When a DUI sends her mother into rehab at the New Beginnings Recovery Center, Sam feels her absence like an acute pain. Even while helping her mother hide her increasing drinking, Sam had felt connected to her in a way that’s missing with her father. A charismatic and popular preacher in their small town, her dad willingly helps everyone in the congregation with their problems but is unable to talk openly with Sam about their own family. Meanwhile, Sam is questioning her religious beliefs and feels like an outsider in her church youth group. When a young teen from the congregation vanishes, Sam is worried for her; at the same time she feels both eager and wary regarding the new romantic overtones in her friendship with the missing girl’s brother. Sara Zarr captures small-town social culture with credibility, while developing characters of all ages that are realistically sympathetic and flawed. In less skilled hands, the storyline about the girl’s disappearance could have easily fallen into melodrama, but Zarr keeps it grounded and believable. (Age 13 and older)

Samara Taylor used to believe in miracles. She used to believe in a lot of things. As a pastor's kid, it's hard not to buy in to the idea of the perfect family, a loving God, and amazing grace. But lately, Sam has a lot of reason to doubt. Her mother lands in rehab after a DUI and her father seems more interested in his congregation than his family. When a young girl in her small town is kidnapped, the local tragedy overlaps with Sam's personal one, and the already-worn thread of faith holding her together begins to unravel.

In her third novel, acclaimed author Sara Zarr examines the coexistence of affliction and hope, and what happens when everything you thought you believed---about God, about your family, about yourself---is transformed.