Here by Denise Grover Swank

Here
Denise Grover Swank

Synopsis: Sixteen year old Julia Phillips buries herself in guilt after killing her best friend Monica in a car accident. Julia awoke in the hospital with a broken leg, a new talent for drawing and false memories of the accident, in which she dies and Monica lives. The doctors attribute this to her head injury, but no one can explain how a bracelet engraved with her name ended up at the scene of the accident. A bracelet no one has ever seen before.

Classmate Evan Whittaker paid Julia no attention before the accident, let alone after. Now suddenly he’s volunteering to tutor her and offering to drive her home. She can't ignore that his new obsession started after his two-day disappearance last week and that he wears a pendant she’s been drawing for months. When the police show up one night looking for Evan, he begs Julia to run with him, convincing her that Monica is still alive. Julia agrees to go, never guessing where he’s really from.

I totally love the science fiction series Fringe, so I loved everything about Here. And of course all that Fringe knowledge allowed me to figure out the mystery behind Evan a little quicker than most, but I loved it all the same.

Julia Phillips has spent the past seven months working on a cloak of invisiblity to disappear off the radars of fellow students, who constantly stared and talked behind her back when she accidentally killed her friend Monica in a car accident. And it was working too, until Evan Whittaker disappeared for a few days, then suddenly reappeared with an interest directed toward Julia. Suddenly interested in tutoring her and driving her home from school, his popular girlfriend leashes an all out war, throwing Julia back into a spot light she can't seem to evade.

It's kind of sad watching Julia suffer from depression and anxiety attacks over the loss of her best friend. There weren't even any skid marks at the scene, so the reason for the accident is unsolved, and luckily, Julia was only charged with reckless driving. She can't remember anything that happened that night, nor figure out why a charm bracelet engraved with her name that she's never seen before appeared near her body. Or why she suddenly became an artist, mindlessly drawing Evan's name in hidden pictures, and also a design he wore hidden under his clothes. So many questions plague her, even more when the police began searching for him, and he desperately begged Julia to leave with him, promising to answer all the lingering questions. But she has no idea how dangerous following her new boyfriend will be...

I have to say that Julia is incredibly real and easy to relate to. Her reactions are honest and the banter that goes on between her and the characters sounds exactly like what you'd expect to hear out of a teenager's mouth, particularly the mother-daughter fights. Here will grab your attention from the start and keep you tuned in until the last page turns. Lovers of Fringe, the X-files and the Twilight Zone should pick this up!

Novel provided by author for honest review.