Pearl

By: Deirdre Riordan Hall

Narrated by: Brittany Pressley

Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Run fast and run far, unless you're fearless. Unless you're courageous. I'm not, but I'd like to be.

Pearl Jaeger is 17 and homeless after drugs, poverty, and addiction unraveled the life she shared with JJ, her formerly glamorous rock star mother.

This moment of happiness is fleeting; someone will take it from me.

When tragedy brings a chance to start over at an elite boarding school, she doesn't hesitate. Yet the only salvation comes from an art teacher as troubled as Pearl, and she faces the stark reality that what she thought she wanted isn't straightforward.

I trace the outline of my reflection in a window. I am no more than a replica of my mother. This is not the self-portrait I want to paint.

Through the friendships she forms at school - especially with Grant, a boy who shows Pearl what it means to trust and forgive - she begins to see a path not defined by her past. But when confronted with the decision to be courageous or to take the easy way forged by her mother's failures, which direction will Pearl choose?

©2016 Deirdre Riordan Hall (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

She Did It Again!

After reading Sugar, I was skeptical about Dierdre Riordon Hall's ability to spin a story with that kind of emotional depth again. But, I am happily eating crow., today Pearl delivers in ways I was not always prepared for. I listened to this book twice. And it was even better the second time around. Pearl is the girl you find yourself rooting for, because she is born into the kind of circumstances that set her up for failure. Her fighting spirit is somewhere beneath the layers of pain that she carries around, visible to people who, themselves, are trying to escape their own painful experiences. The characters are realistic and relateable, as are the converging storylines. I will definitely recommend this book.