When her past catches up to her, will she fight or run?More lightning strikes occur in Arcadia, Florida than anywhere else in the United States. Roxie Bishop and her father, Jack, are just trying to escape an unfortunate past when they pick Arcadia, thinking it’s their best chance to blend in. Which goes great. Until Roxie suffers a lightning strike. Even more alone than before, and desperate to … before, and desperate to find others like her, Roxie searches for a support group and eventually comes cross an article on The Lucky Strikes. The exclusive group becomes Roxie’s haven for release and eventually she lets her guard down.
When Roxie and Jack’s past catches up to them and they have nowhere else to turn, can she rely on her new friends for help? Or does one of them hide secrets, too?
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Welcome to the writing world for Jenny Medenwald. It starts out as Roxie and her father are running from something and find a new home in Arcadia, Florida, home of most lightening strikes in the US. This book is from Roxie point of view of what has happened and how she reacts and changes she is going through in her like after a lightening strike. We see a teen-agers point of view about her life, with all that they go through plus the changes in her life. Life has a way of throwing things at us that sometimes we don’t believe we can handle but how will Roxie do that. Jenny Medenwald’s make us feel real, wanting us to know what Roxie does and how does she handle it. Being a teen-ager is hard enough but when life changes their lives, what do they do next
A Superlative, Suspenseful Teen Psychological Thriller!
Overview: Teenager Roxie Bishop and her dad are desperate to escape an unfortunate past when they settle in Arcadia, Florida. While trying to blend in, Roxie suffers an unfortunate lightning strike, and a support group—The Lucky Strikes—becomes her haven. But, can Roxie trust her new friends not to betray her when the past suddenly catches up with her?
Author Jenny Medenwald writes a convincing and highly relatable story about the undying loyalty and love a daughter can have for her father as seen through the eyes of a likable but troubled teenage protagonist.
After being put through a series of bizarre circumstances, Roxie tries hard to keep her chin up, believing that she’s effectively dealing with the stress she’s suffered as she tries to adjust to a hurried move, a new school, tentative friendships, and an unfamiliar town. At stake is her and her father’s freedom from legal prosecution after fleeing with her from their old hometown. Author Medenwald builds a suspenseful plotline, concealing the actual reason for her characters’ flight, by adding thrills, chills, and paranoia worthy of a taut, best selling mystery novel as Roxie interprets the many threats intent on exposing her secret lurking around every corner.
For the majority of this read, Madenwald’s characters are all rather sketchy as she keeps a tight rein on each of their backgrounds, causing readers to choose, then negate, suspected lures and spies who would turn Roxie and her dad in to the authorities. But, should we even be on Roxie’s side? Who is this supposedly evil woman chasing down the Bishops? Is Roxie the victim of a would-be kidnapping or has she already been abducted? Readers will have a hard time deciding who is in the right and who is in the wrong as this compelling and riveting story continues.
At the time I read “The Lucky Strikes” on Kindle, the novel was classified as a Children’s Mystery, however, this story reflects the life of a seventeen-year-old girl who is anything but a child. The instances portrayed in this story deal with adult topics, including domestic violence and abuse, unwanted pregnancy, and child abduction. This tale is aimed at older teens and not younger minors under the age of thirteen. Survivors of the aforementioned situations should exercise discretion in selecting this novel since it may act as a trigger for certain individuals.
“The Lucky Strikes” is a fast-paced and engrossing story containing adult language and situations. It is a superlative and suspenseful teen psychological thriller that I highly recommend for anyone who loves teenage and young adult mystery novels.