My Name is Venus Black seems a bit unkempt at first, the scene changes a bit pixelated, but then the rhythm begins to establish a pattern and drew me into the deep end of the story. Heather Lloyd captured the heart of a teenaged girl in a swirling vortex that changed her life profoundly. It also reminded me that perspective is usually based on personal bias and both change depending on the surrounding circumstances at any given moment. This book shows us human nature at its rawest and its most beautiful. A tragic and heartwarming story that haunts you when your mind is quiet with thoughts of "What if that were me?" You become attached to each character for their own strengths and weaknesses, a beautiful read.

My apologies but I could not finish this book; the voice was just not for me.

[Excerpt]:
What initially drew me to this book was 1) the cover and 2) the title. I've recently become obsessed with space, so anything remotely associated with the planets or stars instantly nabs my attention. The "astronomy" aspect interested me, and of course the mystery of what crime Venus committed when she was only 13 years old and yet was nearly tried in adult court.

I really enjoy stories that open in media res. That is, in the midst of things. In the first chapter, Venus has already committed her crime, which I found surprising. I thought we would get to see her do it, but as I continued to read, I realized this was a smart way to open the story. It added mystery and intrigue. After only 25 pages, we can tell her crime had something to do with her stepfather, Raymond, but the way Venus divulges information is very vague and mysterious, which is obviously intended to make the reader more invested to find out what happened and why. I admit, I kept reading and reading, flipping page after page, purely because I was motivated by my curiosity regarding this one plot point.
[Full review on my blog! Out Feb 23rd!]

Oh my! This novel ripped out my heartstrings and played them like a violin! I laughed. I wept. I never wanted this book to end. How can this possibly be a debut novel? Unlike many YA books where the often-bratty character makes mistakes, learns from them, and eventually grows up, this book portrays Venus as a very real--and not always likable--teen who is convicted of killing her step-father and sent to a juvenile detention facility for six years. In the meantime, her younger autistic brother disappears. Told from alternate viewpoints-- first person from Venus, and third person from her mother, Inez as well as the others involved in this incredible story--the novel weaves a beautiful and poignant tale of a family ripped apart by rash decisions. But it's also a tale of betrayal, redemption, forgiveness, and the true power of love that has nothing to do with biological families and everything to do with those heartstrings that reverberate in all of us. This one is begging to be on the silver screen! One of my top favorites of the year!

A great first book! I was riveted from the opening pages and could not wait to read the conclusion. I found myself rooting for all of the main characters so I was worried how the book could come to a satisfying ending but it did! My main complaint was Leo never got his concert. I really wanted to see how he handled the situation. I am not an expert on autism but Leo seemed very believable. I definitely recommend to all readers

Hard to talk about this book without spoilers, so I guess this is a **spoiler alert**, though there isn’t that much to “spoil.” (The finer details come out later in the story, but you know from the start what Venus did.)
Thirteen-year-old Venus suspects her stepdad is peeping at her, but her mom, Inez, is in serious denial and refuses to believe her or act on Venus’s suspicions. The next time he tries to do it, she shoots a bullet through his peep-hole, and after surveying the damage done to Ray’s head, she tells her mom “Good thing Raymond doesn’t peep at me.” Best line ever! This lands her six years in Juvie, and when she gets out she wants to have nothing more to do with her old self or her old name. She tries to reinvent herself in Seattle, but her past keeps crowding in, and she hasn’t really dealt with her lingering anger and guilt. Venus’s seven-year-old autistic half-brother, Leo, was kidnapped only days after his father’s murder, and remains missing all these years. Venus is estranged from Inez, who in the matter of a few days lost her entire family, and is also awash in her own guilt. Will they ever find Leo, and/or forgiveness?

I found Venus to be a compelling character, and you’ll be rooting for her to overcome her rough start as a teenager. The POV switches a lot between Venus, Inez, and the family that kept Leo, which keeps the pace moving. Your heart will also break for kids born like Leo, and the struggles that the people who love him go through. What I’m left confused about is why this book is categorized as general adult fiction. If John Green had written this book, we would be calling it YA with no question. But this “coming of age” story is not? Quibbles for sure, but I feel like this book is being pushed towards the wrong audience.

Ah.... Venus Black you have swooped my heart up! 4.5 stars ladies and gents ;).

