Week 48 Review: Missing at 17

From Goodreads:
In this suspenseful and romantic teen thriller based on the "can't pull your eyes away" series on Lifetime, one girl discovers that no matter how far you run from your problems, they will always find you.

For most of Candace's life she never felt like she completely belonged. But nothing could prepare her for the shocking discovery that her parents have been concealing the truth about who she is and where she came from her entire life.

Feeling like her world has been turned upside down, and unable to trust the people she's closest to, Candace runs away...right into the arms of an alluring stranger.

But while Candace and Toby have an undeniable connection, it's less certain what the future holds for them as Candace's family and Toby's less-than-legal lifestyle threaten to rip them apart.

As things start to spiral out of control, Candace must fight to understand her own identity...and who she can truly rely on.

My Review:
This book. Oh man, this book. It does say that "as seen on Lifetime" which I don't know much about Lifetime, but my impression of them is that they're a little corny. That fit with this book, Candace was stubborn and overreactive and a temper, and the title and the synopsis really give that impression.

I'm a bit torn on this book. On one hand, Candace's reactions were pretty immature and over the top, for a younger YA audience. On the other, she does get into a very intimate relationship with a guy she just met, very quickly, a guy who is older than her by about 5 years. Oh, and while she doesn't know this (they did just meet, after all) he is a petty criminal. So it's hard to say what audience that this would appeal to. 

I did like that we got to be in Toby's head, but given that he was older, I wish that he'd been a little more mature. He made some pretty poor decisions, and then how that all ended, well, I wasn't expecting something like that to happen in a fairly shallow book like this one.

One thing that I really enjoyed was that we had a longer ending, after that climax. I love having that time to settle in to react to whatever happened, get those details on how the characters are doing, and this book gave me that.

I did enjoy this book, but it's not one I'm interested in reading again in the future.

Author: Christine Conradt
Read: November 22nd, 2020
Source: Bought/Edelweiss
Reason Why: Sounded really great, and it's a DAC Book and a SAC 2020 Book!
Publisher: Harper Teen
Published: May 1st 2018

5/5 Hearts

3/5 Books

1/5 Stars