FEATURE:
A Buyer’s Guide
but I have not featured Toni Braxton in A Buyer’s Guide as far as I can see! I have featured her before, but not in this series. To remedy that, I am going to highlight the albums of hers that you need to own. Her ninth studio album, Spell My Name, came out in 2020. Let’s hope there are plenty more albums from the R&B legend. Prior to getting to the albums, here is some biography from AllMusic:
“Blending fire and finesse, Toni Braxton has wielded broad appeal throughout a career studded with Top Ten pop and R&B/hip-hop hits, multi-platinum certifications, and major award recognition. Soulful enough for R&B audiences yet smooth enough for adult contemporary play lists, sophisticated enough for adults but sultry enough for younger listeners, and equally proficient at heartbroken and seductive material, Braxton made her solo debut at full power during the early '90s. Her first two albums, Toni Braxton (1993) and Secrets (1996), both went platinum eight times over, accompanied by a string of hit singles that included "Un-break My Heart," which ranks among the longest-running number one pop hits of the rock era. Each one of her subsequent albums has been treated as an event, whether it has followed a brief or extended break in studio activity. They have regularly debuted within the Top Ten, highlighted by Love, Marriage & Divorce (2014), a set of duets with long-term collaborator Babyface that made her one of the few artists to be handed Grammy Awards in each of three decades. From "Love Shoulda Brought You Home" to her first single of the 2020s, "Do It," Braxton's Top Ten R&B/hip-hop hits span a similar length of time. The latter appeared on her first album for Island, Spell My Name (2020).
Toni Michele Braxton was born in Severn, Maryland, on October 7, 1968. The daughter of a minister, she was raised mostly in the strict Apostolic faith. Encouraged by their mother, an operatically trained vocalist, Braxton and her four sisters began singing in church as girls. Although gospel was the only music permitted in the household, the girls often watched Soul Train when their parents went shopping. Braxton's parents later converted to a different faith and eased their restrictions on secular music somewhat, allowing Braxton more leeway to develop her vocal style. Because of her husky voice, she often used male singers like Luther Vandross, Stevie Wonder, and Michael McDonald as models, as well as Chaka Khan. Braxton had some success on the local talent show circuit, continuing to sing with her sisters, and after high school studied to become a music teacher. However, she soon dropped out of college after she was discovered singing to herself at a gas station by songwriter Bill Pettaway (who co-authored Milli Vanilli's "Girl You Know It's True"). With Pettaway's help, Braxton and her sisters signed with Arista Records in 1990 as a group dubbed simply the Braxtons.
The Braxtons released a single in 1990 called "The Good Life," and while it wasn't a hit, it caught the attention of L.A. Reid and Babyface, the red-hot songwriting/production team who had just formed their own label, LaFace (which was associated with Arista). Braxton became the first female artist signed to LaFace in 1991, and the following year she was introduced to the listening public with a high-profile appearance on the soundtrack of Eddie Murphy's Boomerang. Not only did her solo cut "Love Shoulda Brought You Home" become a substantial pop and R&B hit, but she also duetted with Babyface himself on "Give U My Heart." Anticipation for Braxton's first album ran high, and when her eponymous solo debut was released in 1993, it was an across-the-board smash, climbing to number one on both the pop and R&B charts. It spun off hit after hit, including three more Top Ten singles in "Another Sad Love Song," "Breathe Again," and "You Mean the World to Me," plus the double-sided R&B hit "I Belong to You"/"How Many Ways." Toni Braxton's run of popularity lasted well into 1995. By that time, Braxton had scored Grammys for Best New Artist and Best Female R&B Vocal ("Another Sad Love Song"), and tacked on another win in the latter category for "Breathe Again."
To tide fans over until her next album was released, Braxton contributed "Let It Flow" to the Whitney Houston-centered soundtrack of Waiting to Exhale in 1995. Again working heavily with L.A. Reid and Babyface, Braxton released her second album, Secrets, in the summer of 1996, and predictably, it was another enormous hit. The first single, "You're Makin' Me High," was Braxton's most overtly sexual yet, and it became her biggest pop hit to date. However, its success was soon eclipsed by the follow-up single, the Diane Warren-penned ballad "Un-break My Heart." The song was an inescapable juggernaut, spending an amazing 11 weeks on top of the pop chart (and even longer on the adult contemporary chart). Further singles "I Don't Want To" and "How Could an Angel Break My Heart" weren't quite as successful (hardly an indictment), but that didn't really matter; by then Secrets was already her second straight multi-platinum hit. In 1997, she picked up Grammy Awards for Best Female Pop Vocal and Best Female R&B Vocal (for "Un-break My Heart" and "You're Makin' Me High," respectively).
