Losing Dad, Finding Dad is a story about one family.



Seven years ago Tom and Bernice adopted two girls into their young family. Shayla (17) and Abby(13) became sisters to Jonathan (9) and Daniel (11). They are the perfect family.

Out of the blue, the girls' biological father, Gabriel, sends a friend request on Facebook to Shayla, but her parents don't jump for joy. Shayla is devastated when they won't let her see Gabriel: she doesn't understand why they would do that to her. 

Then her past from before adoption comes back to haunt her. Bad memories surface in her dreams and become nightmares. Still, she longs to have a dad of her own.

Shayla meets a guy, Eric, and is finally ready for 'doing it' with her brand new, hot boyfriend. She creates an occasion at a friend's home where it happens after they all smoke pot, and drink beer and coolers. Now Shayla finally has joined the adult world. She is in love, and thoughts about a father of her own fade.


Shayla starts shoplifting and gets caught by the store security guy. Not only that, when she tells her mom she had sex at Ellen's home, Bernice pries out of her the rest: their drinking and smoking pot. Bernice doesn't take that lightly and confront's Ellen's mom. She is in so much trouble... She is grounded. 

Her friends call her a loser and won't talk to her anymore. To top it off, Eric dumps her.  

When Tom and Bernice's marriage crumbles and Tom leaves the family, Shayla becomes driven by a force she does not understand. Just to feel  something other than the black hole in her heart, she starts cutting her arms. 

How can Shayla survive when her world shatters and she is left without anybody to love her?   

Bernice has her own troubles. She is overworked and cannot completely cover up her disappointment with Tom. He works late many nights, leaving her to deal with the children. 
Running  a busy family and a full time job is keeping her busy, so at first she did not think much of his frequent late nights at work, sometimes till early morning. She starts suspecting that Tom has an affair and hires a surveillance service on a friend's suggestion. When the results come in she wished she had never done that. 
 
How can Bernice save her family without losing her self respect? 
 
This work of literary fiction aimed at mature Young Adults and others will especially appeal to readers who have adopted children or are adopted themselves. They will be fascinated by the emotional roller coaster of the main characters, 17 year old Shayla and Bernice, her adoptive mother, when their family is thrown into emotional turmoil after Shayla's biological dad pops onto the scene. 

Losing Dad, Finding Dad is Johanna's second fictional work. It will be published as an E book and available in spring of 2013 for your E reader at: i Bookstore, Sony, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Baker & Tyler,  Copia,  Gardner's and eBookPie.