Crossing Over - Mysteries with Missing Persons

Hey all. It's been awhile since my last Crossing Over post. If you're not familiar with Crossing Over it's a feature that stemmed from my desire to recommend an adult book with crossover appeal based on a YA or sometimes Middle Grade book that are similar. I hate that we pigeonhole books into a specific age range and so I try to combat that. Plus it's basically an if you liked, then try but for crossover books. It runs once a month (usually) here and I pick the books based on the theme of what I'm reading. So this month my theme is historical fiction and honestly that was a pretty hard one for me. I feel like I don't read a ton of adult historical fiction and the ones that I do are very different from the YA I read. So I did a little bit of a twist on the topic and do time travel stories with a big focus on historical fiction

Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehring
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This book is about a girl who goes missing and how her best friend and boyfriend has to cope with that and find out exactly what happened to her. Everyone thinks she just ran away but the main character suspects foul play. As the book unfolds we learn more about both the character who goes missing and the narrator. In fact, much more of the focus is on the development of Flynn's character, which honestly was totally fine with me.

Because honestly, the best part of this book may have been the characters. This is a book that is full of fantastic and complex characters. Seriously, most of the characters in this book were incredibly unlikable, even January. But the author does a great job in making you connect with them. You don't agree with their motives but you respect them for their bad decisions. They felt realistic and interesting. Which to me is an essential part of a good mystery.

Speaking of that mystery, this was a pretty good one. I prefer my mysteries to be solvable. I want there to be clues along the way that help me figure it all our but not until the very end. I want it to unfold in a way where I am solving it with the characters. And while I did figure this one out pretty easily there were still plenty of surprises along the way.

In general, it's a good read and an interesting mystery. It's more character-driven than I expected but that was okay because the characters were some of the best things about this book. I totally recommend it to fans of YA mysteries.

Passenger by Alexandra Bracken
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This book is about a girl who goes missing and how her best friend and roommate has to cope with that and find out exactly what happened to her. Everyone thinks she just ran away but the main character suspects foul play. Then there is the mysterious appearance of a woman in a town an hour away that the other main character is drawn to and no one else seems to care about or even notice really. As the book unfolds we learn more about the character who goes missing, the girl who just showed up, and the narrator. I don't want to give too much away but there are a lot of good reveals.

Because honestly, the characters were amazing. This is a book that is full of fantastic and complex characters. Seriously, most of the characters in this book were incredibly unlikable, even the narrators at times. But the author does a great job in making you connect with them. That is what Mary Kubica does so well in all her books. You don't agree with their motives but you respect them for their bad decisions. They felt realistic and interesting. Which to me is an essential part of a good mystery.

Speaking of that mystery, that was probably the best part. I prefer my mysteries to be solvable. I want there to be clues along the way that help me figure it all our but not until the very end. I want it to unfold in a way where I am solving it with the characters. And that is exactly what this book did. You don't have all the pieces of the puzzle until the very end and when you do and you see the whole picture you are shocked and so entertained.

In general, it's a good read and the perfect summer mystery. It's more character-driven than I expected but that was okay because the characters were one of the best things about this book. I totally recommend it to fans of mysteries.

Besides the fact that both of these mysteries involve kidnappings, I would say that the main similarities are that they focus more on the characters and who they are then on the over-arching whodunit kind of aspects of the mystery. That is one of the things I love about all Mary Kubica's books and I know Caleb Roehring focused a lot on making his characters complex but still sympathetic. If you like those kinds of mysteries check these two out for sure.

Have you read Last Seen Leaving and/or Don't You Cry? What did you think? What mystery novels with crossover appeal do you like? Leave me a comment with your thoughts. Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY READING!

