HOW TO FALL by Jane Casey

Sixteen-year-old Jess Tennant has never met any of her relatives, until her mom suddenly drags her out f London to spend the summer in the tiny English town that is her family's hometown. Her mom's decision is surprising, but even more surprising is the town's reaction to Jess. Everywhere she goes, people look at her as if they've seen a ghost. In a way, they have-she looks just like her cousin Freya, who died shortly before Jess came to town.

Jess immediately feels a strange connection to Freya, whom she never got to meet. But the more Jess learns about the secrets that Freya was keeping while she was alive, the more suspicious her death starts to look. One thin is for sure: This will be anything but the safe, boring summer in the country that Jess was expecting.

This book was on my TBR for last month, but I never got around to reading it, simply because I wasn't really in the mood for a murder mystery. But I forced myself to pick it up, and I am sure glad I did because I finished it in one sitting!

I just want to say this because it was a theory I had, but they pretty much explain everything right at the beginning but Jess and Freya ARE NOT TWINS. Haha! I was like, if they look the same they were separated at birth or something and someone is coming after her I don't know, mysteries get you thinking all sorts of crazy things!! In fact, their mothers are twins, and their respective fathers could practically be brothers so lo and behold, they practically came out the same!

Anyways, first off, Jess is my kind of girl! She doesn't take the crap people try to feed her, and she calls people out on trying to discredit her or steer her away from her goals. She is very observant, and quickly catches on to the way people act and what that means. So....everyone is so goddamn secretive and she picks up on that real quick, and is like " whhhyyyyy are you people hiding stuff? Like...obviously if you don't want to speak the truth then obviously you have something to hide." So she begins to go against everyone and look into her cousins death.

But this is also what I hated so much about this story, in that it's not really anything, but how so secretive people were! It's like....if you watch Bones or Castle or really any detective shows...if the culprits would have just came forward at the very beginning, the law could have done something for them, you know? Like, crimes of passion and stuff like that but NOOOOO people want to try and get away with things when it's like, hey! You're gonna be found out! And once Jess reaches town it's been over a YEAR since Freya died and everyone still wants to try and keep their secrets.

I kind of wanted Jess to be just that bit more aggressive....simply because if I was in her position I would be breaking things because people were so frustrating, particularly her mom. Heyyoooo mini subplot storyline that really made me angry! But then again I have a bad temper...and Jess is pretty reserved and can keep her wits about her which is nice.

But let's get back on track here....I thought it progressed really nicely, the story kept me guessing, and overall there was always something around the corner so I never felt like it was losing it's momentum or hit any dry spells. I think the overall climax wasn't that amazing, simply because with all her sleuthing it wasn't (to me) that creative of a plan, considering how clever she is anyways, but it still drove the point home and concluded things nicely. To me it was a shock to find out what actually happened and who did what so that's always nice to know my theories were wrong all along!

I'm extremely excited for the next novel which comes out next month! The author is from England, so the second book has been out for about a year, but it doesn't publish in America until February.

I give this book a 4/5, I really enjoyed it, and I am excited to grab the next one once I see it on the shelf.

Another thing...I found this in the mystery aisle and NOT the young adult aisle....which I thought was strange because it's for young adults, but hey! Just so you know in case you want to go out and try and find it =]