Review: Come Home by Lisa Scottoline

Title: Come Home
Author: Lisa Scottoline
Publisher: St. Martins Press
Published: OUT NOW!

Summary: Jill Farrow is a typical suburban mom who has finally gotten her and her daughter's lives back on track after a divorce. She is about to remarry, her job as a pediatrician fulfills her---though it is stressful---and her daughter, Megan, is a happily over-scheduled thirteen-year-old juggling homework and the swim team.
But Jill’s life is turned upside down when her ex-stepdaughter, Abby, shows up on her doorstep late one night and delivers shocking news: Jill’s ex-husband is dead. Abby insists that he was murdered and pleads with Jill to help find his killer. Jill reluctantly agrees to make a few inquiries and discovers that things don’t add up. As she digs deeper, her actions threaten to rip apart her new family, destroy their hard-earned happiness, and even endanger her own life. Yet Jill can’t turn her back on a child she loves and once called her own.
Come Home reads with the breakneck pacing of a thriller while also exploring the definition of motherhood, asking the questions: Do you ever stop being a mother? Can you ever have an ex-child? What are the limits to love of family? (Goodreads)

Review: I used to be hooked on author Lisa Scottoline's mystery series Rosato & Associates- they were fast paced and kept every reader on their toes. So when Lisa started writing a little different genre of novels I knew that I had to give them a try because I just loved the way she wrote; but at the same time I was skeptical because it was a "change." Since she started writing her newest genre, there hasn't been a Lisa Scottoline book that I haven't enjoyed- and let me tell you why! She pours so much truth in reality into her books that it gets a reader thinking about his or her life and how these events in this book relate, or don't. 


Scottoline knows how to thrill her audience! She writes mystery after all and she's damn good at it! In Come Home there are various paths in which the reader expects the plot to take a turn and yet it veers into a different direction, another opening to solve what is believed to be a murder. But I believe what's most appealing, especially to the female audience, isn't necessarily the plot that is taking place in this book and the murder that is trying to be solved, but rather the family situation. Lisa gives readers a look into a home where everything is now shook up due to an ex- stepdaughter, Abby coming back into their lives. Jill feels torn into two when she knows that her fiance doesn't want anything to do with Abby and wants Jill to stay out of the mess, but Jill can't help but feel that mothers instinct and want to love and protect her "daughter". So it isn't necessarily a choice for Jill, she already knows in her mind what she's going to do- every mother knows what they'd do if that was their daughter, blood or not. But it's the readers choice to agree with her, or choose differently. And I think that is what ties me into these books, because I think past the plot, and dig deeper into what these characters are going through- the way that Lisa writes, it isn't hard at all to pretend as if you are in that exact same situation! 


I'm going to give Come Home a 3.5 stars. I really enjoyed this book and I think if anyone is looking for a good fiction book with truth- these are it! Family, love, and boundaries are just the basis of what Come Home covered- every family goes through a rough patch whether it's an ex-stepdaughter that comes back or just a misunderstanding, but bottom line is each emotion that Jill was feeling and the events that were taking place we all go through those motions at some time in our lives. Its nice to be able to read delve deep into a characters mind and see reality, even if it is very fictional ;) 

Be sure to check out my blog post from Lisa Scottoline's Signing for Come Home here!!