Heather Lloyd what a beautifully character driven novel. You have knocked this debut novel out of the park lady! :).

The novel starts out with one of our main characters Venus who at the time is 13 and has been sent to juvenile detention due to killing her stepfather. Shortly after Venus is incarcerated... her little brother Leo has been kidnapped. Venus as you can imagine spends five lonely years in juvenile detention heartbroken and angry with her mother Inez and worried about her brother Leo.

Venus is 19 and is released from juvenile detention. Venus is struggling with confronting her demons and starting a new life. Can she find her brother Leo after all these years?

This is a beautifully written story about love, loss, forgiveness, and faith. As a social worker, I can't tell you enough how much I have seen the heart break that families have endured and it's so amazing to see families that come out stronger in the end based on the heartache that they have endured. Happy endings do happen despite tragedy and it's refreshing to see a story about the powerful impact love has on us.

The characterization was so beautifully intertwined throughout the story and I loved the fact that the story was told from a child's perspective. I highly recommend this book!

I will leave you with my favorite quote:
"You make one wrong move and your whole world gets turned upside down. And then, right when you think it's hopeless, a giant black-haired goddess leans down to tip you over."

This was definitely the right amount of black ;).

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Heather Lloyd, and Random House Publishing for the advanced arc in exchange for my honest review.

This is a captivating book about a young girl, Venus Black, and her family. Leo, her 7 year old autistic brother and her mother, Inez. There are many players ra, side they Ngah going on it’s hard to put the book down before it is finished.

4.5 Stars

I liked this book more than I expected to! And I’m really glad I requested it on a whim because of an email I got from Netgalley. Hooray for spontaneous book requests!

The changes in POV could be a little confusing at times because there wasn’t a set way of knowing it had switched between chapters. I enjoy it when I have conflicting feelings regarding characters in a book. I know who the “bad guys” are supposed to be, but you can’t help but feel empathy toward all of the characters by the end of the book.

“You have no way of knowing that if this man marries your mother, the gifts will dry up, the Pop-Tarts will stop the Rainier beer will kick in, and you’ll never feel at home in your own home again.”

Venus and her autistic brother Leo are separated when Venus is sent to juvenile detention for 6 years after killing her stepfather, Raymond. I got caught up Venus and Leo’s alternating storylines from the get go.

I sympathized with Venus’s character and the hand she was dealt. Estranged from her mother, who she blamed for Raymond’s death even if Venus pulled the trigger and Venus’s feelings of responsibility for brother Leo’s kidnapping by Raymond’s brother. When leaving the detention center 5 years later at 19 years old, Venus creates a new identity, is completely alone with nowhere to go. I felt the inner conflict and applauded her resilience as she moves forward. Her character is beautifully developed.

I especially enjoyed the scenes in which Leo is included. Although I have spent little time with an autistic child, I felt Leo’s behavior and dialogue to be authentic. I felt protective of him.

One day a milk carton is produced with Leo’s missing person notice on the side panel. Once this is discovered, the story kicked into higher gear for me. I couldn’t put the book down. A satisfying story about second chances.
*will be posting in additional online forums once published.

Set in the 1980s, Heather Lloyd’s moving debut My Name is Venus Black follows the story of Venus Black, a thirteen year-old straight A student who dreams of becoming the first female astronaut in space. When the story opens, Venus is being placed into the backseat of a police car and taken away from her home and subsequently charged with a horrific crime. Venus refuses to talk to anyone about what happened or why it happened, but she is adamant that her mother is to blame and refuses to speak to her as well. Ultimately Venus is convicted and sentenced to a juvenile detention facility for more than five years. As if Venus’s crime and imprisonment wasn’t enough to tear apart the Black family, Venus’ seven year old brother Leo, who is developmentally disabled, also goes missing. One minute he’s playing in the neighbor’s sandbox, the next he vanishes without a trace. During one of their infrequent meetings, Venus’ mother Inez blurts out that she holds Venus responsible for the fact that Leo has gone missing. Thus an already strained relationship becomes even more strained.

