by Amy Engel
Find out more about this book and author:
Amazon
Goodreads
BookExcerpt
Website
Just released: March 7, 2017
Publisher: Crown
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, YA
Hardback: 288 pages
Rating: 5
First sentence(s):
The second time I saw Roanoke was a month after my mother committed suicide.
Zombie sighting:
I called her two, three times a day for weeks. Left messages, begged to see her. I was a zombie at work, barely better at home.
- chapter NOW, page 155
After her mother's suicide, fifteen year-old Lane Roanoke came to live with her grandparents and fireball cousin, Allegra, on their vast estate in rural Kansas. Lane knew little of her mother's mysterious family, but she quickly embraced life as one of the rich and beautiful Roanoke girls. But when she discovered the dark truth at the heart of the family, she ran…fast and far away.
Eleven years later, Lane is adrift in Los Angeles when her grandfather calls to tell her Allegra has gone missing. Did she run too? Or something worse? Unable to resist his pleas, Lane returns to help search, and to ease her guilt at having left Allegra behind. Her homecoming may mean a second chance with the boyfriend whose heart she broke that long ago summer. But it also means facing the devastating secret that made her flee, one she may not be strong enough to run from again.
As it weaves between Lane’s first Roanoke summer and her return, The Roanoke Girls shocks and tantalizes, twisting its way through revelation after mesmerizing revelation, exploring the secrets families keep and the fierce and terrible love that both binds them together and rips them apart.
My two-bits:
I was charmed by the characters and the way this story is told. Despite character flaws and decisions a weird empathy for them comes about. And, I found myself in the same shoes as the protagonist in some instances.
It had the right amount of mystery and thriller to the end. It is one of those mysteries where you can pretty well guess who did it, but you are drawn to the "why" of it.
Got me thinking of charisma.
* review copy courtesy of publisher
* part of Cloak & Dagger Challenge (here)
