2 Books About Teenage Daughters

by Susan Roberts

Anyone who has ever had a teenager, knows a teenager or WAS a teenager, knows how difficult they can be.  I have two November books for you today that center on teenage daughters. One is fiction and set in the 1960s about a daughter who dropped out of college to become a social worker in a poor area of Georgia. The other is the true story set in modern times when a daughter makes plans to move to another country to meet the 'love of her life' that she's only known on social media.

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When Nighttime Shadows Fall by Dianne Michael Cantor

November 2017; University of South Carolina Press
978-1611178326; ebook, print (192 pages)
family life

This novel takes place in a poverty-stricken area of Georgia in the early 70s. The main character dropped out of college and left her upscale home in Atlanta, to be a social worker on a new project for pregnant women who needed help during their pregnancies - both monetary and educational. Her parents were very unhappy with her decision but she was determined to be part of this new government program.  At first, the women in the area were very distrustful of the new agency and the people who worked there. The local high school refused to post information about the agency at their school because 'none of their students ever get into that kind of trouble'. So Laura had to overcome the prejudice from many of the people in the area while she tried to help the young women who needed help. We meet a young girl who is dominated by her mother, a young woman and her husband who don't want to take charity and a preacher's daughter among others. This is a very well done and enlightening novel about bringing prenatal health care to the poor of Appalachia during a time that there was little help for them.

I highly recommend this book to people who enjoy historical fiction to get a glimpse of a time in history that is usually ignored.

Buy When Nighttime Shadows Fall at Amazon

Almost Gone: Twenty-Five Days and One Chance to Save Our Daughter by John Baldwin, Mackenzie Baldwin

November 2017; Howard Books; 978-1501179044
audio, ebook, print (240 pages); true crime

This is a true story about a loving Christian family who almost lost their 18-year-old daughter to a man she met on the internet. The story is told in alternating chapters by the father, John, and his daughter Mackenzie.

The Baldwin family had always been a strong Christian family who spent a lot of time together. As her senior year in high school was starting, Mackenzie started to pull away from the rest of the family and questioning her faith as she wanted to learn more about Islam. Her parents had no idea what was going on with her and by the time they found out, it was almost too late to save her. She had started talking to a young man, Adam who despite telling her at first that he lived in NYC, actually lived in Kosovo. He encouraged her to learn more about Islam and as time went on became very controlling of her life. She was planning to run away from home and meet him in Kosovo because she couldn't imagine life without him. When her parents found out from several of her girlfriends, they had less than a month to save their daughter from leaving the country to marry someone she had never met.

This book is about their struggle and is a real warning for parents whose children spend time on social media. Everyone is not who they pretend to be on the internet and parents need to be vigilant about what their children are doing on social media. This was a scary story but one that I'm afraid happens way too often.

Buy Almost Gone at Amazon

Susan Roberts lives in North Carolina when she isn't traveling.  She and her husband enjoy traveling, gardening and spending time with their family and friends.  She reads almost anything (and the piles of books in her house prove that) but her favorite genres are Southern fiction, women's fiction, and thrillers. Susan is a top 1% Goodreads Reviewer. You can connect with her on Facebook, Goodreads or Twitter.

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