Jesse's Girl

WILL A FATHER RISK EVERYTHING FOR HIS SON?

IN GARY MORGENSTEIN'S LATEST NOVEL, "JESSE'S GIRL," A WIDOWED FATHER SEARCHES FOR HIS TROUBLED TEEN WHO HAS RUN AWAY FROM A WILDERNESS TREATMENT CENTER

My Review: I was really excited about this book of a father who will do almost anything to save his son from the bonds of drugs. I mostly enjoyed the first section entitled "Jesse" but then the next section "Theresa" just lost my interest (I can't pinpoint why) so I never did finish reading the book. Since I can't give a complete review of the book, I have copied the info sent to me by Bostick Communications to promote this title for them.

NEW YORK, May 11, 2009 - How much should a parent sacrifice for a troubled child?

In Gary Morgenstein's taut new thriller, Jesse's Girl, the answer is - anything. Anchored around a floundering father-son relationship, finding roots and re-uniting vanished bonds, the timely novel about teen addiction and adoption follows a desperate father's search for his son, who has run away from a wilderness program to find his biological sister in Kentucky.

Jesse's Girl opens as a jarring phone wakes lifelong Brooklynite Teddy Mentor well after midnight. It's the Montana wilderness program saying that his 16-year-old adopted son has vanished - and they haven't a clue where he's gone. Only two weeks ago, Jesse had been taken to the program by escorts to deal with substance abuse problems.

Jeopardizing his flagging PR job in New York, Mentor rushes across the country to find Jesse, who is off on his own quest: to find Theresa, the sister he's never known. When Teddy finally discovers Jesse at a bus stop in Illinois, he is torn between sending him back or joining his son on a journey to find this girl in Kentucky. He decides to go. They become embroiled in a grisly crime when Theresa's abusive husband Beau attacks her - Jesse stabs the big beast of a man, leaving him for dead.

Given Jesse's misdemeanor criminal record, Teddy can't go to the authorities without risking his son's arrest. However, Beau is not dead, merely wounded, and he hunts them down, thirsty for revenge. Teddy, Jesse and Theresa flee across the Bluegrass State with Beau in hot pursuit. Seeking safety but finding trouble, their story leads them to an ultimately shattering question: is Theresa really Jesse's sister or has he been scammed?