Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined

A girl must survive an extreme wilderness experience to prove to her mother that she has the strength to pursue her dreams.

“A heart-pounding wilderness adventure set against a deeply moving personal journey.”—Teresa Toten, author of The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B

“A gorgeous novel about mothers and daughters, the wilderness that rages both inside and outside of us—and how the past composes the future.”—Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Is This Tomorrow

Then: Ingrid traveled all over Europe with her opera star mother, Margot-Sophia. Life was beautiful and bright, and every day soared with music.

Now: Ingrid is on a summertime wilderness survival trek for at-risk teens: addicts, runaways, and her. She’s fighting to survive crushing humiliations, physical challenges that push her to her limits, and mind games that threaten to break her.

Then: When the curtain fell on Margot-Sophia’s singing career, they buried the past and settled into a small, painfully normal life. But Ingrid longed to let the music soar again. She wanted it so much that, for a while, nothing else mattered.

Now: Ingrid is never going to make it through this summer if she can’t figure out why she’s here . . . and why the music really stopped.