I have so many wonderful things to say about LK Gardner-Griffie’s “Tattered”; I’m not sure where to begin. This gifted writer’s third book in her acclaimed Misfit McCabe series is masterfully written. Her superb use of the English language to tell a story puts “Tattered” (and its predecessors) high on the shelf with the classic books of our youth that are passed down from one generation to the next. Simply put: Gardner-Griffie’s books are written to stick around for a long time.

Spirited Katie McCabe doesn’t go looking for trouble, but it finds her. Navigating the world is tough for any teen, but for orphaned Katie, who lives with her Uncle Charley, finding her place in the world has its special challenges. The author is not only spot on with her teen characterizations, but also with the issues that plague so many teens today: bullying, peer pressure, censorship, cutting, relationships, drinking, and so many more.

One of the highlights of this book (and there are many) is when Katie learns that a local “morality” group has decided that many classic books, such as “To Kill A Mockingbird” should be banned from the library. The group is not satisfied with just a ban; their uneducated fury escalates into a book burning and Katie plays a leading role in stopping them, but not without consequences. Gardner-Griffie’s storytelling not only excels, but she is a responsible author, taking the time to fully research what she writes. The stinging reality of her stories is a testament to the heart and soul that she puts into her work.

“Tattered”, and Gardner-Griffie’s two previous books in this series, “Misfit McCabe” and “Nowhere Feels Like Home” are exceptional reads for both teens and adults alike. I cannot recommend these books more highly, and as a reader, I can’t wait for the next book in this standout series.

Misfit McCabe sucks the reader into young Katie McCabe’s life as she transitions from her normal, everyday life into a new town full of new people. The pace is quick, but I was never left behind for a moment wondering what was happening. Truly a fast, satisfying read. LK Gardner-Griffe writes fluid prose with very few hiccups along the way. The characters in the story are so real, though the mundane actions they take carry weight.

I had trouble settling into the story and noticed a few awkward phrases, but after the first few pages, I was hooked. Katie McCabe is a troublemaker, and she knows it. What sets her apart though, is that she doesn’t mean to make a mess of things: it just happens. The story starts fast, like a jump into a cool lake. Katie is smoking and drinking with her best friend Timmy out in a shed.

Gardner-Griffe shows us Katie at her weakest and strongest. Katie does not get away with anything she does, and yet I cheered on almost all of her decisions, though as bad as some were, it felt good to see her stand up to a bully—and in this case the bully isn’t some low brow jock, an interesting twist. Katie McCabe, not living up to the traditions of her family name, doesn’t know what she’s in for when she starts a ripple through the town with her arrival.

Katie is faced with tough choices, and she has to mature rapidly in her ever-changing world. She is dumped from the hands of her frustrated, loving (and sick) father, to her unsuspecting Uncle Charley. Throughout the book Katie zips from one emotion to the next. One minute I was jubilant, the next, I wanted to cry, and right after, I wanted to punch someone: I felt like a teenager again.

This story isn’t for those who want to read fluff. Misfit McCabe deals with real problems that teens (and adults) can learn from. Katie makes mistakes, and she pays for them, and importantly she learns. Her father and her uncle make mistakes as well: as does her cousin Sarah. Gardner-Griffe lets them make their mistakes, and we, as the reader, benefit from the choices they make and how they right their wrongs; when they make a good choice after learning, I let go of a breath I didn’t know I was holding!

What I enjoyed most from Misfit McCabe is a peek into what it is like to be a teen again—what the problems feel like, the emotional quicksilver—and the desire to read more. I love a book that pulls me through, and Misfit McCabe does exactly that; I was never dragged too fast, nor waiting for something else to happen.

Would I recommend this book: yes. Wholeheartedly. I will be ordering Nowhere Feels Like Home, and anxiously awaiting the rest of the series. LK Gardner-Griffe is an excellent writer who knows her audience: teens who want real substance, real characters, accessible language, and above all, a darn good story.

