Paper Hearts
-
-
5.0 • 2 Ratings
-
-
- $5.99
-
- $5.99
Publisher Description
From the acclaimed author of Singing With the Top Down comes a poignant tale about makeshift families and the healing power of friendship.
Fifteen-year-old runaway Chancy Deel arrives in the picture-perfect town of Wenonah, Oklahoma, needing a helping hand. It’s just her luck to get it—from a cranky old man named Max Boyle, who is hardly the answer to her dreams.
After losing his beloved wife, Max has only his dog, Alfie, and his home of fifty years to hang on to, and now Adult Protective Services is convinced he can’t manage on his own. Max would rather end it all than resort to assisted living. So when he finds a throwaway kid sleeping in his garage, Max seizes one last chance for both of them. Giving Chancy a home just might prevent him from losing his.
In securing a place to live, these two solitary souls will discover something much rarer—a place to belong . . . and a heart to care.
“Debrah Williamson creates characters who are spunky, flawed, courageous, loveable, and above all real.”—Lisa Wingate, author of Tending Roses
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The protagonist of Williamson's (Singing With The Top Down) second novel, Chancy Deel, is a teenager on the lam from an addict mom and the group home where she landed due to her mother's abuse. Hitchhiking across the Midwest and leaving origami in place of the food she steals, Chancy is "mad at herself, for hoping that things could ever be different." She hits pay dirt in Wenonah, Okla., when she breaks into Max Boyle's garage just as he's about to off himself. Max is a grieving widower "caught in depression's claws" who refuses to be packed off to a nursing home by his social worker even after a nasty fall from the tub. Max quickly devises an alternate plan to suicide: he'll hire Chancy as his caretaker and tell the neighbors she's his god-daughter. Chancy jumps at the opportunity to live a "real pretend life," even though it requires she hide her identity. Despite occasionally compelling supporting characters like the rebellious pre-teen and depressed dad across the street, the narrative wanders into treacly territory and gets very comfortable there. If Adult Protective Services is really so easily swayed, maybe teen vagrants everywhere have finally found their calling.
