STORY SUMMARY
Hope Miller has no idea who she really is. Fifteen years before this story takes place, she was found on the side of a road in Hopewell, New Jersey, by a woman named Lindsay Kelly. Lindsay is a Manhattan defense attorney dating a man named Max.
The car was flipped over and after the ambulance took Hope away, Lindsay went to the hospital and stayed by her side. In fact, they are the best of friends all these years later. There are no clues at all as to the identity of this woman! The doctors all assumed that Hope would recover from her amnesia because they thought it was a temporary side effect of all of the traumatic injuries she endured. But.....she never regained her memory.
She started a new life, in a new town, with this new name. Everyone in the small town welcomed her into their lives. Yet everyone also wondered just what she was running from and what she left behind. Now, 15 years later, she is leaving New Jersey to settle on Long Island in the Hamptons!
Lindsay worries about Hope. She doesn't think Hope can handle life with out her by her side and away from everything that has become familiar. Lindsay's worst fears come to light when she finds out that Hope has disappeared without a trace.....and the only evidence or lead that the local police have is a small drop of blood where she was last seen. Even more creepy-----the blood is a DNA match with a person who has a connection to a notorious serial killer out in Wichita, Kansas.
Lindsay has no idea where to turn so she decides to call homicide detective Ellie Hatcher who works for the NYPD. Ellie is the daughter of the police officer who dedicated his life into hunting for the Kansas killer. Sadly, Ellie's father died 20 years earlier and Ellie has always been convinced that there was more to her dad's death that what she, her brother, and mother have been told. They were told it was a suicide. But Ellie believes it was murder! But by whom?
Now she is afraid that Hope's disappearance could be related to the Kansas killer...and to whomever killed her father.
Will they ever find Hope? Will they finally learn the truth about Ellie's father?
MY THOUGHTS
This is a light "beach read". It's also very fast-paced and not a difficult read.
The character development is well executed and the thrust forward to where Hope's past joins in with her present is very interesting and believable. I liked that the book is just a light read because I've been reading some deeper and heavier topic books this summer and wanted something easy.
The author has written many novels and some are grouped together as a series. I'm interested in reading some more of her work because she writes very well.
The themes in this book are basically the importance of friendships, self-identity, co-dependence, memory trauma, parental emotional and physical abuse, buried secrets, betrayal, childhood sexual abuse, marital infidelity, drug addiction, loyalty, love.
What I didn't like about the characters is that the author had 2 of the main female characters end up in a relationship that appears to be more than friends. But it doesn't surprise me as so many people have decided to embrace including LGBTQ relationships into their writing. There were also many editing errors which automatically lowers the rating for me.
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older (due to some mature content/themes).
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this an 8.
1 comment:
I kind of giggled as I was reading your synopsis and thinking "Wow, this sounds intense" and then in your next sentence you said it's a light beach read". It made me laugh (which you know I needed!). LOL. But the story does sound interesting.
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