Review: Sudden Moves by Kelli Sue Landon

Sudden Moves by Kelli Sue Landon is about the sudden disappearance of Michelle's classmate, Katie. When Katie and her family don't return from a spring break trip to Florida, Michelle panics, because she let Katie borrow a treasured family heirloom before leaving, and now she's unsure about whether or not she will get it back. She begins to investigate with the help of her, like, best friend? Tami, and Katie's almost, but not quite boyfriend, Brad, who Michelle has a serious crush on.

I feel bad writing this review, because I had hoped to like this book. But, I struggled with it from the very beginning. I didn't feel like the writing was very approachable. It felt very... mechanical, like someone trying to write teenagers who has had very limited contact with them since their own high school days. I felt like the characters were unbelievable, especially the adults. Every adult in the story was easily duped by these kids. The dialogue was wooden and forced, and the character interactions were awkward overall.

While reading it, I felt like Landon couldn't quite make up her mind about how she wanted her characters to be, and what direction to take them. As a result, there were a lot of inconsistencies as well as moments that just didn't fit in with the rest of the story. A lot of it just didn't make sense, and the details didn't add up. There were more than a few scenes I personally felt were unnecessary, and they seemed to have been added in just for the drama, because everyone knows you can't be a teen without the major drama, but none of these dramatic scenes added anything to the story. Like Michelle and Brad going to the under 21, soda only club (on a dateNotDate) and having Michelle getting into a screaming-shoving match with the 'queen bee' because she made a snide comment.

I never felt the drama of the situation, and I never felt a connection with the characters. Landon does have potential as a writer, and her story idea was good. I feel like a little more research and more direction within the writing would have been great additions to the story. Pick your 'angst', don't try to include it all. Having a book with a disappearance, main character trying to solve said disappearance, drama with a demanding, controlling and sometimes drunken mother, absentee dad who is always on the road as a trucker and may or may not be happy to be home with mom when he does stop, best friend drama in all ways, stereotypical high school mean girls with several almost cat-fights and then tossing in a love interest who is actually pining away for the missing girl just gets to be too much. Cutting out about half of the drama would have made the story better.

It wasn't a horrible book, but it wasn't one that really drew me in either. It's not one I'll ever read again, and I doubt I'll remember much about it in the future.

*Disclaimer: I received this book from the author for an honest review.