Ghost Flower by Michele Jaffe {Review}

Publisher: Razorbill

Publish Date: April 12, 2012

Source: Library

Goodreads

Eve, a runaway, finds a new job at a coffee shop on the outskirts of Tuscon. When she's approached by two wealthy teens who claim she bears an uncanny resemblance to their missing cousin Aurora, her life takes a turn for the dark and mysterious. Drawn into a scheme to win Aurora's inheritance, Eve finds herself impersonating the girl, who disappeared three years ago on the night her best friend Elizabeth died. But when Liza's ghost begins to haunt Eve, doing harm to the people close to her under the guise of "protecting" her, Eve finds herself in a nightmare maze of lies and deception that leads her to question even her own identity. She realizes her only chance is to uncover the truth about what happened the night Liza died, and to find Liza's killer - before she's next.

After reading Ghost Flower I can definitely say Michele Jaffe is a master at mysteries. I was constantly guessing at who the bad guy was and then telling myself that was crazy and then guessing again and the cycle just continued over and over until I was driving myself crazy. I ended up guessing part of it (though that was bound to happen since I’d made about every guess under the sun) but definitely not all of it.

Something about Ghost Flower did feel a little off, though. Maybe it was the characters, maybe it was the romance(s), or maybe it was something else entirely, but it just felt a little weird. Let’s start by talking about the characters. I think the biggest problem was that since it was a mystery I was suspecting everyone which made it a little hard to like and connect with them. Plus, most of them were just terrible people anyway :P

Then there was the romances. Yep, plural. And no, not with multiple characters. Just the one main character and tons of dudes. It got really confusing and none of them were really all that believable. Especially the romance in the end of the book. Let’s not even talk about that. Unless you’ve read the book, then I’d love to get your opinion on it!

Despite those issues, the mystery really was fantastic. Jaffe has a way of writing a mystery so that it’s actually believable, but it’s almost impossible to figure out who did It. I can almost guarantee you won’t be able to unravel the mystery before it’s spelled out for you.

The Nutshell: Though I had some issues with the characters and the romances the mystery, which is the main point of the story, was outstanding. I was constantly second-guessing myself and making up crazy scenarios in my head trying to figure it out which is exactly how I like my mysteries.

Pages: 358

Series: No

Rating: Hit