*contains sexual situations, strong language, violence, and depictions of abuse

This has all the hallmarks of CLASSIC AMERICANA: rural small town life, poverty, dark family problems, love, and friendship. author Paul Russell Parker III

An EMOTIONAL ROLLER-COASTER. author Nikki Landis

Locklyn Gaines isn’t her mother, but the residents of her small southeastern Kentucky town don’t care. Her mother’s secrets are Lock’s shame, and every time her drunk stepfather uses her as a punching bag, Lock wonders how much her dying mother knows about what goes on in the crumbling old house her mother’s family has lived in for generations. Isaiah Parker hardly remembers life before the first day of kindergarten, before he became obsessed with the serious, dark-haired girl in sunglasses who lives just beyond the field behind his house and rides the school bus with him every day. Protecting Lock had been a fantasy for the child he was, but Isaiah and Lock are nearly finished with high school, and Isaiah knows that now is the time for him to save her. Her stepfather has other plans, however, and one night may be all they have to do whatever it takes to escape and start over again, together.

Cecily Wolfe