Wholehearted

Wholehearted by Ronica Black is a story of healing.

Madison Clark owns H&S Ranch in Arizona. She set up the ranch for two purposes: to rescue horses who have been abused or abandoned, and to help troubled teen boys heal through helping to care for the injured horses. Over the years she had has success with both groups.

Grace Hollings is a lawyer. Her whole focus was on her career until six months ago. Her sister lost custody of her son, Jake, and Grace has temporary custody. Her sister has had drug problems off an on for years, but at the end it seems like Jake was raising himself - until child protective services stepped in.

Now Jake is in trouble. He has been skipping school and stealing. When he is assigned to work on a ranch instead of going to juvie, Grace is revealed. Until she realizes she has to drive him into the middle of nowhere every morning by 6:45 and pick him up at 4:00. But she loves Jake and will do what she can to help him.

From before they meet in person, Grace and Madison don't like each other. They each find the other rude and inflexible. But there is something (other than Jake) that keep pulling them together.

Black has written a great romance novel around the theme of healing. Both of her main characters are self-sufficient, strong women who feel real.

Black, Ronica. (2012). Wholehearted. Valley Falls, NY: Bold Strokes Books.

Shock Point

Shock Point by April Henry is a mystery about a girl who knows too much.

Cassie Streng has just moved to Portland, Oregon with her mother and her new stepfather, Rick. Rick is a psychiatrist involved in a drug trial for a new teen drug to modify behavior.

But Cassie soon finds out that three of her classmates, all of whom committed suicide, were his patients. They were all on the experimental drug. And her family moved right after the last death.

She has to do something to stop more kids from dying. But before she can say anything about it, a white van shows up and kidnaps her. Her stepfather has convinced her mother to send her to a school for troubled kids. He claims he found drugs in her room.

Only the school is not a school - it is a prison. It is in Mexico where the laws are more fluid. She has to find a way to escape, find her way back to Oregon, and stop the drug trials.

Henry, April. (2006). Shock Point. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.