Welcome to my stop on the Gone Too Far tour! Having read and loved
Six Months Later in September 2013 I was excited to hear about Natalie D Richard's second book and immediately signed up for the tour. Read on to hear what I thought of Gone Too Far and, if you're in the US, win a copy of both books and some swag.
Gone Too Far - Natalie D Richards
ISBN - 9781402285547
Publisher - Sourcebooks Fire
Expected release date - January 6 2015
Keeping secrets ruined her life. But the truth might just kill her.
Piper
Woods can't wait for the purgatory of senior year to end. She skirts
the fringes of high school like a pro until the morning she finds a
notebook with mutilated photographs and a list of student sins. She's
sure the book is too gruesome to be true, until pretty, popular Stella
dies after a sex-tape goes viral. Everyone's sure it's suicide, but
Piper remembers Stella's name from the book and begins to suspect
something much worse.
Drowning in secrets she doesn't want to
keep, Piper's fears are confirmed when she receives an anonymous text
message daring her to make things right. All she needs to do is choose a
name, the name of someone who deserves to be punished...
I love YA thrilller/suspense/mystery novels and having absolutely adored Six Months Later I couldn't wait to get started on Gone Too Far. Piper is a smart main character who doesn't appear to take any nonsense. Happiest with a camera round her neck and with her group of friends Piper's life changes after witnessing some horrific bullying that leads to suicide. She finds an unassuming notebook on the school steps, picking it up to hand it in Piper takes a lot and finds the last thing she was expecting - pages and pages of notes about her fellow class mates, what they've done wrong, photos and code names. The decision Piper makes now is one that will ultimately affect everything, including a fledgling relationship with one of the school's star football players.
When Piper then receives a text asking her who should pay for the student that died she thinks nothing about it and sends a name. To Piper it's nothing more than a game - until something happens, and then it's not so easy to stop. Getting dragged further and further in, being threatened all have Piper not knowing which way is up or, more crucially, what the right thing to do is. More and more of Piper's friends are affected and while she has her suspicions about who the mystery texter is (as did I at about the halfway through point) she continues to avoid doing the one thing which might bring all of this to a stop before anyone else is hurt or worse.
As with Six Months Later it was all too easy to get lost in Piper's world thanks to Natalie's beautiful writing. If I hadn't had to travel I'm sure that yet again I would have stayed up all night to finish Gone Too Far. Well written and well rounded characters, an all too believable storyline with a likeable and relatable main character and romance that wasn't the be-all & end-all of the book, even though it definitely ruffled a lot of high school feathers, make for an extremely enjoyable read with just the right amount of suspense.
About the Author
At
seven, Natalie D. Richards wrote about Barbara Frances Bizzlefishes (who
wouldn't dare do the dishes.) Now she writes about awesome girls,
broody boys, and all things dark and creepy. Natalie lives in Ohio (Go
Bucks!) with her techno-wiz husband, three amazing kids, and a seventy
pound dust-mop who swears he's the family dog. Her psychological
thriller, Six Months Later, was released in October 2013 by
Sourcebooks Fire and her second, Gone Too Far, in January 2015. Now, you'll probably find her writing her next
book or trying to wade through the towers of dog-eared paperbacks that
have taken over her bedroom.
