4 Smooches
Synopsis
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.
Review
This book was a fast paced, emotional drama filled story. Right off the bat we learn that Courtney’s mother has committed suicide and her abusive father has now taken to beating and berating her since her mother is no longer around. Determined to not end up like her mother and deciding she has had enough pain at her fathers hands, she leaves home only to find herself in situations not really any better than where she started.
Runaway was a different story than I usually read but I still very much enjoyed it and was able to read it in a day. The main focus on this story is the life on the streets that Courtney has found for herself and the romance is more of a subplot. Reading this story was very much like watching a movie play out in my head. There were tons of twist and turns and lots of action. I was constantly wondering what could possibly happen next and more often than not surprised at where the story took me.
I think the authors did a good job at putting a story out that is different than most of the NA books that I have read. Courtney was a character I really liked but found her to be guarded and not willing to open up a lot (for good reasons though.) It took awhile into the book for me to figure out who the love interest would be but once the plot opened up I was very happy with him and the role he played.
Other than a few minor mistakes I thought it was well written and I was very happy I had the chance to read it.
~miranda
