About RAISING HOPE
Ruth Teller was a tough-talking smart aleck who figured she was going nowhere fast. Sara Lynn Hoffman was a prim over-achiever who knew she was destined to do great things. Then life happened to them, and all their expectations were turned upside down . . .
There couldn't have been two more dissimilar girls in the town of Ridley Falls. Ruth Teller, raised by an always-exhausted single mother, barely scraped through high school before she settled into a minimum-wage job. Sara Lynn Hoffman, doted upon by her well-to-do parents, graduated class valedictorian before conquering college and law school. Their paths shouldn't have crossed again, but life threw them some curve balls and now they are sharing a house . . . and more. Together, they are raising a girl named Hope, who came into their lives as an infant and changed everything.
Set in the summer of Hope's twelfth year and moving back and forth in time, this heartwarming novel is the story of an unlikely family. It's the story of Hope, on the edge of growing up and yearning to find out everything she can about her birth parents. It's the story of Ruth and Sara Lynn -- the girls they once were and the women they've become. It's also the story of Aimee, Sara Lynn's mother, and Mary, Ruth's mother - both of whom formed their daughters for better and for worse.
Told from the perspectives of four unique female voices from three generations, this luminous debut novel is about mothers, daughters and the power of family love. RAISING HOPE exquisitely depicts the bravery of ordinary people risking everything to find out just how full their lives - and hearts -- can be.