On the day of her 14th birthday, Karla Hall is taken into police custody for shop-lifting. She was starving and looking for something to eat in a smaller grocery store that didn't have the security bigger chains had. An off-duty officer catches her and realizes that Karla is in more trouble than he originally thought. Signs of abuse and neglect are obvious and the officer has to make some phone calls to the proper authorities. Child services is called and Karla ends up giving statements about her condition, her mom and her mom's boyfriend, and has to go to the hospital for evaluation. Cracked ribs and a cracked collar bone keep her in the hospital for a short while and gives the police time to figure out what to do with Karla.
Kindness is not something that Karla had seen in many years, but once she was caught at the grocery store, people had been nothing but that to her. Those around her recognize her need for a safe, stable environment where she can be loved and protected like any child should be. The doctor on call at the hospital becomes Karla's foster parent, along with his wife. Unable to have children of their own, they decide now is the time to take in a child. They are the best foster parents she could ask for, but her future is still so very uncertain. So many things happen that could change things, make them spiral out of control. Like her peers at school. Karla is desperate to be accepted and feel normal for once, but she isn't sure that will ever happen.
A truly sad novel in some ways, this one brought tears to my eyes more than once. Not sure if it is because I have children of my own, but the struggles this young girl goes through will get to you. Karla Hall is one strong girl who has had a very hard life. She sees things as they are, and not what she wants them to be. Sometimes she's a bit on the negative side of things, but always determined to make the best of the situations that come upon her. This is a good first book for this author. Take a little time and check this book out!
Book Blurb:
For the first eight
years of her life Karla Hall knew nothing but love, but when her beloved Grams
and Pops died everything changed and she was forced upon a mother who never
wanted her.
For the next six
years she never knew what was going to happen next. Her mother moved her from
town to town, following whatever loser boyfriend she had at the time and
drinking away what little money she made in whatever dead-end job she could
find. Her mother was a mean drunk and Karla was her favorite target. The boyfriends
were worse.
On her fourteenth
birthday Karla’s life takes a drastic turn. He mother is arrested for
soliciting drugs, the current boyfriend takes off and Karla is all alone in a
dump of an apartment with no food and no money.
Caught shoplifting
food, Karla is taken into the system and that’s where she meets The Peterson’s.
Now she’s in a loving home, has a brother and sister she never knew about and
has friends she’d never thought she’d have.
This book will be released October 18th!!
About the Author:
Hello everyone. I want to take a minute to introduce myself. I'm a 34 year old mother of two beautiful daughters, ages 11 and 7, and they are my life. I live in Lebanon, Tennessee, about 25 miles East of Nashville and have lived here most of my life. I love Tennessee.
I started reading when I was four years old and have always been an avid reader. In July of 2013 I started editing professionally and I love it. I always saw myself as a fixer, not a creator, until one day I was at work, not editing but my other job, and an idea for a story popped into my head and I couldn't get it out. That's how A New Beginning was born.
