Saturday 12 May 2012

I'll Be There

The unmissable read of 2012

Some of you may know that last year I read and loved Holly Goldberg Sloan's I'll Be There. It was pretty difficult to get hold of in the UK, but I can now announce that Piccadilly Press will be publishing the book in paperback on 24th May 2012. It really was one of my great 2011 discoveries and I hope that for many of you, it'll be a great 2012 discovery! I wrote a short five star (!!!) review when I first read the book, so here it is:

"This was fantastic! I'll be there is written in a unique and effective way. It's very hard to believe that this is Sloan's debut novel. The book explores the lives of several people, mainly the Border, Bell and Ellis families and how they all come together over the disapperance of the two Border children, Sam and Riddle and their abusive father, Clarence. Sam and Riddle are both very strong characters with distinct personalities, especially Riddle. In fact, I found most of the personalities to be strong and unique and seeing how everyone interacted together was very interesting. It was really fascinating to see how everybody developed, in themselves and also in their relationships with others as events unfolded. Although I didn't feel as though there were many cliffhangers despite the rather eventful incident in the forest, I felt as though there was a slight sense of suspense throughout the whole thing which made me want to keep on reading. I loved how everything was wrapped up at the end and I'm glad that we got to see everyones outcome. With it's fantastic characters and great storytelling, this is a book I'd recommend."

It's pretty difficult to get a five star review out of me, but this one managed with ease! I'm not the only one to think it was awesome, either. Gayle Foreman is quoted saying:

 "Heartbreaking, suspenseful, life-affirming, magical: I'll Be There is all of those things. Mere description doesn't do this book justice. Only reading it does".

I totally agree with her too, this is a book that you have to read to truly experience. For all of you who love contemporary, this is quite different and very enjoyable. I know that a lot of you will really love this one and as I said in my review, this is a book I'd recommend - Go and pre-order it now!

5 comments:

  1. I hadn't heard of this one before but now I'm definitely intrigued! I'll add it to my to-read shelf :)
    Great review!

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  2. Oooh. I haven't heard of this one but this sounds like it deserves 5 stars. Definitely going to my to-read shelf. Fantastic review and thanks for sharing =)

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  3. Oh! I remember this book! I'm glad it will be out in PB soon so I can get it too :D

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  4. At first I thought I'd never heard of this but I realised it's because of the cover, I definitely want to read this, great review!

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  5. I'm tempted. This book sounds awesome!

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