For Chloe, it was enough. More than enough. So she packs her bags and heads for the bus station, headed for who-knows-where and who-knows-what. Where turns out to be Arizona, and what turns out to be a liberating journey of self discovery and the realization that freedom has as many risks as it does rewards. As Chloe's story unfolds in Victoria Lipman's beautifully written and wonderfully entertaining debut novel, it becomes clear that leaving Alva is not only the best thing Chloe could do, it's the only thing she could do.

After a warped childhood of emotional deprivation, of being...