The Rules of Survival

This is the first book I've read by Nancy Werlin and I have to say I enjoyed it quite a bit. My best friend Kerrie Ann was reading Impossible by that same author and said it was AWESOME, so I researched the author and found her in the school library and voila, I read The Rules of Survival. It turns out to be a very sad book.
The whole story is a letter the main character, Matt, is writing to his younger sister, Emmy, about when she was too little to remember being kidnapped by their psychopath mother. Basically these three kids, Matt, Callie, and Emmy lived with their mother Nikki in an apartment and their aunt lived in the apartment downstairs because they owned the place. Nikki is the kind of mom who comes home really late, in the morning, and sometimes not at all. Matt and his sisters learned the rules of survival very early in life with that kind of parent. Their father? Well, Matt and Callie's father sends child support once a month for all three kids even though Emmy is not his. But he knows enough about Nikki to stay away.
Then Matt runs into Murdoch. He sees Murdoch stand up for a kid that had an abusive father in a convenience store, and from then on he becomes obsessed with finding Murdoch. By a strange twist of fate Nikki begins dating Murdoch, and they break up shortly when Murdoch sees Nikki's true colors. After that it's a race against time for Murdoch, Matt's aunt, and Matt's father to get these three kids away from their mother before she cracks. But then the unthinkable happens... Nikki kidnapped Emmy.
It was a really good family story, especially in the written-letter form it was, but it was kind of thrilling, too. Not really edge-of-your-seat Stephen King thrilling, but thrilling enough to make you hope Emmy was going to survive. I can't wait to read more of Nancy Werlin.