Heart on a Chain by Cindy C. Bennett 4 heart wrenching stars “That doesn’t sound quite right to me—what choice did I have but to survive?” I had this book on my to read list like forever and finally took the time to read it. Well, with this book I’ve experienced sadness, anger, hope and happiness… it’s a real emotional roller coaster. It reminded me a lot to the feeling I had while reading Reason to Breathe by Rebecca Donovan.Kate is a 17 years old girl that has been suffering abuse at home, physical and emotional, since she was 9 years old. Her father is an alcoholic and her mother has a very strong pill dependency, so her home life hasn’t been the best, ‘cause apart from the abuse, her family is poor. Unfortunately the abuse doesn’t end at home, since she is bullied at school by her classmates. She had a friend at school, Henry, who had feelings for Kate but moved out of town when she was 11 years old, but Henry is back for his senior year and finds a very different Kate, shy, closed off and hiding in the corners to avoid contact with her schoolmates. She even eat her lunch sitting in the corner floor at the cafeteria!.Henry tries to approach her, to be her friend again, but she doesn’t understand why he’s trying so hard to be her friend if this could be a social suicide for him. But well, Henry does have something in mind, because he’s been in love with her since she was 11 years, so he tries to save her, even not knowing all the abuse she suffers at home. “Kate, I’ve loved you for years. I mean, I know twelve-year-olds don’t know what love is, so I guess I should say I’ve really liked you for years. But when I saw you this year, I knew. I knew we should be together. I just didn’t know how hard you were going to make me work to get you to even like me. So, yeah, of course I want you to love me back.” The story is sad and beautiful at the same time, the beautiful parts are all related with Henry and his family, Henry tries to teach Kate how to live without fear at school, how to stand up for herself, even by protecting her and be her knight in shining armor. Honestly the abuse parts were difficult to read, I mean how can people be this way? How can they torture someone just for fun?, unfortunately, as many can say is unbelievable that a person can suffer this much abuse at home or at school, it really can happen, and sometimes reality is even worse.The end was sweet, but I wanted to have more details of their future together, you know have a glimpse at their HEA, but it was good.Overall a great reading, but you need to be prepared for the emotional roller coaster!. View all my reviews