The Heart Grows Stronger is a novel about a troubled young girl, Julie, struggling with drug addiction and emotional issues resulting from a broken family life. One day her boyfriend pushes her out of the car and onto a lawn which happens to belong to the Brooks family, a single mother and her young son, Todd; they befriend her and encourage her to break free from her destructive lifestyle.

But her happiness will soon be tested again when Michael, the powerful lawyer she meets at her first job, begins making advances. She cannot deny the attraction she feels towards him, yet at the same time she senses something about him that frightens her to the core. Torn between her love for Todd and the new feelings she is experiencing for Michael, Julie comes to terms with her blossoming adulthood and discovers that life is not as simple as she once had thought.