Book Notes: Heart on a Chain by Cindy C Bennett

"17-year-old Kate has lived her whole life in abject poverty, with an alcoholic father and drug-addicted mother, who severely abuses Kate. At school, her second-hand clothing marks her as a target. Her refusal to stand up for herself makes her the recipient of her classmates taunts and bullying. That is, until Henry returns. Henry Jamison moved away six years earlier, just as he and Kate had begun to develop feelings for one another. He returns to find the bright, funny, outgoing girl he had known now timidly hiding in corners, barely speaking to anyone around her, suspicious of even him. Kate can't figure out what game Henry is playing with her - for surely it is a game. What else would the gorgeous, popular boy from her past want with her? Kate finally decides to trust Henry's intentions, opening her heart to him. Just when it seems he might be genuine in his friendship, tragedy strikes, threatening everything Kate has worked so hard to gain. Can Henry help her to overcome this new devastation, or will it tear them apart forever?"

When I first received this book, I was kind of delaying reading it only because I didn't want to get in a totally down mood. Though this book did somewhat do that, it also mixed it in with uplifting moments, causing a lot of roller coaster high and low moments. I'm not a very emotional person, but even this book made me get teary during parts. The author did a great job at making you feel the way Kate felt. The things she goes through in life really saddened me to think people were really capable of performing some of the said acts. I've never wished bodily harm on book characters, but this book made me hope the worst things happened to them.

One of the aspects I loved about this book was that it didn't make the love story the main focus really, even though it was a main part of the story. I always remembered, "Oh my god! What's going to happen at home?" in the back of my mind. Henry really is like her Prince Charming. Really...He's so perfect, that towards the end I was almost hoping he'd show some flaw.  However, not-so-secretly I'd love to have a Henry in my life so I guess I really shouldn't complain, huh?