Family Secrets : The Turbulent Years is Book 2 of the Family of Secrets and Lies series. It is a 46,000-word nonfiction book. Valarie experiences the turbulent teen years as she prepares to go away to college and learns valuable lessons and skills on becoming an independent young woman. During vacations from school, she resides in numerous foster homes and foster group homes while experiencing abuse and neglect within the foster care system. As a college student she is confronted with many challenges, but she is determined not to allow them to get in the way of her accomplishing her education and career goals. As her twenty-first birthday approaches, she focuses on her housing and career goals in order to prepare for living independently upon "aging out" of the foster care system.