Many thanks to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing, and Catherine Ryan Hyde for the opportunity to read and review her latest book. I'm not sure I've ever given anything but 5 stars to one of her books - they are must reads for me!

Brooke is a single mom, forced to live with her mom because she is broke. To say they have a contemptuous relationship is putting it mildly, but Brooke is willing to put up with her mom to provide a safe home for her 2-year-old daughter, Etta. Then Brooke is the victim of a carjacking and the car speeds away with Etta strapped in her car seat in the back.

Molly is a homeless teenager, living in a crate. Molly was kicked out of her parents' home and has been barely surviving with the help of her friend. Molly comes across Etta, still strapped in her car seat, and takes her to keep her safe.

When these two unite, they will both have to confront prejudice and judgment to figure out how they can both move forward in their lives.

Just a wonderful story to make you think about mother and daughter relationships as well as how we view others different from us. I always want to be able to live life like a character in Cartherine Ryan Hyde's novels and be able to verbalize the perfect thoughts! Meanwhile, I'll have to be content with reading her books and hoping all these lessons seep in!

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! 📚

Brave Girl, Quiet Girl is another powerful stand-alone Lovely Book by the Queen of thought-provoking heart-warming contemporary fiction. Once again she has created brilliantly real characters who somehow make the right choices in a tough world.

Brooke is a stressed out single mother doing a low wage job, who has been forced to return to her difficult mother’s house to save money. Driving home from a movie, she is car-jacked and thrown from it, watching in despair as her two year old daughter Etta is driven away from her. Molly is sixteen and living on the streets of LA with her best friend Bodhi. When she finds a baby in a car seat by the side of the road in a deserted part of the city, she knows she must care for and protect her even when she has nothing and no way to call for help.

Ryan Hyde has a knack for creating sensitive, kind and courageous teenagers who defy all the stereotypes, and then putting them in terrible predicaments.
This is told from Brooke and Molly’s alternating viewpoints, which worked well as we follow their stories. Molly is likeable right from the start - despite being homeless, she refuses to steal or litter, and immediately puts little Etta’s needs above her own. The reasons behind her being thrown out of home were heart-breaking but not a huge surprise. Brooke, on the other hand, took half the book to win me over - a victim of her own selfish choices and pride, one of the major themes of the book was how she redeems herself and learns that there are many different ways to be a mother.

This books shines a deeply unflattering light on the US welfare system, with children exploited by grasping foster parents, teenagers thrown in jail for stealing food, and police officers unable to help even if they want to. Sure, there’s also a major homelessness problem here, but there is at least a safety net that seems completely lacking there, if this book is based on fact.

I’ve now read 7 or 8 books by this author and loved nearly all of them - thankfully she’s got many more for me to acquire. I particularly like that she doesn’t rely on romance to provide a happy ending, focussing instead on the other kinds of love that make the world go round. 4.5 rounded up for all-round great story-telling.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC which allowed me to give an honest review. Brave Girl, Quiet Girl is published today.

Mother/daughter relationships - so simple yet complex.

Brooke is a single mother of 2 year old, divorced, and living with her difficult mother. Life can't get much worse, right?! Wrong. Brooke is carjacked while driving her mother's Mercedes, and the driver flees in the car with little Etta still in her car seat in the back seat.

The driver soon realizes Etta and leaves her in her car seat on the sidewalk in a less that desirable neighborhood where she is found by a homeless teenager named Molly. Molly protects Etta from harm as Brooke and police frantically search for her.

Can Molly return Etta to Brooke safely? Will anyone believe that Molly isn't the carjacker? You'll have to read Brave Girl, Quiet Girl to find out! You won't be sorry!

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book. #BraveGirlQuietGirl #NetGalley

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.

This was a nice surprise of a book. Well written and easy to read. Thought provoking yet not hitting you over the head with bleeding heart liberalism. It gives what seems to be an accurate portrayal of a teenager living on the street. The book is told from two points of view in alternating chapters so the reader always knows who is talking (I appreciated that!).

Brooke is in an awful situation with no money and dependent on her domineering Mother. She's understandably devastated at losing her baby to a carjacker. Molly - how can you not love Molly - is a teenager living on the streets after being forced from home by her Mother. Baby Etta is the glue that holds these two characters together. Understandably, Brooke is wary of Molly at first as is Molly of Brooke; but their relationship gradually , softens from that wariness to acceptance, friendship, and finally a form of family.

