An Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestseller.
From New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde comes a gripping and emotional novel about friendship, motherhood, and the journey toward finding a place to call home.
Brooke is a divorced single mom, financially strapped, living with her mother, and holding tight to the one thing that matters most: her two-year-old daughter, Etta. … matters most: her two-year-old daughter, Etta. Then, in a matter of seconds, Brooke’s life is shattered when she’s carjacked. Helpless and terrified, all Brooke can do is watch as Etta, still strapped in her seat, disappears into the Los Angeles night.
Miles away, Etta is found by Molly, a homeless teen who is all too used to darkness. Thrown away by her parents, and with a future as stable as the wooden crate she calls home, Molly survives day to day by her wits. As unpredictable as her life is, she’s stunned to find Etta, abandoned and alone. Shielding the little girl from more than the elements, Molly must put herself in harm’s way to protect a child as lost as she is.
Out of one terrible moment, Brooke’s and Molly’s desperate paths converge and an unlikely friendship across generations and circumstances is formed. With it, Brooke and Molly will come to discover that what’s lost—and what’s found—can change in a heartbeat.
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Brave Girl, Quiet Girl is an emotional story that will crush your heart before it’s over, from the gut-wrenching scene where Brooke loses her daughter in a carjacking to the frightening life of 16 year-old Molly, living on the streets. This story will make feel all the feels.
Brooke and Molly are from different worlds. They have nothing in common, other than the love they both have for a sweet little girl, Etta. Is this love enough to overcome the divide or will it be what brings them together?
All of Catherine’s books are full of interesting, memorable characters—people who have troubles. But they are also full of good and caring people. In that crazy world, somehow they find each other and discover that they have something in common and can help each other. That is the beauty of her books, people helping people.
Catherine is a must read author for me and her books are never a disappointment. They are wonderful, character driven stories that can teach us all lessons. Brave Girl, Quiet Girl is a beautiful story that will stay with me and I will be thinking about Brooke, Molly, and Etta for a long time. I loved this story and highly recommend it.
Catherine Ryan Hyde has turned into one of my favorite authors! To this day, her film adaptation of her book ‘Pay it Forward’ remains imbedded in my heart. Her human interest stories will make you feel so many emotions….fear, love, confusion, outrage. Not necessarily sunny and happy, raw and dark with excellent messages about human nature. This book is a realistic look at every mother’s fear, homelessness and judging others. I loved the character development of Brooke and the bond Etta and Molly formed, and subsequently Brooke and Molly. As someone who can jump to conclusions, I loved being on the outside looking in…seeing this story evolve from both sides due to a fierce love for Etta.
I appreciated the author not drawing out the carjacking story and heading into different territory. My heart broke for Brooke, then turned to frustration with her at her reaction to Etta. But this can only be said by someone who knew both sides of this story. My heart broke for Molly and her sad situation. I cannot imagine turning my child out into the world, although I know it happens. The mother/daughter dynamics are front and center in this book. This book show humanity at its best, and worst.
Thanks to the author, Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone.
BRAVE GIRL, QUIET GIRL by Catherine Ryan Hyde is a book you will pick up and not put down, or even move, until you finish it. In this novel, Ryan Hyde has created two characters that are real, flawed, and relatable. She also focuses on relationships, family, homelessness, prejudices, and carjacking. The two main characters are strong females that haven’t had the best of luck at this point in their lives, but their paths would never have crossed if not for a tragic incident that brings them together.
I enjoyed how Ryan Hyde developed the characters and the story. The situations and emotions around them are realistic and more common than most people realize. This novel will warm your heart and keep you thinking well beyond the last word.
Thanks to the Publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this novel. All opinions are my own.
Although I could guess how this story would end, I loved how attached I became to the key characters. The author has a knack for creating beautiful, yet unlikely, relationships. This book is a breath of fresh air during these difficult times.
This book definitely had me on the edge of my seat for a couple of chapters. I could really feel the urgency, fear, and helplessness of Brooke when she lost trace of her child after the carjacking. I can’t even imagine how a parent would feel after such a traumatic experience. Etta was very lucky that she was found by Molly, a homeless teen, rather than someone who would hurt or use her in any way. Molly did everything in her power to protect and reunite Etta with Brooke. After mother and child were reunited, Brooke didn’t know if she could trust Molly, and acted in a way that wasn’t really fair towards Molly. However, overtime she realized that Molly always had Etta’s best interest in mind. Also Etta was clearly attached to Molly, which wouldn’t be the case if she was bad.