When Venus is finally released, she chooses not to go back home. Instead, she decides she needs to make a fresh start so she obtains a fake id and thus tries to escape from her past and start over. At first Venus is completely alone and refuses to trust anyone around her, but as she finally starts to meet new people, she finds herself opening up and letting more people in. She makes a friend at the local coffee shop where she lands her first job, becomes like a big sister to the young daughter of a man she rents a room from, and even begins a bit of a flirtation with one of the regular customers at the coffee shop. What Venus eventually realizes, however, is that she can’t have these new relationships while living a lie and constantly looking over her shoulder wondering if someone has figured out who she really is. This realization causes old wounds to reopen and Venus realizes that she has to face her past head on, including her estranged relationship with her mother as well as the disappearance of her brother (who is still missing), if she ever hopes to move past it.

Can Venus come to terms with the actions from her past and go after the second chance she deserves? Can she forgive her mother for looking the other way when Venus needed her the most? And most importantly, can Venus learn to forgive herself?

My Name is Venus Black is a moving coming of age story about second chances, forgiveness, facing up to one’s past, and most importantly, about family.

The focus on family was one of the themes that really resonated with me. Whether it’s the family you’re born with or a family that you’ve made because you all happen to be living under one roof, this book is all about the connections we make with those around us. Even though she is alone and has every intention of remaining so when she is first released, Venus slowly but surely finds herself forming an almost sisterly bond with a young girl named Piper that she lives with for a while. Venus is also constantly reminded of the family she has lost and left behind. She misses Leo and is always thinking about him and wondering if he is okay. This story also strongly focuses on the idea that no matter how badly you think you’ve messed up, your family is always there for you and it’s never too late to start over if you’re willing to try.

What really got to me about My Name is Venus Black is that it was told mostly from the perspective of the two children, Venus and Leo. Because some of the events of the story are so dark, it’s just all the more poignant to see them unfold through the eyes of a child. All of the emotions, the fears and the uncertainty just got to me even more than they probably would have if the story had been presented to me differently.

I also loved both Venus and Leo. Venus is such a strong voice in this story and her character development is incredible. I felt bad for her in the beginning because she just wouldn’t talk about what happened and in some ways probably made things harder for herself by refusing to tell her story. Venus’ story is all about growth though and what she goes through in this story takes her from being basically a terrified little girl in the beginning to a fierce young woman ready to take on the world by the end.

And even though this is mainly Venus’ story, Leo also plays a huge role. He isn’t given a diagnosis in this book but based on the way he needs structure and the way he panics when his routine is disrupted, I think he is quite possibly autistic. Leo is such a vulnerable character that I immediately felt protective of him because he’s caught up in the middle of something he can’t even begin to comprehend. Leo is important to the story primarily because of how his disappearance impacts Venus and Inez. No matter how many years have passed, neither of them give up on the idea that he is still out there so he remains a connection between them no matter how estranged they are from one another.

I only had one real issue with My Name is Venus Black and that had to do with the way it would sometimes switch from one character’s perspective to another without warning right in the middle of a chapter. Hopefully this is just an ARC formatting issue that will not be in the finished copy, but in the review copy I read, occasionally it would just randomly switch from Venus’ perspective to Leo’s from one paragraph to the next. I found that a little odd, especially since the chapters themselves were told from different perspectives. Why add further switches within the chapters instead of just making more chapters? Anyway, it didn’t dampen my enthusiasm for the book but it did slow me down a few times while reading since it was a little jarring each time it happened.

My Name is Venus Black is an incredibly moving story about family and forgiveness. It’s about learning that your actions have consequences and that you have to accept responsibility for them, but it’s also about second chances and how we’re all entitled to them. If you’re looking for a poignant story filled with memorable characters, I’d highly recommend My Name is Venus Black.

Thank you so much NetGalley for the privilege of being able to read this early! I can see this novel sky rocketing to the top of the charts. Readers who enjoyed Faithful by Alice Hoffman and Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng will definitely enjoy My Name is Venus Black.

This story of redemption, forgiveness, love, and finding yourself through the struggles of life was beautifully written with well drawn characters who came to life off the page. I appreciated reading about a character who was mentally different from the rest of the characters but it wasn't used as a prop for the other character's personalities. Rather, we got to hear his side of the story and I really enjoyed it.

The story is set in Everett, WA (near Seattle) and Oakland, CA which are two cities that helped raise me and made me the person I am, making this story even better. I think many young (and old) readers can find characters who speak to them; I didn't realize it was a YA novel!

This book literally ripped my heart out and danced across my still bleeding corpse. A beautiful story about the choices we make and the effects they have on those around us. About accepting responsibility and learning from our mistakes, while letting go of our past and hoping for our future.

