The Girl from Jersey City by Zan Austin
As the summer of his eighteenth birthday begins, Paul Nesbitt finalizes plans to escape his alcoholic, abusive father, enabling mother, and impoverished Jersey Shore town blanketed by the fumes of a chemical processing plant. Although the local police have Paul in their sights for a break-in and theft, he has been able to avoid arrest and has vowed to do his best to stay out of trouble. Unfortunately, his strategies are disrupted when he meets Laura, a vivacious young woman from the city, who takes an unexpected interest in him. To deepen her intrigue, he lies about himself. The biggest one is his acceptance into a very prestigious Ivy League college. But when the facade he’s created threatens to crumble, the only solution appears to be money. And the only way to get that money is for Paul to break his vow and take part in a very ambitious robbery that, if he’s not careful, may not only lead to his arrest but cause him to lose Laura.
