Two disparate people—lost in their own way—find an unexpected healing connection in a poignant novel about redemption and chosen family by New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde.

An army veteran with a career as a beat cop behind her, security guard Addie Finch is tough—on the outside. Internally, she’s in crisis mode. She’s lonely, introverted, struggling through AA, estranged from her son, and, at sixty-two years old, questioning her role as a protector. She also has a soft spot for the underdog that’s about to change her life.

Addie finds Jonathan, a homeless teenager abandoned by his mother, holed up in a warehouse and vulnerable to the elements and to predators. Touched by the boy’s gentle nature and a wisdom beyond his years, Addie offers him temporary shelter in her garden shed in exchange for maintaining the sprawling property. It’s an act of kindness and purpose that means the world to Jonathan. But when Addie faces a situation that sends her internal world tumbling, the emotional connection with Jonathan, once the unlikeliest of strangers, becomes her lifeline as well.

As both process past traumas, Addie and Jonathan forge a surrogate grandmother-grandson bond—a chosen family that could restore trust and heal hearts they thought were broken forever.

<p>Catherine Ryan Hyde is the <i>New York Times</i>, <i>Wall Street Journal</i>, and #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author of fifty books and counting. An avid traveler, equestrian, and amateur photographer, she shares her astrophotography with readers on her website.</p><p>Her novel <i>Pay It Forward</i> was adapted into a major motion picture, chosen by the American Library Association (ALA) for its Best Books for Young Adults list and translated into more than twenty-three languages for distribution in over thirty countries. Both <i>Becoming Chloe</i> and <i>Jumpstart the World</i> were included on the ALA’s Rainbow Book List, and <i>Jumpstart the World</i> was a finalist for two Lambda Literary Awards. <i>Where We Belong</i> won two Rainbow Awards in 2013, and <i>The Language of Hoofbeats</i> won a Rainbow Award in 2015.</p><p>More than fifty of her short stories have been published in the <i>Antioch Review</i>, <i>Michigan Quarterly Review</i>, <i>Virginia Quarterly Review</i>, <i>Ploughshares</i>, <i>Glimmer Train</i>, and many other journals; in the anthologies <i>Santa Barbara Stories</i> and <i>California Shorts</i>; and in the bestselling anthology <i>Dog Is My Co-Pilot</i>. Her stories have been honored by the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest and the Tobias Wolff Award and have been nominated for <i>The Best American Short Stories</i>, the O. Henry Award, and the Pushcart Prize. Three have been cited in the annual <i>Best American Short Stories</i> anthology.</p><p>As a professional public speaker, she has addressed the National Conference on Education, twice spoken at Cornell University, met with AmeriCorps members at the White House, and shared a dais with Bill Clinton.</p><p>For more information, please visit www.catherineryanhyde.com.</p>