Redline by Lisa Nowak

Redline by Lisa Nowak

Now that Jess DeLand has escaped her alcoholic mother's grip, all she wants is a chance to be normal. To hang out with her wisecracking-but-intuitive boyfriend Cody, learn as much she can about restoring cars from her mentor Kasey, and fill in as substitute big sister to Rhett when her friend Teri Sue goes off to college. But when her past crashes headlong into her present, all hopes of normal go spinning off into the weeds. Jess's attempts to spare her friends-and herself-from the things she'd rather keep hidden, threaten to destroy the new life she's built. Maybe normal is too much to ask for.

Lisa Nowak is a retired amateur stock car racer, an skilled cat whisperer, and a professional smartass, in addition to being a YA novelist. She creates coming-of-age stories about kids who meet mentors who love them for who they are and teach them to respect their own worth. She adores dark chocolate and stout beer, and she is continuously striving to incorporate wei wu wei into her life, despite the fact that the battle is an oxymoron in and of itself. Lisa doesn't have much spare time, but if she had, she'd spend it tending to her extensive perennial garden, watching medical dramas, going for long evening walks, and teaching her cats to play poker. She is not, and has never been, a diaper-wearing astronaut, for those who are curious. She and her husband live in Milwaukie, Oregon, with four feline companions and two gigantic sequoias.