Friday, February 3, 2017

The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel

Description
"Roanoke girls never last long around here. In the end, we either run or we die.
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."


Lane never understood her mother's depression, or hatred of her childhood home, until it was too late. She had never met any of her mother's family. They never wrote, or called. She always thought maybe they were dead, until her mother's suicide when she was told her grandparents wanted her to come and live with them. What at first seemed to be the first time Lane would ever have a normal family life turned out to be anything but normal. When Lane ran like hell after that summer in her grandparents home, she never expected to come back.
I liked the way it was told in alternating time periods of "Then" and "Now" as we learn what Lane ran from, and how it came to shape every aspect of her life and relationships.
Although a bit too predictable to hold any truly shocking moments it did hold my interest.
4 out of 5 stars from me.

I received an advance copy for review

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