Venus has a bright future and a dream of studying the stars until she commits a crime that will send her to jail for 5 years. While incarcerated, Venus’ brother, Leo, who has a developmental disability, goes missing. Plagued by her choices and her helplessness to finding her brother, Venus struggles to make amends with her life and her mother. Once released, Venus just wants to move forward and try to live as “normal” - but it doesn’t seem like escaping the past is possible, or even what it seems cracked up to be.

I’m not sure what I was expecting this novel to be, but it wasn’t this. I know I have mentioned in other reviews that I thoroughly enjoy when a book takes on multiple perspectives, and I do appreciate that. I found that the way it was executed in this novel threw me for a loop, and I was often questioning whose perspective I was reading from. Aside from the confusion, I really enjoyed the depth of getting to know the characters that this novel provided.

The complicated relationship between Venus and her mother, Inez, was my favorite aspect of the book. From the events of Venus’ crime, their relationship is strained, but the strain runs deeper and is not a direct result of the crime itself, at least not that crime. As Inez has had years to dwell on her actions, or lack thereof, she is searching for ways to make amends with Venus, to have her daughter back. On the flip side, Venus has had the time to continuously replay the lack of support that brought her to her breaking point. For Venus, it might just be too late to truly have that mother-daughter bond.

Thank you to NetGally and the publishers for allowing me an ARC of "I Am Venus Black." This book has a lot of characters that are all very pertinent to the story of Venus Black, a young girl who is convicted at the age of 13 for shooting and killing her stepfather and how she learns to cope when she is let out of juvenile jail at the age of 19, It is also about her mother Inez who doesn't know how to ask her daughter for forgiveness and lives with her own demons, and her brother Leo, age 7 who is mentally challenged and kidnapped at the same time of the conviction. Then there is Piper, a little girl that Venus learns to love, and Tony and Tessa who love and take care of Leo after he is left abandoned. This story is about understanding, compromising and putting yourself in the other person's shoes which leads to love and forgiveness not only for yourself, but for others.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book, it drew me in and was very hard to put down.

My Name is Venus is full of ups and downs. We start after Venus has committed a heinous crime, and is sentenced to youth detention.

Venus' brother Leo is mentally handicapped and is kidnapped while she has been incarcerated - her goal is to find him once she gets out.

This book is about forgiveness, and getting a second chance.

I would definitely recommend

My Name is Venus Black is a simply beautiful new novel. It is joyful and heart-wrenching, and funny and sad, but mostly hope-filled. It’s also just a really terrific story. The best thing I can say about a book is that it hooked me from the first sentence, first paragraph, or first chapter. My Name is Venus hooked me from the Prologue that included a sentiment that really encapsulated for me what this book is all about. That is: “We travel through this life with no real trajectory, ricocheted here and there by the consequences of other people’s actions. And it works both ways, of course. The stupidest little thing we do can alter the future for so many people.”

These are the thoughts of the titular Venus Black, who we quickly learn has been arrested and sent to a juvenile detention center for killing her stepfather for reasons we don’t fully learn until the final chapters of the book. The second main character of the novel is her autistic brother Leo, who is kidnapped early on, and whom Venus sets out to find after she is released at twenty years’ old. That’s a quick plot summary for those reading this review. To say more is unnecessary and risks spoilers.

There are three other important characters in the novel, two of whom (Piper and Tessa) I won’t say more about so as not to spoil anything. The third is Venus’ mother Inez, who I found to be a surprisingly sympathetic character. Despite making an egregious error, Inez owns it and carries on while never losing sight of, or loving, her two children. Each of these characters, as well as several more minor characters, was brought to life by author Heather Lloyd. I was surprised that this was Ms. Lloyd’s first novel, but less so when I read that she spent her career as an editor and coauthor.

I loved Ms. Lloyd’s writing style and there were several descriptive passages that caused me to stop and reread, in addition to the prologue. One was a fable about a boy rescuing beached starfishes. Another was how Leo “stares into the turning” of round objects, and another was about upside-down beetles.

