If You Find Me ~ Emily Murdoch (earc) review

If You Find Me
St Martin's Griffin
March 26, 2013
256 pages
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They call it the Hundred Acre Wood. Alone, secluded miles away from anyone in a broken down camper in a national forest, Carey and Janessa can only rely on each other. With their mentally ill mother gone more and more, for longer and longer it's entirely up to fifteen-year-old Carey to care for her six-year-old sister.

Until the day, with their mother seemingly gone for good, when two strangers arrive. The girls are taken out of the woods and thrown into a whole new world: one of bright lights, new clothes, enough food, high school, and boys.

Their new life is full of a great many wonderful things, but also forces Carey to confront some things. Like why her mother took her all those years ago, kidnapped her. And what the truth there really is.

There's also the life that refuses to be completely left behind. The life that carries with it a dark secret, hanging over Carey, threatening her happy new life. It's why Janessa hasn't spoken in over a year. Carey wants this new life, with friends and family and all it promises . . . but she knows if she told, it would all be gone.


If You Find Me is a book that had me from the very first page, though, admittedly, that was because it started with a quote from Pooh's Little Instruction Book. Really, you can't go wrong with Winnie the Pooh. AA Milne's story and its characters are used in If You Find Me in a pretty spectacular way. From the woods where Carey and Janessa are living being 'the Hundred Acre Wood' to the quotes from different Pooh books, to a few mentions of characters within the story.

The references make sense within the book and the quotes are great. It's also a great fit with Carey and Janessa having their little life in the woods, their own little world and the Pooh things bring that bit of almost innocence to something so tragic.

It's not a story focused on the darkness of the girls being alone in the woods. Or of Carey being taken there years ago. It starts out almost as they're found and taken out of the woods. Carey is telling us her -- and Janess's -- story as they're beginning this new life in the 'actual' world. We''re able to see just how much they were deprived of over the years based on how they encounter everyday things, things we've all known about possibly our entire lives.

It would have been one way to tell the story to show the girls in the woods, without enough food and alone -- and we do get some of that in flashbacks -- but I feel that having them out, in society, learning to be a part of the world is so much a stronger story. We learn so much more about them, their past and their bond. The bond between the sisters is incredibly well written and very compelling. We know that there's something more between them, that we're not seeing, at least not yet.

I was a teeny bit worried that the ending wasn't going to wrap up as much as I wanted it to, yet then it was just about perfect.

As I'm less able to clearly make my point the more I like a book, I'll leave you with two quotes from authors who do a better job than I saying what a superb read If You Find Me is:

"If You Find Me grabbed me by the heart on page one and didn't let go till the very last word. Murdoch's language is lovely, her storytelling gripping.” —Carol Lynch Williams, author of The Chosen One

“Searing . . . hurt my heart and will probably haunt my dreams – a beautiful book about survival, identity, family, love and so much more.” —Jenny Downham, author of Before I Die

Rating:10/10


thank you to the publisher for the egalley through NetGalley

A Matter of Trust ~ Lis Wiehl with April Henry review

A Matter of Trust (A Mia Quinn Mystery)
Thomas Nelson Publishers
March 19, 2013
320 pages
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When life is murder, who can you trust?

One minute Mia Quinn is in her basement, chatting on the phone with a colleague at the prosecutor's office. The next minute there's a gunshot over the line, and Mia listens in horror as her colleague and friend Colleen bleeds to death.

Mia's a natural for heading up the murder investigation, but these days she has all she can do to hold her life together. As a new widow with a pile of debts, a troubled teenaged son, and a four-year-old who wakes up screaming at night, she needs more time with her family, not less--and working Colleen's case will be especially demanding. But Colleen was her friend, and she needs to keep her job. So she reluctantly teams up with detective Charlie Carlson to investigate Colleen's death. But the deeper they dig, the more complications unfold--even the unsettling possibility that someone may be coming after her.

Lis Wiehl's signature plot twists and relatable characters shine in this absorbing series debut . . . with an intriguing cameo from her best-selling Triple Threat series.

I haven't read any of Lis Wiehl's novels before (but have read April Henry's Girl Stolen) but A Matter of Trust looked interesting and it was available on audio when I was looking for something new.

The start of a new series (with, I guess, some crossover from Wiehl and Henry's Triple Threat series) A Matter of Trust focuses on Mia Quinn, recently returned to work at the King County District Attorney's Office. So many things have changed in the years Mia was away from the office, caring for her children. Without her friend -- and fellow prosecutor -- Colleen's words of assurance, Mia would be lost.

Only, then Colleen is murdered, while Mia is on the phone with her.

As Mia struggles to mange both her new case and her new life, she finds out more than she was expecting about both her late husband and all that he was keeping from her about himself and their life and about Colleen.