ARC Review: Don't You Cry by Mary Kubica

Title: Don't You Cry Written by: Mary Kubica Published: May 17, 2016 by Harlequin MIRA (Amazon / Goodreads) Synopsis: New York Times bestselling author of The Good Girl, Mary Kubica returns with an electrifying and addictive tale of deceit and obsession  In downtown Chicago, a young woman named Esther Vaughan disappears from her apartment without a trace. A haunting letter addressed to My Dearest is found among her possessions, leaving her friend and roommate Quinn Collins to wonder where Esther is and whether or not she's the person Quinn thought she knew.  Meanwhile, in a small Michigan harbor town an hour outside Chicago, a mysterious woman appears in the quiet coffee shop where eighteen-year-old Alex Gallo works as a dishwasher. He is immediately drawn to her charm and beauty, but what starts as an innocent crush quickly spirals into something far more dark and sinister than he ever expected.  As Quinn searches for answers about Esther, and Alex is drawn further under Pearl's spell, master of suspense Mary Kubica takes readers on a taut and twisted thrill ride that builds to a stunning conclusion and shows that no matter how fast and far we run, the past always catches up with us in the end.

*** I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This fact has not changed my opinion. ***

This was really fantastic! A great way to kick off my mystery month on the blog. I really enjoyed Mary Kubica's debut, The Good Girl, and so I was really excited to read this one. And I was not at all disappointed with it. It's another engrossing mystery full of thrills and surprises with complex and interesting characters and writing that pulls you in.

The first thing that struck me about this book was Kubica's writing. She has this great way of writing in a way that pulls you in. As soon as I started reading I was drawn in to the daily life of the characters, their worlds, and the mystery that was surrounding them. It's almost atmospheric in that you can't help but fall completely into the world of the book, fall so deep into it that you forget your surroundings. What helped in this respect too is that I listened to the audiobook. It has two narrators which help differentiate between the two. I've liked the male narrator, Kirby Heyborne in the past but I've found the female narrator, Kate Rudd, challenging. However this time, I liked them both. The narrators did a great job of setting the scene of the book and pulling you in. Not to mention that they gave Mary's writing an almost lyrical quality that was incredibly engaging.

The synopsis mentions that it's an addictive story and that is completely accurate. I seriously could not stop reading. Once I started, I needed to keep going until I found out what happened. A lot of that of course had to do with the plot development. This book was full of non-stop thrills and mystery. From beginning to end it had me questioning so much what was happening and why. It really built to a fantastic climax that had me on the edge of my seat, feeling shock and awe when it was all said and done. It's a book that pulls you in and doesn't let you do until the very end.

But my favorite thing to do with the plot was of course the big mystery. I read a lot of mysteries, I read a lot of books with a mystery to them. Don't You Cry is an example of my favorite kind of mystery. Most of the book had me questioning everything, which is common, but it's the kind of thing where you don't have a lot of the pieces of the puzzle until the very end. The clues slowly unfolded in a way that you could piece them together around the same time if not just before the characters. It kept me guessing but let me feel the satisfaction of figuring it out which is my favorite kind of mystery. It was complicated and solvable which had me reading until the very end when it was all revealed in a shocking but satisfying way.

I think a lot of why I was questioning everything is because of the characters of this book. Her characterizations are one of the things that impressed me with Kubica's first book and one of the things I liked about this one as well. She does multiple perspectives so well. In this book we get Quinn and Alex. I liked both characters but in a way that had me curious about their involvement in the larger mystery and frankly their sanity. I liked Quinn but after a time I started questioning how she was involved and how she was connected. Alex however felt much more sympathetic with his difficult past and challenging present but even he has his moments where I stopped trusting him. You get different sides of the story and aspects of the mystery as both of these characters are trying to figure out different parts of the mystery. But it's really the secondary characters who are the most complex. I don't want to say much about them but there a lot of interesting characters in this book.

On the whole Don't You Cry is another fantastic thriller and mystery from Kubica. It's an addictive and engrossing story that will pull you in and the thrilling mystery and complex characters that will keep you reading from beginning to end.

I give Don't You Cry by Mary Kubica 9.5 out of 10 stars  

Buy/Borrow/Bypass: BUY! Fans of her previous books will enjoy this as well. And if you have not yet read any of her books and you like mysteries and thrillers then you are missing out. Pick them up. They're fantastic and this one is particularly brilliant.

Have you read Don't You Cry? What did you think? Leave a comment with your thoughts. Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY READING!