Review: Hanging By A Thread by Sophie Littlefield

Title: Hanging By A Thread
Author: Sophie Littlefield
Series: Stand Alone
Published By: Delacorte Books For Young Readers (September 11, 2012)
Source: ARC Copy Provided by the Publisher (in exchange for an honest review)
Genre: YA Paranormal
My Rating: 3 Stars

Goodreads Description:
 Summer is the best part of the year in Winston, California, and the Fourth of July is the highlight of the season. But the perfect town Clare remembers has changed, and everyone is praying that this summer will be different from the last two—that this year's Fourth of July festival won't see one of their own vanish without a trace, leaving no leads and no suspects. The media are in a frenzy predicting a third disappearance, but the town depends on tourist dollars, so the residents of Winston are trying desperately to pretend nothing's wrong.

And they're not the only ones hiding something.

Clare, a seamstress who redesigns vintage clothing, has been blessed—or perhaps cursed—with a gift: she can see people's pasts when she touches their clothes. When she stumbles across a denim jacket that once belonged to Amanda Stavros, last year's Fourth of July victim, Clare sees her perfect town begin to come apart at the seams.

In a town where appearance means everything, how deep beneath the surface will Clare dig to uncover a murderer

My Review:
 

I will admit that this is the first book I have read by Sophie Littlefield and it is also my understanding that this is her first YA book.

I saw some of the low reviews on this before reading it but really wanted to come into it without any prejudices whatsoever.

However, sadly I am going to have to agree with some of the lower rating reviews.

While the author had a brilliant idea for this book, a girl who comes from a long line of seamstresses and a rocky history gets gifted with the ability to see people's past by touching their clothes, the storyline is a little jilted.

At times we get way too much information about things that don't really seem important, like some of her clothing designs and her old school and friends, which made the read a little slow going. And then other times it is almost like we don't get enough information about the visions themselves and her family history.

This book didn't feel complete at the end. I felt a little put down and almost lost with how things wrapped up so quickly. It just didn't feel right to me.

I did really like Clare and Jack and I wish their relationship would have had a little more focus and detail to it. I think the story just could have been so much better if the author would have concentrated a little more on her visions and Jack and less on her artist ability and old school and friends.

This wasn't a bad read just not a great one either. It wouldn't keep me from trying her other books but it wouldn't make me buy them either if I didn't already own them.

Over all I am going to give this one 3 stars because the characters were likeable and I think they were pretty good, there just wasn't enough depth and detail to really hold my interest and the storyline was lacking in areas, otherwise I would have no problem with giving it a higher rating but I don't think that would be fair to other readers if I did.