“Even amid all this loss, the most complex grief I carried was the one tied to my father. As a young girl, I yearned for his attention. I would watch other kids talk about fishing trips with their dads, laughter-filled afternoons, and hugs before bedtime. I wanted that so badly. I used to stand silently by the door, hoping he would notice me. But he never did—not through the fog of his drinking, not through the haze of his anger.”
– an excerpt from the book
ARPress is honored to publish The Story of a Warrior Who Broke Free from Mental Anguish: A Memoir by LeShawn Fernandez. This book is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the ARPress website.
Life doesn’t always arrive in clean lines or gentle beginnings. Sometimes it stumbles in, loud, uneven, carrying more weight than anyone should have to hold. Some lives begin in softness. Others begin in survival. And somewhere in between, there are stories like this one, where pain and hope sit side by side, not quite at peace, but not entirely at war either. The kind of story that doesn’t ask for sympathy so much as it demands to be witnessed. The kind that lingers.
Author LeShawn was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and now resides in Fayetteville, Georgia, with her loving family. A proud graduate of Northside High School in Fort Smith, Arkansas, home of the Grizzly Bears, she continued her academic journey at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia, where she proudly represented the Owls.
Driven by passion for personal growth and a heart for community service, LeShawn is deeply committed to inspiring her children to pursue their fullest potential, embrace healthy living, and lead with integrity. Professionally, she is a trusted and respected insurance expert, known for her dedication to excellence and service within her community.
LeShawn is also a bestselling author, celebrated for her impactful contribution to Listen Linda Presents…The Women of the Waiting Room Devotional, Volume 2. Her words continue to uplift, motivate, and offer encouragement to others walking their own journey of faith and resilience.
Connect with LeShawn at: www.authorleshawn.com and www.hereistheinsurancelady.com.
The Story of a Warrior Who Broke Free From Mental Anguish by LeShawn Fernandez doesn’t pretend to be polished or distant. It feels… close. Almost uncomfortably so at times. Like sitting across from someone who has decided, finally, to tell the truth without dressing it up.
The book moves through a life shaped early by trauma (abuse, loss, instability), layered one on top of the other. It’s heavy, no point pretending otherwise. Childhood here isn’t soft or nostalgic. It’s something to survive. And the writing reflects that. It doesn’t circle around pain or soften it for readability. It just… says it. Sometimes blunt, sometimes reflective, sometimes a bit scattered in that very human way when memories don’t line up neatly.
There’s something noticeable about how the story is told. It isn’t trying to sound literary or overly refined. The voice feels direct, occasionally repetitive, sometimes almost like someone thinking out loud. And honestly, that works in its favor. It makes the story feel lived-in rather than constructed.
The structure follows a kind of emotional timeline, moving from childhood trauma into adolescence, then adulthood, relationships, motherhood, and eventually, something like healing. Not a clean resolution. More like… ongoing work. The title promises “breaking free,” but the book itself is more honest than that. It shows that freedom isn’t a single moment. It’s messy. It comes and goes. It has setbacks.
One of the more striking things is how often responsibility shows up early in the author’s life. Childhood gets replaced with survival, then caretaking, then resilience. There’s no dramatic switch where everything suddenly gets better. Instead, small shifts happen, moments where perspective changes, or strength builds quietly.
And then there’s the theme that keeps threading through everything: identity. Being told one thing about oneself for so long that it almost sticks. Almost. The book keeps pushing against that. Not loudly all the time, but persistently. Like a quiet refusal.
The author, LeShawn Fernandez, doesn’t come across as someone trying to position herself as perfect or fully healed. That’s probably what makes the story feel grounded. There are mistakes, setbacks, complicated choices, nothing is cleaned up for the reader’s comfort. Even the later chapters, where growth and faith start to take a stronger role, don’t erase what came before. They sit on top of it.
There’s also a strong spiritual thread running through the book. Not in a preachy way, but more like something the author leans on when everything else falls apart. Faith shows up as both a question and an answer, sometimes in the same breath.
If anything, the book feels less like a typical memoir and more like… a release. Like something that needed to be written, not just something meant to be read.
It’s not an easy read. And it’s not supposed to be.
But it’s honest. And that counts for a lot.
The Story of a Warrior Who Broke Free from Mental Anguish: A Memoir by LeShawn Fernandez is now available for purchase via the ARPress Bookstore.