Heart Bones

Bestseller Hoover (It Starts with Us) delivers an angsty and somewhat overwrought new adult romance. After recent high school graduate Beyah Grim’s neglectful mother dies of a drug overdose in their Kentucky trailer park, Beyah, in need of a place to stay for the summer before she heads off to Penn State on a volleyball scholarship, reaches out to her estranged father, Brian, but she’s unprepared for her father’s swanky new life in the Houston suburbs. After a hungry childhood spent fending for herself for basic necessities, Beyah doesn’t want any messy emotional ties, but she soon forms a tight bond with her new stepsister, Sara, and falls for the wealthy but haunted next-door neighbor, Shawn Samson. Samson is not what he seems, however, and when the police come calling, secrets come out all around—most notably about Samson’s and Beyah’s tragic pasts. Hoover goes thick on the pathos, and tenderhearted readers will ache for both protagonists. Sexy, brooding Samson, especially, is just the kind of hero Hoover readers thirst for. This is sure to scratch an itch for fans of dark, soapy romance. (Jan.)