Toward the end of 1997, Braxton filed a lawsuit against LaFace Records, attempting to gain release from a contract she felt was no longer fair or commensurate with her status. When LaFace countersued, Braxton filed for bankruptcy, a move that shocked many fans (who wondered how that could be possible, given her massive sales figures) but actually afforded her protection from further legal action. She spent most of 1998 in legal limbo, and passed the time by signing on to portray Belle in the Broadway production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Braxton and LaFace finally reached a settlement in early 1999, and the singer soon began work on her third album. The Heat was released in the spring of 2000, and entered the Billboard 200 at number two, matching the highest position held by Secrets. Lead single "He Wasn't Man Enough" was a Top Ten hit and an R&B/hip-hop chart-topper. A brisk seller out of the box, The Heat eventually cooled off around the two-million mark and led to yet another Grammy win for Best Female R&B Vocal ("He Wasn't Man Enough").
Following the release of the holiday album Snowflakes, Braxton appeared in the VH1 movie Play'd and recorded More Than a Woman. Released toward the end of 2002 with half of its songs co-written with sister Tamar, it broke Braxton's streak of Top Ten studio albums and prompted a temporary move to the Blackground label. Libra, supported with the singles "Please" and "That's the Way Love Works (Trippin')," started a new streak of Top Ten entries in 2005. In Europe, it was re-released the following year with the addition of the Il Divo collaboration "The Time of Our Lives," the official 2006 FIFA World Cup anthem. It was around this time that Braxton became the main performer at the Flamingo Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Her show, Toni Braxton: Revealed, ran until April 2008, when she joined the cast of the competitive reality show Dancing with the Stars. After lasting five weeks before being voted off the show, Braxton completed Pulse, her first full-length for Atlantic. Issued in May 2010, it became her fifth Top Ten album.
Braxton further boosted her 2010s comeback profile by participating in another reality TV series, the long-running Braxton Family Values, which focused on her relationship with her mother and four sisters. Meanwhile, she reunited with Babyface to record the duets album Love, Marriage & Divorce. Released by Motown in 2014, it went to number four just before the duo starred in a Broadway production of After Midnight. Love, Marriage & Divorce won the Grammy Award in the category of Best R&B Album just months before Unbreak My Heart: A Memoir was published. The book detailed Braxton's triumphs, as well as her business and health struggles behind the scenes, and led to a similarly titled biographical television film.
Braxton's affiliation with the Def Jam label began in 2015 with her second holiday recording, Braxton Family Christmas. Although lupus complications hampered Braxton's touring schedule, she worked on a new album and in 2017 accepted a Soul Train Legend Award. Sex & Cigarettes, a set dominated by aching ballads, arrived in 2018. It reached number 22 and led to a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Album, while "Long as I Live," a Top 20 R&B/hip-hop single, was up for Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance. The Top Ten R&B/hip-hop hit "Do It," featuring Missy Elliott, followed in 2020 as the first result of a new deal with Island Records. Spell My Name, on which she was also joined by H.E.R., arrived that August”.
I am going to whittle down her nine solo studio albums to the best four, the underrated gem, in addition to her latest studio album. There is a memoir that I thought I would also highlight. This is the essential work of the…
SENSATIONAL Toni Braxton.
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The Four Essential Albums
Secrets
Release Date: 18th June, 1996
Labels: LaFace/Arista
Producers: Babyfac/eKeith Crouch/David Foster/R. Kelly/L.A. Reid/Tony Rich/Soulshock & Karlin/Bryce Wilson
Standout Tracks: You're Makin' Me High/Talking in His Sleep/Let It Flow
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=96174&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0Uy6GD6CqvEkWAdzxy7S1x?si=rwpUIdb1T22BCXdx0tCfXA
Review:
“Although she’s the daughter of a deeply conservative apostolic minister who didn’t allow her to listen to pop music when she was a little girl, it must not have been very difficult for Toni Braxton to relate to the songs crafted for her by writer-producer Kenneth ”Babyface” Edmonds. Babyface venerates love; for him, romance is a religion to be both studied and enacted. And on Braxton’s new album, Secrets, the singer and her recording mentor offer up a series of secular hymns to attraction and affection, betrayal and brokenheartedness, cooing and cohabitation.
