October 3, 2022
Casey Rhodes’s life seems to be going well: despite only being 17, she’s already a sophomore student at NYU, gets along with her roommate Pippa, and recently started dating rich, charming Marcus. When Marcus sweeps her off her feet to a glitzy party and reveals he’s used his connections to land her a publishing internship, Casey feels like she’s living a Cinderella story, until she suddenly starts hearing an ominous voice and seeing violent visions. Convinced that school and family stress are catching up to her, she escapes to quiet beach town Avon Shores for a chance to clear her head. Once there, however, she’s plagued by an inexplicable and overwhelming sense of déjà vu. As the voice gets louder and the visions increase in frequency, she finds herself mysteriously drawn to a boy named Jake, who claims he remembers her—but as a girl named Becky. Shepard (the Pretty Little Liars series) employs brisk dialogue and suspenseful atmosphere—one’s never sure whether a kiss, a thrill, or a scare is around the corner—to keep the plot moving at a fast clip, crafting an immersive romantic mystery. Ages 14–up.
January 1, 2023
Gr 9 Up-Casey Rhodes has it all together. She accelerated through grades in school, graduated young, and now, at 17, she's a sophomore at NYU, has a rich boy pursuing her, a fun job, and lives in the dorm with her new best friend, Pippa. Things go awry when she begins hearing voices that accompany bursts of memories of things that she is sure never happened but seem real. Distraught, she heads out of town to be alone to sort things out. Jumping off the bus at a random stop, she lands in a town she's never been to before, but where people recognize her, and things seem familiar. When she runs into Jake, a boy her age who instantly recognizes her as the girl who disappeared from his life a few years earlier, she is more confused than ever. Hoping he holds the key to understanding the voices, and with help from a local psychic and Jake's mother, Casey and Jake begin the search to understand a past that could include murder. Romance, mystery, and a dose of the mystical intertwine to create a fast-paced, page-turning story. While some elements are difficult to believe, the mystery is compelling enough to move the story forward while bringing up questions about past lives, old souls, and love. There is no mention of race; characters are identified by their hair color (blond, chestnut, dark curly, etc.). VERDICT A quick-reading mystery that is entertaining enough to recommend to readers who like to keep guessing to the end.-Connie Williams
Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
September 15, 2022
A precocious young woman with many faces is gripped by a mysterious voice. Seventeen-year-old Casey seemingly has it good: She's attending New York University on scholarship; she's close with her roommate, Pippa; and she's dating supernice, superrich Marcus. But something feels off. After a company holiday party where she meets Marcus' CEO father, she is haunted by an insidious, whispering voice that makes her distrust Marcus. Is she being haunted by a forgotten memory, or is this a premonition? Deciding to spend some time alone and study for finals, she hops on the Long Island Rail Road and randomly heads to seaside town Avon Shores, where she inexplicably knows more than she should about a place she's never been. Then she meets a boy named Jake who remembers her as Becky. All the while, Casey is inundated with disturbing visions, including a wedding gone wrong, a car crash, and a drowning. As the book is narrated from Casey's first-person, present-tense perspective, readers closely follow her as she makes missteps and causes some of her own problems. What follows is a typical love triangle but with a surprise thrown in. There is a slow buildup to a fast-paced mystery in which each new piece of information casts what came before in a new light. Most characters default to White. An enjoyably twisty romantic puzzle. (Mystery. 14-18)
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November 1, 2022
Grades 9-12 After the traumatic death of her mother, Casey raced through school, skipping a few grades along the way. As a 17-year-old college sophomore, she is finally free of a stepmother she has never liked, and has fallen into a relationship with the wealthy heir to a media conglomerate. Needing solitude to sort through some red flags surrounding her boyfriend, Casey escapes to a little coastal town where she begins to have vivid memories that are not her own--memories of true love but also of fear and violence. As she tries to sort out what she thinks may be scenes of a past life, Casey is faced with some terrifying truths about her own life and memories. The main tension in this offering from Shepard (Pretty Little Liars series) comes from the uncertainty of whether Casey's memories are voices from the past or acute mental illness, a conflict that leads to some of the novel's more frightening scenes. This past-life romance has a little mystery and a little suspense and will appeal to fans of twisty tales.
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