Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 12/01/2020 Gr 9 Up—Until she was 12 years old, Nora, who is white, had many names. Each came with a unique personality designed to help her mother complete the con she ran with the men she targeted. Beautiful and blonde, athletic with dark braids, and other appearances, each girl served a purpose to pull the most money out of the game. The last con ended when her mother fell in love with a man who knew the game far better than she, leading to a disastrous confrontation that sends him and Nora's mother to prison. Rescued by her older sister, Lee, who escaped the same family dynamic, Nora is helped by therapy, her white best friend Wes, and her new love, freckled brunette Iris. Also children of abuse, they help her to regain a sense of who she really is. All of this is threatened, however, when one day they happen to be in a bank as a robbery unfolds. This action-packed story sizzles with suspense as Nora quickly grasps that this is a situation she not only understands, but all that she has learned until now can work in her favor. She is going to run a daring con to facilitate their escape. Told in alternating chapters as the bank con unfolds, readers meet each of the girls that Nora became, the results of their cons and how each shapes her, giving her the skills she uses now to escape. But Nora can't do this alone. VERDICT In this thriller, characters prove that they can rely on their strength, friendship, and desire to be the confident and caring people they know themselves to be.—Connie Williams, Petaluma, CA - Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 12/01/2020 *Starred Review* For the last five years, Nora O'Malley has lived with her sister, Lee, cobbling together a normal life. Her biggest problem now is how to apologize to Wes, her best friend and ex-boyfriend, for hiding the fact that she and their mutual friend, Iris, are a couple. When the three of them meet at the bank for an errand after Wes walks in on Nora and Iris, Nora's braced for an awkward scene, not a violent one—but life-or-death is exactly what she gets when two men initiate an out-of-control bank robbery. But five years ago? Nora wasn't Nora—she was a string of different girls, raised to help her mom con shady criminal businessmen; Nora has spent years recovering from the traumas those girls both endured and inflicted. She'll need every bit of cunning she learned from them if she's going to get Iris and Wes out of this bank alive—even if it means showing the girl she's beginning to love her darkest self. Sharpe (Far from You, 2014) puzzles together an arrestingly incisive narrative that darts between the past and present. With breathtaking precision, she tracks each moment Nora spends in the bank, while also layering in piecemeal the moments from her past, tinged with pain and resilience, that made her who she is. Fiercely captivating and impressively characterized, this tightly plotted thriller is engrossing from start to finish. - Copyright 2020 Booklist.