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Monday, October 6, 2014

Joint Review: Dear Daughter by Elizabeth Little

Author: Elizabeth Little
Publisher: Viking Adult
Date of publication: July 2014

LA IT girl Janie Jenkins has it all. The looks, the brains, the connections. The criminal record.

Ten years ago, in a trial that transfixed America, Janie was convicted of murdering her mother. Now she's been released on a technicality she's determined to unravel the mystery of her mother's last words, words that send her to a tiny town in the very back of beyond. But with the whole of America's media on her tail, convinced she's literally got away with murder, she has to do everything she can to throw her pursuers off the scent.


She knows she really didn't like her mother. Could she have killed her?


I liked Dear Daughter mainly because of the writing style of the author.  I liked the TMZ blurbs and the blogger blurbs sprinkled throughout because it gave it an air of authenticity.  I also liked the dark comedy the author brought to the story.  Janie's voice through the story was very harsh and biting, but it was also really funny at times.  You'd have to think someone wrongly convicted and spent 10 years in prison would probably have a pretty dark outlook on life.  However, her lifestyle made her pretty jaded before she ever even got to prison.  I thought this was a fun kind of dark mystery.  I commend the author for writing something kind of different than all the typical murder mysteries out there.



Dear Daughter ended up being a DNF book for me.  I know Autumn liked it, but about halfway through the book, I just didn't care anymore.  I had a real hard time believing that Janie spent 10 years in prison and still came out like she was an LA 'it girl".  Things would have changed too much in 10 years that anything she thought was worth it probably wouldn't be in anymore.  And I can't imagine her treatment in prison wouldn't change her attitude toward things either. She is supposed to be in her late 20s but she came across as 17 or 18 to me.  I wasn't buying the story. 

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