2017 Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention: C. Kennedy Elpída

[reviews_and_ramblings]

1) I enjoyed this story and would have no trouble recommending it to others to read.
2) This is a well written book, and part of the series involving Christy, a sexual abuse survivor and victim of sex trafficking. The characters are well developed, complex, and realistic. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to understand what abuse does to a LGBT character and how survivors can still find hope and love.
3) This book kept me captivated chapter after chapter. The boys, Jake and Michael's behavior was par with their age (all over the place), although sometimes I thought their behavior was more childish than it needed to be (again, age). The story is quite heart wrenching, reading what Thimi and Christy went through and knowing there are so many young ones out there going through the same. C. Kennedy has done an extensive research to get this book written with accuracy and I don't envy him, I know it would've been too difficult for me to have done the same and in the end, come out emotionally intact.  I wish there was a fourth book for I didn't care much for how it ended; too open and I would've loved to see how/what punishment the evil families would've gotten. All in all, a very emotional story. Well done!
4) Hands down, this is one of the most powerful books I've ever read.

C. Kennedy Elpída
Gay - Young Adult
Series: Elpida (Book 3)
Paperback: 350 pages
Publisher: Harmony Ink Press (May 30, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1635333733
ISBN-13: 978-1635333732
Amazon: C. Kennedy Elpída

Elpida: Book Three

Michael and Christy attended prom, graduated high school, and Michael leads the USATF tryouts. With Oxford University on the horizon, his future looks bright, and he believes life has returned to normal after Christy’s rescue. He couldn’t be more wrong.

Christy has been free from a life of slavery for more than a year and has made remarkable progress due in no small part to the love he found with Michael. But the recent prosecution of a past abuser has shattered the life he so painstakingly built out of nothing but a mountain of horror. He now faces the daunting task of building a new life—yet again.

Twelve-year-old Thimi has been missing since Christy left Greece and, unbeknownst to everyone, has hidden out in a vacant mansion in Glyfada. Learning of Christy’s survival is the only thing that brings him out of hiding. People, open spaces, even the most common of sounds frighten him beyond reason. A mere ghost of a boy, Thimi arrives in the US with no knowledge of the outside world—the only constant in his life a purple marble.

Lost, shattered, and afraid, only hope gives them the strength and courage they need to begin anew.