You can hear their devotion in a song such as ”How Could an Angel Break My Heart,” cowritten by Babyface and Braxton. Over a lulling ballad melody, the singer makes her agony a thing of beauty, pausing with daring vocal timing over the lyrics’ details of a lover’s wayward behavior. And you can hear a different sort of testament to the redemptive powers of love in ”You’re Makin Me High,” the album’s airily funky first single. Both ”High” and the finger-poppingly upbeat ”Come On Over Here” give the lie to doubters who thought Braxton could sell only slow songs effectively.
Having sold more than 7 million copies of her self-titled 1993 debut album, Braxton had to face up to a big challenge. Toni Braxton had yielded a string of hit singles (”Another Sad Love Song,” ”Breathe Again”), and ”Let It Flow,” from the soundtrack to Waiting to Exhale, is presently a staple of urban contemporary radio. But sophomore albums are, as the cliche goes, jinxed, and Braxton must have worried, just a little, whether all those young one-name female upstarts — Brandy, Monica, Monifa, and their sisters — might render her languid take on love irrelevant.
But instead of trying to pursue the cutting edge and emulate the youngsters’ melding of R&B and hip-hop, Braxton has opted to skew older: Secrets offers space to veteran songwriter-producers Diane Warren and David Foster, who between them have worked with a slew of middlebrow behemoths from Barbra Streisand to Michael Bolton. Warren came up with ”Un-Break My Heart,” a tearjerker so grandiose and yet so intrinsically, assuredly hit-bound, it’s the kind of mass-appeal grabber that’s probably already sent a jealous Diana Ross diving for a comfort gallon of Haagen-Dazs.
Easily the worst song on Secrets and therefore worth lingering over for a second, ”Un-Break My Heart” (produced by Foster, so Babyface is guilt-free) is one of those the-verses-exist-only-for-the-swelling-chorus showstoppers that allude to emotions without ever actually embodying them. Braxton does her darnedest to plug some life into the song, to no avail. And no matter: This is the sort of MOR fodder that becomes a radio standby in spite of itself. Its selection by Braxton and coexecutive producers Antonio ”L.A.” Reid and Babyface was, in this sense, a shrewd, if artistically disappointing, one.
Braxton gets more solid material from other outsiders, like R. Kelly (whose ”I Don’t Want To” is a cool tune about romance in denial) and Tony Rich (co-writer of ”Come On Over Here,” a neo-Motown composition in the manner of Rich’s own best work).
As for the core Braxton/Babyface collaborations, well, they are diverse, witty, and exquisitely modulated. Indeed, Babyface’s ”Let It Flow” (also included here) is one of Braxton’s most successfully adventurous moments. A sultry tune that requires the singer to reach down to her lowest register, ”Flow” has a sinuous power, and it flows into the next track, ”Why Should I Care,” in which Braxton ascends to a high, breathy croon. Taken together, this pair of songs not only demonstrates Braxton’s technical range but confirms her ability to deliver Secrets’ sermons of sensuality — little gospels of good and bad loving — with unusual eloquence. A-“ – Entertainment Weekly
Choice Cut: Un-Break My Heart
The Heat
Release Date: 25th April, 2000
Label: LaFace
Producers: Teddy Bishop/Keith Crouch/David Foster/Jazze Pha/Rodney ‘Darkchild’ Jerkins/Keri/Daryl Simmons
Standout Tracks: Spanish Guitar/Just Be a Man About It/Maybe
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/master/143318-Toni-Braxton-The-Heat
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0UZsKcXzOehMvFWTiBlwMi?si=iBpV0MW9RX2i_QI3u0e_Jw
Review:
“Toni Braxton went through a lot in the years separating her star-making Toni Braxton and her 2000 comeback The Heat. Yes, she became a star, but she also went through a painful bankruptcy that delayed her sequel for years. Fortunately, you wouldn't be able to tell that there was so much behind-the-scenes drama from The Heat -- it's a confident, assured, sexy effort that reaffirms Braxton's status as one of the finest contemporary mainstream soul singers. She may not be as street-smart as Mary J. Blige, nor does she push the boundaries of the genre the way TLC does, but she has a full, rich voice that instantly lends her songs a sense of maturity and sensuality, especially since she never, ever oversings or misjudges her material. And, while that material can occasionally be a little generic, much of The Heat is built on solid ballads and smoldering, mid-tempo dance numbers. Producers as diverse as Babyface, Rodney Jerkins, Daryl Simmons, Teddy Bishop, and