Obviously I loved My Name is Venus and highly recommend it to all lovers of good fiction and mysteries. My thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advance ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This a heart-warming story about a girl who turns a bad childhood choice into an opportunity to change her family’s circumstances for the better. At the age of 15, Venus is convicted of killing her stepfather. That same night, her mentally-challenged little brother, Leo, disappears. This is a gripping story about the search for Leo and about Venus searching for redemption.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This story had tremendous potential but I found the voice of Venus irritating and too simplistic for my reading taste. The book opens with 13yr old Venus being detained for a crime where she refuses to shed any light on the mitigating circumstances. Venus is found responsible for her stepfather's death and sentenced to five years. During her incarceration her step brother Leo is kidnapped and Venus can not help but feel that she is accountable. As she is given a new identity and lease on life she still can not shed her past and longing for Leo.

This is a story about forgiveness and second chances with an interesting cast of characters but none which I really cared about or was drawn too. There were some editing problems and too many switching from first person to third person narration, which I found distracting.

It is not until the very end of the novel that we finally learn the details of "that night" and what caused Venus to make the choices she did. It was a little too late and this holding back of information felt like a forced plot device to keep the reader engaged until the end.

While this book is listed as general fiction, I think it might be better classified as YA. This book was not the right fit for me.

This is a beautiful story of survival, forgiveness; and not just enduring, but embracing.

I really liked this book. It was an easy and quick read for me. I liked all the characters and felt for them all. I also appreciated the lesson in forgiveness that it explores.

Venus is a young girl who committed a violent crime. At first, we don't find out exactly what happened and why she is in trouble, but the author slowly reveals it. She is then sent away to juvie and while she is there her brother, Leo goes missing. Once she gets out, she tries to start over, but finds herself pulled back into her old life.

I wish that you found out a bit more about Venus' motives from the beginning, but I can appreciate and understand why the author chose to tell it this way. I would definitely recommend this book. It is sweet and it has a good message.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group.

This was a very interesting novel. Venus is a very likable character even as you don't have all the facts about her until the almost end. I felt like reading the book you were able to see how she grew as person. I really enjoyed her relationship be with Piper.

Inez is little bit difficult to really know. You don't know if she is trying too hard or not enough. I think she was even more lost than her kids

Leo is everything. Without Leo I think this story would have been quite different. I don't believe that the growth and forgiveness that happened would have without Leo.

Tony and Tessa are simply beautiful souls. While they did not perhaps make the right decision in regards to Leo, they did right by Leo.

I would recommend this books to my friends.

I love reading authors that I may have never heard of before. I can say without a doubt, that this was a great book that I didn’t like putting down. I wanted to find out what happens next with all the characters- Venus, Leo, Piper, Tony, all of them.

Although it was sad at times, the story itself was truly uplifting.

I would love to read more works by heather Lloyd.

Sometimes it is frustrating to be plopped into a story not knowing what is going on, but it was effective here.. You think you sort of know what is going on, but it is not until near the end that you really find out what set off the chain of what we see unfolding. I like the way that you really got to know each character and could root for each one while knowing that was not going to help the others. Comfortable writing style. Look forward to more by this author. Thanks NetGalley for the chance to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I dove into My Name is Venus Black and could scarcely put it down. The characters were written with honesty. Leo was a compelling child.
My only complaint is that there could have been more story between the time jumps.

Hello hello book that took me on a bit of a rollercoaster.

Recently, I told a friend that I love rollercoasters because they give me a grasp on being real. I mean, if I don't feel mentally present at all, I might as well have at least a few seconds where I feel physically existent, you know?

My Name is Venus Black made me feel less blank, less detached. It wrenched me out of my emotional slump as I virtually turned page after page of this work of art. Wow. I don't know what to say.

It feels like it's been more than enough time since I've been in a "good" place. I read to remind myself that I'm human. This book and the characters in it made me feel. They were real, real people, and the revelations that came as I kept reading just connected with me.

My Name is Venus Black followed the rocky journey of a lovable MC and her incredibly complicated family. It starts off with the aftermath of a terrifying crime, and very soon, her special needs brother, Leo, disappears into thin air, and goes on to chronicle her family's journey in attempting to piece itself back together. The book's format was definitely really interesting, and it contributed to the overall feel of the plot incredibly well. Conveniently timed time skips with POV changes from part to part kept me engaged and curious.

