From the "New York Times" bestselling author and winner of the 2001 NAACP Award for Outstanding Fiction comes a gripping story of a promising young college student with dreams and ambitions far darker than anyone could have imagined.

This book gives an insight into expected etiquette regarding topics such as manners, clothing, conversation, managing servants, and traveling for women. Written during the reign of Queen Victoria, this work will transport the readers back to get a glimpse of the customs prevalent during the mid-1800s.

Leslie can’t seem to avoid trouble, whether it’s at school or at home. Just as life seems at its lowest, Jason McCready, the exceedingly cool new guy at school, enters her life. Now Leslie is the envy of all the girls. But Jason’s appearance is deceiving –he is determined to control every aspect of Leslie’s life and he begins terrorizing her in unimaginable ways. When a substitute teacher reads the private English-class journal in which Leslie reveals Jason’s abuse, Leslie is suddenly forced into hard choices and terrifying action to take back her life.

A Book About a Girl With Mental Retardation.