"At eighteen, Lori Norman made a choice that changed her life. She decided to enter the convent. Raised as a devout Catholic, she had three aunts who were nuns, so it seemed natural to her. More importantly, she believed it was God's will. In 19667, Lori entered the novitiate. Though taught to repress sexual feelings, she longed for a husband and children, thus leaving her torn between vows and normal human desires. By her late thirties, Lori could no longer ignore the tangle of growing disillusionment with the church, an erosion of faith, and her burgeoning, forbidden dreams. She felt confined, as though in a medieval castle. Across the drawbridge lay unknown, forbidden territory. Could she leave everything she had ever known and start anew? In BEYOND THE DRAWBRIDGE, Lori Norman movingly chronicles her journey from repression to revitalization, revealing the power of choice to transform our lives."