Bittersweet Wreckage

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SUMMARY

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Her dad wasn't supposed to die.

He wasn't supposed to have a second family, and her mom wasn't supposed to slip into a prescription drug haze.

And she definitely wasn't supposed to kiss her new "half-brother."

Ivy Lynwood has spent her life under the oppressive thumb of her abusive father. When the impossible happens, and he's found dead in a boat fire, Ivy thinks her life may finally be turning around. But her newfound freedom is short-lived; just as she and her mother start to move on, they learn that Ivy's father had a second family—whose mother also died in the boat fire.

Child Services asks Ivy's mother to take in the orphaned teenagers, and her life spirals even further out of control. Her mother disappears into a drugged la-la land, leaving Ivy to clean up the pieces… while clues of her mother's guilt in the fire stack up. And for the first time, Ivy falls in love… with the son of her father's dead mistress. Even though Ivy and Jesse are unrelated, he's off limits when he moves in with the Lynwoods. Ivy knows she'll never have the normal family she dreamed of—but can she manage to turn the wreck of her life into any family at all?

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Book Review by Robin Leigh Morgan (author,reviewer)

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IVY'S FAMILY WAS SUPPOSED TO BE HER ONE AND ONLY

Each one of us are supposed to have a singe mother and father. But what would you do if your father dies in a boat fire? Wouldn't and your mother have to continue living without him? Since you probably have no idea, why not step into the shoes of the protagonist in this book, Ivy Lynwood.

This might sound horrific for Ivy, but in reality, it had been a blessing in disguise for he had been an oppressive and abusive father. But then, a revelation was made. The woman who had died with him in the boat fire had also been his wife and that they had children of their own.

Hearing this news had been bad enough for Ivy as it began a downward spiral for her. Add in Child Services asking her mother to foster her husband's other children, and her mother retreating into a drug induced fanciful dreamland, leaves a lot for his teenager to handle on her own. She now has two new siblings for whom she's now responsible for; a new sister who's a goth and who unfortunately is maliciously intimidating towards her, and a new half-brother with whom she's finding her first love in and kisses him.

Being young, Ivy is still quite naïve regarding all of this to be able to adequately manage something this challenging. Will the fortitude Ivy possesses at her young age to sufficient enough for her to have a whole family again? And what about her relationship with her half-brother Jesse, where is it going to go?

The diametrically opposed situations in the storyline, the good and the bad, the happy and the sad, gives credence for the reason the author has chosen Bittersweet Wreckage for this book.

For having given her readers a well-written story which begs to have more, I've given Ms. Richards 5 STARS for her endeavor here.