Book Excerpt from Forty-Two Minutes:

I constantly wonder what it's like to be normal. I've never known. To look at me you'd think I am. On the outside, my life looks almost boring. My name is Lexy Monroe and I live in the suburbs of Los Angeles. I just turned eighteen two weeks ago. My dad's name is Richard. He is a lawyer at a firm downtown.

My mom is Victoria and she used to laugh and she used to sing me to sleep at night and she used to be involved in the PTA when I was in elementary school.

My mom used to do a lot of things. But now, she's just an alcoholic.

Book Description:
Lexy Monroe has spent her entire life trying to survive the nightmare of her mother’s alcoholism. Every minute of every day is a countdown to the next blackout. She fears nothing will ever change, until one day she finds a letter that changes everything.

Dark, painful secrets are uncovered as Lexy travels to her family’s ranch in Tennessee - a family she didn’t even realize she had. She needs to find out the truth about her mom that causes her to want to destroy herself the way she does. She knows something horrible happened to her there, and is determined to find out what her mother has been hiding from her all these years.

While at the ranch, Lexy meets Nick Walker who is just as damaged and broken as she is. A devastating accident has caused him to shut down and shut everyone out. But just as Lexy begins to break through his walls, a terrifying tragedy threatens to tear all their lives apart.