"He believed that I was an angel sent from God."—Ashley Smith
In April 2005, Ashley Smith made headlines around the globe when she miraculously talked her way out of the hands of alleged courthouse killer Brian Nichols after he took her hostage for seven hours in her suburban Atlanta apartment. In this moving, inspirational memoir, the 26-year-old widowed mother of a six-year-old girl shares for the first time the little-known details of her traumatic ordeal, and expands on how her faith and the bestselling book The Purpose-Driven Life helped her survive and bring the killer's murderous rampage to a peaceful end.
Just as she told her 6'1", 210-pound captor that his ultimate "purpose" in life was to end up spending the rest of his life in prison, preaching the teachings of Jesus Christ to his fellow inmates, Smith believes her own purpose is to spread that message of love to the rest of us. Juxtaposing the minute-by-minute tale of her experience with the never-before-told tragedies and triumphs of her own life, Unlikely Angel is a gripping tale of downfall and redemption, involving addiction, violence, death, loss, faith, and love. It is a story that will leave no listener untouched.
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"this book has taught me that you should have hope even throught the hard things in this book this girl had hope her whole way through the hostage and she talked him out of killing her "
— Kayley (5 out of 5 stars)
" Very interesting, had not heard of this story before and is quite different from the new accounts I went on to read later online. Makes one wonder what is true. "
— Anskia, 5/9/2011" It was good. It could have been alot shorter and we would have known the same information. I am glad that I read it. It was very inspirational. I would recommend this book to people who are trying to quit a drug habit because she has some really good words of wisdom for those types of people. "
— Trinka, 3/22/2011" A pretty good book. What I liked the best was how you are able to have some compassion for Brian Nichols in spite of his horrific actions. I hope Ashley has continued on the right path. "
— Lesa, 1/29/2011" This book is highly entertaining. She does repeat herself a lot though which gets annoying, but its told in the authors own voice. I wish I had followed the story when it happened, I bet it would make the book even better. "
— Heather, 10/6/2010" An amazing story! <br/>This was a very quick read. "
— Lynnea, 8/27/2010" This was a wonderful biography of what Ashley Smith went through when she was taken hostage by a man who had murdered four people. "
— Lou, 5/3/2010" This book repeated itself too much for me. Although this is a true story, some of it seemed unbelievable. Like, did this really happen this way? The title didn't really go with the book in my opinion. "
— Patsy, 4/2/2010" Read in a 24 hour period. Was a good story, but hard to read. Brother has trouble with drugs and the book gave a first hand account of the lying and chaos that drugs create. "
— Jodi, 10/13/2009" Another wasted of my time. I am happy to know that yes indeed we do have modern day heros. "
— Tamstr2008, 9/24/2009" Great Story about the woman held hostage by Brian Nichols, and how she got through it! "
— Jessica, 8/20/2009" This was an easy read. It was interesting how she humanized her attacker. You could tell that she was very honest about her version of the story. She shared the good and the bad about herself and Brian Nichols. "
— LaDawna, 4/20/2009" Good read, Kept my attention. Believing in the power of your inner self can give you all the strenght you need in that moment of choice. "
— Elaine, 4/16/2009Ashley Smith lives with her family and is active in her church. She believes that God led her through the dark hours as a hostage of killer Brian Nichols and that she is called to use her highly publicized experience to help people find their purpose.