Review: What a RIDE! I didn't want it to end. . .
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 9, 2013
This book is a 5-star book, hands down. Once again Ms. Huss does it again, creating an entire world populated with people that you care bout from the first moment they appear on the scene.Francesca Sabatini was stopped at LAX because her imaged flagged some facial recognition software. This software claimed that Francesca was one Fiona Sullivan, a young girl kidnapped with her mother while the family was vacationing in Italy twelve years ago. Both she and her mother disappeared without a trace, at least until now according to the authorities.After time spent in hospitals and mental wards the courts declared that 'Francesca' had to spend the remaining seven weeks until Fiona's 18th birthday living with the Sullivans. Though Francesca insists that she is not Fiona, proof keeps piling up that she isn't 'Francesca Sabatini' either. Having three passports under different names, but all with her photo didn't help her case. Nor did failing four polygraph tests. Yet she knows that she is not this Fiona Sullivan girl that everyone is insisting she must be. The whole situation frustrating, annoying, and even frightening. But her biggest fear is that someone will figure out who she really is.Francesca, aka Fiona, aka Fee, starts her time on the Sullivan Farm angry and sullen. She doesn't understand why they can't see that they are ruining her life, ripping her away from her family in an attempt to replace the daughter they lost so many years ago. It takes her a while to realize that they are all going through the same thing, just from the other side.Brody Mason, the local bad boy, has always loved Fiona. For as long as he can remember he knew she was his soulmate and would one day be his wife. Pretty impressive for a seven year old! When Brody hears that Fiona may be back he rushes to the store where her older brother Sean works."She's Fiona?" is all I can manage to say."She's definitely Fiona. I'm just not sure what to make of things right now and I know you have this obsession with her and you probably want to know everything, but that's all I have. Frank is not being very forthcoming about his talks with the FBI. He's not even telling Angela.""I'm not obsessed, by the way. We were friends, that's all.""Brody, you were seven years old when she disappeared. You looked for her out in the woods until you were eleven. And they went missing in Italy when we were on vacation, so how that even made sense to you, I just don't know."I shrug. It was disturbing. One day you're thinking about how you'll be able to give your first-grade girlfriend a Fruit Roll-Up to show her you care on the morning bus ride to school, and then she's just gone."Fee and Brody strike up a friendship when he 'rescues' her from an emotional 'family' argument that has her running blind in a bid to just get away for a while. She literally runs into Brody on his dirt bike, accepts his hand and hops on behind him, as he spirits her away to a secluded spot. That one kind act and his brutal honesty with her draw her closer to Brody, and in turn he helps her see that the Sullivan's aren't doing this to hurt her. They are trying to mend broken hearts and find answers, answers everyone seems to think she has.Once Fee stops being so self-centered she starts to get to know her other 'family,' and to care for them. As more and more questions are raised, Fee starts to question her entire life. She knows her father and stepmother love her, even if they do lead a very non-traditional life. But then all obscenely wealthy people seem to do that, don't they? At the same time she can feel the love the Sullivan's have for her, and they aren't exactly poor by any stretch if the imagination.The emotional roller coaster that each character goes on is so well described you feel as if you are there in the cart with them, going up hills, and suffering the have your stomach suddenly lodge itself in your throat when the cart drops you down from on high. Throw in the loop-the-loops and corkscrew turns and you begin to get a sense of what Fee, Brody, Sean, and all the others are emotionally going through, pretty much 24/7.Each time you think you have Fee's story figured out, something else is added to the equation, leaving you floundering about in even more confusion. The ending is not what I'd originally expected, but then by the time I was about halfway finished with the story I'd given up on trying to guess how it all ended, and if everything would come together or not. Hands down this is one of those books that you won't put down until you've read each and every last word. So go use the restroom, grab something to drink and a small snack if you think you may get hungry, and settle in for a ride unlike any other!!