by Rilla Askew
First published 2013
Sweet Brown's world collapses when her father Bob and Pastor Jesus Garcia land in county jail for sheltering undocumented workers in their barn. A state legislator has made harboring immigrants a felony in Oklahoma, and Bob refuses to mount any defense. Sweet already struggles to care for her husband's bedridden great-grandfather while managing her rebellious son Carl Albert. Now she must also look after her ten-year-old nephew Dustin, whose mother died and whose sister Misty Dawn searches for her deported husband. Carl Albert bullies Dustin mercilessly. Sweet tries to hold her fractured family together, but each attempt to fix things creates new problems. When Dustin vanishes and Misty Dawn arrives with her own desperate needs, Sweet's guilt and sense of duty push her toward drastic measures. Her actions will test every relationship in her life and force the entire town of Cedar to choose sides. The crisis reveals who people really are when their principles collide with harsh realities.
Genres: contemporary, social-issues, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-drama, found-family
Setting: Cedar, Oklahoma
Period: 21st-century
615 pages · Hardcover · Thorndike Press