Wild Roses

Book excerpt: Cassie is falling in love with her stepfather Dino’s brilliant young violin student, all while trying to cover up his increasingly erratic behavior, in this story of intense love, family, and secrets from Printz Honor medal winner and National Book Award finalist Deb Caletti. Seventeen-year-old Cassie Morgan lives with a time bomb, a.k.a. her stepfather, Dino Cavalli. To the public, Dino is a world-renowned violin player and composer. To Cassie, he’s an erratic, self-centered bully. And he’s getting worse. Dino no longer sleeps, and he grows increasingly paranoid. Before, Cassie was angry. Now she is afraid. Enter Ian Waters: a brilliant young violinist, and Dino’s first-ever student. The minute Cassie lays eyes on Ian she knows she’s doomed to fall head-over-heels in love with him. Cassie thought she understood that love could bring pain, but this union will have consequences she could not have imagined.