Title: Out of the Easy
Author: Ruta Sepetys
Genre: young adult fiction

Ruta Sepetys is becoming one of my favorite young adult authors; it's hard to believe she's only written two novels! Out of the Easy was just as gripping as her first novel, Between Shades of Grey. This was the July selection (picked by moi!) for the book club I'm a part of.

Josie Moraine has big dreams of getting out of The Big Easy. She lives above a bookshop in order to stay out of her abusive mother's reach and she cleans the brothel where her mother works (the madam is more protective of Josie than Josie's mother). Josie dreams of attending college up north where she can shed the "daughter of a whore" reputation that has clung to her for her entire life. She laboriously saves her money in a secret hiding spot. A chance encounter with a bookshop customer and her mother's possible role in a crime threatens her dreams... Add in a gangster and a tentative love triangle,and you have a smart yet fun read about the life in the underbelly of New Orleans in 1950.