Venus Black, Venus Black. A wonderful MC. She's not perfect, but she very well may be. One complaint: I wish we had more insight on her life before getting released. When she tries to get her new life situated, I really felt for her, despite not exactly experiencing too many things in common. The mess that came along with trying to find Leo really got to me.

Gradually, exactly what happens on the day that changed everything is revealed. I can't say that I think I would've done what she did, given her scenario. She was only thirteen, and thinking about what happened to her is so much more unsettling because of it.

Leo was everything. I'm not too sure if his character was an accurate reflection of how developmentally challenged people may act, but all that he went through made my heart hurt.

I felt for everyone (maybe except her mom, but just a little) when the complications with Leo arose toward the latter half of the book. Six years is a long time, and so many things changed within them. I was crushed by how Tessa and Venus and Tony dealt with the consequences of their actions. Everyone was at fault, no one was at fault.

Absolutely adored the way everything came together. I can't believe that this is Heather Lloyd's first work?? Definitely left me wanting to read more of her writing, though it'll probably take me a while to get over the magic of My Name is Venus Black.

A million thanks to Random House Publishing Group and Netgalley for the phenomenal ARC!

The author”s style of running the character lines together was off putting. The first time it happened I thought I had skipped a page or maybe it was a mistake or some type of editing mishap. . It is confusing. I was getting annoyed that it took so long to finally find out the whole story about what happened to Raymond. One other thing: there is a contradiction just pages apart. One mention that he thinks that his wife’s family did not like home because he was not catholic or Mexican. Then a few pages later he mentions that he is Mexican.

My Name Is Venus Black by Heather Lloyd, is the story of Venice who killed her mothers boyfriend at thirteen and the story of her much loved intellectually disabled brother kidnapping and her life within their dysfunctional family, trying to find her way back fresh out of prison.
This is where she finds out in the end-Gods grace covers all our sins.
Definitely a solid four stars.

4.5. Venus took me a bit to get into, but once I did I found it to be a gripping book with deep emotional impact. (That slow start and underdeveloped love interest kept this from being a clear cut 5 stars for me.)

While Venus is a great character, the brother Leo and friend Piper are standout characters too. The author does an exceptional job of getting into the heads of children (and, in Leo's case, the head of someone with autism.) However, even the adults are full-realized, complex characters whom you find it easy to care about.

The book isn't just a bunch of great character studies though. The author does an excellent job of weaving everyone's diverse perspectives and into a satisfying narrative that keeps the reader's interest. (At least it did for me. I read this book in a day.)

This book ended up being about so much more than the crime Venus commits at the beginning (which is why it was a slow start for me.) It's more about belonging and creating a family when you are prevented from being a part of the one you were born into.

I see that some readers have taken issue with the way Leo is described in the book. Having been a teenager in the 80s, all I can say that this book was historically accurate (even if that accuracy may offend our modern sensibilities.) In the 80s NO ONE KNEW ABOUT AUTISM. So, yes a child with Leo's issues would have been lumped together with other children with special needs and called things like "retarded" or "mentally handicapped." Like many issues, it's fascinating to see how social norms and language for this condition have evolved over my lifetime. In fact, knowing that Leo is autistic, but that no one in this book's time period understands his condition, has a name for it, or knows how to give him the support he needs makes his story in particular all the more heartbreaking.

Thanks to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This story is told from various viewpoints. Surviving her dysfunctional family, Venus Black serves time in a juvenile detention facility for committing a serious crime involving her stepfather. Now released, she tries to make a new start. Venus' brother Leo, seemingly autistic, goes missing after being taken and finds a new family who cares for him. Their mother, Inez, is trying to come to terms with her shattered family, never giving up hope her son will someday reappear and her daughter may forgive her. There is a lot of heart in this story, which deals with sibling love, family and forgiveness. I had a hard time putting it down. The secondary characters are also compelling and the author presses every emotional button. The tone of the book is not dark or depressing but hopeful and I enjoyed the themes of lessons learned, how the consequences of the decisions we make can put us on a path of redemption. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this amazing novel.

This was such a great book!

One night in 1980, 13-year-old Venus Black's life, and the life of her family, changes dramatically when she commits a crime. She doesn't want to talk about it, but the media can't get enough of it. It's a surprise to many who know Venus well, because she is a straight-A student who dreams of being an astronaut. Her crime, and her subsequent refusal to talk about that night, or the events which led up to it, strains her already-difficult relationship with her mother, Inez, whom Venus blames for everything.

