LitPick Review
Camila has kept a secret all her life; she has been tossed around between relatives ever since her mom was incarcerated and sentenced to death for killing in cold blood. Now, in high school, she has a strait-laced, A-student boyfriend, but she still has not told him her secret. She's OK with ignoring her secret and trying to live a normal life. Camila wants to be seen as someone worthy of love and a second chance, not some dangerous criminal's daughter. Then she reencounters someone who knows her secret, is part of the gang that her mother was in, and threatens to break her cover. Will Camila's life be flipped upside down by this traitor, or will she finally feel free to be herself and enter relationships? Find out in Patrick Jones' book, Guarding Secrets.
Opinion:
As I read this book, I realized the huge amount of pressure and stress that is on a teenager with parents in prison or on death row. This book, as well as the other books in the Locked Out series (Doing Right, Returning to Normal, Taking Sides, and Raising Heaven), are very insightful. Even though these stories are fictional, the characters are very relatable and experience very plausible situations. Besides seeming extremely real, his characters also develop a lot throughout the story. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.