GRR Reviews House Without Lies (Lily's House) by Rachel Branton

Lily was not loved by her parents, who only want her to marry well. Lily instead dedicated her limited income (working in her father's cereal factory part-time, and attending school part-time) and her tiny little apartment into a small girl's home, already hosting several runaway girls, way more than the lease allows. When Jameson Perez entered her life, Lily can't stand the interference, but he convinced her that the only way for her to do better is by going legit, and get certified as a foster mother, and work within the law instead of around it. He linked her up with resources she hadn't had before. However, working within the system also means being limited by the speed of the bureaucracy and the limit of the law. When one of the girls was forced to go back to the possibly abusive father due to lack of proof of abuse, Lily is contemplating going fugitive, but that would mean losing all the other girls too...

The romance is so-so, but the story about the girls, the foster family system, the legal system, and all the other stuff is what took the story over the top. The author has done her research or first-hand experience in crafting the little details into the story on how the system can fail the children it was supposed to protect. Things do get better by the end, but I'm not spoiling how.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: A do-gooder girl, a guy who wanted to help, and a bureaucracy that sometimes fails its charges

Overall Rating: 5/5

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