Mickey had returned from Vietnam with his own problems and one day when he is not there to open the shop, Glory finds him in their bathroom, with the needle still in his arm. She meets Mickey at the local head shop and he is her only friend and at 16 becomes her lover. Instead the baby dies before its birth and Glory is told she will never be able to have another child. At 14 she is pregnant and sent away to deliver and give the child up. Glorianna was born into a affluent family to cold and uncaring parents, as a small child the abuse started, the fact that she even survives is amazing. Cat McCarrey's debut novel will tear your heart apart. I received this book through Goodreads and this is the very best book I have read in a very long time. Wondrous, evocative, and full of inspiration, Pretty From A Distance is a deeply moving passage into the lives of people caught in an interweaving dance of dependency and control. McCarrey deftly exposes the wounds of the past as these experiences play themselves out in our lives in a relentless pattern of symmetry-until one seizes the power to actively change them. Exploring the depths of abuse with compassion and honesty, McCarrey's debut novel is an intense, warmhearted, suspenseful story about the redemptive power of love and community. As tensions escalate and Vince finds a lover of his own, a shocking event irrevocably changes their world forever.

Inspired to assert herself, Glory slowly sees hope and joy return to her life and begins to stand up to Vince. Encountering a vibrant community filled with eccentric characters including a Vietnam veteran, a psychic, and a man who had been abducted by UFOs, she finds herself falling in love with the local bartender Doug Baylor. Emboldened, she picks a small town in New Mexico, a choice that will change the course of their lives dramatically.

As they travel the country year after year in a camper with no water or electricity, her despair continues to grow, as does her alcohol use.until Vince unexpectedly gives her the opportunity to choose their summer destination. Her boyfriend Vince Cole controls every aspect of her life, but she remains bound to him because of his threats to harm her young niece. In 1999, Glory Morgan is fast approaching her fortieth birthday.

Pretty from a Distance by Cat McCarrey