"The suspense...keep[s] the reader wanting more...then deliver[s]." - Writer's Digest
Zoey Johansen is lost. An only child and product of long-divorced parents who’d escaped to opposite coasts, she’s fallen between the cracks. Almost on a whim—really to avoid a dreadful vacation with her mother’s attempt at a new, manufactured family—Zoey escapes California to see her biological father for the first time in years. But instead of being the dad she needs, he instead asks her if she would mind pretending to be his niece for the duration of the visit.
Stuck in the ice-locked town of Hampton Beach, New Hampshire with an emotionally bankrupt man unwilling and unable to fill his role, she all but succumbs to the realization that she is just as rudderless here as she was there.
But then, while looking for emergency candles in the throes of a February blizzard, she finds a dusty storage container that will prove to be a Pandora’s Box, spilling the long-dormant secrets to her mother’s sadness, her father’s odd addiction to tattoos, and the empty space that she’s long held inside her.
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Amazon Reviews:
"Sean Conway takes his time in telling this casually-paced story (in a good way) of a teen returning to visit her father in New Hampshire. The dad's a bit of a self-involved jerk, to say the least. The very first night she's there, he leaves her to go on a date (he hasn't seen his daughter in 2 years). Plus, he doesn't want his date to know he has a kid (even though he's like 40), so he gets her to agree to say she's his niece visiting. They spend a lot of time hanging around dive bars, where she gets hit on by creeps. One night she has to drive them home because he's too hammered (even though she's 15 and obviously doesn't have a license). The trick after all that is Sean Conway is still able to make the dad someone we can empathize with, maybe even root for by the end. Well, maybe not root for. But we end up caring about all these characters in a deep way."
"Like it so much I past it on to my friends. They also enjoyed it."
"Ive read some of Conway's fiction in literary journals and like what I read, so I knew I'd probably like his novel. This is an adult book, for sure, but reads kind of like YA. Probably because of the teenage main character. Her story is engaging from start to finish, with a good twist halfway through that's a game-changer. I've passed my copy around to a few people and they've all loved it."
"Wonderful book, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. My daughters both read this before me, and I'd listen to them talking about it. So I thought I'd give it a shot. I can't recommend it enough! I don't read nearly as much a they do, but if more novels were like this I think I would. Something I will probably re-read one of these days."
"I read this in one day and loved it. The characters felt real, like people we all know. And Zoey is a great main character, full of attitude but hiding deep loneliness and insecurity. The last couple chapters had me crying my eyes out."
"A poignant story, the author gives us beautiful, real characters that are subtly developed in a story with a twist that will take your breath away. A great read."