David Foster are responsible for various tracks on the album, which is typical for a big-budget, superstar release like this, but rarely are the tracks quite as consistent and cohesive as they are here. The skittering beats of "He Wasn't Man Enough" and "Gimme Some" are every bit as effective as the simmering title track or ballads "I'm Still Breathing" and "Spanish Guitar" -- or "Just Be a Man About It," an instant classic telephone breakup song, with Dr. Dre playing the wayward lover breaking the news to Ms. Braxton. True, The Heat slightly runs out of momentum toward the end, but there aren't many dull spots on the record -- it's all stylish, sultry, seductive, appealing urban contemporary soul that confirms Braxton's prodigious talents” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: He Wasn’t Man Enough
More Than a Woman
Release Date: 18th November, 2002
Label: Arista
Producers: Babyface/Gerrard C. Baker/Big Bert/Irv Gotti/Rodney Jerkins/Keri Lewis/Mannie Fresh/Andrea Martin/Ivan Matias/The Neptunes/No I.D./Chink Santana
Standout Tracks: Let Me Show You the Way (Out)/A Better Man/Lies, Lies, Lies
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=151013&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/4loWAxPQnpNreGRDEmPMDo?si=eXvZXptcS_SGMqco5-4Z6Q
Review:
“Long before the likes of J-Lo and Britney Spears hypnotised the world with their frequently photographed rumps and midriffs, Toni Braxton spearheaded the cluster of desirable females with a knockout combination of seductive looks, silky vocal tones and an inclination towards dresses which seemed to be produced during a cloth shortage. But image aside, Braxton's career CV can't be laughed at. With six Grammys, seven American Music Awards and a total of 25 million worldwide album sales, record company bosses will be relying upon her to deliver the goods with her latest offering.
More Than A Woman is a diverse blend of danceable club numbers, trademark Braxton ballads and experimental tracks which borrow from the genres of rock and jazz.
First off is the feisty "Let Me Show You The Way (Out)". A new woman's anthem for 2003? I truly think so. Over a hammering hip-hop bassline, angry incessant piano chords and Braxton's calm but commanding vocals lies a telling tale of infidelity, which sets the theme for the majority of the album. Nothing demonstrates this so magically as "Hit The Freeway". What at first sounds like a quintessential Neptunes track - melodic synthesiser, staged handclaps and funky drum patterns - later transpires into an impressive slice of pop R&B. The chorus: "Farewell my lonely one, nothing else here can be done, I don't ever wanna see you again" is eagerly contagious. Revenge has never sounded sweeter.
For your dosage of classic love songs, turn to the elegant "Always". Harking back to the Toni of yesteryear,this is a tenderly honed R&B ballad with rich, multi-layered vocals, which add balance to the edgier, street-orientated tracks.
The album's surprise comes courtesy of Braxton's hubby, Keri Lewis who produced the standout track "Lies, Lies, Lies". The most notable element on this record is the usage of live instrumentation. Toni's vocals also provide an interesting mix, as her gravelly tones are pit against an electric guitar.
There's no doubt that More Than A Woman will sell bucket-loads. At age 34 Braxton is in a great position to serve both middle-of-the-road listeners with her high-powered ballads, as well the comrades of the streets with her attitude-ridden take on modern day living” – BBC
Choice Cut: Hit the Freeway (featuring Loon)
Sex & Cigarettes
Release Date: 21st March, 2018
Labels: Def Jam/Universal
Producers: Fred Ball/Antonio Dixon/Kenny ‘Babyface’ Edmonds/Dapo Torimiro/Stuart Crichton/Tricky Stewart/Pierre Medor
Standout Tracks: Deadwood/Sex & Cigarettes/Sorry
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=1334468&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/1nmxUznbVkZorzeY4olXco?si=L6x7ZjMFSwiN3NYvSU6FuQ
Review:
“Toni Braxton may have just got engaged to hip-hop mogul Birdman, but there isn’t any sign of a heel-clicking, lamppost-swinging flush of love here – she seems permanently marooned in a Mariana trench of post-breakup misery. This is of course her dominant mode. She remains best known for Unbreak My Heart, where the dejected singer knows how impossible the task of the title is, but is powerless not to request it. Lyrically, even upbeat hits such as You’re Making Me High are freighted with a quiet pain. Like Billie Holiday, Braxton’s voice reflexively bends towards sadness, and it continues to do so even when there’s a diamond on her finger.