Remember those humiliating moments during childhood and adolescence when making a public mistake? Or when someone outside the family has been subjected to the dorkiness that is your parents? If so, you’ll have an idea of what it’s like to be Darla McKendrick, who is easily embarrassed by her father’s cliches and suffered a major humiliation because of a lie told to her by Aunt Didi when she first learned of an aunt she’d never met — Rebecca.

As Squalor, New Mexico opens, nine-year-old Darla overhears a conversation between her mother and Aunt Didi about her mysterious Aunt Rebecca, who they only discussed when they thought no one else was listening. This time what captured Darla’s attention was a word she didn’t understand because Aunt Didi described Rebecca as living in squalor, so just as all children do, Darla asked what squalor meant. As her mother hemmed and hawed, Aunt Didi jumped in to answer. “It’s a town in New Mexico, Darla. It’s an Indian name.” Darla had more questions about the tidbits she’d overheard, but the additional questions were squashed and she was sent to finish some homework. But, of course, Darla couldn’t let it go, so a couple weeks later, when having dinner with the Alexanders (Aunt Didi’s family) Darla questioned why they couldn’t visit Aunt Rebecca, and Uncle George took on the answer.

       ”Darla, listen to me,” Uncle George barked. “We don’t see your aunt Rebecca because, well, as your aunt Didi says, she lives in Squalor, and knowing Rebecca, you can be damn sure there’s no way she’ll ever get out. That’s it now!”
       ”She could screw her way out!” I said helpfully.

Which of course caused a family uproar as Darla had only repeated the words Aunt Didi said. And for awhile, that was it, even though Darla didn’t forget about the mysterious aunt who seemed to make her parents edgy every time her name was mentioned. That is until Darla was in the seventh grade, and her enemy Amy Ludwig, whom Darla referred to as Lughead, smugly answered the question of what cities were in New Mexico, but Darla knew she could top her. “I have an aunt who lives in Squalor!” I said proudly, looking right into the Lughead’s eyes. Darla was mortified when she found out that, as her teacher put it, “…you’ll find squalor in the dictionary, not on the map.”

Lisette Brodey takes us on a journey into a family where secrets abound and cause untold pain as Darla is growing up because there are so many things which are kept a secret and she feels she is being blamed for Rebecca’s mistakes instead of her own. And no matter how hard she tries, she can’t seem to get away from the shadow that Rebecca still cast in their lives — even when no one had heard from her or seen her since before Darla was born. Ultimately, Darla and her three cousins, April, May, and June try to piece together the past to help unlock the present.

I’ll be honest, when I saw the number of pages listed for the book, my eyes opened a bit as it would be on the long side for a young adult novel. I do know that the novel originally was not intended as a young adult, but does fit in the young adult mold, although can be enjoyed by all ages from young adult on up. So, in a way, I’m glad I read the book on my Kindle because with a Kindle you simply keep on turning the pages, and there isn’t the physical reminder of the size of the book (unless you watch the little scroll bar at the bottom). This enabled me to read for the pleasure of it, and I found the story kept pulling me along to the point where I didn’t want to stop reading. I wanted to find out exactly what happened in the past and why they allowed the past to cast such a long and all-encompassing shadow over their lives.

Brodey does a masterful job of putting us in the mind of Darla McKendrick and we feel her pain as she is growing and maturing into a young woman. Throughout the book are wonderful characters to meet, such as the detestable Uncle Martin and his latest floozy, Maude. By the time you’re done reading Squalor, New Mexico, you’ll feel as if you are a member of the McKendrick’s extended family, who for all their flaws, really do love one another. Definitely a book to check out.

