Dominique

It took me awhile to really get into the book and at the end I did enjoy it. It's a slow book about two friends in the 50's. It starts when they are adults and Lila has disappeared and her son is looking for her. Instead of helping, Elena is remembering her childhood with Lila. Living in a small village, the violence, the jealousy and the envy that surrounds them.

The author does a good job making us part of the time and places. The struggle living during that time, the lack of choices for education of jobs, approuvals from the parents about the type of person you can marry.

Looking forward to know more about Lila and Elena in the next ones.

This is the third book in the Mickey Bolitar series. Just like the first one, Mickey is trying to find the truth in the death of his father but this time he has to deal with what happened to his friends Spoon who got shot and is still in the hospital and telling the truth to Rachel about her mother`s death.

This time Ema his best friend is asking for help in finding her online ‘boyfriend' who has stop communicating all of a sudden not only that, the school bully Troy who got kicked out of the basketball team because of steroids is asking for his help in exonerate him. He still has to deal with his uncle Myron and his mother who is still in rehab.

Just like the other two books this is a fast paced book. A lot of action, the suspense is on point. Even though the story is serious, the teenagers in this books sometimes act mature but not too much, the kid inside comes out and the author did a very good job not to overdo it.

I like the fact that all three books are well connected, you can read this one on its own since he does recap the other two books in this one but I recommend reading all three to get a better understanding.

I love the ending but it left so many unanswered questions. I hope the author is thinking about writing another one to answer that is still lingering.

Great series not only for young adults but grownups too

4.5 stars.

First I want to thank Simon and Shuster and also Goodreads for the opportunity of reading this novel.

Summer 1963, in Cayuga Springs, Mississippi, feisty 9-year-old Starla is living with Mamie, her strict grandmother, while her father is working in an oil rig and her mother is becoming a famous singer in Nashville.

Afraid of being sent to reform school for misbehaving, she decides to run away and go to Nashville and reunite with her famous mother, the singer she hasn't seen since she was 3. On her way she gets a lift by a black woman Eula and in a basket a baby.. who is white. Starla may be young but in 1963 a black woman and a white baby means trouble.

After Eula's husband Wallace cruelty and an unfortunate accident, Starla and Eula decide that they can only do one thing is to go straight to Nashville. This road trip becomes a life changing course for both of them.

This book into the world of segregation, Starla who is the narrator, we see through her eyes the innocence that and also her eye-opening truth that she never witnessed. It also delves into domestic violence between Eula and Wallace and the truth about her upbringing and the broken spirit that made her take a white baby and raise him even though she knew it was not the right decision.

Never been to Mississippi, the author takes you there, the roads to the colored not being served in restaurants, makes you realize the misery that they lived through. The characters were right on point, to the good (Miss Cyrena, Starla's father), to the bad (Mamie, The Jenkins).

This is a beautiful story about searching for a better life, love, friendship and what the meaning of having a family, bounded by love of not means. After reading the book,i got invested in the characters, I wanted more, where would the characters be after 10-20 years.

A touching book worth reading!