A very strong trio of songs open this record, beginning with Deadwood, which has a fantastic singalong chorus alongside acoustic strumming and chardonnay-doused strings. Perhaps it could have benefitted from a more traditional power ballad arrangement, but it’s very good nonetheless. Braxton’s intonation of “deadwood” – putting the emphasis bitterly on the “dead” – is the kind of impactful, classy detail you can only paint after a lifetime of heartache songs.
The smooth R&B single Long As I Live has an even stronger central melody, but it’s the title track, a piano ballad, that really dominates this opening salvo: a tale of emotional abuse with Braxton at an Unbreak level of trauma, pleading “at least lie to me, lie to me” to a cheating lover who doesn’t bother to mask his scent of sex and cigarettes. By the end you can practically hear the snot and tears as she crumples. Lesser singers would tip it into camp; Braxton makes it shockingly raw.
She doesn’t quite reach those heights again, and there is some slightly rote production: the Viva La Vida ripoff of Coping and the already passé tropical house of Missin’. But there’s still a masterly emotional range: from simmering anger on FOH (“Boy you must be suicidal / Is that bitch right there beside you” scans with a chilling brilliance) to tender regret on My Heart. No real joy or happiness, mind – you do rather feel for Birdman listening to it for the first time” – The Guardian
Choice Cut: Long As I Live
The Underrated Gem
Toni Braxton
Release Date: 13th July, 1993
Labels: LaFace/Arista
Producers: Babyface/Vassal Benford/Bo & McArthur/Vincent Herbert/Ernesto Phillips/L.A. Reid/Daryl Simmons/Tim & Ted
Standout Tracks: Another Sad Love Song/Seven Whole Days/I Belong to You
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=96167&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/73ojqvZakvdkBxSg9pyPqz?si=-UE90LFMTAaT6GyOTB9gPA
Review:
“The music-buying public of the UK was not holding its breath for the first solo album from Toni Braxton, the perfect, pure voice from US gospel troupe The Braxtons (with her sisters Traci, Towanda, Trina and Tamar). However, when they heard her sumptuous phrasing, saw how beautiful she looked and heard her enormous hit, Breathe Again, she was made most welcome. Suddenly, it was as if she was everywhere. In her white vest, Braxton became an antidote: both to Mariah Carey stretching unlimited mileage out of every single note, and Whitney Houston, now a remote superstar in the wake of the global success of her box office blockbuster, The Bodyguard.
Spotted by producers and songwriters L.A. Reid and Babyface, Braxton was singled out from her group to record Love Shoulda Brought You Home, a track the duo had written for 80s torch songstress Anita Baker. The match worked. As a result, half of Braxton’s debut album sounds like Baker’s best work since 1986. Seven Whole Days is such an update on the Rapture singer’s formula, you actually think you are listening to Baker herself, and You Mean the World to Me is a very affectionate homage to Same Ole Love.
However, if it was simply pastiche, it wouldn’t have sold so well and been held in such high regard. It was the tracks on which Braxton found her own voice that made this album special. Another Sad Love Song showed how well an accomplished production team could perform when married with a superior vocalist. But it was the album’s third single, Breathe Again, that fully established Braxton. A delicate ballad that refused to resort wholly to cliché, it is brought to life by Braxton’s dreamy, breathy delivery. And it was huge. Breathe Again went to the US top three and to number two in the UK.
