Review of Little Peach by Peggy Kern

Advance Review of Peggy Kern's Little Peach

Release Date: March 10th, 2015

Synopsis as found on GoodReads.com:

What do you do if you're in trouble?

When Michelle runs away from her drug-addicted mother, she has just enough money to make it to New York City, where she hopes to move in with a friend. But once she arrives at the bustling Port Authority, she is confronted with the terrifying truth: she is alone and out of options.

Then she meets Devon, a good-looking, well-dressed guy who emerges from the crowd armed with a kind smile, a place for her to stay, and eyes that seem to understand exactly how she feels.

But Devon is not what he seems to be, and soon Michelle finds herself engulfed in the world of child prostitution where he becomes her “Daddy” and she his “Little Peach.” It is a world of impossible choices, where the line between love and abuse, captor and savior, is blurred beyond recognition.

This hauntingly vivid story illustrates the human spirit’s indomitable search for home, and one girl’s struggle to survive.  

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It is hard to review a book that ended long before I really got to know any of the characters. At only a couple hundred pages, this book is a very quick read. While the story is ultra realistic and I can picture it happening right now (because it is happening right now, everyday across the US), I never really connected with Michelle (Peach). Don't get me wrong, I feel immensely sad for the life the character is tricked into, but I never really got to know her as a character. Maybe that was the author's point in writing this story... these girls are lost & forgotten with no one who cares for them. They are never known by anyone.

While parts of the story confused me, like why I didn't find out until halfway through the story that Baby is only 12 years old (I thought she was an older girl dressing much younger), I do believe this story is thought-provoking and can be very eye-opening to a lot of young girls. While I have known about human trafficking from the news, different television series, and other books, some readers of a different generation might read this for the first time and realize that the world is not all Champagne & Fairy Tales.