Originally reviewed for the LL Book Review

Who could resist a title like The Bear In A Muddy Tutu? Certainly not me. Then I glanced at a few sample pages and I was hooked. The beginning of the book was strongly evocative of Peter Hedge’s What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? with perhaps the characters of Gilbert and Arnie rolled into one. Not that I am saying Alpaugh cribbed anything. I just knew from the introduction of Billy Wayne Hooduk, as he ran away from his domineering, morbidly obese, piece-of-work mother at the age of thirty to become a cult leader (God) in 50 easy steps, I was in for a delightful read full of wonderfully twisted characters trying to muddle through this thing we call life.

Billy Wayne reminds me a lot of my cousin Harold, not really fitting into the world, not understanding the motives of others, underneath it all an innocent, but warped by his upbringing. Billy Wayne suffers a few setbacks in his quest to become God and build a congregation, but his big chance comes when he goes to Atlantic City to try to find members for his congregation there. When the Pisani brothers’ circus rolls into town and there is a mishap when the human cannonball is thrown off course by a flock of birds which causes him to crash into the cages and release the tiger which mauls the Pisani brothers, Billy Wayne rides to the rescue and gains his congregation when he shoots the tiger. The circus is then ordered to leave and Billy Wayne starts issuing directions and leads the caravan out of town.

During the fracas with the tiger, the deaths, and the circus leaving town, Gracie, the dancing bear, wound up being left behind and ultimately ended up on the lam. Of all of the characters in the book, Gracie was my favorite. Sweet disposition, happy to dance because she was no longer with the mean man who trained her, but everyone misunderstood a bear, who by the way had no teeth, on the loose. Each of Alpaugh’s characters are well penned and with a few words he provides the gamut of their experience on this earth. For all of their quirks and faults, most of the characters in the book pull on your heartstrings. Even the bit characters, like the janitor of the Atlantic City hotel Billy Wayne stayed in, come to life on the page and allow you to understand their plight.

While this book takes a dark look at the human condition, it does so in a somewhat humorous way. You can go from feeling sorry about the things the characters have to face to laughing out loud in a manner of moments. Alpaugh has skillfully woven a tapestry of characters together which pull you along – they become people you know and you want to find out what happens to this circus of misfits. Though the premise may sound ludicrous, it becomes believable and immerses you as the reader in the world created. While it starts off with the antics of Billy Wayne Hooduk, The Bear In A Muddy Tutu winds up being primarily about Lennon Bagg and his quest to find his daughter who was kidnapped by his wife five years previously, and is his reason for living. I don’t want to go into too much of the book, as I don’t want to spoil anything for you. It is a must read. I will, however, leave you with a quote from How to Become a Cult Leader in 50 Easy Steps:

You can nudge an elephant all you want. You can get right up behind it and put your shoulder to its flanks. You can push with all your might. But unless that elephant suddenly feels compelled to move, it is just as likely to lift its tail and shit all over your head.

So go get your copy of The Bear In A Muddy Tutu now!! And if you’re participating in the contest by Regan Leigh, comment below. For a peek at the prize, click here.

Upon graduation from college, the road of life stretches in front of us. We have seemingly unlimited potential and just need to hop on the road and start moving forward. At that point in our lives, we see the possibilities, we have hope fueling our desires, but out of sight are the curves life will throw as well as the pitfalls we hope to avoid. Some are driven right from the start, and others need an experience or two to help nudge them in the right direction.

Alyssa Giordano, fresh out of law school, embarked upon her career and wound up interviewing for a job with Kennedy and Price, a somewhat notorious law firm. Alyssa was aware of the less than savory reputation, but her grade point average did not allow for her to receive an appointment from the big firms or the more senior judicial officers. By the time she reached Kennedy and Price she just wanted a job, so she could earn money to pay off her student loans and enable her to save to take the Bar exam.

The reason for the firm’s noteriety was Duncan Kennedy. Duncan started his life with seemingly everything at his fingertips. He had a beautiful wife and daughter, a lovely estate, and a thriving practice. Then rumors about improper practice and financial dealings raised their heads, but were overshadowed by tragedy. Duncan’s house was torched to the ground, with his wife and daughter inside, and he barely survived. Tongues were set abuzz again when he quickly married. And prior to Alyssa coming to work for him, Duncan Kennedy’s butler was found dead on the estate by his second wife.

