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Such A Novel Idea

Lost in Thought

Lost in Thought - Cara Bertrand I received a copy of this book via the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I personally love books about: people who find out they have psychic abilities, boarding schools, people who find out they have this long-standing destiny they never knew about, etc. And Lost in Thought is all these things and so much more!

At first glance, one may think this book is just like a typical ya paranormal romance book about teens with far too much freedom and money. And yes, those things are all there, but Cara Bertrand has this amazing way of story telling. Instead of putting us in suspense (will she/won’t she be with this guy), Cara gives us the information up front. It’s almost like our narrator is speaking both in the moment and from an omniscient/looking back perspective. I don’t know what made her choose to do this, but it definitely worked for me. As a reader, I constantly find myself rolling my eyes at cliches — when you read as many books as I do the patterns of what is going to happen are pretty clear. So taking that canned response and giving me a look into the future is not only surprising, but refreshing.

“Initially I had only a fleeting impression of a cute boy…” “Eventually I would know his face better than my own, than anyone’s. But I didn’t know that then. I didn’t even know his name.”

So, from the first moment we meet the guy, who is so obvious to the reader a future love interest, we know what is going to happen. And even so, the relationship is drawn out, there are bumps and major hiccups, but we have that little grain of information, a piece of the puzzle to hold on to throughout the story. This happened several times in the book and just made me pull out my highlighter and post-its every time.

The book itself continued to surprise me. I would think “oh yeah, I know what is going to happen” and then something else would take things in another direction. On that note, I think I am a bit brainwashed when it comes to boarding school books, because I kept waiting for the ominous “this school is going to be trouble” creep factor, but I never got it. In fact, it creeped me out that I didn’t get that, because the school seemed so… normal. I couldn’t imagine how this was going to hold my attention. And yet, it did.

All of the characters in the book were well developed, including the relationships. We see Lexi, who is direct, yet shy, taking on the world so different due to her prior lifestyle of roaming the world with her godmother. When the boy falls for her, I didn’t get that ‘this girl is normal and the hot guy is falling for her’ vibe, but the ‘this girl is really something and it really makes sense seeing them together.’ Amy, the roommate could have been very one-dimensional, but had layers of her own, even though she was a minor character.

Lost in Thought has secrets, mystery, high school drama, romance, and a lot of potential for an amazing series story line. This book set the stage for a pretty spectacular following and still managed to be more than a place holder. It started as a book I thought “oh, yeah I’ll like that” and ended as “wow, that’s not going to leave my brain for quite some time.”

Also, grr to that end. Seriously, though! The book isn't even out yet, and I'm already pining away for the second installment.

For this review and more, visit Such a Novel Idea.

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Initial Reaction:

Ahh, that end was so not fair!

Review this week with the blog tour!