NOTE: Riptide is not the kind of book I usually read. This validates my 5-star review.
Although Sara Mitchell is on her way to winning another championship jumping title with her flashy Appaloosa, Star, she’s plagued by feelings of inadequacy. Her self-doubt increases when, instead of making her popular as she hoped, becoming a cheerleader ends in disaster.
Sara is diagnosed with a chronic illness. Side effects from medications are horrendous.
Life continues to worsen. She can no longer ride Star. Or cheer lead. The popular football hero she has been dating dumps her. She suffers from mean girl treatment. Her depression increases until she considers, and acts upon, a drastic and permanent solution.
Yet when Sara’s despair runs smack into a boy who says he loves her, and a God who vows the same, the troubled girl must reexamine the life she has decided is no longer worth living.
I am a long-term school secretary and camp counselor whose heart aches for young people like Sara, who struggle with the question asked in Book One of the DO I MATTER series. I believe this novel should be required reading for every family with teens and young adult.
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As a former high school English teacher Author Susan Thode has been a licensed mental health counselor and certified trauma/crisis counselor for twenty years. She courageously tackles issues facing young people in today’s often frightening world: peer pressure, mean girl syndrome, suicide, minor drug use, attempted sexual assault.
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COLLEEN L. REECE 
Good review, Colleen.
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