Stone Gardens - Lois Cloarec Hart

For eight years, Grae Jordan has been trapped in a purgatory of her own making. She has spiralled from the privileged life into which she was born to the lowest stratum of society. Grae guards her heart with a protective wall as hard as granite, adorns her body with tattoos and metal, and eschews dating the women she once enjoyed. A rash of convictions for petty crimes distances her even further from her old life. But when she rescues and cares for a skinny street kid named Marcus, her armour cracks, and the world she has long held at bay begins to beckon. When Grae is arrested for defending herself and Marcus against a vicious attack from homophobic co-workers, it appears to be just one more despair in her hard-luck life. But this time her birth family and an assortment of new friends rally to her side and begin to chip away at her stony exterior. The prospect of redemption, and even love, is tantalizingly within reach when misfortune strikes again. Will Grae run in the face of adversity, as she's done for eight bleak years? Or will the love of family, friends, and one special woman prove that her fate is not written in stone?