Review: Once I Picked This One Up, I Just Couldn’t Put It Down!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 18, 2014
4.5 Riveting, Entertaining Stars!The Review:Let me start off by saying, for the most part, I’m all about romantic reads (dark or sweet) with a huge side of angst so this isn’t my usual type of read. I like a good thriller/suspense but I dont read a lot of them so I was curious how I would like this one. However, I’d read another book by this author and really enjoyed it, so when he asked if I’d read and review this one, I readily agreed.Well... once I started reading The Find, I absolutely COULD. NOT. PUT. IT. DOWN!It was thrilling and suspenseful and it completely sucked me in, keeping me engaged and greedy to know what happened next. It was well written and it was thought provoking, leaving me thinking about what I was reading, the motivations behind the characters and what desperation can do to a person. And what happens when desperation turns to self serving excitement. Its not often I come from a read thinking about what I’d do in the same situation, but here I am, an entire two days after finishing it, and I'm still wondering about the characters and their story.Characters/Story...This story starts out with our heroine, Phoebe Jackson, working as a cleaning lady for Players, a well known gentlemen's club for mobsters. While cleaning out a locker, she finds a velvet bag thats been left behind by its owner. Curious over what's inside... and after much deliberation of weather she should turn it in or keep it, she ultimately decides to steal the bag and its contents. She’s a single mother with two young daughters, one of which is sick and she’s in desperate need of money.However, that one impetuous act leads her on a hair-raising roller coaster ride as she’s lead down a dark path filled with more bad decisions, dangerous situations and interacting with people she should have stayed far away from and ending with a life changing event I'm sure she never would have chosen if she knew what she was in for.There are other characters at play here. Her best friend Dana, who initially is responsible for pushing Phoebe into the mess she found herself in. She meets up with Michael Contini, aka, Fingertips, who could either be her lifeline or her complete downfall. And then there's the street thug hell bent on getting his way and then there's the ex-cop who might be to late. All these characters come together and make for one exciting read!Thoughts About Phoebe Jackson...What started out as altruistic reasons to earn quick money in an attempt to provide a better life for her children, turned into something more self serving. Phoebe kept saying, over and over, how she was doing all these things for her girls. But it was evident she was being lulled in by the excitement, the intrigue, the danger. And in the end, she paid a high price for her adventure, as did the people around her.Phoebe was naive, delusional and obviously didn’t have a firm grasp on her situation. For most of the book, I didn’t care for her because she came off as simple minded and just refused to see facts. She had indisputable proof of the kind of man she was getting involved with, but she clung to the illusion of doing it all for her kids, having a glamorous life at the end of it all and was literally sucked into Contini's world by manipulation and strategically placed events that set her on the wrong path.And this is why, even though I didn’t like Phoebe’s character, I could forgive her. She was in a horrible situation and she wanted something better for her life and the lives of her kids, but she let those wants and the events happening around her, cloud who she really was at her core. It's happened to us all at some point in our lives. Maybe not to the extreme Phoebe found herself in, but we’ve all been there, wanting to believe in something too good to be true. She was easy to connect with and her struggle was real.I also liked the little bit of romance that was added to this book. Phoebe has many options laid out before her, many paths she could have taken and there were some sweet moments mixed in with all the trickery.And I can’t conclude this review without saying how exceptional the ending was! The whole book kept a constant, steady pace but that ending was fantastic! It was heart-stopping, wild and down right scary. And Phoebe? That chick stepped up and took care of business! Wow!The Wrap Up:I was impressed with this read. There was some predictability in it but also a thrilling mystery because you really couldn’t pinpoint who the bad guy was for the first half of the book. You wonder at everyone’s motives and you wonder who you can trust and who’s really just out for themselves. And what I loved most was, not everything was answered and I'm still playing scenarios out in my head about how this all started, how and why it was all set in motion and what happened to some of the other characters in the story we don't get closure on. All in all, I really enjoyed this fantastic read!NOTE: A gifted copy was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.