ENFIELD, CT – Reverend-turned-Author Cheryl Kincaid released her fourth book, “Karrie’s Thorn,” a coming-of-age novel about a young girl’s faith journey from abuse to personal healing and empowerment.

“Whenever there’s a play or movie about a woman who’s been abused, it always portrays her as a psychotic person or someone who was either promiscuous or a prostitute,” explained Kincaid. “If it was a Christian movie, they would explain her as an angry woman that accepts Christ and everything’s okay,” Kincaid said. “I wanted to write a book about a woman who was a Christian already, yet still struggling with PTSD and she lived in a family where her mother and father knew the Gospel, but weren’t able to live by it due to their illnesses and she suffered from it, so that’s where ‘Karrie’s Thorn’ came from.”

The book was also inspired by a foster daughter Kincaid took in. Kincaid shared she wanted to write about the frustrations growing up in the foster care system, the everyday struggles with it and how to hang on to your faith in an imperfect world  – as well as the progression of healing.

Kincaid told Reminder Publishing that “Karrie’s Thorn” is a story she observed in the young women that she worked with as an adult, as a house parent, foster parent and a counselor.

Growing up in San Diego, CA, Kincaid used to write church plays in junior high and high school. “Writing plays became a way for me to express my world,” said Kincaid. “My world was very chaotic. My mother had a problem with depression and my father had problems with alcoholism, which made it a very chaotic childhood where there was sexual abuse and the scars have followed me to this day.”

She studied marriage and family therapy at Bethel Seminary in San Diego and has a Master of Divinity From San Francisco Theological Seminary. Kincaid facilitated Christian support groups for survivors of abuse from 1987-1997. She was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 2003 and has 20 years in ministry experience.

Kincaid was at First Presbyterian Church in Clifton, NJ for 10 years. Then she was a transitional pastor in Texas, Logansport, IN., and Alaska. Kincaid recently moved to Enfield, CT, where she is the new senior pastor and head of staff at Calvary Presbyterian Church.

“I started the last week in July,” Kincaid said. “The long-term pastor had been there for 20 years. He just retired and I’m taking his place.”

In addition to “Karrie’s Thorn,”Kincaid has authored three books: “Hearing the Gospel Through Charles Dickens’s ‘A Christmas Carol’”– which was the winner of the 2013 Independent Christian Publishers Illumination Reward for bible study – “The Little Clay Pot;” and “The Little Candle That Was Frightened of the Dark.”

“All pastors write,” Kincaid responded. “Christianity and Judaism has a rich culture of writing and language. We express the Gospel with words, so it works very well with me in the ministry, but I also like classical literature like William Shakespeare, Charles Dickinson and Jane Austen.”

What Kincaid wants readers to take from this book is that recovery is part of the human experience. She especially hopes survivors of abuse connect with the book to hear another voice say, she explained, “I’m a Christian, I read the Bible and still suffer from nightmares and flashbacks.” Kincaid concluded, “They’re going to learn that the way things are, are not the way things will always be. Things are always changing and things can get progressively better with time, but you got to give it time it's not going to happen overnight.”

“Karrie’s Thorn” is available online at Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, ChristianBook.com, Google Play and Kindle.