This book was sent to Traveling With T for review consideration.

Everything You Want Me To Be

Summary: Full of twists and turns, Everything You Want Me to Be reconstructs a year in the life of a dangerously mesmerizing young woman, during which a small town’s darkest secrets come to the forefront…and she inches closer and closer to her death.

High school senior Hattie Hoffman has spent her whole life playing many parts: the good student, the good daughter, the good citizen. When she’s found brutally stabbed to death on the opening night of her high school play, the tragedy rips through the fabric of her small town community. Local sheriff Del Goodman, a family friend of the Hoffmans, vows to find her killer, but trying to solve her murder yields more questions than answers. It seems that Hattie’s acting talents ran far beyond the stage. Told from three points of view—Del, Hattie, and the new English teacher whose marriage is crumbling—Everything You Want Me to Be weaves the story of Hattie’s last school year and the events that drew her ever closer to her death.

Evocative and razor-sharp, Everything You Want Me to Be challenges you to test the lines between innocence and culpability, identity and deception. Does love lead to self-discovery—or destruction?

 

Traveling With T’s Thoughts:

I was seeing some Twitter chatter about this book from trusted sources. I was intrigued by the cover. So, I hopped over to Netgalley and requested it. And then was quickly approved!

At first, I was kinda of meh about this book. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it.

About the time one of the secrets was revealed was when I started getting into the book. It wasn’t the secret exactly because it was a secret that could be assumed or somewhat easily guessed. But it was how Mindy Meija decided to let the reader and one of the characters know the secret- that was what intrigued me. Because it left open a whole bunch of possibilities about how Hattie’s life ended.

What I liked:

The cover. It’s not pretty. Not beachy. But it is intriguing.

Hattie. You know you ought to kinda not like her. She’s rarely revealing her true self- she’s playing a part. And yet, you can’t help but like someone that does all this- not for sinister motive, not to hide that she killed someone or is a true sociopath- but to just get through life, get through to the point that she can hug her mom and dad and say good-bye to small town life and go and drink up all the color of the world she wants!

Del. He could have been written many a different way. But the way Mindy Meija chose to write the character, how he handles his job and the way that he takes care of his friends- well, he’s the kind of guy you want in your corner.

 

Bottom line: Everything You Want Me To Be and I may have not gotten off to the most wonderful start, but it was worth sticking around for and seeing how the book played out. Recommended.

 

*This book was sent to Traveling With T for review consideration. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone.*

 

** Everything You Want Me To Be is a January 2017 #FuturisticFriday selection from Traveling With T.**

 

Happy Reading and Bookishly Yours,

T @ Traveling With T