Sawyer Dodd's boyfriend has just been killed in a
drunk-driving accident, with him being the drinker. She gets
sympathy all around from her dad and stepmom to her friends
at school. Little do they know, part of her isn't mourning:
part of her is relieved that Kevin can't abuse her anymore.
Her bittersweet relief comes to a halt when she finds a note
in her locker attached to an article about the accident that
simply says: You're welcome. What if Kevin's accident wasn't
an accident after all?
TRULY, MADLY, DEADLY was suspenseful and addicting. I
couldn't put it down once I started reading it. Sawyer is
introduced with trying to reconcile her feelings about her
boyfriend's death, and as if that isn't enough, she seems to
have a stalker.
I love how the author, Hannah Jayne, manages
to get the emotional depth behind what Sawyer is going
through to begin with while at the same building up a
murderous plot that is bigger than anything Sawyer could
guess. Sawyer is so caught up in all the vague evidence as
to who might be behind the murder, that she actually second
guesses herself a few times as the potential person. I enjoy
seeing a main character in a murder mystery plot like this
who isn't above questioning her own actions. For so long in
the book, I never felt sure if I could trust her as a
narrator or not, but I never saw the true killer coming.
In the midst of all this high drama and suspense, Jayne
makes room for a touch of romance. Cooper, the new guy at
school, was charming and precious. When I first saw Sawyer
and him having their first meaningful conversation, the
connection between them was great. He is mysterious and
questionable, but you still see that he knows what it's like
to lose someone, and he can intimately relate to Sawyer in
that way, though the cases are very different. Being a book
romantic myself, I thought those romantic breaks between the
heavy suspense were appropriate and well played.
Though the story line kept me on my toes, it did get a tad
predictable in parts of it in a classic-scary-moment way.
Whenever Sawyer was alone at her house or alone in general,
I could easily tell something scary was about to happen,
sort of in the way you want to yell at the person in scary
movies who is about to open the closet hiding a monster. Did
knowing that keep me from grabbing my nearby stuffed animal?
Certainly not, but it did seem a little obvious at times.
After sleeping with the light on after reading this, I did
like it. The story line isn't exaggerated like suspenseful
novels so often can be. Sawyer was a real and relatable
character with a strong backbone much needed for dealing
with a killer. It was also a nice length, and I was able to
get through it in a night (though I would recommend reading
it in the day). If you love suspenseful, but not
horror-filled, murder mysteries, give TRULY, MADLY, DEADLY a
shot.
Sawyer Dodd is a star athlete, a straight-A student, and the envy of every other girl who wants to date Kevin Anderson. When Kevin dies in a tragic car crash, Sawyer is stunned. Then she opens her locker to find a note: You're welcome. Someone saw what he did to her. Someone knows that Sawyer and Kevin weren't the perfect couple they seemed to be. And that someone—a killer—is now shadowing Sawyer's every move