Bad Apple by Barbara Morgenroth

 Bad Apple is available at Amazon.com

Blurb:
"You tell and next time you won't even be able to crawl away."

Neal Marchal lived with this threat for the next eight years. When she finds her neighbor murdered, she knows who did it. The why is the secret the family has been keeping forever. The reminder to never reveal the secret is her limp. 

She rebuilt her life and now Neal has everything to live for--music, performing and a growing affection for the young man who pulled her to safety.

Then Joe comes home. Neal knows Joe's going to finish what he started 8 years ago because she told. But this time Neal vows the outcome will be different.

My Review:

Where to start...

Neil Marchal, in her own words, is a "damaged girl." The dark mysteries and secrets of her complex family unit would be enough to damage anyone -- at least bruise them up a bit. Truly Lambert, an interesting young man, sees past the battered and bruised exterior of Neil and see the preciousness within and does his best to help Neil see it in herself. With the one remaining source of safety in Neil's life, her aunt Maude, this girl must make the best out of what life has handed her.

When I first bit into this story, I hit a bad spot. As I stumbled through the choppy beginning, I sorted through the rough patches and found the seeds of its potential. In my opinion, Barbara Morgenroth has a lot of polishing and culling to do, but I believe that with revisions and more editing there are a few good apples in this book, and that it could turn into a prized possession. There are moments where you can see Ms. Morgenroth's gift for analogies come through. Like when she describes an old, barbed wire fence as "...green with moss and broken like the teeth of a bum." As I continued, I found several points that I could connect to the young protagonist and see that this story does have life in it.

I would love to have the opportunity to read this story again after adjustments are made. I believe that Bad Apple has the potential to become a wonderfully heart-wrenching story.

Barbara Morgenroth Bio:

Barbara was born in New York City and but now lives somewhere else. Starting her career by writing tweens and YA books, she wound up in television writing soap operas for some years. Barbara then wrote a couple cookbooks and a nonfiction book on knitting. She returned to fiction and wrote romantic comedies.

When digital publishing became a possibility, Barbara leaped at the opportunity and has never looked back. In addition to the 15 traditionally published books she wrote, in digital format Barbara has something to appeal to almost every reader from Mature YAs like the Bad Apple series and the Flash series, to contemporary romances like Love in the Air published by Amazon/Montlake, and Unspeakably Desirable, Nothing Serious and Almost Breathing.