Book Review: When

Title - When 

Author - Victoria Laurie

Genre - YA Paranormal Mystery

Published - January 13th 2015

Publisher - Disney-Hyperion

Format - Kindle

(Goodreads)(Amazon)

Synopsis

Maddie Fynn is a shy high school junior, cursed with an eerie intuitive ability: she sees a series of unique digits hovering above the foreheads of each person she encounters. Her earliest memories are marked by these numbers, but it takes her father’s premature death for Maddie and her family to realize that these mysterious digits are actually death dates, and just like birthdays, everyone has one.

Forced by her alcoholic mother to use her ability to make extra money, Maddie identifies the quickly approaching death date of one client's young son, but because her ability only allows her to see the when and not thehow, she’s unable to offer any more insight. When the boy goes missing on that exact date, law enforcement turns to Maddie.

Soon, Maddie is entangled in a homicide investigation, and more young people disappear and are later found murdered. A suspect for the investigation, a target for the murderer, and attracting the attentions of a mysterious young admirer who may be connected to it all, Maddie's whole existence is about to be turned upside down. Can she right things before it's too late?

Review

Maddie has a unique ability she can look at anyone in person or from a picture and see the day they will die in the form of a number on their forehead. As a child no one knew what the numbers meant but after her father’s death matched the numbers everyone knew she could see people’s deathdate. Her mother took the loss of her husband hard falling into alcohol so the only way Maddie could pay the bills was seeing clients and revealing to them the day they would die. When Mrs. Tibbolt show’s up for a consultation she’s asking about her daughter who has leukemia everything changes because it’s not the daughter but her son who has the deathdate just next week.

Trying to help the only way she knew how Maggie tells Mrs. Tibbolt the truth who doesn’t accept the truth and when Maggie calls to try and talk some sense into her Mrs. Tribbolt threatens the cops. It’s only after Mrs. Tibbolts son is found murdered that the cops start looking at Maddie as the possible murder and when they try to help a cheerleader who also ends up dead soon she and her best friend Stubs look just like the killers. Will Maddie be able to prove they are innocent or will they both end up in prison for murder’s they didn’t commit? Who is the real killer and how does he know Maddie?

I liked Maddie she’s an alright character I just didn’t connect with her she’s your shy quiet smart girl next door type who keeps to herself. Both her and her best friend are good kids with good hearts even putting themselves in the line of fire to save two people they didn’t know. We also have a good deal of seeing the FBI agents who work the case, Maddie’s uncle and mom and even a boy she has a crush on but none of them are important character to the story. The main focus is Maddie and she had so much potential as a character she just didn’t live up to it.

I’ve had this one on my TBR for a while after all I love the publisher so I knew it would be a good one. My book club group actually picked this one for our February read so a bunch of us had the chance to read it. I think the author had a great concept but I felt that the story was just weak, and maybe that’s because I just expected too much. I wanted more mystery and romance I think the little hinting of romance throughout the story wasn’t bad but I wanted to see Maddie get the guy. I also never saw it coming who the killer was we have several potential and I was shocked when I read who it was. Overall I liked When it’s an interesting idea I just didn’t love the way it played out. I actually finished When the day of book club. The author’s writing style was enjoyable the story just flowed along from page to page. This is my first book by the author but I’m curious to check out her other series. Would I read it again? No but I would recommend it to others because I think the concept was great just not my kind of book.