First Line: Heartbroke

The first line of Heartbroke by Chelsea Bieker is

Now I didn’t know a thing about mining when I got into it with Spider Dick one night working at the Barge.

The book is a collection of stories about young poor women seeking love, and, generally, not finding it. Goodreads offers the following summary:

a defining book of stories set in California’s Central Valley, where everyone is seeking or sabotaging love under an unrelenting sun.

United by the stark and sprawling landscapes of California’s Central Valley, the characters of Heartbroke boil with reckless desire. A woman steals a baby from a shelter in an attempt to salvage her own lost motherhood. A phone-sex operator sees divine opportunity when a lavender-eyed cowboy walks into her life. A mother and a son selling dream catchers along a highway that leads to a toxic beach manifest two young documentary filmmakers into their realm. And two teenage girls play a dangerous online game with destiny.

 

I enjoyed the book, but it you are looking for something uplifting, look elsewhere.