Both Molly and Brooke have their own issues and things they have to deal with. But Brooke couldn’t in good faith forget about Molly and continue her life. I loved the relationship that grew between these two. I loved when they opened up and could find similarities in each other’s lives. Brooke started feeling protective over Molly, and it was just so heartbreaking seeing how much Molly needed to feel that from a grown-up. Her family and the system failed her, and she just wanted to feel safe and cared for by someone. The bond between Molly and Etta was beautiful. They were just so cute together. Brave Girl, Quiet Girl was an emotional and inspiring Women’s Fiction. It was a story about motherhood and friendship. It kept me interested until the end, however, I did want to see how Molly and Brooke were faring further into the future. I look forward to reading more books by Catherine Ryan Hyde.
Emotive, raw, and heartwarming!
Brave Girl, Quiet Girl is a pensive, heart-tugging novel about a divorced mother of a two-year-old, Brooke and a homeless, sixteen-year-old, molly as their worlds inadvertently collide when a carjacking leaves an infant stranded, alone, and in desperate need of protection.
The prose is clear and direct. The characters are flawed, troubled, and genuine. And the plot told from alternating POVs is a gripping tale of family drama, unlikely friendships, poverty, homelessness, motherhood, compassion, honesty, survival, mental illness, and the often harsh realities of life.
Overall, Brave Girl, Quiet Girl is an astute, touching, compelling tale by Hyde that does a beautiful job of reminding us that family is not always those related by blood, but rather those that love, care, support, and accept us.
When you open a Catherine Ran Hyde book you know your going to have a wonderful read and this one didn’t disappoint. You learn some of what it’s like to be a homeless teenager. Very eye opening and makes you thing again about the homeless.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I can not get over how Catherine Ryan Hyde can pull you right into her fabulous stories. You may laugh or you may cry but you definitely feel what her characters are feeling. I highly recommend this book. Enjoy!
Relationships: the way in which two or more people regard and behave toward each other. Relationships can be so difficult and complicated. Relationships can be the best things ever or ones that hurt more than words. This is a story that delves mainly into the realm of mother/daughter relationships. Ms. Hyde wrote a very sensitive and compassionate story about how this relationship can be flawed and leave a daughter rejected. Not just one daughter/mother relationship, but two. “We either grow up to be our mother or we make a solemn vow to the universe to be her polar opposite.” This is also about a relationship between two people who become connected through unimaginable circumstances and the love they share for a little girl named Etta. This is an emotionally packed book that tugged my heart all across the feelings spectrum. The characters Ms. Hyde created in this story were ones I became instantly attached to.
Brooke is Etta’s mother. She loves Etta more than anything else in the world and she wants to be the best mom to her she can possibly be. Nothing like her own mother is to her. But an unthinkable thing happens and Etta becomes a missing child!
Molly is a homeless teen living on the streets in L.A. She’s just trying to survive after her mother kicks her out of the house. She connects with a guy, Bodhi, and together they are living on the streets when Molly finds a little toddler girl, Etta. Molly’s heart goes out to this little one and her protective instincts kick in.
This is the setup to an in-depth story that is told from alternating points-of-view between Brooke and Molly. The heart wrenching pain I felt when Brooke is desperate to find her sweet child, Etta, is intense. I’ve had a missing child and the minutes, hours, days are agonizing. The turmoil Brooke went through was gut wrenchingly written. As are all the emotions with the characters. It is especially evident in the connection between Molly and Etta. It was an instant bond and trust between the two. Not so much between Brooke and Molly to begin with but Ms. Hyde nurtured that relationship with care and timeliness that made me pull for them to become trusting and bonded.
I loved the internal dialogue each character has with herself. It’s like a story telling dialogue from their minds. The thoughts of Molly were especially good in the teenager lingo that fits so well in how they think and express themselves. “…..I heard the baby girl in the back seat, and she was calling my name, too. It was a little bit quiet, but I could hear her saying “Molly, Molly, Molly,” and it melted all my mad away. I could just feel it turn to water and pour out of me, like I was all leaky and full of holes.” The emotions the characters experience were genuine and so true to what happens in life. No one is perfect but love can make the imperfectness be the “perfect” someone else needs.
The settings were vividly described throughout the book. In my mind I could see the homeless camps and shelters vividly. The shelters made out of cardboard and old tarps or crates. Ms. Hyde made me feel I was experiencing the very real issue of homeless people and what it is like. The secret “code” they have between them. The way they are avoided or treated as inferior people. It made me sad. But the other settings, the foster home, the homes of the mothers of Brooke and Molly, the desert travel…all are just as vivid as if I were there, too. Word pictures brought to life.
