Family Secrets: The Turbulent Years is Book 2 of the Family of Secrets and Lies series. 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 those challenges to get in the way of her accomplishing her education and career goals. As her twenty-first birthday approaches, she begins focusing on her housing and career goals to prepare for living independently upon her emancipation from the foster care system.