Book Review: Chasing Amanda

Chasing Amanda

by Melissa Foster

Release date: April 12, 2011

377 pages

Buy it on Amazon and Smashwords

Audience: adult

Source: provided by author

I took on this book as part of a blog tour project, thinking I could squeeze it in between books that I really wanted to read this summer. As it turns out, I was so completely engrossed in this book that I literally read it in a day, taking breaks only when absolutely necessary. Chasing Amanda caught my attention and didn't let go for 377 pages.

Chasing Amanda is the story of Molly Tanner, wife and mom, still trying to stitch her life back together after enduring years of guilt over the abduction of a child named Amanda. Molly witnessed Amanda's abduction, and has spent years beating herself up for not doing more to help the girl. She and her family have since moved to the small town of Boyds, Maryland, to get away from the past and start over. Now, nine years later, another young girl, Tracey, goes missing- and this time, Molly is determined not to let anything get in the way of her helping to find the child- alive.

I found myself deeply engrossed in Molly's narrative, and related to the character on an intuitive level. Her concern for this latest lost child goes beyond that of your average neighbor; she is driven to see that she is safe, risking her own safety on several occasions in pursuit of information on the child's whereabouts. The character feels like an old friend early on in the reading.

The description of the small town of Boyds is stunningly picturesque. The ambling back roads lined with gorgeous forests are lovely to behold, and easy to hide within. There is so much beauty to distract a person from what is right under her nose.

Amazingly, this small town holds several secrets that tie into the disappearance of little Tracey- and it seems that Molly Tanner is the only one willing to connect all the dots.

This is a truly entertaining mystery, with a good measure of surprise in store for the patient reader. Don't let yourself get too caught up in trying to figure it all out, though, lest you miss some of the fun of the chase.

Summary from Goodreads:

Nine years ago, Molly Tanner witnessed a young girl’s abduction in the busy city of Philadelphia, shifting her occasional clairvoyance into overdrive. Two days later, the girl’s body was found, and Molly’s life fell apart. Consumed by guilt for not acting upon her visions, and on the brink of losing her family, Molly escaped the torturous reminders in the city, fleeing to the safety of the close-knit rural community of Boyds, Maryland.

Molly’s life is back on track, her son has begun college, and she and her husband have finally rekindled their relationship. Their fresh start is shattered when a seven-year-old girl disappears from a local park near Molly’s home. Unable to turn her back on another child and troubled by memories of the past, Molly sets out to find her, jeopardizing the marriage she’d fought so hard to hold together. While unearthing clues and struggling to decipher her visions, Molly discovers another side of Boyds, where the residents--and the land itself--hold potentially lethal secrets, and exposes another side of her husband, one that threatens to tear them apart.