The Girl She Used to Be ~ David Cristofano review

The Girl She Used to Be
Grand Central Publishing
March 19, 2009
256 Pages
Hardcover
Amazon



After twenty years in the Witness Protection program--first it was she and her parents when she was six but they've since been murdered-Melody Grace McCartney barely knows herself. It's to the point where she gets new identities almost just because she's bored and feels like it. Of course the marshalls don't know that, though, they believe her when she calls and says she's been threatened.

It's because of such a call that they're relocating her again. Covert SUVs, remote hotel rooms, it's all a part of the gig.

The kidnapping isn't.

Jonathon, the son of the man she's been running from her whole life has tracked her down. Only it might not be what she thinks. Instead of her worst nightmare, it might just be the answer to all her prayers.

I'm posting both covers of this novel (I don't actually know what the first one's for-if it's for an international version or arc or what) because the top cover is the one I saw several months before the book came out when I only had the vagues idea what the book was about. As it's so different from the second cover, that was on the book I read, I'm including it because it might have been a fair part of why I feel how I do about the book.

I didn't read much (at all) of the summary of this book when I actually got it so I knew the gist of the woman who'd been in Witness Protection her whole life and got kidnapped but I think that might have been it. In some ways I'm glad because I think my abbreviated summary reading was more interesting than the actual summary. This book is presented as general fiction/lit....or maybe even a mystery sometimes but....well it was almost fluffy at times.

I'm sure you think I'm crazy because of the WITSEC stuff and the mob and everything, but it was. I don't know if it's because it's written by a man-I'm serious-but I'm kind of curious about whether or not this would almost have been marketed as a slight romance if it had been written by a woman. Not a romance section romance but one of the general fiction section of the bookstore books that features a good bit of romance.

There's not sex or anything explicit-that I remember-but this book really reminds me of a mix of a little bit of the Sopranos or something Mob-y and Playing with Fire by Gena Showalter (the whole premise of two characters on the run, one a sort of agent and one the normal girl).

I guess this is back again to why I'm posting the two covers, The Girl She Used to Be was quite a bit lighter than I expected it to be, possibly given the subject matter but definitely given the cover I'd had in my mind for so long so I really don't know if someone going in expecting it ot be a bit of a lighter read would enjoy it more than I did? (I'm still not sure the cover that it has fits....it looks more like Melody's on some sort of quest for personal discovery with the long, open road in front of her and that's not what I got from this book--maybe that she was looking for it in general but not that this book was about her really finding it).

I'd still recommend the book, I just wouldn't put it at the tippy top of your to read list...but it would be fun for summer and if the author writes more, I'll check it out.

7/10