This is a story that I stepped into the pages and forgot about my own surroundings. From the first word to the last, it took me on a journey that sometimes things happen for the better and that bad things can lead to good, if given a chance. “It was like what was happening, or at least what I thought was happening, was so big it made my heart stretch until it hurt.” I want to thank Ms. Hyde, Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC copy of Brave Girl, Quiet Girl. It was an honor to read it. All opinions and thoughts in this review are my heartfelt own.
Great Storytelling With Relatable Characters. One of the best things about Hyde’s books is that you know you’re going to get stories of very human characters that are simply trying to do their best with the situations they find themselves in, despite several flaws (both obvious and not). Here we get an all too real story that happens *far* too often (in a part that would be a spoiler to reveal) and often enough that it is a documented event (in the initial conflict) while overtly getting a story of two women just trying to do their best. Hyde does an excellent job of humanizing both the strengths and the weaknesses of most characters, though the secondary characters get a bit less of this and the one-off characters get even less, by their very nature of only being shown once or twice. Still, a truly excellent work that explores at least one idea that is all too real for all too many, yet isn’t discussed much in mainstream fiction. Very much recommended.
This is a wonderful, heartfelt story! Brooke and her two-year old daughter Etta are living with Brooke’s mother when Brooke is violently carjacked and her daughter, who was in the back seat, is taken. Molly, a sixteen-year old girl has been living on the streets when she finds Etta, still in her car seat. Molly was thrown out of her parents’ home and told not to return. She cares for Etta, tries to get someone to help them, until she can safely get her to the police. A story of a woman who has lived through the devastation of thinking her child was gone forever and a teenager who survives on the streets with strangers for friends. Brooke wants to help Molly, but she is dependent on her mother and Molly wants to believe that there is help for someone like her, but is there? I received an advance review copy at no cost and without obligation for an honest review. (by paytonpuppy)
Excellent, heartwarming Hyde tale of a girl, a mother and a child
I have long been a Catherine Ryan Hyde fan. Yes, I loved PAY IT FORWARD (as most people do) but I’ve enjoyed so many other of Hyde’s books. She has a rare talent of bringing her readers into her stories, letting them feel what the characters are feeling.
Brooke is 39 years old, has a 2 year-old daughter, and lives in West L.A. with her mother. She is not happy with this because her mother is not a nice person but she’s divorced and can’t afford a place of her own yet.
She takes her daughter, Etta, to the movies (mainly to get away from her mother) and on the way home, she is carjacked – and Etta is taken with the car.
Molly is a 16 year-old living on the streets of L.A. and she finds Etta, who has been dumped on the side of the road in her car seat.
What transpires after this is a story that is heartwarming, heartbreaking, and really makes you think. It is about mothers and daughters and what actually what makes up a family.
I loved this story and I loved its characters, especially Molly. I highly recommend this book to everyone.
I received this book from Lake Union Publishing through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.
I received an ARC from NetGalley for an honest review. This book was a surprise and nothing like I was expecting it to be.
Brooke was raising her 2-year-old daughter, Etta, and had to move in with her mother for financial reasons. Like some mothers and daughters, they didn’t get along. One night Brooke took her daughter to the movies and after the movie, she was carjacked with her daughter still in the car. A homeless teen named Molly found Etta. From there we see the chain of events unfold between Brooke and Molly.
The book kept me reading because there were so many levels to the story. Most of what I was reading was nothing I had even thought about but the author took me where I had never been before. I could see where she was taking me and I could understand why she was taking me where I was going.
There are lots of things in life that some of us don’t realize and it opens our eyes. As I finished the book, I was amazed at the many things Catherine Ryan Hyde brought to light. This is the first book I have read by Catherine Ryan Hyde but it won’t be my last. She captured my attention and gave me insight on so much.
Brave Girl, Quiet Girl was a riveting read, heartbreaking at times. It is so well written, an this author has an amazing talent that she is able to pull your emotions from you. I read this book in about 3 hours it was amazing. I would recommend it to everyone.
I received and Advanced Readers Copy from NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and Catherine Ryan Hyde, and this is my fair an honest review.
Brave Girl, Quiet Girl by Catherine Ryan Hyde
I cannot say enough good things about this book. I experienced so many emotions while reading it. It really had me thinking about life, societal norms and things we take for granted.
As always, the author has developed characters that are relatable. I felt like I was there with them. I could feel their emotions, feel their ups and downs. At one point in the story, the question arises as to how long it takes to love someone. Could you love someone immediately? How much time is enough or not enough to know how you feel? Deep!
