Things I Hoped For

This beautiful and unpredictable coming-of-age story set in the 1960s, finds our heroine, Sandy Forte, leaving the menacing streets of Chicago's south side in search of her first summer romance. It begins in the most unlikely place—on vacation in rural Texas with her grandmother, Minnie. This journey leads not only to lasting love but to a harrowing adventure where she and her friends unearth ancestral secrets buried in the ground for centuries. It all starts when Sandy and her friends get lost at night in a forest filled with fire, smoke, and haints. That's when she discovers she's been given an amazing, secret weapon that she uses to light not only their path but a gateway into the unknown realm of the supernatural. Her grandmother calls it, “the light of the firefly.” Her uncle Zippy simply says, “It's a gift of Faith.” Sandy also discovers that she has the capacity to be in love with not only one but two boys at the same time. However, before the summer ends, she knows she has to make a choice. Will it be Leroy, the boy she's known since childhood, or the handsome, shy poet, Ronnie Lee?