Wherever Nina Lies by Lynn Weingarten

I had to read and review this book for amazon.com -- maybe some of you will see it on the shelves at the local bookstore -- here is my review -- but please, if you do read it, feel free to write to disagree:

2 stars -- this one should go back to the drawing board

... I’m always looking for new YA authors and new books to add to our school shelves. This novel won’t be one that I purchase. I wanted to like it – the ingredients seemed to be there – the premise: an older sister, Nina, has vanished without a trace and has been missing for 2 years. The sister is portrayed as being a bit wild, sneaking out at night, etc. The younger sister, Ellie, finds a clue (that happens to be a drawing) and sets off to find her in what I thought would be a suspenseful and mysterious search. Unfortunately, this story just never got off the ground. The rest of the plot was thin, contrived, and unrealistic as it evolved. The character of Ellie was the only one that was somewhat developed; the supporting cast was totally stereotypical -- from the absent, completely clueless mother to the gay boss at the coffee shop. The cross country trek Ellie takes with a stranger, a “hot guy” named Sean, was intrinsically unbelievable and relied on some assumptions about the ability of teenagers to rent hotel rooms at their age and have access to that kind of time away from home, school, jobs and also the amount of money needed. I don’t mind a stretch of credulity in a teen novel now and again, but this was way too much from start to finish. The story fell apart for me as Sean and Ellie start on their harebrained journey in his car, meeting up with random people following a band – the clues or whatever these drawings are just made no sense. There was never any mention of the family enlisting detectives or police to look for this missing girl, the mother’s lack of interest in the whereabouts of her daughter, the denouement and revelation of the reason for the disappearance and the lack of contact – well it just didn’t work. I had to force myself to finish. There was no suspense in the book and the “bad guy” really wasn’t very menacing, Ellie was immature with very poor judgment, her friendship with Amanda didn’t feel realistic, and the way the book ended all added up to a forgettable read by a debut author. Recommendation: Skip it.

Mrs. C.