Ink of Blood

Pretty Wanted (Pretty Crooked #3)by Elisa Ludwig

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Release Date: March 17th 2015

Rate: 4 out of 5 stars

Synopsis:

Willa’s string of good-hearted but ill-conceived thefts at her former high school catapulted her into a life she hardly knows. She became a cult hero, but soon afterward, her mom disappeared, leaving only a cryptic message. When Willa hit the California highway to find her, she discovered a dark family secret: Joanne Fox is not who she says she is-and neither is Willa. Now, Willa and fellow trouble-maker Aidan must race to St. Louis, Missouri, Willa’s birthplace. There, they hope to find answers about Willa’s past. But uncovering the truth requires solving a decades-old murder case.

Unfortunately, the perps are still out there . . . and willing to do whatever it takes to keep the case cold. With Willa’s face on the nightly news and the police hot on her trail, it might not matter that Aidan and her friend Tre are there to help. Willa’s only hope is to find the truth before it finds her first.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I haven’t read the previous two books in this series, but I didn’t find that it detracted from my enjoyment of this book. I was able to pick up the storyline quickly and easily and I was able to understand the motivations of the main characters.

I found Willa a really easy character to get behind. It was nice that I was able to learn more about her past through little snippets and mentions of it throughout the course of the novel.

I could also really understand the goal Willa had to find out what had happened to her real mother. It was good to see how she interacted with Aiden through the book, but I wasn’t too fond of Aiden as a character. I liked him a bit at first, but I felt he didn’t really understand the danger they were in.

I did think it was good to see the way they had to figure out where to sleep at night. And it was good to see how they stayed in the places to sleep in. There were a couple of times when I felt there should have been a bit more security than there actually was… but on the whole, it was good to see how they had to deal with things.

It was good to see that there were fans of Willia’s actions in the previous book/s and I would have liked to learn a bit more about what she’d done in the past. I liked seeing Tre in this, too, although I did feel there was a bit of a love triangle, which I don’t really like… but it was interesting to see Tre and Aiden interact with each other.

I did enjoy reading this book and it was good to see that it was written only in first person. There was enough of a mystery to keep me reading and I did feel that some attempt was made to ‘humanise’ one or two of the bad guys. I’m sure I’d pick up the previous books at some point in the future.

 

My debut young adult novel PRETTY CROOKED (Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins) was released in March 2012, and the sequel, PRETTY SLY, is out in March 2014. COIN HEIST, a YA thriller, is out in June 2014 (Adaptive Studios). I live in Philadelphia with my husband and son.

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