Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Review: Far From You by Tess Sharpe

Book Title: Far From You
Author: Tess Sharpe
Publish Date: April 8th, 2014
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Genre: YA Contemporary Mystery
Standalone
Book Link: Goodreads

Synopsis from Goodreads:
Sophie Winters nearly died. Twice.

The first time, she's fourteen, and escapes a near-fatal car accident with scars, a bum leg, and an addiction to Oxy that'll take years to kick. 

The second time, she's seventeen, and it's no accident. Sophie and her best friend Mina are confronted by a masked man in the woods. Sophie survives, but Mina is not so lucky. When the cops deem Mina's murder a drug deal gone wrong, casting partial blame on Sophie, no one will believe the truth: Sophie has been clean for months, and it was Mina who led her into the woods that night for a meeting shrouded in mystery.

After a forced stint in rehab, Sophie returns home to a chilly new reality. Mina's brother won't speak to her, her parents fear she'll relapse, old friends have become enemies, and Sophie has to learn how to live without her other half. To make matters worse, no one is looking in the right places and Sophie must search for Mina's murderer on her own. But with every step, Sophie comes closer to revealing all: about herself, about Mina and about the secret they shared.

Disclaimer: This is a library book.

Review:
I had my eye on this book for months and when I got my new library card, I immediately put a hold on this book. I had heard nothing but amazing things about it and I could not wait to get my hands on it. It was totally amazing, unputdownable, fabulous mystery mixed in with friendship and romance. It was fast paced and it kept me guessing all the way through.

The timeline actually worked for me. I liked how it bounced around from present time to past time. It filled in a lot of the gaps that I would have had without the flashbacks. We got to see the characters in different lights. We got to see how Mina and Sophie fell in love. We got to see Mina's struggle with wanting to be herself in front of her family, but also fearing the consequences of it. We got to see how Sophie's addiction started, which was probably my favorite subplot of the story.

When we first meet Sophie, she's nearing the end of her stay in a rehab facility. It's been 4 months since her best friend was murdered right in front of her. Sophie has been dealing with addiction since she was fourteen years old, after a terrible car accident that left her in constant pain. But she shouldn't have been at Seaside. At the time of her best friend's death, she had been clean and sober for 10 months.

None of that mattered to her parents. Especially when they found a bag full of drugs in her jacket pocket the night of the murder. Her parents, the detectives, even her friends won't listen to her. That was incredibly hard for me to read. My heart ached for Sophie. She had just lost her best friend and now her parents refused to believe she was clean. Not only that, but they were sending her off to a rehab facility. 

So many things happened in this book. So many difficult things were talked about in it, In true mystery book form, there were twists and turns, none of which I saw coming. And there was a romance, although it was more like a love square. It was complex, but interesting to see how Sophie interacted with Kyle & Trev. It was interesting to see that the secret Sophie and Mina shared was not quite as secret as they thought it was.

Sophie's relationship with her aunt Macy was awesome to see. We don't see extended family much in YA novels so I was excited to see Macy make several appearances. Especially since she was the one who helped get Sophie clean. I actually wanted to see more of Macy because I thought she was a great character.

This book was nearly perfect, so I'll be giving it four and a half stars. I can't quite figure out why I can't give it the full 5 stars. I just know that I need to buy my own copy of this book whenever I can afford it. I cannot wait to see what the author writes next.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you so much for your comment! I will do my best to reply to every comment that is left. This blog is an award free blog. I appreciate the thought, but I do not have the time to follow up.