The Girl She Used to Be by David Cristofano (Book Review)

Title: The Girl She Used To Be
Author: David Cristofano
Publisher: Hachette Books
Available: Now
Genre: Fiction
My ARC was provided to me by Miriam at Hachette Books.

First sentence(s): Name me. Gaze into my eyes, study my smile and my dimples and tell me who you see.


Melody was six years old when she and her parents witnessed the brutal slaying of a man by Tony Bovaro. Thought to be the only witnesses, they fled the scene and returned to their home. Somehow the FBI tracked them down and convinced them to testify against this Mafia boss. Even though they lost the case, Melody and her parents were forced to go into the Witness Protection Program.

She has had eight names in the last 20 years - not including the one she was born with. Since her parents where killed by the mafia when she was in high school, whenever she becomes bored with her life - she calls up her federal contact and claims that she has been "found." She has no friends, no family, no freedom, no career, no security, no past and she feels no future.

But then she meets Jonathan Bovaro, the son of Tony Bovaro. Jonathan gives her something her federal agents have not been able to - security and freedom to be "the girl she used to be."

I liked this book. I can't say that I fell in love with it, but I did like it. It was a very original story - or maybe an original take on a story - with an ending that I did not see coming. I think the author did a good job of expressing Melody's feelings of loneliness and despair. Despair in the sense that she would never be able to live her own life, but would always be in this invisible prison.

Jonathan was quite a surprise for her, and I think his feelings for her were a bit of a surprise for him, too. He had tracked her down many times - on orders to kill her - but was really trying to keep her safe. Their relationship had a lot of undercurrents to it involving safety, trust, family. Their lives were so irrevocably intertwined though that I think it was inevitable that they would eventually meet.

If you want a nice, easy story, with a surprise ending - then this one is for you.

Wondrous Words 4-22-2009

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our reading. To join in the fun, post your words on your blog and then leave a message over at Bermudaonion's Blog!

My first word this week is from The Lost Hours by Karen White.

Doyenne - used like this - I thought about writing him back to mention the borderline alcoholic doyenne of the estate, the blind daughter with a penchant for colors, the two little girls who were wise beyond their years, or their father whose odd mixture of aloofness and caring I found more attractive than I wanted to admit. (p133)

Definition - A woman who is the eldest or senior member of a group.

The following three words are from The Girl She Used to Be by David Cristofano.

Effete - used like this - I am so effete from being disarmed, I'm numb. (p74)

Definition - Depleted of vitality, force, or effectiveness; exhausted

Inimical - used like this - I am wired, like I've been drugged against my will with an inimical amount of adrenaline. (p195)

Definition - in opposition; adverse;

Insensate - used like this - Like a libidinous adolescent, I've been concerned with where and how I am going to lose my virginity, an insensate thing to scheme, in general; I should've been most concerned with if.

Definition - Foolish; witless

Mailbox Monday 3-30-2009

Before you look at the books that I got - make some books appear in your mailbox! Check out the memoir giveaways from Hachette either in my right sidebar or here and here.

I received Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead from Doubleday Books.

From the back cover: The year is 1985. Benji Cooper is one of the only black students at an elite prep school in Manattan. He spends is falls an winters going to roller-disco bar mitzvahs, playing too much Dungeons and Dragons, and trying to catch glimpses of nudity on late-night cable TV. After a tragic mishap on his first day of high school - when Benji reveals his deep enthusiasm for the horror movie magazine - Fangoria - his social doom is sealed for the next four years.

But every summer, Benji and his brother, Reggie, escape to the East End of Long Island, to Sag Harbor, where a small coummunity of African-American professionals have built a world of their own. Because their parents come out only on weekends, he and his friends are left to their own devices for three glorious months. Except Benji is just as confused about this all-black refuge as he is about the white world he negotiates during the school year. There's always acomplicated new handshake to fumble through, state-of-the-art profanity to master, and his fantasies of hooking up with the opposite sex are no match for his own awkwardness. And let's nt get started on his misshapen haircut (which seems to have a will of its own), the New Coke Tragedy of '85, and his secret Lite FM addiction.

In this deeply affectionate and fiercely funny coming-of-age novel, Whitehead - using te perpetual mortification of teenage existence and the desperate quest fr reinvention - beautifully explores racial and class identity, illustrating how it is impossible to define an individual in isolation from his family's commnal history.

The Girl She Used To Be by David Cristofano I received from Miriam at Hachette Books. (Thank you Miriam!)

From the book jacket: When Melody Grace McCartney was six years old, she and her parents witnessed an act of violence so brutal that it changed their lives forever. The federal government lured them into the Witness Protection Program with the promise of safety, but the program took Melody's name, her home, her family, and ultimately her innocence. Now, twenty years later and still on the run, she's been May Adams, Karen Smith, Anne Johnson, and countless others. But the one person she longs to be is Melody Grace McCartney.

So when the feds spirit her off to begin yet another new life in yet another new town, she's stunned by a man who accosts her and calls her by her real name. Jonathan Bovaro, the mafioso sent to find her, knows her, the real her, and it's a thrill Melody can't resist. Defying the feds, she goes willingly with him. To the Justice Department, she's nothing more than a pawn in the government's war against the Bovaro family. But, as dangerous as Jonathan is, he presents her with the chance of a lifetime - the chance to embrace her past and present, and choose a future all her own.

I received The Unquiet Bones by Melvin R. Starr as part of a First Wild Card Tour happening on April 20th.

From the back cover: Uctred thought he had discovered pig bones. He did not know or care why they were in the cesspit at the base of Bampton Castle wall.

Then he found the skull. Uctred is a tenant, bound to the land of Lord Gilbert, third Baron Talbot, lord of Bampton Castle, and had slaughtered many pigs. He knew the difference between human and pig skulls.

Lord Gilbert called for me to inspect the bones. All knew whose bones they must be.

They were not.

Hugh de Singleton, fourth son of a minor knight in Wyclif's England, had had some good fortune. Newly trained as a surgeon, he was staring from his Oxford window, hoping for clients, when Lord Gilbert was kicked by his groom's horse. Hugh's successful treatment of the suffering Lord led to an invitation to set up his practice in the village of Bampton - and, before long, the request to identify some bones. . .



I received Fatal Illusions by Adam Blumer as part of a First Wild Card Tour happening April 17th.

From the back cover: Haydon Owens wants to be the next Houdini. He has been practicing his craft and has already made four women disappear. All it took was a bit of rope and his two bare hands.

The Thayer family has come to the north woods of Newberry, Michigan, looking for refuge, a peaceful sanctuary from a shattered past. But they are not alone. Little do they know that they are about to become part of Haydon's next act.

Time is running out and already the killer has spotted his next victim. Who will escape alive?

Visit Mailbox Mondays over at The Printed Page and see what everyone else received! (All descriptions are from book covers unless otherwise noted.) and you can also go to In Your Mailbox at The Story Siren on Sundays!