Everything You Want Me To Be

Publication Date: 3 January 2017.

Seventeen year old Hattie is a great actress. Not only is she wonderful in her annual school play, but her acting abilities transcend into her everyday life as well. Hattie will be whatever people want her to be - the academic, the achiever, the girl with her life on track. So, when Hattie is found brutally murdered in a barn - severe stab wounds to her chest and face - the small town that she lives in goes into shock. How could this happen to a young girl who has her life together, a girl who is clearly going places?

This story is told from the point of view of three different narrators - Hattie herself, Del, the Sheriff assigned to the case who happens to be best friends with Hattie's father and Peter, the English teacher at Hattie's school. I generally love books with different narrators as I find that the different viewpoints give the novel depth. The reader is able to see and feel the story in different ways. And this novel was no exception. I loved the narrators and found the backstories engrossing. The character development in this novel was wonderful and by the end of the book, I felt as if I knew the characters intimately. I'm going to miss them all now that I've finished the book. The dialogue was also spot on and believable, the accents perfect. This was pure quality writing - fast paced, gripping, believable. At its heart, this is a crime novel, but actually it's so much more than that. This is a story about relationships in all their forms. It's a human story. I absolutely loved it!

Bookworms, keep your eye on this one. I have a sneaky suspicion that this is going to be a big hit in 2017!

My rating * * * * *

Many thanks to Atria Books, author Mindy Mejia and Netgalley for my copy. It was my pleasure to provide an honest review.