Damaged (Rosato & DiNunzio, #4)

by Lisa Scottoline

"Damaged finds Mary DiNunzio, partner at the all-female law firm of Rosato & DiNunzio, embroiled in one of her most heartbreaking cases yet. Suing the Philadelphia school district to get help for a middle school boy with emotional issues, Mary ends up becoming the guardian ad litem of her minor client. As she goes up against Nick Machiavelli, her opposing counsel and the dark prince of South Philly lawyers who will use any means necessary to defeat her, she becomes more and more invested in the case--and puts everything, including her engagement to her longtime boyfriend, on the line"--

• ISBN10: 1250099625
• ISBN13: 9781250099624
• Publish Date: 16 August 2016
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 11 July 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 416
• Language: English

Reviews

[Joni Reads]

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have read a few of Lisa Scottoline's books before but never one in this group of books. I am happy to say that it definitely makes a great stand alone novel as I was a bit nervous about that.

I have to say this was one of those books that kept me up at night wanting answers. Now I'm a mom to 3 year old twins and I stayed up till 2 AM reading this book the past few nights. If that doesn't tell you how great this story is then I don't know what will.

Scottoline had the legal facts laid out amazingly accurate and also easy to understand. I have a semi unique point of view because I kind of lived through part of the legal aspect of this novel. See, I live in Pennsylvania (albeit Western PA) which is where the novel takes place (Philadelphia area) and I was in foster care while my best friend's parents took classes so that I could go into what is called kinship care, meaning a relative or close family friend takes the child instead of them being placed in a foster home. As Scottoline discussed the laws in place for such a situation I found myself nodding along, because it was definitely accurately written.

Mary is a lawyer for a law firm in Philadelphia and tends to take on special education cases. She agrees to take the case of a 5th grade boy named Patrick who is dyslexic and who has been abused at his school. After a few crazy events Mary finds herself working her butt off to become Patrick's guardian and make sure he doesn't fall through the cracks and to help him get a good education and be properly cared for.

I was up till early morning hours waiting with bated breathe to find out if Mary would win her case to have kinship care of Patrick. I felt emotionally invested in this novel and it was refreshing to stay awake reading a novel that was genuinely intriguing, not simply because it is a thriller and while you want to know what happens next you're also a bit nervous to go to bed. Damaged was not a book like that. It held my attention without being a thriller and having me jump three feet when one of my kids crawls into bed with me. For the first time in a while I was genuinely interested in the story of the novel, not the action or the thrill of it which was a great change of pace.

I would definitely recommend this novel. It's great, it's very well written and it holds your attention to the last page.