So when Alyssa begins working for Duncan Kennedy, his life is shrouded in mystery, and the police and reporters continue to investigate the unsolved mystery of his first wife’s death. During her tenure at Kennedy and Price, Alyssa Giordano encounters romance, and finds out first hand that life is not always fair.

Discovering Wounded Justice: Cruel Menace follows the life of Alyssa Giordano from her first meeting with Duncan Kennedy through several years as her life periodically intertwines with Duncan’s. She starts as the fresh-faced graduate, lacking in self-confidence and assertiveness and as she ages and gains wisdom hones her skills, and becomes well-known by senior judicial officials as a formidable legal mind. Duncan Kennedy starts off sleazy and sinks lower as time goes on. While I like the premise of the story, I would have liked for Ms. D’Alessandro to have more fully developed the characters and for more time to have been spent in editing the story.

Originally reviewed for the LL Book Review

I happened to run across this book last year at the Orange County Kids Book Festival. As a girl, I loved ghost stories, and the premise for the book intrigued me, and I knew I had to give it a read. Somehow I missed the vampire reference on the back cover and while I love ghost stories, I’m much less happy about reading a vampire tale. But I still gave it a whirl and I’m glad I did.

Paige Parker is thirteen years old and striving to deal with major changes in her life; the death of her father, a move from her childhood home, and dealing with a mother who is coming apart at the seams. The home they move into is a wreck in Paige’s eyes, and there is no way it will become a home. And worst yet, she ends up having a ghost in her room. Not that she knows it’s a ghost from the start. She just knows there are some awfully strange happenings around Heather Hollows.

     Now, standing in vampire country, Paige shivered. She rubbed her arms and looked up at the house, its windows now glowing warmly in the early evening.
     It was the movement of the curtains in her bedroom that first caught her eye.
     There was a flutter of fabric, and then, when she looked up, a silhouette there in the window. Paige wondered what her mother was doing in her room.
     The hand that gripped her shoulder made her heart leap.
     Paige whirled around.
     “Mom!” she cried, confused as she faced her.

The next morning, after a particularly bad nightmare, Paige decides to put her room in order, but first wants to grab a bite to eat. She puts her iPod on shuffle and Sarah McLachlan fills the room. Next up is a song by Modest Mouse, but as Paige starts her breakfast, the song changes…back to the Sarah McLachlan song which just finished. Figuring the issue is with the iPod, Paige checks it upon return to her room, selects a Coldplay song and again, mid-song, the iPod changes back to Sarah McLachlan. Either her iPod is possessed or there is a ghost with a penchant for Sarah McLachlan — living in her room!!!

Paige’s best friend, Amelia, comes for a visit and the two girls start to uncover the secret of the ghost in the house, and discover the hounds of hell are loose and hunting Paige as well. Paige begins to wonder not only whether she will figure out what is going on, but whether she’ll survive long enough to do so.

Karen Chilton pens an exciting tale weaving the current world of Paige Parker with the past world of Patience Hazard, the ghost. The plot twists should keep the target middle grade audience turning the pages from start to finish. As an adult reading the tale, I did find a few minor inconsistencies which broke me out of my suspension of disbelief. For example, Mercy Brown, the historic vampire of the piece, was said to have been dug up and her heart cut out to stop her from taking more victims. At the time the coffin was opened, the rumors said her hair and nails had grown, and yet at the same time, there were marks on the coffin lid as evidence of her getting out. As a child reading the book, I may have missed the significance of that, as an adult, I did not.

Overall, The Haunting on Devil’s Den Road is an entrancing read, and perfect for its intended audience.