A Matter of Trust was enjoyable with the mix of Mia's work and personal life. The way they overlapped and how she had to balance them, as they each became more demanding of her and her time added tension and intrigue to the story and also made her character more interesting.

The different story lines involving teenagers in the novel were very relevant and timely and also integrated into the main story very well. They didn't seem stuck in just because they were 'current.' They also had great parallels with the other characters lives and stories.

The 'mystery' aspect of the book was a bit less, mysterious than I would have preferred with the whodunit being revealed, or strongly hinted at, sooner than I would have liked. As I said, I haven't read any of Wiehl's novels before so I don't know if this is her style or something unique to A Matter of Trust.

That this is the start of a series allows me to forgive this more, however, than I would have if it had been a standalone. I'm really intrigued by the characters we're introduced to here and anxious to see which ones will be back in the next book as well as what the plot of that novel will be.


Rating: 8/10

The S-Word ~ Chelsea Pitcher (earc) review

The S-Word
Gallery Books
May 7, 2013
304 pages
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First it was SLUT scribbled all over Lizzie Hart’s locker.

But one week after Lizzie kills herself, SUICIDE SLUT replaces it—in Lizzie's looping scrawl.

Lizzie’s reputation is destroyed when she's caught in bed with her best friend’s boyfriend on prom night. With the whole school turned against her, and Angie not speaking to her, Lizzie takes her own life. But someone isn’t letting her go quietly. As graffiti and photocopies of Lizzie’s diary plaster the school, Angie begins a relentless investigation into who, exactly, made Lizzie feel she didn’t deserve to keep living. And while she claims she simply wants to punish Lizzie’s tormentors, Angie's own anguish over abandoning her best friend will drive her deep into the dark, twisted side of Verity High—and she might not be able to pull herself back out. . . (partial synopsis from Goodreads)

The S-Word was not quite what I was expecting. I don't think that now, after having read it -- and thought about it -- that I can say just what it was I was expecting. Possibly something a little 'neater.' I'm happy that isn't what I got, though.

Chelsea Pitcher's debut isn't neat. It isn't pretty and it doesn't glamorize what happens in high school. Lizzie's high school experience -- and the high school experience we receive (and learn about) through Angie, isn't some glossy, remember-when version of high school. It's real, perhaps a bit gritty and can be harsh.

We see the after-effects of bullying, with Lizzie gone, having committed suicide and her best friend trying to find who's most responsible. It's through Angie's investigation -- and what it uncovers -- that we learn what Lizzie really experienced. It seems as if this method would make what was done to Lizzie less impactful, than experiencing it first hand, as it happened. How Pitcher writes things, along with how readers do learn about Lizzie's pain affects the story and, possibly, Angie, more.

Most of the characters in the book are fantastic. They're fresh and quite different from the ones we see in most novels, most YA novels, too. While one character may have played this high school role and another that role, they didn't feel stereotypical. Perhaps a bit archetypal when you look back at it, but they weren't canned characters. Each of them had something unique and fresh about them that made for great inclusion in the story. (Jesse was probably my favorite character.)

There was one story line that I felt ventured into stereotypical territory. The story, along with the characters used, was something I've seen used quite a lot and so I wasn't sure if the characters and that part of the story were done truly for The S-Word and where it needed to go or . . . because. It didn't harm the story and it worked, but it didn't feel as original as the rest of the novel.

I do love the play with S-Word and sword and how 'cutting' they both are, can be. It's a great title for an enjoyable read.


Rating: 7/10




thank you to the publisher for my egalley for review via NetGalley

Belonging ~ Karen Ann Hopkins Tour Post

BELONGING BLOG TOUR STOP

about Belonging (Temptation #2):

I left everything I knew behind.

But it was worth it. He was worth it.

No one thought an ordinary girl like me would last two minutes living with the Amish, not even me. There are a lot more rules and a lot less freedom, and I miss my family and the life I once had. Worst of all, Noah and I aren't even allowed to see each other. Not until I've proven myself.

If I can find a way to make it work, we'll be NOAH & ROSE

together forever.

But not everybody believes this is where I belong.

Find/Buy Belonging:
on Goodreads, Amazon, B&N, Indiebound or Book Depository


about Temptation 
the first novel in the series:

Your heart misleads you.
That's what my friends and family say.

But I love Noah.
And he loves me.

We met and fell in love in the sleepy farming community of Meadowview, while we rode our horses together through the grassy fields and in those moments in each other's arms.

It should be

ROSE & NOAH

forever, easy.

But it won't be.

Because he's Amish.
And I'm not.

Find/Buy Temptation: 
on Goodreads, Amazon, B&N, Indiebound or Book Depository; Temptation Facebook page 



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