At seventeen years old, Courtney Apuzzo is fed up. With a dead mom and an alcoholic father that beats her every chance he gets, Courtney decides that enough is enough. Packing up only what she needs, Courtney leaves home without telling a soul and heads off to find her new life.
Life on her own is not exactly as she thought it would be. With nowhere to stay, Courtney finds herself sleeping on an old stoop in an abandoned apartment alleyway. A chance meeting with a new group of friends seems like a great beginning to her second chance at a real life. But everything is not as it seems.
Tricked into a life she never wanted and fears, Courtney needs to run away, again. She needs to find a way out of this new and dangerous life. With the help from a man she barely knows, will Courtney find her way out? Or will she find herself on the run from a dangerous past, and a hopeless future? Faced with a choice that will change her life forever.
This is a heart wrenching, reasonably true to life and utterly mind blowing story. Courtneys life is diabolical and to survive she has to run away but oh my goodness if it isn’t out of the frying pan and into the fire for the poor girl.
One thing that really got me about this book was the fact that you really sense Courtneys innocence and utter despair at her life and how it has shaped up. I feel for her totally and sense that this story is sadly, whether totally or just in part, a reality for some kids out there.
This book deals with abuse and also the aftermath and real reality for those young girls especially who run away to get away so to speak.
I also loved the guessing as to who may or may not be the love interest in this book and also it was more of a tale of her life rather than a soppy romance. The love theme is truly incidental to the main issues that we are reading about. I will say n more as you have to read this book for yourself to find out how happy an ending Courtney actually gets and with whom!
I wouldn’t say this was a book I enjoyed (the subject matter is truly horrific) but it brought out so many different feelings and emotions in me as I was reading it and I seriously couldn’t put it down!
I do hope the there is a sequel to this book because although the ending left me with hope and a bit of closure it just can’t end there!!!!!
*****Five stars from me!*****
EXCERPT
Amanda enters into the room, quickly closing the door behind her. “Oh, hey. Didn’t expect anyone to be in here yet.”
She goes to her bed and hops up. “What did you do today? Anything fun after the drop?”…Courtney trembles.
“Yo, babe! What’s up?” She says sarcastically, with a New Yorkers accent.
“A police officer…”
Amanda stops her. “No, a donut muncher.”
Courtney swallows. “A donut muncher chased me and Kara earlier. I don’t know if Kara made it.”
“Awe, shit. That’s tuff luck.” Amanda holds the bottom of her boot with one hand as she tries pulling it off.
“What if they caught her?”
“There’s a lot of what ifs. She’s a big girl. I’m sure she’ll be fine.” Amanda tosses her boot to the corner of the room. She slides off her socks, letting her feet air out as she wiggles her toes.
“You aren’t worried?” Courtney is confused. She felt all the girls thought better of one another.
“No. She put on her big girl panties this morning. Why would I be concerned?”
Courtney lays back onto the bed hearing the door squeak open. Seeing Kylee she flies over to her. “Go downstairs with me?”
“Sure.” She looks at Amanda and she shrugs, pulling the left side of her face down, shaking her head.
As the two girls reach the door Dane puts his hand up. “You two are staying in for the night.”
“Dane this will only take a minute. We are only going right out front.” Kylee eyes him.
He motions no with his head, returning his arms crossed to his chest.
“Look!” Courtney speaks louder. “You will see us, dammit.”
Dane squints his eyes, definitely not happy with Courtney as his nostrils widely open. “You have five minutes.”
“The pigs followed us earlier today. Kara and I split up and she still hasn’t made it back today.”
Kylee’s eyes grow wide. “Oh, that could be a problem.”
“If she didn’t beat me back, do you think they got her?”
“If they did she is toast.”
Courtney lowers her head. “That’s what I was afraid of.”….
While growing up, S.M. would travel the roads around her house while imagining she was somewhere else. Her imagination would take her everywhere, making the long hot summer days seem shorter throughout her fantasies. At the age of twelve, she decided to write her first book. Filled mostly with dialog, she filled up one-hundred pages, front and back. After taking the book downstairs to show her mom, and persuading her to buy her more paper, she excitedly ran back to her room. As she barreled through the door, S.M. tripped over items left on her floor, and her papers came raining down in her room. Discouraged, she stood there in tears, picking up her papers and throwing them in the trash. Her work had no organization, no numbers on her pages, just a child fulfilling a joy that she would put down and not pick up again. When she became older, she joined the military for something different. In that time, she was able to explore many places and even met her husband in Iraq. After coming home, she started her family in Arizona and went back to school, earning a Master’s degree in Adult Education and Training.
