When I saw the title of this book I was intrigued, and wanted to know more. It all started when an ordinary girl called Evie answers the door to find a lawyer wanting to speak to her. She lets him in and he tells her she has inherited ten million pounds from a woman called Irina Galloway. Evie wants to know who Irina is, and why she had been given her money. She has a feeling her parents know, but they are hiding it from her, so she decides to find out herself. From this point on, a series of huge secrets are let out into the open.
I think this was a well written book, and I didn’t guess the all secrets correctly, which was good. However, to me it just felt a bit too unrealistic. It sounded very made up which stopped me from getting fully absorbed into the story.
I wonder if this is because this book may be aimed at slightly younger readers. I chose it from the Guardian teen book list but I think I may have enjoyed this more if I was eleven or twelve. I read some of Sophie Mckenzie’s books when I was younger and I absolutely adored them, and they were very popular with my year group. I was a little disappointed as this book did not meet the high expectations I had formed of this author by reading her earlier books. But still, it is a good book. It has an original plot line and the characterisation is very good indeed. By the end of the book I felt like I knew the characters.
I would certainly give this book a go, but I would recommend it to younger readers. I do not think this is Sophie McKenzie’s best book, but she is an amazing author, so if you read this book please don’t judge her on this book alone, also have a read through the Missing series and The Medusa Project series as they are truly brilliant examples of her work.
• Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop.
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