Love and Squalor

By Jessica Scott Romano

Sometimes all it takes is one person to stand up and fight for what is right, even after everyone else has given up.

Luthertown Heights isn't anyone's idea of paradise. Gangs run the streets, fighting and killing to claim territory, and the other residents struggle just to get by. While most of the population hides behind ragged curtains and chipped concrete walls, one woman dares to venture out into the streets.

As an instructor at the local YMCA, she strives to teach the children of this embattled city that there is more to life than violence and hate. The only thing she wants in return is someone, anyone, to call her by her real name.

Known only as "White Girl" to her neighbors, she wishes so much to be embraced by the community that she loves. Instead, she finds herself thrust into the middle of a war between two of its most dangerous - and most lethal - gangs.

Armed only with her indefatigable optimism and the unexpected protection of a mysterious, Native American gang member known only as Slipknot, she must fight to ensure a better future for her city - and herself.

But the closer she grows to a solution - and to Slipknot - the more she has to lose as the city becomes a war zone. Can she find a way to convince her community that Luthertown Heights is worth saving?

Or is it useless to believe that she could find love among the squalor?

Romance Tropes:
Scarred hero
Bodyguard
Grumpy x sunshine
Bad boy x good girl
First love
Touch her and die

Previously published as Love and Squalor: A Novel by Jessica A. Scott]

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1957211407
• ISBN13: 9781957211404
• Release Date: March 2026
• Publisher: Tuxtails Publishing, LLC
• Length: 318 Pages
• Weight: 0.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 8.0"