TRUE CONFESSIONS OF A HEARTLESS GIRL
Martha Brooks
Farrar Straus & Giroux
Fiction
ISBN: 0374378061
192 pages

Even when Noreen Stall has the best intentions, it seems that she screws everything up. And when she makes so many mistakes that she starts to hate herself, she runs from the people who love her. When she runs away from her boyfriend, taking his truck, money and unborn baby, she finds herself in the small town of Pembina Lake. There she lands in the rundown café owned by Lynda Bradley, a single mother of a three-year-old boy, Seth. Lynda is struggling to make sense of a life that could have been so much more. She lets Noreen stay the night and, in doing so, unleashes a series of events that force the people in the town to take a look at their own lives.

When Dolores Harper, who has a gift for helping people, hears about Noreen, she decides to get her to talk. But while she is helping Noreen open up, she can't see that her "oldest friend in the world" might need her support as well. During her stay at Pembina Lake, Noreen makes many more mistakes, including accidentally poisoning Seth's beloved dog and ripping out part of the wall in the café while trying to remove the fading, ugly wallpaper. Will she run again, or decide to stay?

The characters you meet in this book are real and unforgettable. Watching them help each other along gave me a satisfying feeling.

   --- Reviewed by Briana Orr

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