Heart in a Box Review

Blurb:
Each heartbeat leads Joss closer a shocking truth that will change everything.
Joss Olstad wins the fight to switch from her private school to a public high to “find her pieces” she lost when the Indian artist father she never knew died. There, Joss struggles with a slutty friend, who flirts with her new love; Indian Culture Club girls who press her on her past, as well as her stoner mother’s lies back at home. Armed only with her handmade heart boxes that hold private messages, Joss’s search for identity leads her to a scary industrial section of Queens, and a shocking family secret that changes everything.
My review:
Joss Olstad found private school stale and stifling. As she starts at a public high school, she's determined to find herself amidst the diverse student population. Her hopes begin to crumble as one friend flirts with her boyfriend, the other Indiana girls act judgmental, and her hippie mother refuses to tell her anything about her father. Joss is losing herself even as she trying to find herself. A school project draw out the secret wishes of her heart, and she dares risk everything by going to discover a family secret that will either tear her world apart or make it whole.

This is my favorite young adult novel from Catherine Stine. It's an amazingly written story of a teenage girl trying to build her identity. Joss feels she cannot because she never knew her father or any of his history or family. I loved reading Joss' struggles in trying to find out who she is and how this helped her bloom into someone she did not expect. It's all at once genuine, sweet, heart wrenching, and wondrous. Sensational characterization and a tremendously moving story.

What a fantastic book for teens and adults. This should be on everyone's must read list!


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Catherine Stine is hosting a Blitz Rafflecopter Giveaway with awesome prizes. Check it out on her blog here!