Thou Shalt Not

About the Book

Thou Shalt Not is a powerful and captivating story of a young girl growing up during the post war years. Her struggle provides an in-depth look at a social structure whose values and morals have a profound effect on children and parents.

Her sexual battle with her grandfather and the physical abuse at the hands of her father convinced her that adulthood and sin were the equation of growing up. One is presented with the explosive and shocking experiences that she faced in a world with double standards involving conflict between the church and family values.

Her inability in understanding how adults practiced the sins on the forbidden list every day and the mere head bending moments of sincerity and confession could wipe the slate clean.

Her dares and inquisitiveness shocked the parish priest and adults who dared blame their sins on her.

Thou Shalt Not is a story of a child's ability to see beyond the abusers act, her many endearing life experiences and her awareness that her strength to forgive was a gift essential for survival. It is about love and forgiveness and the ability that everyone has to recognize their true value in life. TSN reveals the curiosity and stamina a child possesses and her relentless search for her place in the world. The ability she had to rid herself of the parasitical destructive events enabling her to push forward along with her endless struggle to get to the other end of the tunnel without leaving her meaning of life in the trenches.

Her insatiable bargains with her creator and how she inhaled the beauty of nature, laughter and forgiveness and used them as crutches for her survival. This book is sure to captivate the reader and provide an excellent story on overcoming life's challenges.

About the Author

Colleen Jeans was the daughter of a schoolteacher who hid painful secrets from the outside world while she sought the life of a social climber. Colleen's father was a carpenter whose emotions were locked so deep within him, stemming from an early cruel upbringing that he couldn't grasp and appreciate the beautiful things life had to offer.

In her debut as an author in Thou Shalt Not, Colleen shares her personal story of growing up in an environment of pedophilia, and mental and physical abuse. She describes her extraordinary and tumultuous experiences and the harsh consequences they have had on her life and the lives of her six children.

In her attempts to escape from one disastrous situation after another, Colleen reveals how multiple wrong decisions repeatedly coated her heart with sadness and suffering. Her tragic losses, including her son's suicide, propelled her into survival mode where she finally opened her heart and rid herself of the burden of sin she had mistakenly assumed was hers.

Her unique wish is to help others free themselves of the guilt, fear and denial of abuse and to attain as peaceful and satisfying a life as she enjoys today. In Thou Shalt Not, Colleen shows how she finally emerges from this deep crater of darkness excavated by sins of the fathers.