Originially reviewed for the LL Book Review

What would you do if you came to visit your mother one day and found her huddled in the closet, rocking back and forth, clutching a baby blanket tightly in her hand? And how does the confused and fearful woman connect to a mafia like-gang, drugs, a baby ring, sleazy cops, and an unknown assassin? These are questions which send Ian McCormick on a quest to find out, and he’s scared to death he won’t figure out the answers in time.

After he found his mother, Corrine, that fateful day, Ian moves in with his mother to care for her. While she does have times of lucidity, she frequently reverts into her own world, losing track of time and rationale, to the point where Ian feels like he will go crazy trying to deal with her. He has been faithfully taking her to a psychiatrist, Dr. Endicott, whom Corrine refers to in her own mind as Dr. Hartley from The Bob Newhart show. Dr. Endicott counsels Ian to find a happy place in his mind and go there when the stress becomes too much.

Ian stopped trying to make sense of the words. Now and then she fell into this pattern of incessant chanting. Repeating words and phrases until he wanted to rip out his eardrums to keep from hearing another sound. Eventually she would stop as quickly as she’d begun.

At times they even had normal conversations. Oddly enough, those were the times that hurt the most. Because that’s when he remembered what his mother had been like before their world had been tipped upside down.

Corrine is convinced that someone is watching her and tells Ian about the men who watch her from across the street. At first Ian believes these men to be a figment of his mother’s imagination and part of her psychosis, but then wonders if she may be telling the simple truth. After several months of dealing with the problem of his mother’s insanity he wonders what could have caused such a drastic and seemingly overnight change. Since therapy has produced no appreciable results in over the months, Ian decides to take matters into his own hands and hires a private investigator to piece together the past to see if they can determine the catalyst for the change in Corrine. Enter Lucianna Martel, the private investigator, and her uncle Vinnie. As the investigation proceeds, Ian and Lucianna discover there is more going on than meets the eye, and thugs and cops alike may be part of a hit list which includes Corrine.

Hit List is a good suspenseful read, and Darcia Helle does a masterful job at painting the character of Corrine in the depths of her insanity. The story primarily alternates between Ian’s point of view and Corrine’s point of view, with some sections written from Lucianna’s point of view. The sections you spend with Corrine are well done, and as the reader you experience Corrine’s confusion, and her knowledge which surfaces periodically that she is blocking out a life-changing event. Unfortunately, once the reason for Corrine’s behavior is known, it is a little bit of a let down, as Helle has done such a good job in penning Corrine’s fear of remembering and apparent paranoid delusions, the cause simply does not support the results. Despite this, the read up to the reveal is compelling and will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next.

Preview Hit List on Amazon.com

Reviewed for the LL Book Review

A phone rings in the middle of the night, and former police detective Tony Marcella knows who will be on the other end. His friend and partner for thirty years on the force, Carlos Rodriguez, is calling Tony because of a case, which isn’t really a case and he needs his former partner’s help. The women of New Castle are commiting suicide at an alarming rate. Three women in three weeks, and detective Rodriguez doesn’t believe the women, who seemingly have everything to live for, killed themselves, but in the case of the most recent suicide, eyewitnesses attest to the fact and the locked door provides the only exit. Tony is inclined to tell Carlos that things may just be as they seem until he finds out the identity of the third victim; someone he knows, one of their own, a cop.

Donovan sets up Eye of the Witch as a locked room murder mystery, where the question of how the murders were committed, especially when it appears they were self inflicted, becomes of equal importance with trying to figure out who committed them. In addition, there is the question of how the victims are linked together. At first glance it doesn’t seem likely. Bridget Dean, a lawyer on the rise who just accepted a lucrative partnership with a prestigious law firm. Anna Davalos, a Cuban born waitress who worked in a coffee shop. And Karen Webber, a bright, vivacious cop who had recently transferred to New Castle.