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.

Brave Girl, Quiet Girl by Catherine Ryan Hyde is a beautifully written story. Having your child taken by someone is the scariest thing to happen to anyone. I liked the way the book ended. I find that women’s fiction is many times such emotional reads.

Brooke, divorced for two years and mother of two-year-old Etta was back living with her mother, the criticizing woman who couldn’t say a nice word about her daughter. The night Brooke took Etta to the movies – just to get out of the house – was the night her life shifted on its axis. It was on the way back from the movies that Brooke was carjacked; thrown to the ground by the masked man, she watched in devastated horror as the Mercedes tore away from her – with Etta still inside.

Sixteen-year-old Molly had been living on the streets of Los Angeles after her mother had thrown her out of the house in Utah. She and her best friend Bodhi stayed together in their camps to watch each other’s backs. When Molly found Etta, she was still sitting in her car seat, but it was dark and the little girl’s eyes were big and round when she looked up at Molly. During that long night in the darkness, and the following day, Molly cared for Etta, comforting her when she was scared, and when they needed to be quiet, Molly softly sang “brave girl, quiet girl” to Etta until she whispered it in return.

Would the police find Etta? Would Brooke ever see her baby girl again? And what would happen to Molly and Bodhi?

Brave Girl, Quiet Girl is a heartwarming and heartbreaking novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde which I loved. I have only recently discovered this author, and Brave Girl, Quiet Girl is my third by her. But her novels are intense and emotional, with this one being about motherhood, love, and finding yourself and your place called home. Another exceptional read by this author which I highly recommend.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

This book was so full of unexpected twists- it wasnt the story I thought it was going to be- in a good way! It starts with a car jacking with 2 year old Etta in the back seat, her mother is frantic. What then entails was a lesson in how things can change so suddenly, how the things you think you want are not Always the best for you, and how we should count our blessings. Beautifully told, Hyde is a skilled writer who had me enthralled from the first page.

Brave Girl, Quiet Girl by Catherine Ryan Hyde is a highly recommended contemporary drama set in L.A. that starts with a carjacking and then explores the often fraught relationship between mothers and daughters.

Brooke is a divorced and the mother of two-year-old Etta. Due to finances, she has been forced to move in with her domineering, judgmental, and critical mother. One night when her mother starts complaining about Brooke's parenting, Brooke takes Etta out to a children's movie. On the way home her life is shattered when she’s carjacked - and the ca is gone with Etta still strapped in the backseat. Brooke is frantic and inconsolable as she waits for news at the police station.

Miles away, Etta is abandoned on a sidewalk and found by Molly, a sixteen-year-old homeless teen who is living on the streets with her friend Bodhi. With no one in sight, she brings Etta back to the crate she calls home to keep her safe until she can call the police. Bodhi goes out and brings back apple juice and goldfish crackers for Etta, but also tells Molly that they must hide her and Etta because there are three guys looking for them with the intention of ransoming Etta back to her mother. He finds the two a safe spot and leaves to call the police, but never returns. Molly manages to keep Etta safe and quiet when the three malcontents are heard talking nearby, looking for them.

After a fraught night, Molly manages to contact the police to get Etta back to her mother. When Brooke sees Molly, dirty, disheveled and obviously a homeless street person, she immediately is suspicious and judgmental. Soon, however, the complete story is revealed to Brooke and she understands what Molly did to protect Etta and keep her safe. Etta also is saying Molly's name and obviously felt safe and loved while in the girl's care.

This is a social commentary story full of tension and judgmental attitudes that change and result in a heart-warming tale of understanding and compassion. Molly was thrown out of her home by her critical mother (and she reveals why late in the story) while Brooke is also dealing with a critical mother. The story quickly switches gears after the carjacking and the focus becomes compassion for others, love and trust, what makes a family, changing attitudes, and a final moment of utter clarity of a future course beneficial to all.

