In Search of a Tribe (PB) (2021)

Novella's family problems are heightened, when two scumbags attempt to kidnap her. The sixteen year old is saved by a stranger, twenty-three year old BETY Junior, who in the aftermath is beaten by the cops. BETY Junior's motives are also questioned by Novella's dysfunctional family, who accuse the two of an indecent relationship and prohibit them from seeing each other.

Several years later, Novella and BETY Junior meet again, quickly becoming friends and forming a lifelong bond. Their commitment to each other gives Novella all that she wanted from a family, and much more than she thought she could handle.

THE KIDNAPPING

Novella's head bobbed from side to side wildly, as her eyes scanned
her surroundings. Seeing that there was no one around, it came to her
that not escaping the abduction was a strong possibility. That she'd get
locked away from the world. How will they find me? she wondered,
remembering that she wasn't on her usual route. How will anyone know
that I was almost home? She felt her purse still fashioned across her body,
so she knew there was no chance of it falling to the ground. Zipped close,
as always, it had no chance of spilling a trail of clues. She presumed her
pompoms would disappear along with her. Their stretchy loop handles
were secured behind a watch on her left wrist and a hard leather bracelet
on her right wrist.

JUST IN TIME

They tried and tried to get her through the side door of the abandoned
home, but Novella wouldn't stop fighting. It had been easy enough for
Milky to carry the struggling girl down the street, but now he faced the
low ceiling of the basement's entrance and the steepness of its steps. The
narrow, closely-set wooden planks that led to a concrete floor had
complained under his weight when they had scoped out and prepared
the home. Milky was nervous of taking a life-changing fall that would
most likely also break something on their pretty brown captive. The risk
of his health and their prize going to waste, in a nasty tumble down the
steps, gave him pause.

This is taking too long, Milky breathed out heavily. It was an
instant later when he thought to turn her over his shoulder that he saw a
clearly angry dude rush into the driveway. Yank, also seeing him and
feeling caught, immediately backed away from Novella. Scared, Yank's
body jerked a few times as he fought the impulse to run inside the
abandoned house. Both Milky and Yank recognized BETY Junior.

A MUST READ

Wide in scope, ambitious, and populated by complex characters who come together and are torn apart by life and fate, In Search of a Tribe is a powerful novel about friendship and love. Most importantly, it is a novel about family--the family we are born with, and the family we create.