The Last Good Day of the Year by Jessica Warman

ARC, 276 pages
Release Date: May 19, 2015
Published by: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Stand-alone
Source: Around the World ARC Tours
For fans of: Thrillers, Contemporary, Mystery, 

     A new powerful thriller from the globally-embraced author of Between.
     Ten years ago, in the early hours of New Year’s Day, seven-year-old Samantha and her next door neighbor, Remy, watched as a man broke into Sam’s home and took her younger sister, Turtle, from her sleeping bag. Remy and Sam, too afraid to intervene at the time, later identified the man as Sam’s sister Gretchen’s much older ex-boyfriend, Steven, who was sent to prison for Turtle’s murder.
     Now, Sam’s shattered family is returning to her childhood home in an effort to heal. As long-buried memories begin to surface, Sam wonders if she and Remy accurately registered everything they saw. The more they re-examine the events of that fateful night, the more questions they discover about what really happened to Turtle.
     Master storyteller Jessica Warman keeps readers guessing in this arresting page-turner.

*MY THOUGHTS*

      Reading this synopsis I was sucked in immediately. Reading the actual book though, not so much. It was just so much that I wasn't really fond of. Things that I'm not fond of in every day things so reading about them in books wasn't something I really wanted to relive. 
     On New Year's Day someone breaks into Remy and Sam's home. As children, they are extremely frightened when they see someone has taken their sister. It later comes to light who it was. Someone that was once close to the family. They leave the area to try to move on, but then go back. It's then that they realize what they think they saw, may not have been what actually happened. 
     As someone that isn't fond of drugs, (whether its teens or adults using) my dislike for this one happened a little early on. Granted it wasn't hard drugs, but I had to skip over a complete scene in the book because I just didn't want to read about it. It's just something that I can't handle. Not saying there's not teens actually doing it, but I just don't like it. For personal reasons. 
     As for the thriller aspect, I wasn't really completely pulled in. It just wasn't creepy to me. It just seemed to be textbook thriller. So obviously I flipped to the end just to see who it was. And I was greeted with a lot of weird. I'm glad I didn't read all the way through because the ending seemed like it should've been on something like To Be Continued. It was literally saying "This is how it ended for..." and I just felt like that was the easy way out. Granted I didn't read most of it, but at the same time, I don't think I'd ever want to read a book that ended like that. On the other hand, I was also able to guess the ending after not having read it all. In other words it was extremely predictable. 
     Although I wasn't really into it, it doesn't mean someone else may not love it. This wasn't for me, but others should give it a try if they're interested. 

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