Six Months Later by Natalie Richards

Reviewed by April:

I grabbed the Kindle version of this book on a Christmas sale after seeing it posted on none other than the Best "Read" Wine Book Blog Facebook page by Jen!  I jumped into it right away and was up late last night and awake bright and early this morning reading this mystery into the afternoon, and here I sit this evening just itching to review it so I can share it with other readers looking for a great book with which to end the year...or ring in the new year, however you want to roll with it!!

Chloe is finishing up her junior year of high school when she falls asleep in study hall one day and wakes up to the same classroom, only six months later and in her senior year with no memory of the time in between.  As she slowly uncovers the details needed to put the pieces together she finds that she is not only missing six months of her life, but that her life itself is also now very different than it was when she fell asleep.  But she, and we, soon figure out that Chloe is not in fact starring in the Twilight Zone, nor has she crossed over into the paranormal, but rather was involved in someone's sinister plans....plans they cannot afford to have revealed, no matter what.

This is a YA mystery which I cannot say I've had any experience with, and while I've read nearly every of Sue Grafton and Mary Higgins Clark books, those definitely fall within the Adult mystery genre so I was curious as to whether a YA mystery could really hold the same appealing qualities I find in a good mystery.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that while this book certainly had a lighter feel to it, it was still full of the same suspense and thrill of the details chase that I'm used to.  It is also a clean novel with regard to romance, so while Ms. Richards is definitely talented in conveying the butterflies in the stomach chemistry between Chloe and Adam, nothing more than kissing happens in this book so its a good choice for an older teen mystery as well.  Coming from someone whose daughter reads at a much higher level than her age and has trouble finding content appropriate books for, that was something that happened to stand out for me while reading this book!

While I thought the suspense in this book was great, and the pace at which the details were uncovered was just right, there were still some loose ends I wish had been tied up before the end of the book and I was a little frustrated to see that final page come when it did, without having the answers to all of the questions I'd mentally cataloged along the way, which I find to be the best part of reading a mystery.  However I think I've gotten so used to authors lately giving us an Epilogue, and then sometimes even a sequel Novella, that I rarely ever finish a book with no stone left unturned anymore so I probably noticed that more than I would have a few years ago!  Nonetheless, Natalie Richards is definitely an author I'm looking forward to reading more from in the future!!