Forgotten Seventeen and Homeless By Melody Carlson

Description from Goodreads:
With absent parents, overdue rent, and no one to turn to, Adele is forced into the hard, cold world of homelessness. While striving to maintain the pretense of a “normal” life, Adele attempts to finish high school, all the while concealing her secret. But is she strong enough to keep up the act? Forgotten will propel teen readers into a world where promises are broken, life is not fair, and challenges seem unbearable, while still offering assurance that solid faith, loyal friends, and a persistent spirit will prevail.

My take on this book:
I had mixed feelings on how to write this review. I want to start out by saying that I couldn't put this book down. The story is so touching that when you read how Adele's mom just abandons her your heart just breaks for her.
Adele had always had to be the parent in her family, her mom has always been unstable and usually Adele is the one that has to make sure everything is taken care of, so when Carlene (Adele's mom) get offered a job in another town Adele finally hopes things might turn around.
Its Adele's senior yr in high school and starting out in a new school seems to be working out. She has been accepted into a clique of rich kids and actually has a boyfriend. So when Carlene starts spiraling out of control and loses her job Adele is determined to keep the truth from her friends. She starts telling so many lies that she can barely keep them straight. But when her mom leaves her and she is kicked out of the condo and finds herself living in a van just how long can she keep up the lies before she is found out?
Will Adele be strong enough to survive and will she realize that their are people who will help her if she will only let them?
I loved this story actually read in in about an hour, I found it to be a real thought provoking story, the story of homelessness and how people actually become homeless is something we don't often think about.
As you read Adele's story you can feel her misery and suffering, but you also get a true sense of her strong spirit and her will to survive, and how finding faith and accepting Gods love ultimately saves her.
Overall this is a great book but I had a few problems with the ending. First Adele's mom isn't mentioned its like once she left she was really never a part of the story, also Adele's dad was barely touched on. But the biggest issue was that throughout the book the characters are totally believable but then the ending seems to good to be true, it also felt hurried with only a few pages to let us know how the story wrapped up.
Even with that said I would still reccomend this book because it a story that tugs at your heart strings.

I was provided a copy of this book from Navpress to review, but in no way does that alter my opinion of this book.