At first the victims seem unrelated, but a little detective work brought to light that Anna Davalos worked in the same building as Bridget Dean and Karen Webber was secretly investigating their deaths. More digging unearthed the fact that all of the women were linked because they attended a parnormal workshop several years prior. And the workshop was through the same paranormal research facility which figured prominently in Tony Marcella’s last case before retiring. Bridget and Anna also shared the attentions of lawyer Ricardo Rivera, and the women who at first sight had little in common become entwined with one another by the end of the book, with motives, suspects, and red herrings abounding.

The character I enjoyed the most in the book, was Lilith, the witch of the piece. Lilith is irreverent, sarcastic, and has a single purposed focus. Detective Marcella attempted to nail her for murder during his last case, and in the process became the possessor of the witch’s ladder, an object he denied having. Lilith needs the witch’s ladder back so she can perform a ceremony and her aim throughout the book it to get Tony to admit that he has it and to coerce him into returning it. Here’s a sample of her snarkiness while she goes after what she wants:

“Yes. Nobody in your stinking precinct would tell me where you went or what happened to you.”
“Really? Lilith, I’m touched. I didn’t know you cared so much.”
She made a face as if a sour nut had just come up her throat. “Hardly. You have something I want.”
I straightened up in my seat and pulled the kink from my tie. “Do I? Frankly, I didn’t think I was your type.”
“P—leeease, Detective. I’d sooner sleep with Fidel, over here.” She jabbed her thumb into Carlos’ side, hitting his holstered gun. They turned and looked at each other, equally surprised. “Yeah, you,” she said. “You can just forget about it, my little Copacabana boy. You are already about as close to me as you are ever going to get. So, take a deep breath and savor it.”

As detective Marcella gets further into the heart of the mystery, more ties keep cropping up with his last case, including a tie to Leona Diaz. Leona had been kidnapped the previous year by the Surgeon Stalker and during this time, Tony Marcella learned of her gift of bilocation or out of body experience. The more things tie to his last case, the more Marcella questions his ability to help his ex-partner solve the mystery surrounding the deaths.

Eye of the Witch is a fast paced read, with lots of twists to keep you guessing right up until the end. While there was much about the book I liked, there were also parts I felt could have been done better or cleaned up a bit. Donovan has some structural issues with the text due to changing tenses and some loose ends at the conclusion, meant as red herrings, but I wanted them integrated a little more instead of left hanging. Another issue I had was with the depiction of Marcella’s former partner, Carlos Rodriguez. Tony tells us how respected Carlos is, but there are portions of the book where Carlos is characterized as a buffoon who can not think beyond what to next fill his stomach with. Suspension of disbelief was also difficult in some areas of the book, but not in the arena of the supernatural, as one might expect. At the beginning of the book there is a reference to Marcella not having talked to his ex-partner Rodriguez for six or seven months, since he retired after the last big case, but then later the time reference from the last case is referred to as being a year ago. In light of the time frame, whether 6-7 months or just at one year, the changes Donovan depicts as occurring to make Tony feel uncomfortable with a return to police work seem not quite believable.

I saw one of the biggest, brightest, shiniest glass covered buildings New Castle had ever constructed. It wasn’t just a police station; it was an ultra-modern criminal justice center, complete with jails, courtrooms, administration offices and state-of-the-art crime lab. It had everything a small town cop could want. Hell, it had everything a big town cop could want, too. I told Carlos if he threw in a couple of suites, a swimming pool and valet parking, he’d have a five-star resort for law enforcement and could charge for it on weekends. To this, he laughed, and when he took me past the workout center, complete with pool and sauna, I understood why.
“It’s really different here, Tony,” he said. “This facility serves the entire county. We all share resources now.”

I felt that it stretched the bounds to believe that such a state-of-the-art building could be constructed from the ground up within that time frame as well as integrating all of the different law enforcement agencies under one roof. But aside from those issues, Eye of the Witch takes you on a wild ride to a thrilling conclusion.

