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It’s 1968. The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour hits Number #1 on the charts, HAIR opens on Broadway and in California, a local boy makes the front page of the Pasadena Star News:
‘Bing LaBelle (St. Francis Class of ’66) home from Vietnam in a coffin’ .
White, sheltered Catholic high school senior Annie Shea doesn’t realize she’s already forming into the rebel she aches to become. Grieving from the loss of her first crush, Annie from A THEORY OF EXPANDED LOVE (five years later) is ready to spring the nest of her conservative, Catholic family. Winning a solo in the hippie-stage show HAIR, Annie falls for (‘Black Boys Are Delicious’) Lucas Jones. When Annie’s sister Madcap is kicked out of the house by their father for dating a Jew, Annie follows her to Robert Kennedy’s Los Angeles campaign for President. And joins as a volunteer.
On a hot June night, inside the crowded ballroom of The Ambassador Hotel, Annie & Lucas listen to the final words of RFK’s 1968 California primary campaign. Moments later their charismatic leader is mortally wounded, and the two follow his ambulance as it careens through the streets of LA—a tragic and chaotic ride that will separate them and change the course of their young lives. 
When Lucas reappears at Annie’s family garage (on the run from a shooting incident with Black Panthers), the same day her brother deserts from the Navy, Annie drives them both towards refuge in Canada. Throughout the suspense of their hasty road trip up the coast of California, Annie unearths her brother’s unbearable secrets and connects with Lucas’s generous heart while sorting it out for herself: justice and privilege, racism, sexuality, love and the dark forces of war.
An authentic family saga, KENNEDY GIRL is also a portrayal of a young white woman, coming-of-age in the Sixties, who alongside her beloved, begins an understanding of his challenges as a black man as she searches passionately for a way to fit into his life and to speak the truth she sees.
On the cusp of womanhood, determined to find her voice and thrust into making excruciating decisions, she begins to understand the new roles she must navigate as a woman in a fast-changing society, amidst the chaos, danger & social change of the late Sixties
99,000 words. #HF #IRMC #MA #YA #A
KENNEDY GIRL, published by Sunbury Press, launched in the 2023 June week of the 55th anniversary of the assassination of Robert Francis Kennedy in 1968.
@CateHicks
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Early Reviews
“Just as good as A THEORY OF EXPANDED LOVE
Strong, complex characters, vivid descriptions, tension and dialogue that move the story forward at just the right pace.
Sydney Avey, author of The Trials of Nellie Belle http://www.sydneyavey.com
“Another tour de force! With such an authentic voice,
Annie, who readers will remember from A Theory of Expanded Love, narrates that magical combination of innocence, spunk, chaotic feeling, and burgeoning understanding of the conflicts that people who came of age in the 1960s and 70s had to reconcile.
“Once again, the power and the weakness of her Catholicism, the magnetic force of her family and the true issues of the nascent civil rights, anti-war and women’s movements are expertly revealed in the intricate plot.
“Those of us who lived through those days know Annie to the bottom of her very big heart and are grateful for the gift of being brought back to that fraught time with such a credible character. I also love the character Lucas, and Hicks has managed to keep him free of caricature, creating a full measure of understanding, empathy and sorrow in the reader for what he and Annie must face.”
–Barbara Stark Nemon, award-winning author of Even in Darkness, and Hard Cider.
http://www.barbarastarknemon.com
“Wonderful – a very engrossing read. Great characters. Excellent plot, lots of action and suspense.”
– Nancy Boyarsky, author of The Swap and Liar, Liar!
https://www.nancyboyarsky.com
“A Must Read for anyone who came of age in the Sixties”
Or their children or grandchildren. Brilliantly recapturing the era, Caitlin Hicks takes the reader on a joyous, poignant, thoughtful romp through first love, social awareness, racial tensions, gender and family issues and the authentic search for one’s personal identity and place in life. Highly recommended.
–Katherine Hemsworth, Sunshine Coast Book Club
“Terrific book. . . a remarkably original voice.”
“Hard to put down as it is quickly paced with a number of co- occurring story lines. Based in the year 1968 in America, it was the era in which I was the same age as your protagonist/narrator, but with one significant difference, I’m Canadian.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the book.You capture perfectly the upheaval of the times with the Vietnam war looming large on the nightly TV screens and the race riots, and the assignation of two leading lights, MLK and RFK just months apart.
“Poignant love story . . . powerful and relevant. . . this story will stay with you.”
“Kennedy Girl is a poignant love story between a white girl and a black guy which is not that uncommon today. Yet the racial tension in the US in the late 1960’s makes this coming-of-age novel powerful and relevant.
“The deeper elements of this story will stay with you. I especially liked the book because it captures the timeless awakening to the bigger world, that particular point in our youth when we must define our values and standards for living our lives.“
Jane Catherine Rozek, award-winning author of The Celestial Proposal and Innocence Derailed. – WWW.JANECATHERINEROZEK.COM
