Hailey's War

by Jodi Compton

Book Overview

Hailey Cain has a history of testing the limits of her fate: as a fearless bike messenger on the twisted, competitive streets of San Francisco; as a young female cadet in a sea of men at West Point. But Hailey also has secrets--the biggest of which led her to leave the academy just two months short of graduation, two months away from becoming a lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Now, scraping and fighting her way through life, Hailey finds focus only when...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 030758805X
• ISBN13: 9780307588050
• Release Date: June 2010
• Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books
• Length: 287 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.6" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

An Insightful Mystery

Hailey's War by Jodi Compton Hailey is a bike courier with a secret. She left West Point under unknown circumstances but what she learned there, keeps her alive through some harrowing circumstances. She truly believes in honor, respect and loyalty. Hailey is an enigma in this story to both her friends and her enemies. She has a secret that she refuses to share. The author did a great job in maintaining mystery regarding that secret until the final conclusion. There is artful misdirection in much of the book. Ms. Compton does a great job keeping you guessing. I admired Hailey's tenacity and her willingness to face daunting odds. The book holds your attention and educates you in regards to intercity gang behavior. I recommend the book.

A Solid Read by a Talented Author

"Hailey's War" by Jodi Compton was a surprising book to me. It is the story of Hailey Cain, a West Point washout seems to have something to prove. She has family in the music business and friends in LA gangs, and finds herself protecting a pregnant Mexican teenager. She is smart and savvy, but tends to find herself in tight spots frequently. This book was one that I couldn't put down. It was a wonderful story told by a great storyteller. The characters have a certain depth that I don't find in many books. I really connected with all the characters, and was ultimately rooting for the home team by the end of the story. It is a book that has plenty of twists in it, but I wouldn't qualify it as a thriller. That didn't make it any less of a good read in my eyes. I would certainly give this book a try!

A Tour de Force

Hailey Cain is ready to fight a war to save civilians, but she is kicked out of West Point. She finds what she's looking for in protecting a pregnant Mexican girl and her unborn baby. Cain is not your run-of-the-mill hero. She's prickly, loyal, and preternaturally brave. Author Jodi Compton is gifted and has crafted a compelling story that anyone who loves thrillers, suspense, or great writing should love.

"The good times. The one's you know are never really coming."

At twenty-four, Hailey Cain is world-weary, a West Point dropout with something to prove and a secret that is not revealed until the final pages of a thriller that takes her from LA to San Francisco to Chihuahua, Mexico, and Truckee in the High Sierras in a violent contretemps with LA mobsters and gang bangers, flying beneath the radar of law enforcement. A top-earning bike messenger in San Francisco, Hailey agrees to escort a young Latina girl to a remote village in Mexico as a favor to a woman she values as a sister, Serena "Warchild" Delgadillo. Unfortunately, Cain's life has already been compromised by a singular piece of bad luck that has sent her scurrying from LA to San Francisco to avoid retaliation. The favor for Serena involves a return to LA and an inevitable confrontation with an old nemesis. What should be an easy job ends with Cain shot and left for dead, her passenger, Nidia, now in the hands of a mobster. Nidia is pregnant with the mobster's grandchild, the last of his line since the death of his son. While Serena craves revenge, Hailey operates out of a sense of justice and the thwarted dreams of graduation from West Point. Hailey has only two close friends, Serena and her cousin CJ, both of whom are pivotal to the plot and Hailey's ability to carry out her "mission"- rescuing Nidia- without attracting the attention of authorities. What is most intriguing about this thriller- and sometimes the cause of Compton's overreaching- is Hailey's friendship with Serena and, by extension, a partnership with an LA gang in an elaborate plan to protect Nidia once she has been rescued from her captors. In a strange mix of characters, mobsters (from two different levels of criminals) and gang-bangers with an ethic all their own, most curious is Hailey herself and the secret she successfully hides from everyone who knows her, increasingly fearless in the face of diminishing odds, confronting her adversaries head on, shot down in Mexico and tortured in LA. Somehow Compton makes it all work, with a few wild stretches of imagination, a personal war carried out by a woman meant for West Point, her homegirl at her back, cold-eyed killers fighting over a helpless girl, a recipe for violence with a brilliant resolution. Luan Gaines/2010.