Doll Hearts

17-year-old Julianne Bell's life is caving in on her. Literally. Her mother is a hoarder and shopping addict whose retail drug of choice is collectible dolls. Their house is not a home but more a bizarro game of Garage Sale Tetris in which flea market finds, Amazon boxes, and QVC shipments are puzzled together in a labyrinth of consumer excess and looming bankruptcy. It's a situation Julianne has grown adept at hiding. That is, until the day her school cafeteria account slips into the red. Meal-skipping is not an option for someone with Type 1 Diabetes, so when Julianne has a seizure in class, her father claims custody. Living two hours from her home, with her dad and annoyingly perfect step-mom, is not how Julianne planned to spend her summer, let alone her senior year. Needing fast cash to help her mom avoid foreclosure, Julianne takes a job at an amusement park, and as luck would have it, her former classmate - heartthrob Brandon Wright - also works there. Between sweeping up cigarette butts at the park, racing to solve her mother's financial crisis, managing her diabetes , and navigating a budding romance, Julianne Bell's messy life just got a whole lot messier.

Set against a summery backdrop of roller coasters, pool parties, and cute boys, DOLL HEARTS explores issues of family bonds, compulsive hoarding, and first love.


Genre: Young Adult Romance