Societal norms. Not everyone grew up in the same environment. Not everyone thinks the way we do. We are all different and unique. And that is okay. Trying to understand that however, can sometimes require a bit of a learning curve.
This book will leave you breathless and wanting more. It is truly a wonderfully written story that will have you staying up late to learn the fate of all of the characters. Enjoy!!!
I do not know how Catherine Ryan Hyde manages to reach into my soul and touch every bit of it with every new book, but she does. She has a stunning, not-of-this earth talent that touches every feel there is and leaves me wanting more. If she wrote 20 hours a day, it wouldn’t be enough for me because her books are amazing.
Brave Girl, Quiet Girl is the story of Brooke, Etta and Molly and what a wonderful story it is! Molly is such a brave girl, living on the streets, trying to get through each day as best as she can with her few friends that help look out for her. Etta, what a sweetheart! Etta and Molly seemed to form an almost instant connection and it is what saved the both of them.
The book is told in alternating points of view – Brooke’s and Molly’s. Catherine Ryan Hyde plumbs the well of parental love, mother / daughter love, and also what can go wrong when a parent isn’t willing to accept their child as they are. I found myself wanting to hug Molly and Etta so many times and I just kept thinking that I never thought Ms. Ryan Hyde would top Have You Seen Luis Velez? but I think this one has done that.
I would recommend this author’s books to everyone. There is a warning though – you will want to read faster and faster to know what is going on, but then you will want to slow down because you don’t want the magic that is Ms. Ryan Hyde’s talent to stop. Each book has a lesson, but it never feels like you’re being preached to. I always want more the minute I am done.
Huge thanks to Netgalley, the author, and publisher for allowing me an ARC at my request. All thoughts are my own and gratefully given.
Brave Girl, Quiet Girl is an emotionally charged novel of overcoming adversity, and survival.
Single mom Brooke is newly divorced and living with her overbearing mother. Molly is a homeless teen, never sure where she will sleep or when she will eat.
This plot comes out of the gate running when tragedy strikes early in the story. An act of violence that changes the lives of these two strangers.
Told in first person narrative, the storyline alternates between Brooke and Molly as they cope with the aftermath and seek each other out. The themes of homelessness, family dysfunction, friendships and trust are skillfully woven together creating a realistic and thought provoking drama.
Poignant, a little suspenseful and well paced, I was thoroughly engrossed in the story. I also enjoyed the Book Club Questions at the end.
This is the second book I’ve read by Catherine Ryan Hyde, and I will be reading many more!
*Thank you Lake Union Publishing, Catherine Ryan Hyde and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for my honest review.
I don’t even have the words to describe how good this book is! It is easily a one day read….because you won’t be able to put it down! It is so emotionally stirring, at points I had tears, a lot of anger and disgust, a few laughs, and a pure love for the characters (especially Etta). Catherine Ryan Hyde is a magical story weaver! Catherine Ryan Hyde
As usual, Catherine Ryan Hyde, comes up with another heart warming story of unlikely soulmates. Brooke is a single mom, that is carjacked with her two year old Etta in her car seat. She experiences the worst feelings a mother can ever know, fear for the safety of her child.
A teenage homeless girl Molly, finds the baby, and despite being in danger, manages to keep the child safe. So begins a relationship that is so typical of Hyde’s wonderful character development. It’s a heartwarming story, with just the right amount of everything that makes for a good page turner.
My thanks to #NetGalley #LakeUnionPublishing for this ARC. All opinions are my own!
I read “Have You Seen Luis Velez?” in January, so when I saw this one available for request from Lake Union, I was excited to put in for an ARC. Catherine Ryan Hyde sucks her readers in from the very start with the perfect setup of a missing toddler, and the desperation of a mother when their child goes missing.
I was anxious to find out if Brooke would get her daughter Etta back. Etta is found by Molly, a homeless teen stuck in a rough situation, that wants to take care of Etta until she can get ahold of the police. But when you’re homeless and broke, getting to a phone isn’t an easy task. We watch the story unfold from both Brooke and Molly’s perspective.
Not only was this a great storyline, but I appreciated the inclusion of the real-world issue regarding homeless teens. Specifically, those that fall into the LGBTQ category and the struggles they face at home regarding their sexuality, especially in religious households. I found myself drawn into Molly and her struggle, and I cheered her on from the start.
Molly and Brooke were wonderful characters, there was a lot they learned from each other. I liked how well the author wrote Brooke’s mother, who was less than stellar. This was such a thoughtful read about healing and forgiveness, about finding light where the dark seems overpowering. A heartwarming read.