Willa's life in the beginning is awesome. A freaking holy grail of a blended family. Particularly with her stepfather, Jack, and his ex-wife, there seemed to be a real sense of 'do what's best for the girls', the 'girls' being Willa's two stepsisters. I was actually really happy to see that kind of compatibility for a blended family happen in a book. Made me think it could be real. 
 Too bad it was a setup. 
 Blood Wounds, in case you can't tell by the mugshot cover, is not a happy times book. In fact, I'm surprised that Willa is Miss Mugshot on the cover, because frankly, she's one of two, maybe three, characters who acted with any decency, and the other two were minor characters. Unless the mugshot is supposed to represent how she consistently gets trapped and bullied by the horrible selfishness of her family. And for the record, her family is a great big ball of 'you people suck', and that goes for both her blended family and the one she never knew on her biological dad's (and mom's) hometown of SmallTown, Texas. There is a lot going on in this book, but most of it is undercurrent until about halfway and then it steadily reveals itself all the way through to the end. You will not get what this book is really about from the synopsis - I thought I'd be reading a book about a girl and her mom on the run from her crazy father for the entire book, with Willa learning family secrets from her mom and facing hard truths along the way. While they do go into hiding for a short section and while Willa does do the latter in a sense, it's not in the way you think it'll happen. It's much more about Willa making her peace with a family she never knew, finding her own voice within the family she grew up in, and trying to figure things out by confronting the her mother's past and the facade of perfection that her blended family exudes. 
 The plot is steady the whole way through. There is a moment of anxiety when the cops show up at Willa's house and no one seems to know where her mom is; but otherwise, the plot is pretty even keel and flows on a diet of Willa coming to terms with who her parents are/were, and how she fits into the many family dynamics she has to contend with. You may have noticed my temper flare a wee little bit in the paragraph above. That's because I really do not like her blended family. I get family loyalty, but there was this sneaky sense of, "If you really love me, you'll do things my way" that was always present in conversations and influencing actions. For the record, such emotional manipulations are not 'love'; they are bulls%$#. In particular, I really don't like Willa's mother. To be fair, I didn't really dislike her until the end, and she's an extremely complex person. Actually, I wouldn't mind reading an 'adult' fiction novel with her as the protagonist. As much as I didn't like her, she's seemed to have had a difficult life caused both by her own crappy decisions, as well as consequences beyond her control. I feel like her story and own 'coming-of-age' could be just as significant as Willa's, I didn't really see her come full circle. Truthfully? I'm predicting splitsville for her and Jack. I feel like their entire family was based on a pyramid scheme of emotional usury. 
 I read the entire book pretty quickly, it flowed at a steady pace, and Willia has a decent voice. I really admired who she became at the end of the book. She really handled herself, and if she were real, she'd grow up to be someone you'd be proud to know. However, Blood Wounds wasn't a stellar read for me. This is a tough review for a book with tough issues, but there was something 'off' for me. I really wish it had either been about just Willa coming to terms with what her father had done and the family she never knew -OR- had been about her blended family situation. There was certainly enough dysfunction to support the latter. Blood Wounds has decent writing, but there was a little too much crazy in the plot for me to handle. I think in the end, Willa had so much dysfunction in her life that it made be feel like there was no support for the book itself. I need a little hope or some redemption with my stories, and in the end, I just don't feel like I had enough give me that.