Virgin Territory by James Lecesne

Virgin Territory explores the power of faith and our need to believe in miracles. Sixteen-year-old Dylan Flack is uprooted from his cozy life in New York City by the death of his mother of cancer the night before 9/11. He finds himself transplanted to Jupiter, Florida, and in the chaos of the move discovers that his father has lost their treasured collection of family photos. Dylan feels that he has begun to lose the memory of his mother's face, and without access to those pictures of their past together, each day stretches darkly into a future without hope.

Enter: the Virgin Club, a nomadic group of trailer kids whose mostly single parents drag them all over the country in search of sightings of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Although not looking for membership in any club, Dylan falls in love with their leader, Angela, who believes that change occurs in direct proportion to desire and the willingness to take risks. In a series of misadventures and brushes with the law in what Dylan comes to think of as "virgin territory," she teaches Dylan to risk a future without his favorite parent. Miraculously his newfound courage leads to a long overdue confession from his father that brings them closer together and catapults Dylan into a future that holds more promise.

From Amazon

So, yeah. I had a really hard time with this book. It sounded like an interesting premise about faith, redemption, love, and longing. That's what it was about, in the end, but the execution was very poor. I felt like the author was trying to make Dylan deeper than he really was and that all Dylan's crazy thinking was just a distraction from the non-story. The tone was so jumpy from one extreme to the next that I had a hard time keeping up. Not to mention that Angela just frustrated me beyond belief!! She was quite shallow and her actions spoke much louder about her motives and character than her words ever did.

Honestly, I'd have to say that unless you really want to try it, I'd pass on this book. It just wasn't my cup of tea. There is an audience for every book and unfortunately I did not fall into that category for this one.