An inspirational memoir about trauma, faith, and resilience from debut author Roberts Essex. Sometimes the road intended is not always the one traveled. On a cold, rainy Southern morning, a boy is born with a bent back to a young, God-fearing mother in a world already in chaos. The doctor tells her to prepare for the worst. She names him anyway. Chance Beginnings is the true story of a Savannah boy shaped by faith, family, and the unrelenting tides of time. It is a memoir about resilience and overcoming tragedy, a book about finding God through pain and suffering, and a true story of redemption and spiritual healing that has resonated with readers in trauma recovery communities, men's groups, and faith-based reading circles across the country. Roberts Essex spent four decades working as a police officer, a paramedic, and a physician assistant before he wrote his first sentence. After a thirteen-year marriage ended in his mid-thirties, he went back to college as a single father, graduated as an English honors major, and waited until his sixties to write the book he had been carrying his whole life. Inside Chance Beginnings: A childhood trauma survivor's path through faith and healing One of the best memoirs about childhood trauma and forgiveness in 2026 A father's hard-won fight against intergenerational trauma Breaking generational cycles as a father and choosing differently A Southern story of forgiveness and redemption set in 1960s East Savannah An inspirational story for anyone who has ever had to start over What readers are saying: "Haunting, deeply personal, and quietly hopeful. One of the best faith-based books for trauma recovery communities I have read in years." "A memoir with the flavor of Walden and Grisham and a palette between Spielberg and Disney."-Roberts Essex on his own book Chance Beginnings is volume one of three. The Search and A New Life follow. Now is the time to start the trilogy from the beginning, before volume two drops and the conversation moves on. Buy this inspirational memoir about trauma and faith today. Featured in USA Today. No matter where you come from, your beginning does not define your ending.