I liked this book. I wasn't sure I would. After all, it's another YA book about moving to a place the main character doesn't really want to move to just before senior year in high school. That can be a drag. I know, I did that. New people, new classes, plans changed. It shakes you up.
In this case Avery and her parents move to a small Georgia town. It was her mother's hone town. The reason they move strikes Avery as a little bothersome. Her grandmother, her mother's mother, is dying of cancer. So she's uprooted from DC to Bardell. All she can remember of this grandmother is one meeting that ended in yelling and things being thrown.
Grandmother is not too welcoming. She and Avery's mother get into a yelling match almost as soon as they arrive. This doesn't strike Avery as a good start to the school year. The only bright spot, to Avery's way of thinking, is the girl next door, Simone. With Simone's BFF, Jade, a white girl and the daughter of the local resort and spa's owner, Avery has some new friends to face life with. Things are looking up.
Don't ever think life is slow and boring in a small town. People know everything or nearly everything about their neighbors, just by being so close together. Avery starts to talk to her grandmother, Mama Letty, about family Avery knows nothing about. She finds out that her grandfather, who her mother let her think just left, was actually killed. She finds out her mother had a close relationship with Simone's mother when they were girls. She finds out Jade's grandfather used to be the sheriff when her grandfather was disappeared by the sheriff's department, and Mama Letty was a witness.
Mama Letty is very sick. The doctors doubt she will make it to Christmas, so the family takes a mini vacation to the beach where Mama Letty went for her honeymoon. Sometimes holidays can bring out the worst in people. Sometimes they can help people see things in a new light. For once Mama Letty is smiling and not fighting with her daughter.
Like all good family stories, there is joy and sadness in this book. All on all, I liked the story. I think you will too.
I received the copy of the book I read for this review from the publisher.
In this case Avery and her parents move to a small Georgia town. It was her mother's hone town. The reason they move strikes Avery as a little bothersome. Her grandmother, her mother's mother, is dying of cancer. So she's uprooted from DC to Bardell. All she can remember of this grandmother is one meeting that ended in yelling and things being thrown.
Grandmother is not too welcoming. She and Avery's mother get into a yelling match almost as soon as they arrive. This doesn't strike Avery as a good start to the school year. The only bright spot, to Avery's way of thinking, is the girl next door, Simone. With Simone's BFF, Jade, a white girl and the daughter of the local resort and spa's owner, Avery has some new friends to face life with. Things are looking up.
Don't ever think life is slow and boring in a small town. People know everything or nearly everything about their neighbors, just by being so close together. Avery starts to talk to her grandmother, Mama Letty, about family Avery knows nothing about. She finds out that her grandfather, who her mother let her think just left, was actually killed. She finds out her mother had a close relationship with Simone's mother when they were girls. She finds out Jade's grandfather used to be the sheriff when her grandfather was disappeared by the sheriff's department, and Mama Letty was a witness.
Mama Letty is very sick. The doctors doubt she will make it to Christmas, so the family takes a mini vacation to the beach where Mama Letty went for her honeymoon. Sometimes holidays can bring out the worst in people. Sometimes they can help people see things in a new light. For once Mama Letty is smiling and not fighting with her daughter.
Like all good family stories, there is joy and sadness in this book. All on all, I liked the story. I think you will too.
I received the copy of the book I read for this review from the publisher.