Review #14 Rosebush-Michele Jaffe

People often forget that there are always two sides of a medal. Being popular means having a bunch of friends. It also means that when hit by a car there are a bunch of friends who could be blamed for your near-death experience....



Published: 2010
Pages: 326
Genre: Mystery
Long Story Short: After the first 20 pages or so? Amazing!

Goodreads synopsis:


Instead of celebrating Memorial Day weekend on the Jersey Shore, Jane is in the hospital surrounded by teddy bears, trying to piece together what happened last night. One minute she was at a party, wearing fairy wings and cuddling with her boyfriend. The next, she was lying near-dead in a rosebush after a hit-and-run. Everyone believes it was an accident, despite the phone threats Jane swears were real. But the truth is a thorny thing. As Jane's boyfriend, friends, and admirers come to visit, more memories surface-not just from the party, but from deeper in her past . . . including the night her best friend Bonnie died.
With nearly everyone in her life a suspect now, Jane must unravel the mystery before her killer attacks again. Along the way, she's forced to examine the consequences of her life choices in this compulsively readable thriller.


I've always wanted to try one of Michele Jaffe's books so when I saw this one in a bookstore I had to pick it up. It sat on my shelf for a while. Then it sat on my nightstand for a while. Then I started it, put it back on the nightstand and read something else. I started it again, made it through the first twenty pages and felt addicted. So, yes. I loved it.

Let's start with the bad things. Which is actually only one thing. As you can tell from the first paragraph of this I found neither the cover nor the blurb very convincing. My disliking the beginning of the book was the real problem, though. It didn't draw me in within the first few seconds which is why it took me so long to continue reading it. I just found all the hopping back and forth in time very confusing and also the whole lot of characters and character history that was thrown in from the first page on. I didn't understand what was important and what wasn't and what the whole story was about.

After I got over those pages and saw myself gliding into the actual story, I couldn't put this book down anymore.It got better with every page and at the end I was amazed. Michele Jaffe is one of my new favorite authors now for several reasons. The first is her way of telling a story. She describes emotions exactly how they feel without adding cliché and totally unnecessary adjectives. Then there was the actual plot. I at least couldn't figure out the ending until the very last page. There were so many twists and turns and all of them were reasonable and well thought out. Also, the characters were very likable and unique. No stereotyping and wonderful backgrounds for all of them. The main character grew a lot during this book but her development worked slowly, step by step. You could see how it was influenced. Lastly, the message of the book was amazing. I didn't really expect one at all but this one was so simple yet so important and just...just...AWESOME!

If you haven't noticed I loved this book and I'd recommend it to EVERYONE! I'd even go as far as to say that it changed my life in a way. Or at least my view on some things in life.

RATING: 3 out of 3 Smarties