Blessed: An autobiography in three parts (Blessed and Cursed and Won)

Blessed is the first book in the autobiographical series, Blessed and Cursed and Won by first-time author, Oliver J. Tanner. It follows Oliver through his experience being raised as the fifth of thirteen children in a home mired in abuse of every kind and continues through his early childhood into adolescence and finds its culmination in his experience serving for two years as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; an experience that not only changed his life and helped to shape who he is today, but culminated in his losing everything. Through it all, Oliver highlights how he has survived this journey and where he has found his answers and his inspiration to even just keep breathing.Blessed is raw, it is sometimes brutal, it is heartbreaking, it pulls no punches, and it is a statement to the world not only against the abuses suffered and an exposure of lies that have for too long prevailed, but also of the reasons why, even despite his difficult journey, Oliver truly does consider himself to be blessed beyond his wildest expectations. It is an examination of the real-life monsters in Oliver's past, both in his world and within himself. Blessed may feel like just a story to you as you read, and it may sometimes feel like it can't be real, but for Oliver, this is the story of his life, told more boldly and openly than he has ever told it to anyone before.