A compelling story, the characters were realistic and I especially enjoyed Leo.This is a family drama, centering around Venus Black who makes a decision at 13 that alters the course of her life. A heart-breaking story

This is an entertaining, sometimes humourous story with wonderful life messages embedded in it. It should appeal to both older teenagers and adults alike. Venus is a young teenager that ends up in Juvenile Detention for killing her stepdad, but the story behind the event are not revealed until near the end of the book. In the meantime we follow Venus as she matures and then tries to make her way in the world, all the while worrying about her younger brother Leo who has autism.. It a book that worthy of your time.

Sadly, this book was just not for me and I ended up DNFing it. The narrative was very choppy and the plot didn’t seem to be going anywhere.

4.5 totally intriguing stars

This was quite the story of family, love lost and regained, and the proof that love exists not because of blood but because of kindness, goodness, and concern from those around you.

Venus is thirteen and lives with her mother Inez, a step father, and a beloved younger brother Leo who is mentally handicapped. For all intents and purposes, Venus is Leo's caregiver, she adores him, understands him, and keeps him close. He looks to her for guidance, for patterns, for routines that he is comfortable with, and most especially for the love that he really can't ever understand.

Venus is often troubled but is quite the straight laced bright young girl. However, when an awful occurrence happens, Venus is thrown into a juvenile detention home where she is confined for five years. In that time span, Leo goes missing, taken by the brother of her step father where they wind up in the home of a tattoo artist and his young daughter. We learn details of his existence and we follow him as he grows. In bits and pieces we also learn of what happened to Venus and how she never forgot her brother and will strive to find and be with him.

That characters that Ms Lloyd created are amazing. They represent that life oftentimes is difficult, parents are not always perfect, and that blood is not always the deciding factor in who we love and care for. Love has no boundaries life can continue to grow and blossom in the very worst of circumstances, sometimes seeing that tragedy can bring hope to all those who have seemed to have lost it all.

As Venus eventually finds out, running from one's past can never allow a person to see a future. The characters were all ordinary people but extraordinary circumstances can change your life. It did theirs. "You must remember, family is often born of blood, but it doesn't depend on blood. Nor is it exclusive of friendship. Trenton Lee Stewart wrote, "Family members can be your best friends, you know. And best friends, whether or not they are related to you, can be your family.”In this book everyone finds out what family truly is.

Thanks you to Heather Lloyd, Random House Publishing, and NetGalley for providing this reader with an ARC of this endearing book.

What a beautiful book. Even though there are tragic events at the center of this story, it is not about those tragic events. It is a story of reconciliation and forgiveness, a story full of hope. Every character is absolutely spot on! I don’t think there is enough good things I can say about this heartwarming debut. It is a story that I won’t soon forget. I absolutely loved it!

This was an epic read with fantastic characters! The children charaters really spoke to my heart and I felt a connection with them. I could relate to the dysfunction and awful things that occurred in this book. This story wasn’t just heartbreaking, it was also powerful and a must read! This was a beautifully written story that I won’t soon forget.

This book definitely put a BIG smile on my face..... this is an absolute character driven book with some extremely likable characters and some a little tougher to like.....


Venus is sent to juvenile detention when she is 13 for killing her stepfather.... shortly after Venus is incarcerated her little brother Leo is taken.... Venus spends her five years in juvenile detention bitter and angry with her mother... and worried about and missing her little brother....

More than Venus this book really is about Leo.... a little boy with autism who seems to bring out the best and worst in people.... I believe the author did a very good job with the character of Leo.... he tugged at my heart strings just as much as he did Venus, Tessa, and many others....

This book really is about family and what makes a family.... Venus started this book thinking the only family she had was little brother Leo and ended this book having so much more..... The book was also about forgiveness and understanding and growth..... Venus really had a lot of character growth in this book.... and a lot of that was done through both forgiving and understandingn.... A lot of Venus‘s growth was thanks to a young girl who was probably my favorite character in the book by the name of Piper.... the relationship between them was truly sweet.....

If you are looking for a fast paced thrill of a book, this is not the book for you.... however if you are wanting a book filled with magnificent characters and special moments I’d absolutely suggest picking this up.....

PS: for those of you who have already read this, the ending was just the right color💙

*** i’d like to thank Random House and Net Galley for a copy of this book ***