Title: Far From You
Author: Tess Sharpe
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA Contemporary, Mystery
Format: Hardcover, 352 pages
Release Date: April 8th 2014
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Source: ARC received by publisher in exchange for honest review

Purchase
Amazon | Indigo | TBD | Goodreads








Sophie Winters nearly died. Twice.

The first time, she's fourteen, and escapes a near-fatal car accident with scars, a bum leg, and an addiction to Oxy that'll take years to kick.

The second time, she's seventeen, and it's no accident. Sophie and her best friend Mina are confronted by a masked man in the woods. Sophie survives, but Mina is not so lucky. When the cops deem Mina's murder a drug deal gone wrong, casting partial blame on Sophie, no one will believe the truth: Sophie has been clean for months, and it was Mina who led her into the woods that night for a meeting shrouded in mystery.

After a forced stint in rehab, Sophie returns home to a chilly new reality. Mina's brother won't speak to her, her parents fear she'll relapse, old friends have become enemies, and Sophie has to learn how to live without her other half. To make matters worse, no one is looking in the right places and Sophie must search for Mina's murderer on her own. But with every step, Sophie comes closer to revealing all: about herself, about Mina and about the secret they shared.


I love a good mystery novel and I will say that finding one in YA is especially hard because it is normally combined with another genre and therefore it is not as authentic. But when I started reading Far From You I knew that it was going be a straight up Contemporary Mystery.

Far From You follows Sophie a recovering drug addict who witnessed her friends murder. She know that the killer is still out there and the only problem is, everyone thinks it was her fault and no one is looking for the killer. What I think I loved the most about this book was the way it was written. We not only get to see Sophie in the present, dealing with her grief and the fact that her whole family still thinks she is addicted to drugs, but also in the past when she is navigating her friendship with Mina and the line between obsession and actual love.

Another thing that I thought this book did really well was navigate Sophie and her realization that she liked girls, it was not a subject that took over the entire book and most of the time I forgot about it while reading but then there were times where I felt everything Sophie felt, all the frustration, confusion and heartbreak. I loved reading her journey to self discovery, and I loved reading Mina and Sophie's relationship and how it evolved over the course of their young lives.

The mystery aspect of the novel was my absolute favorite part. We not only got Mina's murder to solver but we also have the story of another girl that had gone missing a few years before. Mina started to investigate her disappearance of that young girl and got herself into trouble, and Sophie knew that this story was what got her killed and now she only had to prove it. I loved that I did not expect the end and the reveal of who killed Mina, it was very well hidden, but I bet that if I read it again I would see subtle clues, but I loved it none the less!

Sophie was a great narrator for this story because even though she was intensely flawed, she was incredibly relateable and likable, therefore a very reliable narrator. I loved her voice and the fact that she wanted to taken seriously even after her drug problem.  And what I loved the most about Sophie was that her addiction did not define her throughout the book, she was strong, lovable and a great character to read. I loved her story and I cannot wait to read anything else by Tess Sharpe!