Title: One of Our Own
Author: Lucinda Berry
Publication: March 12, 2024
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Genre: Thriller, Suspense
Audio Length: 3 Hours, 54 Minutes
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Goodreads | Author Website
SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)
Felicia, a single mother and lawyer by day, volunteers at a local crisis center to give back to her tightknit community in a small Wisconsin town. One night, she answers a horrifying call: through tears, a frantic teenage girl tells her that she was a victim of sexual assault at a local house party.
Felicia is shocked, and breaking protocol, she begins communicating with the girl on her own, determined to keep her safe and hold her assailants accountable. But as she gets closer and closer to the truth, she can’t shake the feeling that she and the girl are connected by more than the phone call. As the girl shares more details, Felicia begins to think the unthinkable—someone close to her may be involved in this heinous crime.
As Felicia earns the girl’s trust and more facts emerge about the incident, she faces a gut-wrenching battle between her protective instincts and the moral responsibility to do what’s right. This taut thriller is the perfect listen for fans of The Push, Wrong Place Wrong Time, and We Need to Talk About Kevin.
REVIEW:
**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**
AJ Cook does the audio for this book, which was a major draw to me, because I have never read a Lucinda Berry book. Now I am absolutely hooked. Lucinda Berry’s One of Our Own was twisty and suspenseful and had me wrapped in quickly.
The story follows Felicia after she takes a call from a teen helpline and finds out about an assault at her son’s school. She starts to wonder who was the perpetrator and if her son was involved. My first impression was that Felicia was a great mom. I always love seeing a book from the parents view because I am a parent. The internal thoughts of a parent dealing with a teen is constantly in motion. Berry did a fantastic job giving that distressed parent view.
There were not that many other characters in this book whom we have a lot of interaction with except for the girl who calls in and we don’t know too much about her. The few we did gave mixed emotions. I didn’t like the attitude of the son and I felt really bad for the girl calling in. I felt AJ Cook did a great job voicing the mom and allowing that worry to come through in her voice. The suspense build kept me interested and I finished this book inside of a day. I had to know how it was going to end and was surprised even though I had suspicions. It was not what I was expecting.
I strongly encourage anyone who loves suspense novels to take a listen to this. You will be hooked from the first moment. I’ll be checking out more from Bell very soon.
