Liebe verletzt

Emma Thomas has spent years perfecting the art of hiding: pulling her sleeves down over the bruises, keeping her grades up, never letting anyone at school in Weslyn, Connecticut guess how far from perfect her home life really is. She lives with her cold aunt Carol and uncle, enduring Carol's physical abuse in silence to protect her younger cousins, Jack and Leyla, from losing their family.

When Evan Matthews starts paying attention to her, warmth breaks through a life Emma has spent so long keeping locked down — but every step closer to Evan raises the risk that her carefully hidden secret will come out, and with it, the shape of her whole life.

First book in Rebecca Donovan's Breathing trilogy; the German-language edition appeared before "Liebe verwundet" (Barely Breathing) and "Liebe verrät" (Out of Breath).