This Heart of Mine by Brenda Novak

For Phoenix, it's all about Jacob, her son, whom she hasn't seen in seventeen years. Phoenix has been away in prison for the murder of a friend, Lori. Supposedly, Phoenix murdered her boyfriend's girlfriend by running her over with the car. However, there is another girl on the passenger side riding with her. Whether Phoenix murdered a girl passing by or something freaky happened is part of the novel. No matter Phoenix loses part of her life living away from her mother, her son and her friends in Whiskey Creek.


Brenda Novak begins This Heart of Mine with the return of Phoenix to Whiskey Creek. Friends are now her enemies, she has a son to win over and Riley, an old lover and the father of Jacob to try and understand. There is also her mother, a hoarder, a very dysfunctional woman whom Phoenix tries to love over and over again. The novel is multifaceted. It left me wanting to return to Whiskey Creek again in another book.

At first, I felt apprehensive reading about a woman who had spent all those years in prison. I thought the novel would have to be dreary and depressing like some prison movie. But in this novel, the focus is on Phoenix, a woman, who has lived under the harshest conditions and comes out of jail able to give and receive love. Phoenix loves hard. Her thoughts are about not hurting Riley and not hurting Jacob, her son, and if possible not stepping on the toes of  other members of the community. However, many of those people don't give her a chance. They've decided what they think of her, and that's it. I could not have lived in Whiskey Creek. The people were heartless. For example, I disliked Riley's parents. I wanted to wring their necks. Phoenix Fuller is a woman with courage.
brendanovak.com/books/posts/this-heart-of-mine/, The Bookreporter

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