by Tawni O'Dell
First published 2010
Kyle and Klint Hayes lose their father in a car crash. They face moving to Arizona to live with the mother who abandoned them years earlier. Candace Jack steps in. This wealthy, eccentric woman owns the old coal mining fortune in their Pennsylvania town. She has no motherly feelings but offers the boys a home in her mansion. The house overflows with bullfighting artwork and a real Spanish fighting bull named Ventisco roams her property. Kyle adapts quickly and bonds with Miss Jack over art. Klint, a baseball star, rejects her kindness and pours his energy into the game. He carries a devastating secret about his father's death. Miss Jack hides her own painful history in Spain. As she grows attached to the boys, her past threatens to surface. The story moves between Pennsylvania's coal hills and Spain's bull rings, exploring how broken people can heal each other.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Arizona, Pennsylvania, Spain
Period: 20th-century
416 pages · Hardcover · Crown
Content warnings: mental-illness