Molly O

When reading literature, we are often asked to suspend our disbelief, to immerse ourselves in the story, to let tale surround and uplift us to join the author in her world. I was never able to do so in Colleen Oakley's You Were There Too. I couldn't buy the constant dreaming of the mystery man who stepped into Mia's reality in small town Pennsylvania. Yes, this is supposed to be a love story, but Mia's perfect husband felt more like a caricature than a fully realized person. The ending was too tidy; and overall it was too predictable.

Creating suspense with a question about an old murder leads this book off with a grabber. The main character, Georgie, is an anthropologist who is driven to discover things that are lost so they can be found. In this instance, it is the true murderer of her mother. Shifts in point of view as well as time slowly reveal the pieces of the murderous puzzle. While several of the characters are well-drawn, others are stock characters who just seemed needed to populate the book. I had hoped for a more satisfying ending – felt a little cheated.