I'm not usually one for second chance love but I loved this book. ( )

Review: Calico by Callie Hart.

The story was well-written and interesting. I liked most of the characters but one of the main characters, Callan seemed to have the behavior of a control freak and I thought his attitude was egotistical. I thought his character was over-developed for this type of story. The story was based on an abusive father and a teenage love that was cut short until years later when they met again. The content stirs emotions and somewhat hard to read at times. The author describes some graphic scenes but in reality she was honest. There were also some graphic sex scenes near the end of the book.

Callie’s father emotionally and physically abused her for some years after her mother died. Callie felt she had no one to turn to until one day she meets Callan at the school library who lives across the street from her. They became friends and fell in love but she would never be able to be seen with him. Callie grew up isolated and had kept many secrets from her father and from Callan. No one ever knew she was being abused and she wanted to keep it that way. Callan and Callie talked about their future together after they graduated from high school. However, another unfortunate issue made them both keeping a secret….

In a short time her father found out Callie had been intimate with a boy and ordered her to go to the basement, for that is the place he abused her and locked her in whenever he wanted. However, this time Callie didn’t think she would make it out alive because the first thing her father did this time was throw her down the stairs. After a horrible beating she spent a few days down in the basement screaming for help after she woke up on the dirt floor from unconsciousness. She knew she was hurt bad and her pain was unbearable….

Callan and the school thought she was away at a scholarship intern program for a week because she was just awarded it through her school. This gave Callie time to heal some of her wounds and decide what she was going to tell Callan. She had made up her mind to leave home, somewhere unknown at the age of seventeen and try to start a new life. She didn’t want Callan to get hurt by her father so she claimed she was raped and soon she told Callan a different story about their secret and she left home with a broken heart and still in love with Callan.

Twelve years later she is called back to her home to settle the affairs of her father’s death. Once again she was frighten of the unknown and didn’t want anything to do with his burial but she thought she could get the arrangement done fast and she could return back in LA where she now lives but things were never easy for Callie and once she got to her childhood home the story takes on a whole new twist….. ( )