Review: Shelter by Harlan Coben

Mickey Bolitar's year 

can't get much worse. 

 

After witnessing his father's death and sending his mom to rehab, he's forced to live with his estranged uncle Myron and switch high schools.
A new school comes with new friends and new enemies, and lucky for Mickey, it also comes with a great new girlfriend, Ashley. For a while, it seems like Mickey's train-wreck of a life is finally improving - until Ashley vanishes without a trace. Unwilling to let another person walk out of his life, Mickey follows Ashley's trail into a seedy underworld that reveals that this seemingly sweet, shy girl isn't who she claimed to be. And neither was Mickey's father. Soon, Mickey learns about a conspiracy so shocking that it makes high school drama seem like a luxury - and leaves him questioning everything about the life he thought he knew.
First introduced to readers in Harlan Coben's latest adult novel, Live Wire, Mickey Bolitar is as quick-witted and clever as his uncle Myron, and eager to go to any length to save the people he cares about. With this new series, Coben introduces an entirely new generation of fans to the masterful plotting and wry humor that have made him an award-winning, internationally bestselling, and beloved author.

Review
I'm a big fan of Harlan Coben's past novels. His books have so much action and suspense they are hard to put down. He is so good at throwing a curve ball in the story too and I always wonder when it's coming. This is his debut into young adult fiction and I was excited to read it. I have to say that I was kind of disappointed though. I thought it was age appropriate but I was expecting it to have the same intensity as Coben's adult novels.

This book was well written and had a good mystery. The characters were interesting at first but they didn't seem to develop much. Some of them had odd behavior too. I liked Mickey but he didn't act like a teenager. He was suppose to be a high school sophomore but he was too mature and too calm under pressure.

The story was interesting enough that I expect to try the next book in the series to see what happens. I am curious about the cliffhangers. If I don't care for that book than I think I will stick with Coben's other novels because I really like this author.

Thank you to LibraryThing Early Reviewers for an ARC to review.

Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Release date: 9/6/11
Pages: 288
Price/format: $18.99 /hardcover
Type: thriller YA series