What? Another book from Mom's list? I know, I know, I can't believe it either. Thing is with this book, I can't believe this is a book Mom would read either. I mean, I can understand why she read some of the other books she's read, they fit various themes of what I believe she reads. Except, she reads what she wants to read, what she finds interesting, and this is one of those, "Wait, what?" books that she wanted to read.

I guess.

I'm not giving anything of the book away when I say the book centers around two sex slaves escaping after killing their captors while working a bachelor party, because this particular part of the book happens in the first paragraph of the book. The rest of the book is about the aftermath of that act: the why, the history, the emotions, the recovery, the fall. It is told from the first person viewpoint of one of the sex slaves (ex sex slaves) and from the third person omniscient view of the father-husband-brother-of-the-groom, his wife, and his daughter.

The causal violence in the book threw me off.

The sex slaves in the book threw me off.

The description of the emotional journey of the wife threw me off.

The emotional attachment to help someone in need totally resonated.

The book is lingering with me. I'm not sure I recommend the book, nor am I sure I'm glad I spent the time reading it. It is lingering, though.

This definitely is one of the books from Mom's pile of books. She recently added this one to my list as one "you have to read!" Except she hadn't read, so I'm unsure why she felt I needed to read it.

I suspect it's because it's by the same author as Gone Girl, and Mom really liked the twist in that one.

This one starts out as giant con job, and turns into a ghost story. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the twist near the end, while the actual ending had me cracking up.

The book is a quick read, no reason not to borrow it from the library and read it in an evening, with enough time left over for a barbeque, to be honest.

I know! I know! SHOCK! Another from the pile of books from Mom. I swear I have other piles of books and books from other people and books from lists that sound interesting. I do! I do!

Though, I suspect I beat Mom in finishing this book. Go me.

The book starts with the main character fleeing her life after the death of her husband, who had fallen down the stairs. Normally, contacting authories is the correct reaction, but Tanya Dubois has a past that she doesn't want investigated, so instead of the "correct" reaction, she runs.

She adopts new identities in an attempt to establish a new life, but continues to be on the run from town to town. She eventually moves towards confronting the dark secret of her past, learning more than a few things along the way, with a satisfying resolution at the end.

The story cuts off at an interesting place, the part where things could start to become boring, so we have a "she lived happily ever after," but I'm uncertain that one could switch from looking over one's shoulder for ten years to settling down. I guess it could happen.

The book was interesting, but I don't know that I'd recommend it. I might have to start a new rating scale: Don't read, get from library, borrow from friend, buy a copy, buy two copies, one to lend.

Something like that.

I swear, all of the books I have been reading lately are from Mom's pile. It might begin to frustrate me if my pile of books doesn't start reducing in size, too. Something about the growing stacks, from two to three, is starting to bug me.

Also bugging me about this book is the setup. We have a geeky, six-foot kid who actively wants to go to private school because he has no friends in the public school he attends, who meets the most amazingly beautiful girl in the school, who we later learn is also attracted to him, and we are supposed to believe this setup?

If a six foot kid isn't immediately recruited to the basketball team, even in a private school, something is wrong. But the most unbelievable part is having the most attractive girl in the school being attracted to the book's protagonist who has exactly no friends in his previous school. Having no friends? No girls attracted to him, throwing themselves at him, wanting to date him? That's a hard suspension of disbelief to have. Just saying.

The book countdowns to the major event in the book, then counts up from said major event. It does that well for structure, but fails to convey the overwhelming heartbreak that is involved in said event. Not sure how else to explain how the second part felt superficial.

It's a good story, so for that reason I'd likely hand the book to a friend, though I wouldn't be worried about asking for the book back, or buying a second copy so that I had a version to loan. My copy will likely go into the Little Lending Library out front.