2026 WINNER - INTERNATIONAL IMPACT BOOK AWARD

This book is for anyone who has ever questioned their own reality, struggled to name what happened to them, or wondered if healing was truly possible.

In this raw and courageous memoir, Tina Paone traces her journey through childhood sexual abuse, emotional neglect, and the enduring impact of narcissistic control that followed her into a damaging marriage. When she finally found the strength to leave, co-parenting unveiled yet another layer of abuse. With clarity, compassion, and unflinching honesty, she reveals how trauma reshapes identity, relationships, and self-worth.

Unbroken is about remembering who existed before the breaking-and choosing to build from that truth. Blending lived experience with the insight of a seasoned therapist, this story illuminates the brave and often painful work of untangling conditioning from reality. Through grief, awakening, and radical acceptance, it reveals that healing is not about forgetting the past, but about finally seeing it clearly.

Recognize the Cadence: The Narcissist’s Offensive Playbook is a guide for anyone who feels trapped in a relationship where the rules keep changing—and you keep getting blamed.

Using a powerful football-themed framework, Dr. Tina R. Paone breaks narcissistic abuse down into 24 repeatable “plays”—the tactics narcissists use to gain control, distort reality, avoid accountability, and keep you reacting instead of living. You’ll learn to recognize the setup, identify the language (“snaps”), understand the psychological “penalty,” and name the real impact on your mind, body, and sense of self.

This book is not about diagnosing people. It’s about pattern recognition—because chaos feels personal until you can see the strategy behind it.

Inside, you’ll learn how to spot tactics like:

• Love Bombing (The Touchdown on Opening Drive)

• Gaslighting (The Reverse Play)

• Hoovering (The Draw Play)

• Triangulation (The Decoy Route)

• Silent Treatment (The Punt)

• Smear Campaigns (Hurry-Up Offense)

• Intermittent Reinforcement (The “Free” Play)
  …and more.

Whether you’re still in the relationship, newly out, navigating co-parenting, or healing from the aftermath, this playbook helps you name what’s happening in real time—so confusion loses its grip and your instincts come back online.

You don’t have to read in order. Go straight to the play that matches what you’re living right now. Even recognition alone can be grounding: it restores language, validates your experience, and affirms a critical truth—what you experienced was real.

This is Book 1 of a companion set. Once you can recognize the cadence, the next step—how to respond, protect yourself, and rebuild—continues in the companion volume: The Invincible Defense: Counter to the Narcissist’s Playbook.

If you’ve ever thought, “Why does every conversation end with me apologizing?” or “How did I become the problem in my own story?”—this book will help you see the field clearly again.

Because the goal isn’t to win against a narcissist.
It’s to stop playing their game.

You can recognize the play and still feel your body lock up. You can name it—gaslighting, rage, hoovering, blame shifting—and still find yourself explaining, defending, freezing, or giving ground you swore you wouldn’t give again.

That doesn’t mean you’re failing. It means awareness alone doesn’t stop a narcissistic system.

The Invincible Defense: Counter to the Narcissist’s Playbook is the companion to Recognize the Cadence: The Narcissist’s Offensive Playbook—written for the moment when recognition isn’t enough and protection becomes the priority.

This is not a book about confrontation. It is not about forcing accountability. And it is not about changing the narcissist.

It is a defensive playbook—built for nervous-system safety, clear limits, and decisions that reduce access, especially when you’re tired, dysregulated, or second-guessing yourself.

Inside are 24 defensive counters, each paired directly with one of the 24 offensive plays from Book #1. You don’t need to read in order. Go straight to the play you’re facing right now.

Every chapter follows the same steady structure so you don’t have to think under pressure:

• What it is — a clear definition of the tactic

• Penalty — what it costs you if it continues

• Defensive Counter — a simple, repeatable response

• On-Field Adjustments — what you’ll hear and grounded ways to respond

• Additional Defensive Moves — practical actions that hold the line

• Why this works — how the counter disrupts the system and protects your nervous system

In narcissistic systems, the offense thrives on your engagement: your explanations, your emotional labor, your hope.

A narcissist’s greatest advantage is access. Your greatest strength is choice.

You don’t win by playing harder. You win when you slow the game down, hold your reality, enforce a boundary, or disengage entirely.