Carmen and Grace have been together, side by side, since their earliest memories. These cousins are more like sisters, helping each other through a childhood filled with poverty, neglect and drugs. They were their own mothers, protectors and teachers. However, when Grace ends up being taken into the home of Doña Durka, a drug kingpin in their neighborhood, her life becomes more stable, and she wants Carmen to enjoy the same benefits. Durka is, in equal measure, an enormous help and big trouble.

"CARMEN AND GRACE is heart-wrenching to read and compels us to talk back to the characters with some advice.... As a debut novelist, Melissa Coss Aquino runs a gauntlet and wins handily."

In the Bronx, they’re all just trying to get by. Durka’s underground drug empire is crucial to their survival. She teaches the girls important lessons about self-reliance and power as a woman in a man’s domain. When Durka suddenly dies, Grace attempts to take over and grow out the business. Carmen tries to take her leave and move on to a new life, but she carries Durka’s past (and her own deeds) with her. When she finds out she’s pregnant, she keeps it a secret, even from Grace. But is there enough time for her to set up a new existence before her old family drags her back in?

Like Oliver Twist and Fagin, Carmen and Grace saw Durka as their benefactor and boss, mother and queen. They benefited from a strong bond and a found family, made up of badass women who only wanted to pull strings and change their poverty-stricken ways with a little illegal handling. Will the girls’ relationship survive as they attempt to operate at cross-purposes? Or will their bond prove to be the most unbreakable of all their relationships?

Carmen and Grace are two people searching for a way to stay alive and thrive in a difficult, dangerous world. Their voices are clear, and their intentions are made quite plain --- which is why the book’s tension really ramps up when Durka dies. As soon as she is no longer on the scene, it’s every woman for herself. Their ultimate intentions are freedom from what society thinks they should pursue and the kind of people they should become. But the two paths that are offered to them bring up questions of faith, integrity, abuse, neglect and pain. As they begin to push at each other, the book’s themes of motherhood and sisterhood versus self-reliance take a big hit.

Filled with scenes of breathtaking danger and intrigue, this taut novel strikes a personal and profound tone with its emphasis on family togetherness. But that comfort and security must be torn down in order for these young women to truly discover what each is made of and what is most important in their own separate lives.

CARMEN AND GRACE is heart-wrenching to read and compels us to talk back to the characters with some advice. The very difficult decisions they make keep us on the edge of our seats. This is not your average light read; it’s a stirring tale of two loving girls who grow up to find the world much darker than they expected. As a debut novelist, Melissa Coss Aquino runs a gauntlet and wins handily.