Girl From Long Guyland - Pick of the Month Review

The Girl from Long Guyland by Lara Reznik Genres: Mystery, Drama

     This is a story about peer pressure. Laila Levin left for college at the tender age of seventeen. Her first adventure out of the nest allows her to spread her wings and enjoy her freedom. She has always felt a sense of not quite belonging and on the college campus she falls in league with some very hot, but very bad boys. Even twenty-some years later, Laila has a successful career, a loving husband, two grown sons and still finds herself in situations where she is bending to make the popular choice amongst her peers rather than what is in her own best interest.

     The book almost begins in the middle. The plot unfolds through flashbacks of Laila's life during college and what is happening in her present day life. When her old college roommate commits suicide, Laila's past and present collide following the revelation of circumstances in the past that lead to the FBI reopening the missing person's case of one of their old friends. This group of five people are the only ones who know what had happened and made a pact to never discuss it again, not even among themselves. Until somebody does talk, and the entire house of cards falls as each person shifts the blame to another and it is all a matter of he said, she said to figure out who was really to blame.

     I was just a little disappointed with this book. The plot was great and kept me guessing. However, there was one of the characters that I had really grown fond of and had hoped to find that he was a better person than he originally appeared to be. Or maybe even that he had become a better person when he grew older and supposedly wiser. The fact that I had expectations of my own for this character shows just how well he was created, that he was fully three dimensional - in my mind at least - and even if I was disappointed in him he is completely realistic, unfortunately.

I give it 4 stars!