There You'll Find Me

There You'll Find Me
By Jenny B. Jones
Thomas Nelson, 2011. 314 pgs. Teen fiction

After her brother Will's death, Finley Sinclair fell apart, but now she's determined to put her life back together and find her faith again. She's following in her brother's footsteps, spending her senior year in Ireland in an exchange program. She's got her brother's travel journal and is trying to find all of the places in Ireland that touched her brother's heart and helped him see God all around. She also thinks that as she traces his steps, she'll be able to finally find an ending for the composition piece that she's hoping will get her into the New York Conservatory. So, she doesn't want anything to do with Beckett Rush, who is staying at her host family's bed and breakfast. A teenage vampire movie star, he's the hottest thing out there--and Finley is the one girl who isn't swooning over him. But when he offers her a position as his assistant in exchange for helping her find all of Will's landmarks, Finley finds she can't refuse.

I really liked this book until about three fourths of the way through, and then it just got a little too heavy. I loved seeing Finley's struggle to rediscover her relationship with God, and the dialogue between her and Beckett was funny. However, the author added in Finley spiraling into anorexia, and I think putting that in just made for one too many problems, and there wasn't really enough time to wrap everything up well enough, and it somehow seemed to throw off the balance of the book. Finley had plenty going on without the beginnings of an eating disorder, and while I can see that being realistic in light of her grief over her brother's death (and even her feelings of inadequacy with other girls fawning over Beckett), but it made the book too heavy for me to fully feel the hope at the end that I think the author intended. Still, I think readers will enjoy it for the most part--and will be wishing they could hop on a plane to Ireland. It was on its way to being a 5 star book for me, but I think I can only give it 4, because of the overcrowding of issues.

4 stars. Clean read.