Give It Back - Danielle Esplin (Book Review)

Give It Back by Danielle Esplin
Genres: Adult Fiction, Suspense
Publication date: April 15, 2016
Format: eARC, 330 pages
How I got it: ARC from author
Buy it: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
My rating: 5/5
 
This novel follows three characters: Lorraine, Lexy, and Ella.

Lorraine:

Not long ago, Lorraine lost her husband to another woman. She thought that was the worst thing that could happen to her, but soon she realizes it’s just the beginning of an everlasting nightmare.

Lexy:

Lexy, an au pair from London, moves to Seattle to help Lorraine with her infant son. But she didn’t come for the child…she came for something else.

Ella:

When Ella receives a call from her sister, Lorraine, who begs her to leave San Diego to spend time with her, she decides to take a few days off from work to visit her. Frightened to see how much Lorraine has weakened since her diagnosis eight months ago, she packs a bag and heads to Seattle with a foreboding feeling that this might be the last time she sees Lorraine.

But on her way to the airport, she learns that something shocking has happened since she last spoke with Lorraine and now. To make matters worse, once Ella arrives in Seattle, Lorraine’s story keeps changing, making Ella question how reliable her sister really is.

Soon Ella is entangled in a mysterious investigation, and more so, in the lives of everyone involved. She realizes not only that she won’t go home anytime soon but also that she’ll never look at others the same way she did before.

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My thoughts:
I love books that keep the suspense throughout the whole book.  I was not 100% sure what happened to Lorraine's son and also Lexy until the very end of the book.  The ending is also a WOW I did not see that coming at all and it keeps the suspense going.  This is a hard review to write because I don't want to give any spoilers and that will be very challenging.

I loved the layout of the book.  The chapters would go in between the characters and also in between past and present.  It really helped to create a full picture for the reader because Ella was trying to piece everything together and by going into Lorraine and Lexy's past we could piece the story together as the reader.  I could see how this can be overwhelming while reading, but paying attention to the name and the date helped to figure out what time it was in the book.  I loved that we also got to see Lorraine and Lexy's perspectives of different situations.  We also got to see Lorraine's deterioration from her disease, which just made the story more like is Lorraine telling the truth.

I loved how the author did the character development.  Lorraine we can see her disease start to take over her life and her lose the ability to know what was real and made up in her brain.  Also, we got to see Lorraine's tumor change her personality via Lexy's chapters.   Lexy we learn a lot about in bits and pieces, we know their is some guy in her life that made her move here, but we don't know the full story and the true Lexy to the way end of the book.  Ella seems thrown into this whole situation where she has no idea what is going on and who she can actually trust.  Ella is the one who needs to piece everything together in the end.

When someone goes through a tragic event in their life I feel like they always look back into the past to see what they could have done better.  I love that Ella keeps looking back at what she could have done better in her life and in the end decides to improve upon what she didn't like.  There are some things you can't take back with time and people do live with regrets.   

This is a easy book to read.  The chapters are nicely split up by character so it is easy to read.  I think this is a good weekend or vacation read.  There are portions that you are not going to want to stop reading because you need to know what is going to happen next.  I am pretty sure I binge read the last few pages standing in my kitchen half making dinner and half reading.   
 
I was received a copy of this book from the author for the purpose of providing an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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About the Author

Danielle Esplin studied Food Science with Chemistry at the University of Stellenbosch. She had a full-ride scholarship and was one of the top students. After three years of sleepless nights in the library and endless experiments in the laboratory, she realized that something was missing.

And that was writing fiction.

Without telling anyone, she packed her bags, waved her twin sister good-bye, trudged down the street and got on a bus to leave the country. When she crossed the border and entered Namibia, she switched her phone on and sent her mother a text. "I dropped out of University," she wrote and never looked back.

In Namibia, among the countless dunes that appeared like a half-closed girdle nestling the everlasting sea, her desire to write surfaced. Ever since she has been pursuing her dream to become a full-time writer. Danielle also loves to travel, and she writes about her adventures on her blog www.exploringmyplanet.com.

Today she lives with her husband in Seattle with her two pet rats, Skippy and Milo. In her spare time, she likes to sing, read or spend time with family and friends.

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