The Girl She Used to Be

This book is a finalist for the 2010 Edgar awards, the body that acknowledges mystery and thriller books. I was really pleasantly surprised by this book. First, the story is made on first-hand account of a girl, and the male author was very, very convincing on the story-telling. It is light reading and very direct to the point on the story. It reads a bit like a chick-lit but it s not. I recommend this book!

I thought the story was a beautiful picture of struggle, hopelessness and redemption. The beginning is a particularly interesting and engaging introduction to the main character. You feel close to her, you know she's in danger and you don't want her to get hurt.

This debut novel has an intriguing premise -- the witness protection program, and a lonely woman who grew up in it, and a mobster's atypical son who becomes involved in this woman's life due to a tragic event in both their young lives. It is real, hanunting, disturbing, touching and relational. The ending is beleivable and not predictable. I coulsn't put it down. I highly recommend it! Enjoy.

I was blown away by this book. The powerful evocative imagery is something that can be elusive in novels, but here it was crystal clear. I found myself rooting for the "good" and the "bad" guy in this book, and I wonder if that is what the author intended. To skew the lines, and show that sometimes, there really is no escaping your family and the footsteps they've laid out for you. Melody McCartney has spent the last twenty years of her life being someone else. Several someone elses in fact. It wasn't that she wasn't content with herself. She was stripped of the choice when, at six years old, she and her parents witnessed a murder carried out by a mafia boss. Due to her childish inability to remember her new identity, her third identity was doled out pretty quickly also. Now, at 26, Melody is alone, her parents long ago having been found and taken care of. Now she gets the itch every now and then, the resentment of not knowing who she is, who she could have been, and tells the Feds she's been found. In the midst of one more life change, she is found. By none other than the boss's son, Jonathan Bovaro. His tactics are strange to her, and her analytical, mathematically inclined mind never lets go of the knowledge of he is and what he's after, but she trusts him and goes willingly. The journey they set out on is a dangerous one, and you hope for the best possible outcome. I've been doing really well at not reading the back of the book first, but I almost couldn't help peeking at the end of the story. I am so glad I didn't! There was nothing predictable about this story at all. There were a couple of points I almost cried and while I'm disappointed in the ending of the book, I am in no way disappointed at the writing of the book from start to finish. I can only hope, though I'm sure it's not the case, that this could be the set-up for a sequel to spring from. Regardless, David Cristofano, in my humble opinion, is an amazing novelist and I look forward to many more to come from him. Hopefully, there may be more Melody McCartney in the future.

It's hard to say anything but "Wow!" at this point. I loved the book so much that I want to start reading it all over again. This one is a keeper. When Melody wakes up in a motel room to find a strange man standing over her, she freaks out. Especially when she finds out he is the son of the mob boss who ordered her parents' death. Melody doesn't understand why she trusts him or wants to go with him, but she leaves with him anyway. Melody and Jonathan get to know each other and find they are more alike than either had realized. As their feelings grow stronger for each other, Melody and Jonathan must deal with both the U.S. Marshals and the Italian Mafia. The book is beautiful and bittersweet, and absolutely worth the read.