Published Synopsis:
17-year-old Kate has lived her whole life in abject poverty, with an alcoholic father and drug-addicted mother, who severely abuses Kate. At school, her second-hand clothing marks her as a target. Her refusal to stand up for herself makes her the recipient of her classmates taunts and bullying. That is, until Henry returns.Henry Jamison moved away six years earlier, just as he and Kate had begun to develop feelings for one another. He returns to find the bright, funny, outgoing girl he had known now timidly hiding in corners, barely speaking to anyone around her, suspicious of even him.
Kate can't figure out what game Henry is playing with her - for surely it is a game. What else would the gorgeous, popular boy from her past want with her?
Kate finally decides to trust Henry's intentions, opening her heart to him. Just when it seems he might be genuine in his friendship, tragedy strikes, threatening everything Kate has worked so hard to gain. Can Henry help her to overcome this new devastation, or will it tear them apart forever?
Review:
In Heart on a String, a YA romance, Cindy C. Bennett tackles the issue of child abuse. Kate, a seventeen year old girl that has lived with physical abuse, verbal abuse, starvation, and, of course, great fear for the last eight years has no one she can turn to for help. Even when she finally is able to let her guard down and tries to trust someone, she knows that it isn’t a way out. Time with Henry is only a small reprieve from what she has to face on a daily basis, but she learns to cherish those times with all her heart.Cindy C. Bennett does an excellent job of exposing the world of abuse and its physical and psychological impact on a child.Abuse doesn’t always stop at home.The defense mechanisms that an abused child puts in place can also help to make that child a target outside of the home as well. Kate accepts her abuse as inevitable and when the kids at school decide she’s everyone’s favorite punching bag, she feels she has no recourse but to sit back and take whatever they dish out. Even when Henry and his family embrace her and welcome her with open arms, that doesn’t mean her problems are solved. As she points out when his father wants to report a violent attack on her from her mother, in the flawed system now in place, teenagers have very few options for real help and often end up in more, or just different, trouble when the abuse is reported.
I cannot say enough how much I enjoyed reading Heart on a String. This is not a Cinderella story but it is a love story. The prince doesn’t come along and save Kate from her nightmare, but he is there to help her through the worst of what her mother, and others, dishes out. When the nightmare does finally end and the road to recovery is open to her, Kate still has to learn how to be whole again. She needs to learn to see herself as someone worth loving but it’s a long road and before she reaches the end of it, she may just push away those who are best able to help her see what a wonderful person she truly is. Readers of Heart on a Chain take this journey with her and come away with a little bit of this book in their hearts forever.
This is definitely a five star book.
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