News Journalist, Ellen Gleeson is complete when she sees the little bot in the hospital with the heart condition that is up for adoption. When he becomes hers, she is over the moon in love with her now son, Will.
Two years later Ellen is coming home from another harried day on the job and as she sorts through the mail, a Missing Child flyer catches her attention… the boy in the picture, looks exactly like her Will. How could that even be? The birth mother and father has signed over their rights and a judge had awarded Will to Ellen. Yes the flyer does not stop nagging her and Ellen used her journalist instincts to get to the truth, all the while knowing the truth… may cost her everything.
What Ellen uncovers leaves her shell-shocked and fearing for her and Will’s life. She is the only one that knows what she knows… is it best to cover it all back up and pretend it never happened? Or is it best to do what is right for Will, no matter the painful consequences.
(not a big fan of book trailers, with just a few exceptions… this one is one of the reasons why… they man’s voice… is a little too much I think.)
Why did I read this book? My book club chose this book for our June read.
When Lisa Scottoline’s book was chosen for our June book club read I am the first to admit, I wasn’t overjoyed. I had recently finished an audio book of her’s that left me confused and with more questions in the end than I had in the beginning. HOWEVER… I did say I would try her again.
I just didn’t know it would be this soon. 😀
Look Again is every mothers nightmare. Imagine jumping through all the hoops of adopting a child. When that day finally comes that the child is fully yours you are… ecstatic beyond belief. (I have friends who have adopted – I have seen this first hand). This child becomes as much your own as if you had birthed him or her yourself. You know their every expression, their likes, dislikes, joys, and fears… and you love them so much you think your heart can hold no more…
Now imagine that something, or someone… can come along and take away that pure joy.
Ellen is a protagonist you can root for. She is a strong independent single mom, doing the best she can between work and home. It is apparent in this reading that home is the most important of the two as her whole life revolves around Will.
The storyline is consistently updating, but at first it was not at a pace that held me captive. You spend time learning about where Ellen works, her co workers (BOO!!!! to one of them….) and her hot boss Marcelo (double kudos to Lisa Scottoline for coming up with that name…. it oozes hotness, it really does!) for the first half of the book I could have continued on or put it down… I was not overly committed, mainly I think because I had a feeling as to where it was going.
Well… color me wrong. Once all starts to come together the books pace takes on a fast trot and now I do not want to put it down. Every page, reveals a new twist, a new turn… what I think is about to happen… doesn’t… what does, is something totally left field… totally…
brilliant.
As I flew to the end of this book, tears on some pages, anger on others… I fully appreciated what Lisa Scottoline invested into this book. It is smart and clever. I did not see it coming…
while some (uhem…. Bookies book club members) found the ending a little too neat all wrapped up perfectly with a bow… I think I had bee through so much with Ellen that I liked the neat ending, what some would call the easy way out, I applaud in this case as it was just what I needed.
The Bookies (book club) thoughts:
Oh the Bookies….. a difficult group…. lol… I am kidding! Our discussion was not passionate as it has been in some recent reads, and I admit I missed that, but it was a good discussion. For the most part, the group found this book to be a slightly over average read. A few found it predictable, and said they had figured out how it was all going to go down long before the end. (I had not). While the book did not blow anyone away with “WOW!!!! Why did it take us so long to read this?” It was a good discussion and brought up conversations around adoption, and connections between birth parents.
Oh, and of course we had food to go with the book:
And I don’t know how I missed this picture, but two of us brought lime jello, the abducted boy, Timothy Braverman’s favorite, as well as Will’s.
I am linking my review to Beth Fish reads Weekend Cooking because where there are Bookies… there is food. 😀
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