Shortcake
900 Views · Ongoing · Sis Shepherd
Some storms you can see coming. Some you don’t recognize until you’re standing in the middle of them.
Gemma Havley has never wanted to leave Florence, Oklahoma. It’s a town of wheat fields and motorcycle rallies, Sunday suppers and gossip, and a bar her brother runs with the boy who’s called her “Shortcake” her whole life. But when a prestigious writing program in Colorado offers her one of twenty-five spots in the country, she packs her pink flannel and her strawberry vape, kisses Tony goodbye in her parents’ driveway, and goes.
At Morton College she meets Chase Logan. He’s charming, brilliant and generous, and he seems to be the only person in the program who believes in her. He brings her coffee exactly the way she likes it. He opens doors. He knows what she should wear, who she should know and who she should become. By the time the snow comes and the roads close, Gemma can barely remember the girl who left home.
Shortcake is a story about the quiet ways control disguises itself as love, the courage it takes to say no and be heard, and the people who will drive nine hours through a blizzard to bring you home. It’s about a family who refuses to let go, a best friend who writes everything down, and a young woman learning that her story belongs to her.
Content note: this novel depicts sexual assault, coercive control, and suicidal thoughts.
Gemma Havley has never wanted to leave Florence, Oklahoma. It’s a town of wheat fields and motorcycle rallies, Sunday suppers and gossip, and a bar her brother runs with the boy who’s called her “Shortcake” her whole life. But when a prestigious writing program in Colorado offers her one of twenty-five spots in the country, she packs her pink flannel and her strawberry vape, kisses Tony goodbye in her parents’ driveway, and goes.
At Morton College she meets Chase Logan. He’s charming, brilliant and generous, and he seems to be the only person in the program who believes in her. He brings her coffee exactly the way she likes it. He opens doors. He knows what she should wear, who she should know and who she should become. By the time the snow comes and the roads close, Gemma can barely remember the girl who left home.
Shortcake is a story about the quiet ways control disguises itself as love, the courage it takes to say no and be heard, and the people who will drive nine hours through a blizzard to bring you home. It’s about a family who refuses to let go, a best friend who writes everything down, and a young woman learning that her story belongs to her.
Content note: this novel depicts sexual assault, coercive control, and suicidal thoughts.