"A few days ago, I was hanging out by my school locker, gossiping about boys with my girlfriends. My biggest worry was how to talk Inez into buying me a new pair of Jordache jeans. Now I'm locked up with junior criminals, I've been labeled a violent offender, and my biggest worry is getting beat up."

To make matters worse, Venus' seven-year-old stepbrother, Leo, who is developmentally disabled (in modern vernacular he'd probably be diagnosed as autistic), has gone missing. No one knows what happened to him or where he could have gone, but it's just another thing Venus blames herself for (and Inez blames Venus as well).

Five years later, Venus is released from prison and is determined to make a fresh start, as someone new. She has a fake ID and a suitcase of used clothes, and what she wants is to find a job, make some money, and then move from Washington State to California, where no one will know who she was or what she did. She all too quickly finds that it's not easy to start over when you haven't resolved your own issues, or said the things you've needed to say.

She gets a job and starts to settle in, and meets both a young girl who reminds her a little of herself when she was younger, and a man who is interested in her romantically, although she knows she must keep him at arm's length. But after a while she realizes that she can't escape her guilt or hurt, and she needs to do everything she can to try and find Leo, to see if he's even alive five years later.

My Name is Venus Black is powerful, moving, and utterly compelling. It's a story of second chances, of forgiveness and regret, fear of rejection and fear that someone will discover the secrets you've kept hidden. It's a story of family and friendship, of realizing you are worthy of happiness and love, and that you can't push people away forever. It's also a story of how people we least expect can rescue us.

From the book's very first sentence I was completely hooked on Venus' story. Venus is a complex character but she is so easy to become enamored of, and root for, despite what she did when she was younger. I was so happy that Heather Lloyd made the choice to focus more on Venus after prison than have to endure the young woman-in-prison clichés.

There are a number of memorable characters other than Venus—Inez, Leo, Piper, Danny, and two other characters I won't mention for fear of spoiling their role in the story. I did feel as if the character of Tinker seemed to be little more than a device to advance part of the story; I'm still not completely clear on his motivations to do what he did.

Lloyd doesn't quite settle for wrapping everything up with a neat bow, she doesn't take a heavy-handed approach with describing her characters' flaws, and allows you to come to your own conclusions about whether they should be considered guilty or not. There were a few times I worried she was going to sacrifice the integrity of her story for some quick drama, and I was so glad she didn't.

All in all, this is a beautifully written, memorable, moving story, and Venus Black is truly unforgettable.

NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

This is the debut novel of Heather Lloyd, and I will read any new book(s) that she writes.

There is good character development. My heart ached for the pain from the past that was tearing apart the love and kindness of good people. The characters in My Name Is Venus Black are humans who make bad choices for the right reasons. And, oh what a mess of emotions that are foisted upon the reader to handle!

3.5 stars - this book wasn't for me but might be for you!

My Name Is Venus Black is a beautifully written novel that follows the lives of two families in the aftermath of Venus' crime that set multiple things in motion and altered the courses of many lives. Initially the story is told from two POVs, Venus and Leo, but as the tale progresses more perspectives are included in the mix to give a well-rounded and full picture of what is happening and the impact.

If I had rated this book early on it would have been closer to 5 stars, but I was most engaged for the for 60%. Sadly my interest waned a bit the longer the circumstances of the crime were avoided, and that is the reason for my 3.5 star rating.

Reasons that this book wasn't for me but may be for you:
- The increasing number of povs that were introduced as the book carried on, without much notice or indication that it is happening. Some readers will undoubtedly love seeing the story unfold from all of these important people's perspectives, but for me it was jarring and confusing.
- Not knowing what the crime was until 15% in, and it was essentially in passing and not fully explained until 70% in.
- The time jump six years in the future. It felt anticlimactic to me and left so many questions on what happened, how the trial went, etc. I would have been interested in a smaller leap in time to showcase what transpired for her during those years but there IS a lot to be said for the way Lloyd weaves the tale: dropping hints, teasing the reader towards the answers but it is a slow journey of realization that I think a lot of readers would enjoy.