Happy Book Birthday to FAKING FAITH!

Congrats to Josie Bloss on the publication of her fourth YA contemporary novel, Faking Faith. I love Josie’s post on her blog today about her dedication to the book, to her stepsisters:

I was a reserved and lonely only child until they came into my life. I didn’t even know what I was missing until they were there, trying to push me in the water. It wasn’t always the smoothest situation, which is often the case in blended families, but my teenager-hood would have been a whole lot more dull and solitary (albeit less damp) without them around.

This is part of the reason why I dedicated Faking Faith to my stepsisters. In the story, Dylan Mahoney is a very lonely girl. She’s messed up her friendships, she took a bad gamble on a jerk guy, and she feels completely alone and disconnected from the world. Dylan desperately needs connection and support, and she finds it in the most unexpected place – the blog of Abigail, a girl whose life is completely unlike her own.

There are bad decisions and bumblings (and a scandalous incident with Abigail’s cute older brother) but in the end, what redeems Dylan – and what can redeem all of us, I believe – is how she reaches to connect with other people again. People who see her, just as she is, and love her anyway. She heals and grows and thrives by learning to once more be open and vulnerable.

Won’t you help keep Dylan from feeling lonely anymore, and bring her home to your bookshelves?