For The Love Of Books: Missing Pieces Blog Tour

Seventeen-year-old Maddie Davis has spent her whole life on the move. With an unstable mother who has a knack for making bad decisions, she’s never stayed in one place long enough to remember its postcode. But this time is different… This time, she has been dragged half way across the world. Arriving in California and being forced to go back to school feels like stepping back in time. She wants to go home…

Until she meets Blaine Elwood – the stepson of an old family friend.

Blaine appears to have it all. To the outside world, quarterback Blaine is rich, confident and has the ‘arrogant bad boy’ image down to a tee. But nobody knows what goes on behind closed doors. Nobody ever can. He has vowed never to let anyone get too close – let anyone discover how weak he is. So when new girl Maddie starts tugging at strings he didn’t know existed in his heart, his only option is to push her away…

Until he realizes how much he needs her.

Together, after being forced into adulthood from an early age, they begin to learn what it feels like to be young - to smile, to laugh... to love. So when shattered secrets and splintered lies start unraveling around them, will the trust they’ve worked so hard to build be irreparably destroyed? Or will they realize they are two pieces of the same broken puzzle?

Review:

“Missing Pieces”, by Nicola Haken is a difficult book to read…don’t get me wrong, Nicola Haken is a very talented writer and does an incredible job with the amount of emotional depth and development displayed by the characters in the story. However, there is some very disturbing content dealing with physical and sexual abuse that is a very real trigger for some and should be aware of this prior to reading.

I actually am surprised to admit how drawn in to the story of Blaine and Maddie as I was…stories about high school kids usually are not my first choice of reading material, especially when it’s snotty, shallow “poor little me” rich kid storylines. So, imagine when I just couldn’t stop reading…started feeling my heart breaking over the torment and torture inflicted upon “Blaine”, who by all rights, should have been just the same old “rich kid football quarterback” cliché. And hell if I didn’t just snort and giggle when Maddie gave, not as good as she got, but BETTER when being the brunt of the snide little jokes and whispers from the rich kids when Maddie shows up at school wearing worn, outdated and cold-weather clothes for a warm weather climate…because that’s all she had.

There are so many things going on in “Missing Pieces”…but everything just flows so naturally, which was just another nod to the writing skill of Nicola Haken. Yes, there is very dark and difficult content…and as abhorrent as it is to think about, it brings to light that abuse doesn’t exempt itself due to gender, class, race, age, culture…it sadly exists in all forms and crosses all lines and as disgusting as it is… being aware of the “monster-in-the-room” can only empower and strengthen you to inform yourself on how to fight against it.

3.5 Stars ~Kathy

Nicola lives in Rochdale, England with her husband and four children (six if you include the dogs!) She is the author of New Adult/Contemporary romance novels Inevitable, Saving Amy and the Take My Hand series. When she is not busy playing with her imaginary book friends (or talking about them with real life friends!) she can usually be found carrying out her ordinary mum/housewife/all round slave duties. Oh, and if the kids ever ask, she moonlights as the Pink Power Ranger while they’re sleeping…