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