What a great eye-opening novel! I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I received My Life, My Soul. I had the honor of meeting Ivette Attaud at the Strong Conference where I was 
vending my novel, Claiming Jeremiah. She was being honored for being a strong, remarkable woman who chose to use her experience as a gateway to help other women.
Ivette, being the darling she is, purchased my novel and gave me a copy of hers. Well, being the avid reader I am, I began reading it right away. First, let me say that My Life, My Soul puts you in the front seat of domestic verbal and emotional abuse. This novel has very graphic, dramatic scenes. The saddest part about the book is everything is 100 percent true.
Ivette Attaud, a Jehovah’s Witness, recounts her marriage to teen sweetheart Victor. My Life, My Soul explores her relationship with Victor, a member of the army, who for over twenty years abuses her mentally, physically, and emotionally. Keep a tissue box nearby. Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse for Ivette, it does. This book takes place in the 1980s when domestic violence wasn’t a major priority for the police and the courts the way it is today. Ivette finds herself on multiple occasions without help from the police or her family. Being an army wife makes matters worse. Everyone see’s Victor as a uniform and no one dares to question her accusations. Instead everyone believes him when he tells his general, family, and friends that Ivette is suffering from depression.
Adding insult to injury, Victor is also a cheapskate. He does not provide Ivette with the monthly financial allowance she needs to take care of herself and her child while they are living apart. Then he moves them on base a few months later (where we know everything is paid for) only to not give her enough money to buy clothes for herself or their baby. Ivette gets pregnant again and is forced to go to work. Victor doesn’t want to buy another car and convinces her he needs the car for work. Ivette has to walk to work in high temperatures. Ivette desperately wants to get away, but has nowhere to turn. The police don’t believe anything she tells them. She is isolated on the base, surrounded by people who respect Victor and look at her like she’s insane. Her mother believes in standing by your man at all costs. Her religious family questions what she is doing wrong in her marriage. It seems no one will help Ivette and her children. How will she break the chains and escape from her abuser?
Check out My Life, My Soul for an emotional, but inspiring journey of how one woman, with the world against her, survived.