REVIEW
The first time I saw this cover and read the synopsis I was drawn in and interested in this story. I have never read a book by this author and it mattered not at all when I accepted this ARC- somehow I just knew I'd love this book and I did. I started it and was immediately drawn into Dante and his story. Less than a year before turning 18 and aging out of the foster care system, he is delivered to his forteenth foster home. With zero expectations that this will be anything different than all the rest, he has a chip on his shoulder and his defenses up the minute he meets the new family in their big house wirh their mouthy mother and her "swear jar." Things quickly change when he sees that the kids actually have freedom, their own space and are allowed to eat and be themselves, unlike the other homes he's been placed in in the past.
This story gave you the real view of what foster kids face, their emotions, their lack of expectations that they will ever belong. It also gives you what a truly dysfunctional and not so perfect but perfect for some people family is like. The kids are mouthy and sometimes unruly and the mom is no maid or saint and they all make a perfect combination of a real family that is up for the challenge of making Dante fit with them. As a McKinley. I loved all of the characters, the plot, the moments of comedic relief. I loved that Dante got what he'd always been missing and felt he never deserved or would have. What we sometimes take for granted- unconditional love and family.
Great read, not one you will want to miss and one you can share with your teens and fall in love with together. 5 stars ~ Kellie, Eye Candy Bookstore
The first time I saw this cover and read the synopsis I was drawn in and interested in this story. I have never read a book by this author and it mattered not at all when I accepted this ARC- somehow I just knew I'd love this book and I did. I started it and was immediately drawn into Dante and his story. Less than a year before turning 18 and aging out of the foster care system, he is delivered to his forteenth foster home. With zero expectations that this will be anything different than all the rest, he has a chip on his shoulder and his defenses up the minute he meets the new family in their big house wirh their mouthy mother and her "swear jar." Things quickly change when he sees that the kids actually have freedom, their own space and are allowed to eat and be themselves, unlike the other homes he's been placed in in the past.
This story gave you the real view of what foster kids face, their emotions, their lack of expectations that they will ever belong. It also gives you what a truly dysfunctional and not so perfect but perfect for some people family is like. The kids are mouthy and sometimes unruly and the mom is no maid or saint and they all make a perfect combination of a real family that is up for the challenge of making Dante fit with them. As a McKinley. I loved all of the characters, the plot, the moments of comedic relief. I loved that Dante got what he'd always been missing and felt he never deserved or would have. What we sometimes take for granted- unconditional love and family.
Great read, not one you will want to miss and one you can share with your teens and fall in love with together. 5 stars ~ Kellie, Eye Candy Bookstore
Here we go again.
A new set of foster parents to make my life a living hell.
What number is this? Oh, that’s right, fourteen.
This dump will be no different than any of the rest.
They don’t care about me. No one does.
I wonder what it’ll take to get me kicked out this time.
Only six months left until I age out of this godforsaken system…
Everyone wants to adopt little babies they can mold into replicas of themselves.
No one wants a seventeen-year-old black kid with a rap sheet.
I’m damaged goods.
An easy paycheck.
I know there’s an ulterior motive here.
There has to be.
There always is…
She moved her head over further to
watch me click around the screen. Her large, unruly curls made me wiggle my
nose and want to wipe my face on my shirt, the way they tickled my face. But
there was no way in hell I was doing that. The smell of her hair was some kind
of flowery something, and the amazing outweighed the annoying.
"So,
this is the basic layout." I clicked on the interactive widget of the C-47
cargo plane and the interactive cover to The
Forgotten 500 that
had the Amazon links. "I thought instead of doing a typical PowerPoint
presentation like everyone else, we could do something like this."
My hand
shook as I brushed her hair back and snuck a glance down at her. Her
honey-colored eyes darted between mine and the screen with a megawatt smile.
"This is really cool. How did you learn how to do all of this?"
"My
old librarian showed me this site and I just figured the rest out."
Someone
cleared their throat from behind us, and in Lily's haste to turn around, her
hair whipped me in the face. I blinked rapidly and pulled a stray hair from my
mouth as I turned slowly toward the voice.
Tyler stood
behind us with his brows furrowed and a finger pointing back and forth between
us. "Uh, what's going on?"
My fight or
flight instincts kicked in and they were telling me to run as I eyed him and
the door behind him, trying to figure out how fast I could make it there.
"Hey,
Ty. We were looking at something Dante was working on for our project and there
was a glare from where I was sitting."
I looked at
her in confusion. My heart was still thumping uncontrollably in my chest as I
tried to keep it in check. What I couldn't figure out was if she was covering
for snuggling up to me, or if there really was a glare on the screen.
With an
unconvinced nod, Tyler jerked his thumb toward the door. "Uh, okay. Well,
I'm done here. Are you ready to go home?"
"Yeah.
Just let me get my stuff." Lily twirled around and packed all of her stuff
away.
I stood up
awkwardly and stuffed my hands in my pockets.
"Do
you need a ride too, dude?" Tyler asked, as if the thought hadn't occurred
to him a few minutes before.
Rocking
back and forth on my heels, I snuck a glance at Lily. She was shutting down her
computer and didn't seem to be paying an ounce of attention to anything
else.
My heart
sank a little. "Sure.”
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Always the cause of shenanigans, Vanessa is a heavily tattooed, sarcastic motorcycle enthusiast who started her career as a Jeep tech at the age of sixteen. The happily married mother of three little monsters—oops, children—lives in Kentucky by way of Las Vegas, Nevada. Once her life took a different direction—sidelined by Heart Disease at 26 and becoming a pacemaker recipient—she decided to write as a creative outlet, and Heartless was born. She realizes life can be dark clouds and acid rain at times, but her outlook on life puts a positive and sarcastic spin on it all.
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