Andrea McNulty goes to sleep on her eighteenth birthday with a near-perfect life: she’s a high school field hockey star, a doted-upon big sister, the beloved daughter of two happy parents. But when she wakes up in a motel room the next morning, unable to remember what happened the previous night and covered in blood, Andi is a fugitive.

According to the news, Andi’s parents were brutally attacked in the middle of the night. Her father is dead, her mother is in a coma, her little brother Josh is missing–and Andi is the prime suspect. Terrified and on the run from the police, Andi teams up with Nate, the sympathetic boy working the motel’s front desk, to find the real murderer. But while the police are getting further from the killer, the killer is getting closer to Andi–closer than she could ever have imagined.

This was a great, fast-paced novel for my first thriller book of the year. I’m a big fan of the protagonist waking up and not remembering what happened because that just adds to the mystery, especially in this one. Everyone thinks Andrea killed her father, left her mother within and inch of her life, and kidnapped her little brother. Only, Andrea has no recollection of what happened or where her little brother is.

But could she have done it?

“Me? Dangerous? I’m five foot three and afraid of turtles.”

All she knows is what she’s seeing on the news. Then she meets a boy her age, Nate, who works at the motel and he helps her try to figure out what happened. He brings out her naiveté about how things work in the real world – like with the cops, for instance. He talks her out of going to the police multiple times, as she’s the only suspect, saving her from being arrested and never figuring out who did this to her family. I really adored Nate and felt his genuineness of helping Andrea, despite only having just met her.

Throughout the book there are some secrets that come out about Andrea and her past, including some that she didn’t even know. And she learns she can’t even trust the people she was closest to; her own best friend is warned to stay away from her. Together, Andrea and Nate find some clues that give them some possible suspects of their own, but they need proof, and time is running out.

Despite some predictability near the end of the book and dropped plot points, this was a great read that pretty much kept me on my toes and wondering who would be behind the McNulty’s attack. A definite must-read for anyone who loves young-adult thriller!

Rating: 4.25/5 stars