I snatched the microphone from its stand and just stood there, looking out over the cheering audience for more than a minute, waiting for the applause to settle. I walked to the center of the stage as the crowd roared. Somewhat appropriately, my theme song was Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” Music blared as I walked out from behind the curtain, both of my hands raised triumphantly in the air.

I took a last swig from a can of energy drink as the announcer boomed, “Ladies and gentlemen, the moment you’ve been waiting for, the man of the hour, the direct descendant of the legendary outlaw Jesse James, the incomparable. There was a science to the numbers and a price placed on each attendee-$327 for each butt in a chair. There were about twelve hundred people in the audience that night, each attendee bought and paid for through advertising.

I was doing what I do-preaching the gospel of wealth to an auditorium of hopefuls and believers. The day of my death, Tuesday, May 3, was just the day the tracks switched beneath my life. You might assume that my journey started the day I died to the world. Maybe it will even help you find a little grace for yourself. Who knows? Maybe it will help you with your struggles.

Not so I can excuse what I’ve done-there is no excuse for what I’ve done-but so you can see how even someone as lost as I was can find himself. But I ask that you might extend me just enough grace to hear my story. I have spent a fair amount of time hating myself. If you’re reading this, the angel won-though not without a few cuts and bruises. I have waged a fierce internal struggle over whether to share my story-the devil on one shoulder saying it would only serve to humiliate me, the angel on the other saying it might help others. The well from which we receive grace is only filled by sharing it with others. It is an epic journey you won’t soon forget. The Broken Road is an engrossing, contemplative story of redemption and grace and the power of second chances. The question is: what will he do with it? Charles is granted something very remarkable: a second chance. The cracks in his façade start to break down, spurring him to question everything: his choices, his relationships, his future, and the type of man he’s become. When he learns that one of his customers has committed suicide because of financial ruin, Charles is shaken. His wealth has come legally, but questionably, from the power of his personality, seducing people out of their hard-earned money. But now, at the pinnacle of his career, he’s started to wonder if he’s wanted the wrong things. Coming from a childhood of poverty and pain, this is what he’s dreamed of. Where is he going? Why is he walking? What is the wailing he hears around him?īy day, he wonders why he’s so haunted and unhappy when he has all he ever wanted-fame, fans, and fortune and the lavish lifestyle it affords him. He sees himself walking down a long, broken highway lined in flames. The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Mistletoe Promise and The Walk begins a riveting new trilogy that explores the tantalizing question: What if you could start over?Ĭhicago celebrity Charles James can’t shake the nightmare that wakes him each night.

Broken roads release date