By: Shannon Grogan
Genres: Young Adult Suspense
Posted: November 19, 2015
FROM WHERE I WATCH YOU is a delicious young adult suspense. Kara is a dynamic protagonist with an interesting personality. The reader gets flashbacks to Kara's early childhood throughout the story, and the flashbacks demonstrate a specific kind of family (especially with her sister) relationship that Kara struggles with, even presently as far as her mother is concerned. The only real passion she has is baking, and though she is excellent at it, her mother doesn't support her. I love how realistic the relationships are, particularly the one between Kara and her dead sister that proves not all is forgiven, or understood, when one party is no longer present.
As much as I enjoy Kara and her story, I do wish there had been a little more emphasis on the suspense part with the notes. The notes are definitely creepy, and Grogan does an excellent job of presenting several possible suspects, but the action/suspense around them doesn't really pick up until closer to the end.
FROM WHERE I WATCH YOU won't leave readers with a sweet tooth, but it will leave them with a happily full stomach of realistic characterization and a good story. I will definitely be on the lookout for more from Shannon Grogan.
Book Summary
Sixteen-year-old Kara is about to realize her dream of becoming a professional baker. Beautifully designed and piped, her cookies are masterpieces, but also her ticket out of rainy Seattle—if she wins the upcoming national baking competition and its scholarship prize to culinary school in California. Kara can no longer stand the home where her family lived, laughed, and ultimately imploded after her mean-spirited big sister Kellen died in a drowning accident. Kara’s dad has since fled, and her mom has turned from a high-powered attorney into a nutty holy-rolling Christian fundamentalist peddling “Soul Soup” in the family café. All Kara has left are memories of better times.
But the past holds many secrets, and they come to light as Kara faces an anonymous terror: Someone is leaving her handwritten notes. Someone who knows exactly where she is and what she’s doing. As the notes lead her to piece together the events that preceded Kellen’s terrible, life-changing betrayal years before, she starts to catch glimpses of her dead sister: an unwelcome ghost in filthy Ugg boots. If Kara doesn’t figure out who her stalker is, and soon, she could lose everything. Her chance of escape. The boy she’s beginning to love and trust. Even her life.
by: Shannon Grogan
Soho
August 1, 2015
On Sale: August 4, 2015
Featuring:
304 pages
ISBN: 1616955546
EAN: 9781616955540
Kindle: B00PEOIYL4
Hardcover / e-Book