Casey Lawrence

For some reason I missed the fact that this book is a sequel - but have to say that it stands pretty well on its own. There was enough retelling during the court case for me to understand the basic facts. However, I don't think that was the point of the story as much as the focus on Corey dealing with what happened, her fears, and the way she ultimately overcomes the obstacles and begins to recover from the trauma. Her inner battle had me spellbound!

If you're looking for an intense emotional experience, if you enjoy coming f age novels and want to watch a young woman grow up before your eyes, and if you're looking for a read that's a successful mix between external tension and learning to deal with your own fear, you will probably like this novel.… (meer)

Corinna “Corey” Nguyen is living a seemingly normal life for a senior in high school. Her biggest concerns are being valedictorian, a closet bisexual and making sure her friends are all there for each other. Everything seems to be going well until prom night where she witnesses her three best friends murdered. With graduation a few days away, Corina is feeling the weight of delivering a speech to the remainder of her senior class and trying to find out who killed her friends.

Out of order is a collection of beautiful words formed together to tell a horrifying story that had me until the very end. I read this story in mere hours unable to put it down. Casey Lawrence did an eloquent job of creating a cast of characters that were lovable and easy to identify with. For anyone that’s ever been to high school, there is someone in this story that you can relate to.

While I usually find plots that skip around to different time lines difficult to follow, Out of Order was written so well that the story flowed effortlessly. I particularly enjoyed the back story of Corina and her “leap” into discovering her own sexuality.

I find that I’m more critical of books that are LGBT friendly because too often they resemble this sort of coming out story with melodramatic characters. I am quite pleased with Casey Lawrence’s ability to tell a coming out story without the characters actually “coming out”.

I can honestly say I’m looking forward to book number two in this series.

Thank you to netgalley for this book in exchange for an honest review.
… (meer)

Out of order by Casey Lawrence
4.5 stars
This my first book by Casey Lawrence but it won't be my last. The author did a fantastic job of witing stream of consciousness for the main character. As she tells the story the reader is treated to learning her past life in jumping memories. As the reader follows her memories they learn what lead to what happened to bring her to this point. The memories are labelled by date so it gives the reader some grounding in where in the past or present this section is. Through her memories the reader gets to know her three best friends though they are already dead as the book starts. It was a bit confusing when I began reading since it jumped from date to date giving pieces of memory. I figured out the who and what fairly quickly but being confused at the beginning made me aware some ya readers might have trouble getting into it. Once they get into it they will discovery it is an unique way to hop into the past.
I would recommend this book to teens and YA as well as New Adult. This book is well written and by the time you reach the final chapters you will know and love her best friends.
I received this book free for an honest and fair review from the publisher on netgalley.com… (meer)