Proof that engaging YA stories can come in non-intimidating lengths.

Lux is trying to start over. Her mom can’t take her fighting anymore, and has shipped her off to her ex-Marine dad in the middle of the school year. If she can’t make things work at her new school— Harlem’s Augusta Savage School of the Arts— the next stop is military school.

“The school looked like it gave out second chances: a place where she might find her place.”

Lux slowly gets acclimated to her new life. And she might be starting to make real friends. But in the back of her mind,

“No one could know the real reason she had to transfer in the middle of the year or what had happened at her old school. No one could know how often she got angry, or that videos and photos of her latest fight existed.... She’d been at enough schools to know that if people knew your history, you never got a real chance to start over.”

Can Lux recreate herself? Will she always be trying to outrun her past?

Ashley Woodfolk pulls off authentic characters and a compelling story in less than 150 pages. An excellent hi-lo series opener.

Thank you, Penguin Young Readers and NetGalley, for the advance readers copy.