Virgin Snow

The truth does not always set you free.... At 13, Cosi McCarthy wants what every girl in Buffalo wants in the 1960s-to become a happy wife and loving mother. But that dream collapses when her father dies, ugly family secrets emerge, and her widowed mother is trapped in the double standards of a patriarchal culture and impoverished by the city's failing economy. Swept up in the idealism of youth, Cosi soon learns how hard it is to save the world, and that love is easy to mistake when you have no idea what it looks like.

"From the highly charged opening scene of young Cosi slipping into her dying father's bedroom to the irreverent humor that classifies a handy crucifix and candles as "An emergency kit, of sorts, for Catholics on their last legs," Moxie Gardiner asserts her writing chops in this coming-of-age story of a girl growing up in Buffalo, New York. Cosi's heart-rending experiences spring from her desperate efforts to define herself in a culture that expects certain willing sacrifices. Polished by Gardiner's love for her hometown, Virgin Snow shines. Keep tissues handy." --Ginny Fite, award-winning author of The Physics of Things