The writing is quite good, despite the emotional manipulation, and clearly becomes a message novel - which is fine. The plot is basically simple as the narrative alternates between the point-of-view of Brooke and Molly. While it does tackle social issues, they are simplified in the narrative, which, again, is fine. This is going to be a glimpse at some social issues, but won't tackle the more grim, gritty, and complicated reality. It is a quick read and will hold your attention throughout. The denouement is a feel-good heart-warming story that is neatly concluded.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of the publisher/author.
After publication the review will be posted on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

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.

This is my first time reading a Catherine Ryan Hyde novel but it won’t be my last. Brave Girl, Quiet Girl follows Molly - a young, homeless girl struggling to survive on the streets of LA, Brooke- a divorced, single, financially strapped mom and how their worlds collided.

It is a beautiful, touching story all about friendships and mother-daughter relationships. I enjoyed the pacing and the characters, I especially loved Molly.

Whether this is your usual genre or not, I would highly recommend!

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.

Catherine Ryan Hyde is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors in contemporary fiction. I have read several of hers, but this one touched me in ways I wasn’t expecting, drawing me in from the opening chapter. Although difficult emotionally at times, it was worth sharing the experience of these multi-faceted characters as they learned about themselves and what they were capable of feeling and doing in uncontrollable circumstances. I couldn't put this one down for the first 30%, it just captivated me.

The first 30% of the novel is about the accidental abduction of a 2-yr old child in a carjacking that went awry. Brooke, the mother of the child, Etta, is pulled out of the drivers seat at a stop light by the carjacker who is unaware of the toddler in the carseat in back. When it’s discovered, he drops the baby off, seat and all, in a dark industrial part of L.A. where he won’t be seen but is totally unsafe for anyone, much less a helpless baby. A homeless teen, Molly, who has her own story in this novel, discovers her and takes her to the only place she has, a crate under a cardboard until she can figure out what to do with her. She has no phone and danger is lurking right outside her hiding place. My heart was in my throat during all this. Aptly titled because this was the only thing Molly could think to do to calm the crying toddler. She quietly sang to her “brave girl, quiet girl” and put a finger across her lips until Etta understood and tiredly cuddled close to her rescuer in the cold crate.

Etta wasn’t missing long but what happens in the interim is the catalyst for the plot line. How it affects those who love her, and how this profound moment will alter the lives of those involved in getting her back safely. The story is told in two POV’s, Brooke, the mom, and Molly, the 16-yr-old homeless teen with a big heart. It has us questioning ourselves as to how we perceive others, with prejudices or attitudes in our reactions. We wonder if we had been approached by a filthy street person in a bad area, would we have stopped to help, or scurried away like those Molly approached in this novel. This also touches on other current topics giving us food for thought about how fragile relationships can be, and yet how easily they could be mended with tolerance and unconditional love, as it should be between a parent and child.

This is sad at times, yes, but there are redeeming moments as well… moments of joy from the smile of a child, a mother, a homeless teen with no self worth but with a beautiful soul. Brilliantly written it will tug at your heartstrings but renew your faith in the goodness of most people. It sure opened my eyes to how the homeless live, I never imagined how bad it could get from my privileged little corner of the world. Or maybe I just didn’t want to think about it.

I won’t easily forget this one. Readers, get your copy at your favorite retailer on May 19, 2020.

My sincerest thanks for the complimentary pre-release digital ARC to the following:
#netgalley #lakeunionpublishing #catherineryanhyde #bravegirlquietgirl

Mothers and daughters...relationships explored on so many levels....another excellent read by C R Hyde...always pertininent to social issues! Thanks to #NetGalley for the e-Arc of #BraveGirl, Quiet Girl

Thank You Netgalley for an early copy.
When I get in a reading funk I just reach for novels by Catherine Ryan Hyde, she always writes beautifully stories of characters bonding through forgiveness and love. Such great characters.

Thank you net galley for an advanced copy of BRAVE GIRL, QUIET GIRL. This is the first book I read by Catherine Ryan Hyde, I enjoyed it and will be reading more of her books. This book told the story of a homeless girl and a single mother, the circumstances of their meeting and how their relationship grew. .It also dealt with the mother/daughter relationship.. I could identify with the mother/daughter relationship from both perspectives, and while I got annoyed with the mother's character a lot, I could see her point. This is the first book that I read where a homeless person was a main character and it really put it into perspective.