Review: Wherever Nina Lies
Ellie and her sister Nina were always close, so even after two years Ellie can’t give up hope that she will find her missing sister. Ellie is almost obsessed with finding Nina, much to the chagrin of her best friend, Amanda. When she finds one of her sister’s old drawings with a clue on it, Ellie can’t help but pursue it. Early on, she encounters Sean, a cute stranger, who understands and wants to help her, because he knows what it’s like to lose someone you love. Following the clues, they embark on a road trip together and their relationship begins to develop. But things, and Sean, aren’t what they seem.
Wherever Nina Lies by Lynn Weingarten is a suspenseful mystery targeted at the YA audience. I really liked the characters in the book, and for the most part, found them to be true to their age. I thought it was great to see the relationship between the two sisters portrayed as close. The beginning of Wherever Nina Lies does a great job of setting up the story and building up suspense. I found myself flipping through the pages of the second half of the book as fast as I could because I had to know what happened.
There are some gorgeous, detailed illustrations by Vicki Newman in this book and whenever I came across one, I spent a lot of time studying it.
I did find that I had to suspend belief in order to enjoy parts of the book, though. I found it hard to believe that two teens could embark on a long road trip without anyone being concerned about them. I also found a few of the clues to be a little too convenient, for lack of a better word, and a little far-fetched. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy Wherever Nina Lies, because I certainly did – I just didn’t love it.
I think older teens will really enjoy this book. I wouldn’t recommend it to the younger teen audience, though because of some language and sexual situations.
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This sounds great! I’ll have to look out for it.
I think we probably weren’t the target audience because of our age (Cough, cough.) Like you, I enjoyed this one, but it wasn’t my favorite!
Kathy, thanks for sharing your thoughts on this one. I’ve heard talk of it and it’s always nice to be able to mention new books in the YA area to my friends who are children’s librarians. They have so much to do and don’t always have time to read all of the incoming ones.
Looks like an interesting book. I’ve heard of this one for a while now, and since you recommend it, I will add it to my future list.
I bet my daughter would like this, BUT, since she’s a younger teen I’ll wait for her to discover it on her own 🙂
I think that whenever you have YA mysteries there end up being elements that seem a little impractical (and that’s probably why I don’t really read them).
Not sure this is my cup ‘o tea, but you’ve made me curious about the illustrations.
It sounds like a good read, very cool that theres nice illustrations in it.
A YA mystery! I’ve never read any, I don’t think, but then again I’m a mystery newbie. This sounds like a fun if somewhat flawed novel.
A long road trip without parents involved? Very lax parents! I haven’t seen other YA mysteries, so it’s nice to see there are good books in that genre.
The title sounds a litte scary and the description looks wonderful. Sometimes I find that mysteries are a little too convenient but I can usually put that aside if I am enjoying the characters and the premise of the story.
When we feel the need to suspend belief is where teens so could see themselves doing exactly that!! This one actually appeals to me and I know a few teens that would really like it too!!!
This is actually on my wish list this week. Sounds really good.
This does sound like it might be interesting but I’m not sure it would be something for me.
I’ve been liking the reviews — but I always wonder where the parents are! Still, if you had to read fast to find out the end, I’ll probably at least enjoy it,
Though it sounds like it can sometimes be predictable, I think my daughter would enjoy this book, so I am going to try my hand at your giveaway. Thanks for your honesty on this book!
Hmm…I’ve been staying away from YA lately, but this one does sound interesting. I’ll have to keep it on my radar screen!
Sounds like a fun read. I love books about sisters – my sister and myself are really close and I love reading about the dynamics of sister relationships.
I read this when my ex boyfriend proclaimed ‘Look Nina, you’re famous 🙂 your name is on the book’ its actually an amazing book. It was very mysterious and i loved it 🙂 i would definatly read it again.