Rescuing Hope By Susan Norris

I received this book from Glass Road Publications for no charge in exchange for my honest review of this book. The opinions expressed here are my own.


Book Description:

Every two minutes, evil strips innocence from a child and sells her into slavery for sex. Not in a third-world country, but in the United States of America. Before you take another breath, the next victim will be tricked or taken from her family by a profit-hungry criminal.
She could be a neighbor. A friend. Your sister. Your daughter. You

At fourteen, Hope Ellis is the all-American girl with a good life—until the day she tries to help her mom with their cross-town move by supervising the movers. When they finish, one of the men returns to the house and rapes her. Held silent by his threats, darkness begins to engulf her. But the rape proves to be the least of Hope's troubles. In a gasping attempt at normalcy, she succumbs to the attention of a smooth-talking man on the subway. He promises acceptance. He declares his love. He lures her out from under the shelter of her suburban life.
Hope's disappearance sets a community in motion. She's one of their own. They determine to find Hope, whatever the cost, before she's lost forever.
Will you?



My Thoughts:

Rescuing Hope By Susan Norris is a work of fiction about a very real thing happening in OUR country everyday: Sex Trafficking of teenage girls.  These young girls are lured in and taken from their families by these monsters. In Rescuing Hope, Hope is a normal 14 yr old, she and her Mother move across town with the help of movers. One of the movers comes back and rapes her.  As Hope tries to put her life back together she is taken in with a man on the subway with all the right words and lures her into the sex trafficking trade. Her family and community work together to do whatever it takes to find her.

Rescuing Hope is a very intense book. It deals with very sensitive subject matter that people need to be aware of. Susan Norris brings to light the many,many girls we lose into the sex trafficking trade here in the United States, not in some far away country, but right here in our country, in our cities.  As the mother of two teen-aged daughters and a survivor of sexual assault, this issue is near to my heart.  The story is hard to read in that the subject matter and events but is extremely well written and well researched.  Susan Norris truly captures this issue and the effects it has on the victim, the family, and the community.  I found myself unable to put this book down.  I also found myself crying in some areas and angry in others.  Susan Norris brings this issue out in the open, to make sure that everyone is aware and educated on this subject.  I really admire her hard work and her heart for this issue, its not an easy one to address.  I would not recommend this book for young/teenage girls to read on their own, something that definitely should be adult led. The QA at the end of the book really helps guide discussions. I recommend this book to anyone. It's an issue that people need to be aware of.  I look forward to reading more books by Susan Norris.