Preview Eye of the Witch here

Originally reviewed for the LL Book Review

This past weekend I had the pleasure of participating in the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books held at UCLA. This particular event is awesome as an author to see the number of people all excited about books. It helps give me faith in the path I am pursuing in continuing to write and produce stories for readers. I love having the chance to talk with my target readers and find out some of their interests. One of the additional joys of participating in book festivals is the opportunity to meet other authors face to face and talk with them. I was delighted to meet Natalie Tinti in person at the festival. Ms. Tinti is a poised, professional, 10-year old, who has written and illustrated a book about friendship. She not only had books, but also had colorful illustrated posters from her book to help promote her product.

Sewing a Friendship starts with a picture of each of the characters in the book and character profile of each, answering the questions of birth date, age, family, eye color, hair color, favorite food, favorite color, and specialty. For the target age group Natalie is writing for, I found this to be a nice way to start the story. The reader then knows who the characters are that they will meet and have a visual they can refer to if they need to during the course of reading the book. As a young reader, I always loved character profiles, just a little snippet about the character outside of the actual text. Then I would compare throughout my reading experience to see if the author kept true to the profile, or whether I could spot any discrepancies.

The story starts with the wind blowing through town and checking on each of the main characters at each house along the way. Ms. Tinti has very unique character names. Along with the wind, you meet the four friends, Sokron Blossom, Nina Key, Meeka Venya, Jonsy Jipsy, and the outcast Kiki Shaver. In addition to the friends and Kiki, there is Sokron’s grandma, Babushka and her dog, Dogon.

The four friends get together to have a beginning of summer sleep over. Then they find out about a fashion show and are excited to participate. However, Kiki Shaver threatens to stop their participation. The girls find because of the rules, they need Kiki and Kiki needs them and through working together they are able to become friends by seeing the value in each other. My favorite character is Dogon, as he snoops on the girls and helps to ensure the friendship is knit together.

The illustrations are delightful and highly colorful, and each chapter has a different border, which makes it a happy read. I look for a bright future for this young author and illustrator.

Originally reviewed for the LL Book Review

I bought Misfit McCabe for my 12 year old daughter to read. I was lucky enough to read it first.

Misfit McCabe is the story of 14 year old Katie McCabe. Katie’s mother died when she was very young and her father has his hands full with her mischievous behavior. After Katie and her best friend Timmy burn down a shed, her father sends her to live with his brother Charlie and his family. To make matters worse, Katie’s father is ill and is going to the hospital for tests.

Katie does not want to be with Uncle Charlie, his two sons Matt and Mark, and Charlie’s niece Sarah. She feels like an outsider in a house full of rules and she plots to make them send her back to her father. To make matters worse, she makes an enemy in record time– Harvey, Jr. Harvey, Jr.’s father owns the bank and most to the town. Harvey, Jr. wastes no time in throwing this in Katie’s face and insulting Katie’s family. Katie, not one to back down from a challenge, punches Harvey Jr. in the park– right in front of 3 football players.

Just as Katie begins to settle into her new home and get a new boyfriend, Tom- one of the football players, she finds out that her father died. With her entire world ripped out from underneath her, Katie struggles to find her place in her new life while struggling to deal with her grief.

I loved this book. Misfit McCabe portrays a 14 year old in accurate light. As the mother of multiple teens, I am qualified to say this. What I loved about this book is that it was a wonderful story. Although Katie does have a love interest, it is not the entire premise of the book, unlike several book series my 12 year old reads. The true test was whether or not my 12 year old enjoyed the book. She loved it too. She couldn’t wait to read book 2 of the series, Nowhere Feels Like Home. My 12 year old cried several times when reading Misfit McCabe, which surprised her. She didn’t think a book could affect her that way. It brought up some interesting conversations about being truthful and losing a parent, an experience my daughter could relate to. My daughter has told several of her friends about this book and I have purchased a copy to donate to her school’s library.