night, in the midst of a prayer, I glanced over at it and thought, If this cabinet could talk... What madness it had seen.The Lord spoke to me then. “You’re both here, and you both survived, and just like this cabinet, you remain unbroken.”

Tracy Elliott led a rough life. This honest memoir takes you into the heart of the gritty realities of the street and a life of addiction. But it is the story of a broken person's history and how God taught her that, in his loving eyes, she is whole.

As a young, orphaned girl growing up in her grandmother's house with five alcoholic uncles, Tracy witnessed constant violence and experienced abuse. Later in life, as a stripper in her mid-twenties, she lived hard and suffered the consequences. Now, she tells how her life was put back together by the grace of God.

Tracy says, "No matter where you came from and what you've done, God wants you. No one is unforgivable, and no one is beneath His grace. god loved me when I was seven years old in old brown clogs, He loved me when I was working in strip clubs, and He loves me still."

Unbroken is a moving story of a young woman who has discovered the power of God's loving forgiveness and grace―and who wants to share it with a hurting world.

One thing, a cupboard, was the only thing in Tracy Elliott's life that didn't get shattered. As a stripper, Elliot lived hard and suffered the consequences. In Unbroken, she tells the deeply impacting story of how her life was put back together by the power and redemption of God.

Publishers Weekly

Elliott is, undoubtedly, a survivor. Orphaned by age six and sent to live with a grandmother who was still keeping a nest full of grown, unemployed alcoholic sons, Elliott endured virtually every abuse imaginable. Unsurprisingly, her days as a cheerleader and beauty pageant contestant gave way to a whirlwind of alcohol, drugs and demeaning behavior until the day she met her husband Now a mother, successful businesswoman and winner of the Mrs. Texas pageant, she wants to offer a message of hope and ardent religious faith. The understandably tattered strands of memory, emotion and chronology make for an uneven tapestry at times. Though fairly raw, she's taken care to keep her story from becoming R-rated and to keep the small Southern towns of her youth anonymous. In the brief month she spent at rehab, Elliot, like many recovering addicts, found a way that works for her and is eager to share her newfound faith in God with others. Her dedication to proselytizing is matched only by her staunch belief in tithing, two traditions that may not appeal to all readers. (Apr. 10)