Dark Side Of Valor by Alicia Singleton

Lelia Freeman, a child advocate, knows what she speaks about.  She herself spent years on the street, running from a miserable homelife.  She managed to find a way out, but not before a tragedy occurred that stole her best friend from her, a victim of the streets and the predators that prowled them.

These days, Lelia is well past those days.  Her adopted family supported her as she used education to build a life for herself.  A life that not only sustained her, but allowed her to give back to society, to help others who found themselves on the streets due to poverty, drug or alcohol abuse, or lives filled with sexual and physical abuse.  She can relate to the children she saves since she was one of them.

Her work does not go unnoticed.  She is nominated to go work in Africa with the children orphaned from a civil war.  Once there, she discovers that all is not what it seems; that those who requested her did so to use her work as a cover for the evil they had done and planned to continue doing.  She escapes from the government, her allies two mercenaries who are there for their own purposes.  Relieved at first, she comes to realise that this was no accident; the men she was counting on to save her life had old ties to her past that left her anything but safe.  Could Lelia escape the danger she finds herself in and make it back to the kids that give her reason for living?

Alicia Singleton has written a compelling story that highlights the pain behind the lives of street children and abused and neglected children all over the world.  The reader will cheer for the heroine who attempts to assuage their pain, while learning more about what goes on in their world.  This book is recommended for readers interested in social justice, an exciting story and tales of those who rise above their background to make a new life.