At the age of sixteen, Brenda Hampton had been kicked out of one high school, trying desperately to find her place in another one. Lost, confused and with no direction, Brenda gravitated to bad boys who gave their all in the name of false love. When Dwayne Montgomery came on the scene, his definition of love would tie her to a seven year tumultuous relationship with no end in sight. It wasn’t long before she became handicapped by the welfare system and addicted to shoplifting. She was classified as a negligible teenage mother, and her ten dollar a month Section 8 apartment was closing in on her.
Brenda’s vision of what her life could be faded with every minute. Her long ago aspirations were blurred and her escape plan led to a dead end. Eventually, her reluctance to take control of her life served up an eviction notice, an ongoing fist-bumping relationship and possible jail time. Life didn’t seem worth living, and suicide appeared to be the only option.
A wake-up call was needed, and realizing that a change had to come now, or never, Brenda turned to the one thing she could always hold on to—her notebooks. For years, her notebooks had been like a best friend, one she could share her deepest secrets with and rely on them not to tell a soul. The connection with her mind and a piece of paper was like magic, offering her the peace she so desperately needed and the freedom to spill words of joy, sadness, and, often times, pain. She felt another jolt after reading Terry McMillan’s, Disappearing Acts, and once Jay Rogers, from the book series we now know as Naughty, entered her world, Brenda had an epiphany that prompted her to pursue an alternative mission in life. With her life on the line, it became evident that there was no way for Brenda to walk away from her chaotic situation, she had to run! Only In Her Shoes could she figure out a master plan on how to do it, and do so without breaking a heel.
