Psychic flashes, haunting visions, missing persons and visits from ghosts. That’s just their first date.
Jack has been getting on his parents’ nerves for some time. Bad enough he’s a rock musician, has crappy grades and hangs out with his “loser” friends. But Jack’s ability to predict the future — well, that just annoys the hell out of them.
Jack’s classmate, Lauren, is said to have unique abilities too. The town still talks about when she kept badgering her mother about the money in their wall. For the longest time, Lauren’s mother didn’t listen. Finally, she did and she hasn’t had to work since.
Jack would really like to connect with Lauren but can’t figure out how. She’s never looked at him twice. But when he experiences a mystifying event involving visions, voices and spectral visits, Jack figures there’s only one person to help him understand who’s calling out to him and why. Before long, Jack and Lauren are off on a road trip of discovery that could provide answers to a mystery left unsolved for twenty years. More importantly, they might even unravel the greatest mystery of all — how every so often someone will accept you for who you are.
Jack has been getting on his parents’ nerves for some time. Bad enough he’s a rock musician, has crappy grades and hangs out with his “loser” friends. But Jack’s ability to predict the future — well, that just annoys the hell out of them.
Jack’s classmate, Lauren, is said to have unique abilities too. The town still talks about when she kept badgering her mother about the money in their wall. For the longest time, Lauren’s mother didn’t listen. Finally, she did and she hasn’t had to work since.
Jack would really like to connect with Lauren but can’t figure out how. She’s never looked at him twice. But when he experiences a mystifying event involving visions, voices and spectral visits, Jack figures there’s only one person to help him understand who’s calling out to him and why. Before long, Jack and Lauren are off on a road trip of discovery that could provide answers to a mystery left unsolved for twenty years. More importantly, they might even unravel the greatest mystery of all — how every so often someone will accept you for who you are.
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I'll start by saying that this book was one hell of a ride.
Jack Atkinson, lives in a boring town located in Virginia where practically everyone's the same. The only way to be accepted there, is by your family's standards. Jack has his family's business, Atkinson Law Firms, so he's all good.
Except not really.
Because Jack has "visions" and "feelings" about stuff he couldn't possibly know about. But for the sake of his family he pretends these abilities don't exist. Until he gets a particularly strong vision and enlists the help of the only person who can possibly know what to do.
Lauren is a loner and good at being one. Clad in all black clothes, colored streaks in her hair, and a freaky incident involving money stashed in a wall that got her and her mother moving to Virginia. Nobody wants to figure her out. Except for Jack.
After getting starting information about the guitar that gave Jack the vision. He and Lauren go on a trip of a lifetime across the country to learn more about the mysterious guitar, each other, and themselves.
The best aspect of this book is that it has a lit bit of everything. Mystery, paranormality, self discovery and even a little bit of romance.
Throughout the book we get to know more about Jack and how his ability affected him, and how keeping it hidden has impacted his life. Then we get to see how slowly by slowly he begins to unravel and loosen up with the help of Lauren. Great character development.
Speaking of, I wish we got to know more about Lauren because I loved her as a character. She had a really interesting backstory that I wish we had delved deeper into.
A recurring theme in the book, is kindness. The idea how people you just meet can be kinder to you than people you see everyday and how people mostly judge you on you outer appearance without really knowing anything about you as an actual person. So it was really great getting to read and relate to that.
The pacing was great and the plot was definitely engaging, it keeps pulling at you. Everytime I put the book down there was this nagging voice in my head wanting to know more.
The end of the book resolved the mystery of the strong visions Jack has been having but still has wiggling room for a sequel. Personally, I wanted to know what happens with Jack and Lauren when they return to Virginia, but C'Est la vie.
I definitely recommend this books to all the mystery lovers (like me), and the contemporary fans out there.