In Another Life: A Novel (Shadow Falls)

by C C Hunter

From New York Times bestselling author C. C. Hunter comes a new YA thriller about a girl who learns that she may have been kidnapped as a child, and must race to uncover the truth about her past before she winds up a victim.

Chloe was three years old when she became Chloe Holden, but her adoption didn’t scar her, and she’s had a great life. Now, fourteen years later, her loving parents’ marriage has fallen apart and her mum has moved them to Joyful, Texas. Starting twelfth grade as the new kid at school, everything Chloe loved about her life is gone. And feelings of déjà vu from her early childhood start haunting her.

When Chloe meets Cash Colton she feels drawn to him, as though they're kindred spirits. Until Cash tells her the real reason he sought her out: Chloe looks exactly like the daughter his foster parents lost years ago, and he’s determined to figure out the truth.

As Chloe and Cash delve deeper into her adoption, the more things don’t add up, and the more strange things start happening. Why is Chloe’s adoption a secret that people would kill for?

• ISBN10: 1250312272
• ISBN13: 9781250312273
• Publish Date: 1 April 2019 (first published 26 March 2019)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 5 April 2024
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Wednesday Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[readingwithwrin]

Netgalley & Wednesday Books

Chloe’s life turned upside down last year when her parents split up. Causing Chloe and her mom to move back to Joyful, Texas. Being the new kid in high school is not fun especially in a small town where everyone has always known everyone else. The good news is that Chloe’s next door befriends her and helps her adjust to her new life. She also ends up getting help from an unsuspecting source Chase. Chase is a foster child and also feels like he knows Chloe somehow but he doesn’t want to bring it up until he has answers.
In Another Life is told in multiple perspectives of Chloe, Chase, and a person we meet later on in the story.

Overall I really enjoyed In Another Life. Chloe and Chase’s storylines were fascinating to me. We have Chase who is a foster kid and has a lot of guilt about things he had no control over in his childhood. Then we have Chloe who up until recently was from a happy family. The more they investigate Chloe’s adoption, and the more they learn the more heartbreaking it becomes.
I’m not going to lie both Chase and Chloe annoyed me at times because of how secretive they were about certain things. But I also get why they were secretive about those things and how they thought they would hurt the other person if they told the truth. This type of situation is a difficult one for an adult to deal with, so for two high schoolers trying to figure this out mostly on their own, it’s got a bit much at times. So many different emotions are involved in this story from Chase’s guilt about things, to Chloe having to come to terms with the reality of her adoption its a lot.
The mystery part of this book wasn’t that big of a mystery in my opinion. It was fairly obvious from the beginning in my opinion because of certain things. The only thing that was really scary or mysterious in my opinion was the part surrounding how she came to be adopted. That got scary the more we learned about it.
I do think this was an interesting book and I liked how the whole focus wasn’t just constantly on her adoption. We have the side story of her adoptive parents drama, and Chloe’s relationship with her parents, and Chase. Chase’s storyline was one that I also really liked because of who his foster parents were and how he had big plans for his future and how he wanted to be better than his bio father was.
I can’t wait to read more by C.C. Hunter in the future!

[chymerra]

I like reading Young Adult books. I know, how weird is it that a 40 something (hey, not giving my actual age out here!!) woman likes to read about teenagers. But I do. So when the publisher approached me to review In Another Life, I jumped on it.

What attracted me to In Another Life was the cover. It is an eyecatcher. A turquoise blue cover with black writing, it caught my eye. This is a book that I would buy because of the cover.

I felt awful for Chloe in this book. She had to deal with the fallout from a bitter divorce. She also had to deal with her mother’s illness (breast cancer and depression). She had every right to be upset with her father. She also had every right to question Cash when he laid the facts out in front of her. If someone I barely knew came up to me and said: “Guess what, you are the kidnapped daughter of my foster parents.” I would have had the same reaction. I liked her.

I liked Cash but man, did he annoy me at points in the book. Like his obsession with proving that Chloe was Emily. I get why he was doing it. I do. But, during certain parts of the book, I was like “Just drop it, dude“. I did think that his first interactions with Chloe were borderline stalkerish. I also thought that his attitude towards his foster parents sucked. I mean, they wanted to adopt him and he noped out of it. But it did make sense. What he went through as a child scarred him. I didn’t blame him for not attempting to form relationships.

Chloe’s parents disgusted me. Both of them. Her father was so wrapped up in thinking with his “little” head that he almost lost his relationship with his daughter. And her mother. I couldn’t stand her. She was constantly bad mouthing Chloe’s father. Constantly. Every scene that she was in, I could feel the bitterness rolling off the pages. Even when they were at the police station, she couldn’t stop. At that point, I had enough. I wanted to smack her upside the head and say “Helloo, focus on your daughter, you bitter harpy“.

The main plotline was well written. I had no problem following along. Keeping Cash’s section in 3rd person was a smart move. It would have made it harder to read if it was in 1st person like Chloe. There was a slight lag in the middle but the author was able to get the plot back on track.

I did figure out the mystery angle early in the book. With the introduction of Rodney and the not so subtle clues that were dropped, it only made what I suspected even more concrete. But, figuring out the mystery angle did not take away from the enjoyment of reading the book.

I thought that Cash and Chloe’s romance was very sweet. I had a couple of “awww” moments while reading the book. I liked that the author kept the book PG too.

The end of In Another Life was what I expected. Everything (and I mean all the storylines) were wrapped up. I did get a laugh at what Chloe did to Cash. Also, the epilogue was wonderful to read.

I would give In Another Life an Older Teen rating. There are sexual situations (not graphic). There is language. There is violence. There are triggers. They would be adoption, kidnapping, divorce, and child abuse. I would recommend that no one under the age of 16 read this book.

I would reread In Another Life. I would also recommend this book to family and friends.

I would like to thank the author, the publishers, and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review In Another Life.

All opinions stated in this review of In Another Life are mine.

[Leigha]

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Chloe discovers she may be a kidnapping victim in this young adult contemporary romance.

I remember reading and enjoying the Shadow Falls series by C.C. Hunter many moons ago. When I saw this book on Netgalley in October, I instantly picked it up. To be clear, this is a departure for those fans of C.C. Hunter. This is crime fiction, not paranormal. While I still like her writing, I wasn’t the biggest fan of this book. The plot and pacing left a lot to be desired. The plot is super predictable. I didn’t find anything remotely surprising (which is probably bad since I don’t read this genre often). The pacing felt uneven too. The novel spends so much time building the “is Chloe Emily?” plot that the resolution felt anticlimactic.

The three narrators were not necessary. Honestly, I think it would have been more enjoyable with just Chloe’s POV. Chloe’s slowly dawning horror she might be a kidnapped victim was compelling, particularly since her adoptive parents loved her so much. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Cash. We’re told that he cares about his foster parents, but not shown his caring or involvement in their lives. Considering his connection with his foster parents is the main reason he pursues Chloe’s parentage, we needed more time spent with him and his foster parents. I did like his romance with Chloe. It felt like a real teenage romance despite the circumstances.

tl;dr Pacing issues and a predictable plot left me not really enjoying this novel, but fans of crime genre might enjoy it more than me.