BOOKLIST
"Hunter feels abandoned after the death of his kindhearted foster father. With no respite from loneliness or his abusive foster mother, Hunter resumes praying to Gabriel, an angel Hunter believes visited him as a child. His prayers are answered all too clearly: the $10 needed to escape hazing appears in his locker, and then his antagonistic foster sister is harassed by a wild-haired biker. Confused, Hunter seeks counsel from a priest. Just as Hunter settles in to contemplating the role of divinity in his life, his "angel" reveals himself as his biological father, Gabriel Salvatore, recently released from prison for murdering Hunter's birth mother. lie abducts Hunter, who wants to escape yet relishes the opportunity to fill in the blanks about his past. Though the switch between the first and second parts of the book is somewhat jarring, the effect keeps the pace moving briskly. Hunter's story finishes on a realistic but hopeful note. Sweeney's latest is, like many of her previous, a notable choice for reluctant readers."
- Heather Booth

KIRKUS
"This fast-paced family drama will appeal to fans of The Rules of Survival (2006) by Nancy Werlin and The Compound (2008) by S.A. Bodeen. Thirteen-year-old Hunter feels utterly alone in a foster home, where his three "sisters" undermine his efforts to stay out of trouble and his greedy, cruel foster mother Stephanie blames him for everything. When the arrival of a motorcycle-riding stranger coincides with an unusual run of good luck for Hunter, he is tempted to believe that the man is a supernatural guardian angel sent to save him from his unhappy circumstances. But the reality is that the man is his biological father, an ex-con who wants his son back by any means necessary. In a particularly harrowing climax, the man violently confronts Stephanie and kidnaps Hunter. Terrified of being returned to his old life but unsure of his new one, Hunter has to decide if he can live with the consequences of his father's morally ambiguous actions. Suspenseful and unexpectedly tender, this short, action-packed thriller will be an easy sell to reluctant readers.