Angie Kemp had heard it a dozen times.

She just didn’t believe it.

“When people would hear my story they would say that I should write a book,” Kemp said. “I didn’t take that seriously. I thought they were saying it just to be saying it.”

But there was one voice Kemp couldn’t ignore.

“God placed it on my heart to put my story out there so that others might be healed through hearing it,” she said.

Kemp’s book, FORGAVE: Releasing the Pain, tells her journey of growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y., to becoming a teenage mother and eventually a single mother of two children. The story then turns toward a marriage that very nearly claimed Kemp’s life when her estranged husband shot her and left her for dead “because she wanted to free herself from him.”

“It was very difficult to write this book,” she said. “I learned a lot about myself and forgiveness.”

Kemp, who has lived in Greenville since December of 2003, says three years later she has forgiven her estranged husband and is moving on with her life.

“I learned how important it is to forgive,” she said. “I learned that if you can let go of the hurts of the past you feel a lot better, and the only way to do that is to forgive. Now I am able to live my life to the fullest because I’m not carrying around all that baggage from the past.”

Kemp said her hope is that by putting her story on paper, other will learn the same lesson and be freed from their pain.

“I think when people read this book they will see themselves in my story,” she said. “I hope it will help them open the door to their hearts and forgive.”

Kemp will hold book signings at Covenant Warriors Christian Center on Field Street from noon to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

Books will also be available for purchase for $17.51, which includes tax.