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Unbreak My Heart

A Memoir

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

The bestselling solo R&B artist finally opens up about her rocky past and her path to redemption

While Toni Braxton may appear to be living a charmed life, hers is in fact a tumultuous story: a tale of personal triumph after a public unraveling. In her heartfelt memoir, the six-time Grammy Award-winning singer and star of WE tv's hit reality series Braxton Family Values is unapologetically honest in revealing the intimate details of her journey.

Toni and the entire Braxton clan have become America's favorite musical family, but what fans may not know is the intense guilt Toni once felt when she accepted a recording deal that excluded her sisters. That decision would haunt Toni for years to come, tainting the enormous fame she experienced as a popular female vocalist at the top of the charts. Despite her early accomplishments, Toni's world crumbled when she was forced to file for bankruptcy twice and was left all alone to pick up the pieces.

Always the consummate professional, Toni rebuilt her life but then found herself in the midst of more heartache. The mother of an autistic child, Toni had long feared that her son's condition might be karmic retribution for some of the life choices that left her filled with remorse. Later, when heart ailments began plaguing her at the age of forty-one and she was diagnosed with lupus, Toni knew she had to move beyond the self-recrimination and take charge of her own healing—physically and spiritually.

Unbreak My Heart is more than the story of Toni's difficult past and glittering success: it is a story of hope, of healing, and, ultimately, of redemption.

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    • Booklist

      May 15, 2014
      Braxton's Unbreak My Heart might be her best-selling single and the title of her memoir, yet the instructive phrase she uses most comes from another hit single, Breathe Again. She sure has needed to come up for air, often. Braxton recounts her struggles candidly. Choosing her solo music career over her sisters early on, filing for bankruptcy twice, a divorce, her youngest son's autism, and her own lupus diagnosis are all laid bare. Sometimes the tone of her exposition is a tad too sunny, especially while recounting the realization that her father was bringing his girlfriends to her show, the beginning of the end of her parents' 35-year marriage. It's the reflective, positive tone, however, that makes this tell-all intensely readable. Braxton name-drops in a way that brings the late 1990s R&B scene roaring back. Her first-name-basis friends include Kenny Babyface Edmonds, L. A. Reid, and Clive Davis. For fans who loved her in her heyday or recently found her on her reality show, Braxton Family Values, this is a must-read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

    • Library Journal

      November 1, 2013

      Titling this memoir after her most popular song, R&B star Braxton talks reality TV, health, and family, sharing how she overcame her own struggles with heart problems and Lupus and her son's autism.

      Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Kirkus

      May 15, 2014
      Six-time Grammy Award winner Braxton speaks out regarding her turbulent personal and professional lives.From the time Braxton was a little girl growing up in rural Maryland, she wanted to be a star. By the mid-1990s, she had achieved that goal, and her 1996 single, "Un-break My Heart," from her second album, "Secrets," became a chart-topping, certified-platinum success. Yet guilt, financial and personal troubles, and ongoing family health issues have pockmarked the author's projected glamorous life. In 1988, 21-year-old Braxton and her four sisters landed their first recording contract. "No one could've predicated the painful episode that would follow: Five bright-eyed Braxton sisters would soon be narrowed down to one." For many years, Braxton suffered severe guilt about accepting a record deal that excluded her sisters, and the decision infuriated her mother, which added to Braxton's sense of dismay. The author's success was also marred by two bankruptcies, a divorce and her son's autism diagnosis. The author faced her own health crisis during her Las Vegas show when she received a diagnosis of lupus. "My diagnosis that day marked the beginning of my road to recovery," she writes, "but it was also the end of my Vegas run." The author eventually disclosed her condition on the family reality TV show Braxton Family Values, which began in 2011 and features her mother and sisters. Braxton seems intent on establishing a secure pathway through life's inherent messiness. "I'm starting to realize that we're not supposed to keep everything lined up and in perfect order-even with our best efforts, we can't accomplish that anyway," she writes. "Instead, we're meant to find lessons in both the chaos and the cleanup."Overly sentimental, but Braxton fans will applaud the star's candor and perseverance.

      COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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