Into the Free: A Novel - Julie Cantrell

Summary from GoodReads: Just a girl. The only one strong enough to break the cycle. In Depression-era Mississippi, Millie Reynolds longs to escape the madness that marks her world. With an abusive father and a “nothing mama,” she struggles to find a place where she really belongs.  For answers, Millie turns to the Gypsies who caravan through town each spring. The travelers lead Millie to a key which unlocks generations of shocking family secrets. When tragedy strikes, the mysterious contents of the box give Millie the tools she needs to break her family’s longstanding cycle of madness and abuse. Through it all, Millie experiences the thrill of first love while fighting to trust the God she believes has abandoned her. With the power of forgiveness, can Millie finally make her way into the free?

This was a wonderful story about taking your own life into your own hands.  It showed me that you can do or become anything you want no matter what others think of you.  Millie lived a life filled with abuse, loneliness, depression and poverty.  At a young age, she learned how to care for her mother who battled depression and was frequently beaten by her abusive husband.  When she gets beaten so bad that she turns to others for help, she discovers the secrets her mother has been keeping.  When she asks her mother about some of them, she decides to see the rodeo where her father worked and to see how they lived.

Millie was confronted with encounters with the gypsies, learning the rodeo life, dealing with the loss of her parents, being disowned by her grandparents and learning to live with another family.  From all these changes and tragedies in her life, Millie grows up very fast.  Will she eventually learn how to trust or love anyone?  Can she make a better life for herself than what her mother had?  Will the secrets of her mother's past help her to learn more about herself?