The single made the album sell and sell. Toni Braxton topped the US chart and made the UK top five. It was spritely, mature soul at its best – and just urban enough to make it the bedroom album for the hip hop generation. There’s no denying how glossy, overcooked, and, at times, overwrought it is, but there is little point in denying its beauty“ – BBC
Choice Cut: Breathe Again
The Latest Album
Spell My Name
Release Date: 28th August, 2020
Label: Island
Producers: Paul Boutin/Chris Braide/Toni Braxton/Ghara ‘PK’ Degeddingseze/Antonio Dixon/Kenneth Babyface Edmonds/Hannon Lane/Missy Elliott/Akeel Henry/Jordon Manswell/Jonathan Martin/Soundz/Dapo Torimiro
Standout Tracks: Dance/Gotta Move On (featuring H.E.R.)/Spell My Name
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=1797844&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/7cVfHcCdsGH28PMMRdTQg5?si=NiTZAdVrRxOfhSDAEV1mBA
Review:
“Toni Braxton was one of the biggest pop and R&B stars of the 1990s, and after a few years out of the spotlight, began a career resurgence began with 2014’s “Love, Marriage & Divorce” album with Babyface, which continued with 2018’s “Sex & Cigarettes.” Now, a mere two years later, she’s back with “Spell My Name,” possibly her strongest album since her halcyon period in the mid-to-late ‘90’s.
She’s brought along several longtime collaborators. Antonio Dixon penned the song “Long As I Live,” and he’s all over this album, chiming in with the second single, the shimmery summertime disco stomper, “Dance.” He also co-wrote “Do It” with Braxton and Babyface, who is also omnipresent, not only as a songwriter but because this album was recorded entirely at his Brandon’s Way recording studio.
For her part, Braxton cowrote nearly every song on the album, and she and her collaborators have succeeded in deftly meshing her signature minor-key R&B sound with production and vocal arrangements that keep things classy but contemporary. The mistress of melancholy, Braxton has made a career out of heartbreak and this record is no exception: Even “Dance,” the only fully upbeat song here, arrives as the remedy to a break-up. Meanwhile, “Gotta Move On” featurs a slow and meditative 4/4 beat with swooping strings and Ernie Isley-esque guitar solos from special guest H.E.R.
Of course, Braxton brings powerhouse vocals to the songs.. The emotive, scene-setting chords that begin “Happy Without Me” is one of her best-ever recorded performances, with lyrics to match: “Nothin’s bruised but my ego/ Nothin’s hurt but my pride.”
With just eight songs (plus a remix), the album actually harkens back to the vinyl age, when the physical limitations of an album meant shorter track lists. But that’s just part of the overall vibe. This is a not an R&B record made on a bedroom laptop: It’s expensive sounding, with a stellar cast of collaborators and dramatic orchestrations. And by the time the country-soul closing track rolls up — fittingly, a Babyface number, with a put-your-hands-in-the-air chorus’ — fans will be ready to start the whole thing over” – Variety
Choice Cut: Do It (with Missy Elliott)
The Toni Braxton Book
Unbreak My Heart: A Memoir
Author: Toni Braxton
Publication Date: 20th May, 2014
Publisher: It Books
Synopsis:
“The bestselling solo R&B artist finally opens up about her rocky past and her path to redemption
While Toni Braxton may appear to be living a charmed life, hers is in fact a tumultuous story: a tale of personal triumph after a public unraveling. In her heartfelt memoir, the six-time Grammy Award-winning singer and star of WE tv's hit reality series Braxton Family Values is unapologetically honest in revealing the intimate details of her journey.
Toni and the entire Braxton clan have become America's favorite musical family, but what fans may not know is the intense guilt Toni once felt when she accepted a recording deal that excluded her sisters. That decision would haunt Toni for years to come, tainting the enormous fame she experienced as a popular female vocalist at the top of the charts. Despite her early accomplishments, Toni's world crumbled when she was forced to file for bankruptcy twice and was left all alone to pick up the pieces.
Always the consummate professional, Toni rebuilt her life but then found herself in the midst of more heartache. The mother of an autistic child, Toni had long feared that her son's condition might be karmic retribution for some of the life choices that left her filled with remorse. Later, when heart ailments began plaguing her at the age of forty-one and she was diagnosed with lupus, Toni knew she had to move beyond the self-recrimination and take charge of her own healing&;physically and spiritually.
Unbreak My Heart is more than the story of Toni's difficult past and glittering success: it is a story of hope, of healing, and, ultimately, of redemption” – Amazon.co.uk
Order: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unbreak-My-Heart-Toni-Braxton/dp/0062293281