Lisa Carlucci wakes up one morning after another night of meaningless sex, looks in the mirror and realizes that she no longer wants to treat her body like a Holiday Inn. She’s going to hold out for love.  The only problem is, love might come in the form of her ski bum best friend, who lives next door with his ski bum friends in a trailer known as “the Kennel.”

Cassie Jones, at age ten, has lost her mother to cancer and no longer believes in anything anymore.  She knows her father is desperately worried about her, and she constantly looks for messages from her deceased mother through the heart-shaped rocks they once collected in the streams and hills of Sparkle.
Three people at the crossroads of heartbreak and healing.  Three lives that will be changed one winter in Sparkle.  One tender, funny, tear-jerking novel you won’t soon forget. 

Idgie Says:
The book description pretty much tells the story fully, but what it doesn't tell is how the characters reach out a grab you.  They're fully accessible. 

I wasn't at first very interested in this novel only because I didn't feel up to another "finding yourself after disaster" type of reading.  I sat down to browse thru the book and suddenly realized that I was chapters into the story and had not had that "meh" moment hit yet.  I found myself interested in the characters lives and what would happen to them. 

Kaya does a very good job of making these characters people you care about, people you wouldn't mind living next to and having in your everyday life.  And that's a talent!