Fran­cie Baum was hop­ing that turn­ing sev­en­teen would bring some changes, but maybe not so many all at once: a cute new boyfriend from the neigh­bor­ing school, a shak­ing up of her once-sol­id friend group, extra home­work from her Hebrew teacher, and more wor­ri­some, her old­er brother’s ongo­ing refusal to return to rehab. She didn’t real­ize that senior year of high school would be this com­pli­cat­ed.

As she edges clos­er to col­lege and the uncer­tain­ty of the future, Fran­cie must fig­ure out how to nav­i­gate all this and more, demon­strat­ing how acts of lov­ingkind­ness have the pow­er to mend even the deep­est frac­tures.

The title of this nov­el, Acts of Lov­ingkind­ness, is drawn from Pirkei Avot, although it’s the Book of Ruth that fea­tures in the nov­el, as Fran­cie tries to incor­po­rate g’milut chasadim into her life.