The Beautiful-Ugly Trilogy Series by James Snyder

The moment she felt her consciousness seeping back inside her, she knew where she was. She didn’t have to look. Or listen. No one had to come whisper in her ear. She could smell it that far out, returning… When sixteen-year-old Connelly Pierce wakes up inside an unknown psychiatric hospital, with both her wrists slashed, she begins the arduous task of piecing together the events of her life that led her there. Her own cognitive behavioral therapy (as she had learned so well from them)... moreThe moment she felt her consciousness seeping back inside her, she knew where she was. She didn’t have to look. Or listen. No one had to come whisper in her ear. She could smell it that far out, returning… When sixteen-year-old Connelly Pierce wakes up inside an unknown psychiatric hospital, with both her wrists slashed, she begins the arduous task of piecing together the events of her life that led her there. Her own cognitive behavioral therapy (as she had learned so well from them). Starting with the sudden death of her mother and father when she was six, and the only world she knew disappeared, literally, overnight. That’s when, with no known or, at least, close relatives, she and her nine-year-old brother Eric find themselves cast into the nightmare quagmire of government child protection agencies, and Connelly begins her incredible, fourteen-year journey—her odyssey—into her own brave new world. A world, she realizes, she must not only quickly adapt, but fight back as well, if she hopes to survive. Book One of the Beautiful-Ugly Trilogy. less

After being orphaned at age six, sixteen-year-old Connelly Pierce—who has spent a decade, being passed from family to family, or as often no family at all, but always fighting for her very existence, her right to survive—has given up. Even worse, the system that has controlled her life for all those years is about to give up on her. But just before she is sent into long-term care at a California state mental hospital, a little miracle happens... moreAfter being orphaned at age six, sixteen-year-old Connelly Pierce—who has spent a decade, being passed from family to family, or as often no family at all, but always fighting for her very existence, her right to survive—has given up. Even worse, the system that has controlled her life for all those years is about to give up on her. But just before she is sent into long-term care at a California state mental hospital, a little miracle happens. An intern at the clinic who has taken an interest in her finds an unopened letter at the bottom of Connelly’s raggedy old knapsack. The letter is from a distant cousin of Connelly’s named Elizabeth Walker, or Liz, who has recently lost her husband Jack, left behind a 57,000 acre ranch in Texas, and has since been looking for Connelly. The intern realizes this is the girl’s last chance. If Cousin Liz won’t help her, or if Connelly won’t accept that help, her life, in any normal sense, may be over. But what the intern doesn’t realize, is that calling that phone number he finds at the bottom of the letter is about to change two women’s lives, forever, in ways neither of them could ever have imagined. Book Three of the Beautiful-Ugly Trilogy less