Beautiful Girl - Shiloh Walker

I first heard about this author Shiloh Walker after reading a book review of her book "The Missing". She sounded like an author that would be right up my alley.

Review : Beautiful Girl - Shiloh Walker - May 2009

At first I thought that this may be another fantasy but was I wrong, Beautiful Girl is one of those books that if you are the kind-of girl who tears up , then make sure you have tissues with you when you read this story, as I did. Reading this book, I felt like I wanted to give the parents a shake and say "Wake Up, you have an amazing daughter".

Twelve years have passed and Del has not once had contact with her past , always wanting to keep her present and future separated. When Del meets an old cousin Vance in the mall , she gives him her number to stay in contact and makes him promise not to pass it out to anyone . Unfortunately Vance doesn't obey Del's wishes and passes it onto Manda whom was Del's closest friend and she talks Del into coming back to Prescott for a school reunion.

However, twelve years can change a lot and make a difference in some things but others still remain as hurtful as the day she disappeared ceasing contact with everyone.

Her high-school sweetheart Blake has been battling cancer and when these two meet up again, sparks still remain to sizzle and burn brightly. As Blake and Del start spending more and more time together , her walls that she has tried so hard to build and keep up come crumbling down like the walls of Jericho. When all is revealed why she left twelve years ago , can Blake and Manda help Del find the person she once was and finally begin to heal from the abuse she suffered at the hands of her own family or is the betrayal of that hurt more dangerous than her friends and her imagined and are her friends safe?

A story that is not only pulsating with intensity of relationships and mystery but also a tale that will in parts tear at your heart and sit there and say how could anyone go through what Del did.