I hate being a black sheep, guys. Anyway. I didn't hate this book or anything. But I had read so many great reviews that maybe my expectations were too high? No, I didn't dislike it, I just... felt nothing toward it either way. In fairness, I guessed what was happening really early on, and turned out to be right, so I guess that is pretty anticlimactic.
What I liked:
- The family stuff. This story is super family focused, since Laurel's disappearance and such has kind of been the center of their world. I liked that Faith was so close with her stepfather, and I liked that he was there for her, especially when her parents just could not be, emotionally.
- Faith was pretty realistic, in my opinion. Like, she was selfish from time to time, but who isn't? And she did try so hard with Laurel and with her parents, but man, this was not an easy situation for anyone, let alone a teenaged girl!
- The book did pick up a bit in the second half, so even though I felt sure that I knew how things would end, I still was reading it at a pretty good pace.
What I didn't:
- Faith's boyfriend was the actual worst. I don't even know why he was in the story, unless the point was just to make me rage. Which I did. Because go away, dude. And her friends were pretty much crap too. I was glad she had her stepfather, because seriously, none of these other people deserved to be her friend.
- I didn't feel a sense of urgency, because everything seemed a bit... obvious to me. Not just the "big" stuff either, but some of the smaller points.
- Frankly, it just didn't stick with me very much. When I was done I was satisfied, and then moved on and kind of didn't really think about it again.
Bottom Line: Not a bad story, and I enjoyed the writing, but I felt almost like I'd heard the story before since I felt like I knew what would happen. Faith was a great character though, and I'd definitely consider reading more books from the author, I just think this one maybe wasn't for me.
*Copy provided by publisher for review