4 out of 5 stars

Thank you so much to Flux North Star Edition and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

These kinds of books always make me want to scream and not necessarily at the author but at the characters in the book. This book shed so much light about how screwed up parents can be and how ridiculous and under budget our foster care systems are.

This book is about Victoria who has been noticing her dad staring at her more, touching her inappropriately which she chalks up to depression over her mother dying. After a night where he takes it too far Victoria finds herself locked out of her house in the cold with cop cars everywhere. She is taken to juvie and is then placed in foster care because her dad and stepmother don’t want her in their house anymore. Victoria knows that everything her dad is saying is a lie but no one will believe her. When she starts to become scared for her stepsister still at home Victoria and her new friends try and get her out of the home and Victoria feels she can finally come clean about what really happened that night.

I loved all of the characters (except for the dad obviously) especially Victoria and Kale. Victoria made me sad at first because she was so withdrawn and holding everything in and not letting anyone help her. I can understand also why she didn’t tell anyone what really happened because she thought no one would listen to her or believe her which is basically what ended up happening. The foster care system is so backed up and underpaid and unfortunately a lot of kids don’t get the help they need and don’t see their case workers as much as they should. Luckily she found two great friends at her new school that helped her open up and come to terms with what happened.

I love that the author herself spent time in foster care and could really write passionately about the foster care system as she went through it herself. I do feel this book should have came with some trigger warnings but I love how much it touched on sexual abuse and molestation within families. I feel like a lot of girls that have gone or are going through this could benefit greatly from reading this book.