A meticulously planned life. A devastating betrayal. A fall she never saw coming.

Cassandra had it all: a successful career, a beautiful apartment, and a fourteen-year marriage. She thrived on order and control, but in a single afternoon, her world is surgically dismantled. Betrayed by her husband, she is left emotionally shattered and financially ruined, with nothing but a box of office supplies and the clothes on her back.

Suddenly stripped of her identity, Cassandra is plunged into the brutal, invisible world of homelessness on the streets of Salt Lake City. To survive, she must unlearn every rule she has ever lived by. In the unforgiving landscape of Liberty Park, she meets Jake—a quiet, wary survivor who navigates the city's underbelly with a competence born of long-hardened experience. Guarded and fiercely independent, he and his loyal dog, Max, are a world away from the polished life Cassandra once knew.

Bound by the grim reality of their circumstances, they forge an unlikely and fragile alliance against the cold, the hunger, and the constant threat of violence. But as they fight to endure a system designed to keep them down, they discover a connection more profound and a love more real than anything they've ever known. When a new horror threatens to break Cassandra completely, their bond is tested, forcing them to decide if love is a luxury they can't afford or the only thing that can truly save them.

Inspired by true events, Under the Stars of the Salt Lake Sky is a raw and unflinching story of what it means to lose everything, and the incredible resilience of the human heart to find a home in the most unlikely of places.

Anastacia Luckau

Books