Jenna Jameson has been called one of the world’s most beautiful women, but this hugely successful adult entertainment star didn’t always feel beautiful. In fact, there were many times in her life when she felt, ugly, invisible, and abused. In her stunning and hard-to-put-down book, How To Make Love Like A Porn Star, Jameson reveals her life in a manner that is shockingly honest, but ultimately cathartic, both for the author and the reader.

Written with Neil Strauss, author of The Dirt with Motley Crue and The Long, Hard Road to Hell with Marilyn Manson, Jameson’s tell-all begins with her teenage years running away from her broken family and into the arms of a number of people who would prey upon her budding physical beauty and her desperate need to be loved. Having lost her mother to cancer when Jameson was a toddler, and watching her father lose his grip on life as a result, Jameson finds a strange sort of refuge in the world of strip clubs, and eventually nude modeling, that would lead her into the universe of adult films where she would find success on one level, but untold suffering on a much deeper one. In these worlds where sex ruled and money reigned, she could use her sexuality as a weapon to fight off the pain and loneliness she felt. Unfortunately, her sexuality was just as often used as a weapon against her, as she suffered rape, abuse and mistreatment at the hands of the many men she trusted, men whom thought of women as objects to be used and discarded at will.

Her chronicle from naïve teenager to world-wary adult film goddess is a hard one, fraught with drugs and alcohol, the wrong men, physical and emotional abuse, self-loathing and her oft-ill attempts to reconcile with her beloved brother Tony and her estranged father, both of whom were struggling with their own secret demons.

This big, heavy book is filled with gorgeous black and white and color photos of Jenna with colleagues, friends, family, and with excerpts from her own personal diary, as well as revealing interviews with Jenna, her brother and her father. This additional material really adds depth and dimension to the narrative, giving us a real picture of what her life was, and is, like – the good, the bad, and the horrifically ugly. The most moving piece of material comes in the form of a letter Jenna’s father sent to her as she was preparing to marry the man she finally gave her heart, and her trust, to. In the letter, which brought me to tears, Jenna learns about the truth behind her mother’s tragic death, and how it changed everything for her entire family.

Uncut and uncensored, with plenty of X-rated language and descriptions of Jenna’s many sexual encounters, some hilarious and some heart-breaking (the dish on Tommy Lee of Motley Crue and Marilyn Manson is great!), this is a book that will shock and offend many, but so what. Because throughout, Jameson is honest, real and direct as she recounts the long and hard road that led her to where she is today – a successful and renewed person who is committed to her family, her own growing business and her goal to one day have a family of her own. Her cathartic journey is more than about being a porn star. In fact, her career choice becomes almost secondary to the real theme of this entertaining and eye-opening book. It’s more about a woman rediscovering her own strength, reconnecting with her family, and ultimately realizing that she is worthy of every good thing in life, no matter how she was treated, or how she treated herself, in the past.

You go, Jenna.