Cross My Heart is the story of a 17 year old girl from a country-family who runs away from home after deciding that she doesn’t want to marry her boyfriend as is expected of her just because she is pregnant (she was never asked about the marriage, he just asked her parents and it was excepted that she would accept the situation), and an ex-crim in his early twenties who has just got out of jail on good behaviour. Both looking for work. He offers her a lift on his bike to save her being picked up by a group of guys he knows is danger and they end up riding across half of Australia.
It sounds odd, but it was really interesting. It's about two people’s struggle to find work; their relationship interactions are more to do with not knowing whether they can trust the other person, they both come from backgrounds of abuse and don’t have a family behind them when they desperately need it. When do you step in when someone else is beating up their child? What do you have to offer a child of your own when you’re seventeen and practically destitute? It also challenged stereotypes a bit - the most supportive, compassionate, together, humane character that provides the support both Michelle and Mick really need and is practically unflappable is an ex-crim himself.
The story is also interesting in the way it is told, as some of it is from Michelle’s first person, some Mick’s first person and some third person narrator, and also because of the way much of the characters' histories are not revealed until later on.

It was incredibly captivating, very real and I couldn’t get it out of my head. Definitely one I’d recommend. Not a happy story, but it has a hopeful ending ( )