The Odds of You and Me by Cecilia Galante is a compelling novel about a woman caught between doing what is best for herself and her young son and her loyalty to someone from her past.

Bernadette "Bird" Connolly has finally made her final restitution payment and she is making plans for her and her son Angus's future. Staying out of trouble should not be any problem until her probation ends in two weeks, but when she agrees to run an errand for her mom, she makes a startling discovery that could jeopardize all of her plans. Bird is stunned to find her former co-worker, James Rittenhouse, hiding in the church choir's loft. James has recently been arrested for a bar fight that left his victim in critical condition and while he en route to jail, he somehow managed to escape. Why would Bird jeopardize everything she has worked for to help someone she has not seen in over five years?

After her beloved father's death when she was a teenager, Bird lost her faith, hooked up with the wrong crowd and barely graduated from high school. Moving out as soon she graduated, she began working at a local restaurant and entered into an ill-advised relationship with her manager. Her unexpected friendship with James during this tumultuous time is a bright spot that gives Bird reason to hope for a better future. But an unplanned pregnancy turns her world upside down and after Bird is arrested for writing bad checks, she has no choice but to move back in with her mother and work with her cleaning houses. Their relationship remains tense as Bird tries to put her life back together.

Although their time in each other's life was brief, Bird's friendship with James was quite meaningful. She knows that she is taking a huge risk by helping him after he escapes from police custody but she is unable to report him to the authorities nor can she turn her back on him. As the two friends become reacquainted, Bird is stunned by James' revelations about the bar fight that landed him in so much trouble and after learning the truth, she becomes more determined than before to help him. Bird devises an ill-conceived plan to provide James with a safe place to hide while he decides what to do next, but time is not on their side. Is Bird prepared for the consequences if she caught aiding and abetting a fugitive?

The Odds of You and Me by Cecilia Galante is a captivating story of healing for Bird as she is finally comes to terms with her heartbreaking past. Although her decision to help James is initially unfathomable, her reasons become clear as she reflects on their friendship and the events leading up to their final encounter years earlier. Bird's life is forever altered by the few short, yet meaningful days she spends with James following his escape.

I highly recommend this touching novel to readers of women's fiction. ( )

Cecilia Galante has brought reality to life in The Odds of You and Me. A topic that is very rare in YA because of its sensitivity to some readers has been addressed. That topic—that sensitive, rare topic—is rape.

Bernadette—otherwise known as Bird—has been on probation for writing faulty checks, and has only thirteen days left before she is free to go about her life as she wants. She's come up with a plan for the time she is free, and that plan is to move her son and herself out of her mother's house and into a brand new apartment in Moon Lake.

However, this plan shifts after Bird attends church and finds an old friend—James Rittenhouse—hiding up in the abandoned choir loft. She'd seen him in the news for assaulting someone in a bar just days before, and this had surprised her. He's a wanted man, hiding in the choir loft with a broken leg and a gun pointing straight at her.

My feet are nailed to the floor, my breath a hollow ball in the back of my throat. A ticker tape flashes along the inside of my head: This isn't real. This isn't real. This isn't real. Except it is real. It's James, the cook from the Burger Barn... pointing a gun at the middle of my chest.
This quote struck a cord. Because of the flip-flopping tenses, you get to experience who James and Bird were in the past compared to the present. Seeing him in this vulnerable and terrifying state must've surely worried Bird, and she tries convinces herself that she won't help him—even though she is indebted to him for something huge.

She's too focused on getting herself and her son out of her mother's house and free from probation, that it clouds her mind from the evident fact before her: James is hurt, and she could easily help him.

This book provided a lot of key points in different varies of abuse. Like I said before, there is rape involved in this book, which might turn a few people away. However, this book is one that needs to be recognized more. It faces facts of today's day and era that some people are too afraid to write about.

The plot flowed like nothing else I'd ever read from, the characters were easy to connect with and had lots of development, and the moral was well received. The ending will surprise you and pull your heart straight out of your chest. For this, this book receives a rating of 5/5 stars. ( )

It's a bit unbelievable to me still, how books can sometimes completely blindside you. You'll be going about your daily life, a book will fall into your lap, and suddenly it's the exact story that you need to read at that exact moment. It's like the author knew just who you were, and what was missing, and came along to fill that void. The Odds of You and Me was exactly that. I wasn't expecting this book, it simply showed up for review. I'm honestly so glad that it did. I can't believe I almost missed the opportunity to fall in love with this book.

Bird's story is one of so many layers that it's almost impossible to really touch on them all in this short review. What I can say is that Cecilia Galante isn't afraid to peel back each one of those layers, down to the deepest part of the soul. She allows the reader not even just to crawl into Bird's head, but almost to become her. I felt her pain, her love, her elation, her hate, her confusion, and each bit of it filled in a part of my own soul. I was able to pick her apart, to the point that I was so invested in this story that I sobbed while reading it. My life might not be a mirror to Bird's, lord knows she has it much harder than I do, but just seeing someone else at a place where they still don't feel like they have their footing yet made me whole somehow.

See, Galante doesn't shy away from the parts of life that we all hide from the outside world. Bird has made mistakes, she's grown from them, but she also shows us that there is always growing to do. Her character is one that questions things, examines her feelings, and shuts things away. She's basically any one of us at any given moment. I've never seen such pure emotion laid out on a page, to be honest. As an example, Bird's love for her son Angus is so bright that it's blinding. Yet at the same time she admits that most of the time she struggles to even feel like she mildly knows what she's doing as a parent. Learning, growing, fighting, it's all there in vivid color as Bird simply tries to exist in a world that doesn't always feel hospitable. Nothing here is black and white, everything is up for debate, and I loved that more than I can say.

There are discussions of love here, and the tense relationships that we might have with others. So delicate that they can crack at any moment. There are insights about caring for others, despite their past decisions, and possibly stepping over the boundaries set by society to do good for someone else. As I mentioned above, there is even a discussion on being a parent and feeling like you're constantly floundering. Bird's raw commentary on raising her son, as a single mother, and feeling utterly helpless at times will speak to a lot of readers out there. Or, if you're like me, her battle with religion as an upbringing versus religion as an adult will hit home too. Like I said, there's so much wrapped up here that I can't touch on it all fairly. It simply exists together, in this beautiful web of a story, that will catch you up and likely evoke feelings that you weren't even expecting.

To sum it all up, The Odds of You and Me is absolutely beautiful. It's a raw, emotional, story that isn't afraid to dig deep into the emotions of a woman who is simply trying to navigate life. I recommend you have a box of tissues handy for this book. I really do. ( )

This book snatched me up in the beginning, and never let go until the end. Such a wonderful read!

I went into this book blind, with no expectations of it. So I was stunned with how quickly this book got under my skin and didn't let go.

This is the story of Bird, a young mother, with two weeks of probation left. If she can get through this time with no incidents, she gets her life back, her sense of freedom and self-determination. She's made her mistakes, she's paid her debt, and she just wants to put it all behind her.

But then someone from her past returns, and she has to make a choice: does she show compassion and mercy to someone who once did the same for her, even though it could cost her everything?

Like all the toughest choices, and all the best literature, how Bird handles this speaks to who she is and who she wants to be. It's worth spending time with her to find out how she manages the challenge thrown in her path, and to contemplate how we would answer this call ourselves.

My thanks to the publisher and Library Thing for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.