Jesse’s Girl, a new novel by Gary Morgenstein, tells the story of a successful, hard-working father and his personal struggles he faces as he tries to help his adopted teenage son, Jesse, back on the road to recovery.

“… It was about Jesse. It was one of his dealers calling about money. It was a desk sergeant. It was the morgue. On the third ring he remembered: Jesse was safe. Let it ring. He had no one else to lose…”

So starts Jesse’s Girl, which tells the story of a widowed father, Teddy Mentor, and his desperate search for his adopted teenage son, Jesse, who has run away from a wilderness treatment program in search of his estranged sister, Theresa. As the story unfolds, the reader becomes aware of the personal battle Mentor is fighting as both parent and friend to his son.

“As I was writing Jesse’s Girl, I really used the emotional footprints of my own personal experiences with family addiction as well as being an adoptive father to create characters and a story that speaks to parents of teen addicts,” Morgenstein says. “I wrote the book for all those parents at the end of their rope, who have sacrificed their bank accounts and their jobs and their relationships and their sanity— if they have any left— to rescue their child from substance abuse.”

The book asks delicate yet hard-hitting questions about being a parent and making tough decisions. Mentor, the father, asks himself if he should send his son back into treatment to deal with his substance abuse problem, or help him reconnect with Theresa, an unknown sister who may finally answer Jesse’s questions about his own past.

Mentor quickly decides that they should go to Kentucky to find Theresa, and as they catch up with her, they become entangled in a horrific crime. Their panic-filled flight across the state, along with a father’s doubts and fears about his own son’s criminal past, spill out with clarity and truthfulness.

“What I realized throughout writing this book is that your child may suffer from the disease of addiction, but you never quit on them, even when they’ve quit on themselves,” Morgenstein explains. While portraying the pain of a parent who can’t help a son in trouble, he also sheds light on the possibilities that can unfold through a parent’s determination.

“I think the depth of this father’s love, as well as his fear and anger and doubts, will resonate with parents since we’ve all felt like this at one time or another, whatever the circumstances of your child’s issues,” says Morgenstein. “You can’t feel guilty for how you feel. But as long as you keep believing in them and hope they eventually believe in themselves, most important of all, you’ve got a shot.”