In the year before Kendra Haywood starts kindergarten, life isn’t too bad in her small Ohio town. Oh, sure, Mama and Daddy don’t live together, and Grandma gets a little tired of Mama going out to the disco all the time, but Kendra knows that her mama loves her and will always be there for her. However, when Kendra’s father dies in a tragic motorcycle accident, something changes in Mama—and life is never the same for Kendra again.
After Daddy’s death, Kendra’s mother, Pearl, starts to date again and ends up pregnant, giving birth to Kendra’s baby brother. After the baby’s father and Pearl break up, Kendra’s mother falls into a dark depression, and Kendra can do nothing but watch her mother self-destruct.
Pearl soon directs her rage and hurt at Kendra, treating her with cold disdain, hot anger, or irrational behavior. As the years go by, things only get worse as Pearl enters one failed relationship after another, has two more children, and relies on Kendra to be the responsible one.
Through it all, Kendra knows that the only way she can ever find herself is to leave home for good. But does she have the strength to break the cycle of abuse, or will her own life follow her mother’s tragic path? There’s only one way to find out …
K.L. Lewis is currently attending the college at the University of Oklahoma. She and her husband of ten years live with their son, Jaden, in Lawton, Oklahoma. Lewis is the author of Pure Thoughts, a book of poetry.