In Her Skin by Kim Savage: Review & Giveaway

Posted March 27, 2018 by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction in Giveaways (Ended), Reviews / 24 Comments

In Her Skin by Kim Savage: Review & Giveaway

In Her Skin by Kim Savage: Review & GiveawayIn Her Skin by Kim Savage
Published by FSG on March 27th 2018
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary
Pages: 304
Source: Blog Tour
My content rating: YA (Themes of sexual and physical abuse - not directly shown; Characters have sex - again, not directly shown; Some violence)
My rating:
4 Stars

Sixteen-year-old con artist Jo Chastain is about to take on the biggest heist of her life: impersonating a missing girl. Life on the streets of Boston these past few years hasn’t been easy, and Jo is hoping to cash in on a little safety, a little security. She finds her opportunity in the Lovecrafts, a wealthy family with ties to the unsolved disappearance of Vivienne Weir, who vanished when she was nine.

When Jo takes on Vivi's identity and stages the girl’s miraculous return, the Lovecrafts welcome her back with open arms. They give her everything she could want: love, money, and proximity to their intoxicating and unpredictable daughter, Temple. But nothing is as it seems in the Lovecraft household—and some secrets refuse to stay buried. As hidden crimes come to the surface, and lines of deception begin to blur, Jo must choose to either hold onto an illusion of safety, or escape the danger around her before it’s too late.

add-to-goodreads 

My Take copy3

What a twisty ride this book was! Kim Savage knows how to take you on a journey with her books—and you’re not always sure you’re going to end up somewhere pretty. That was definitely the case with this one.

What Fed My Addiction:

  • Life hijack. I don’t know what it is, but I’m always fascinated by stories where the main character takes over someone else’s life. In this case, Jo sees an opportunity to pretend to be Vivienne, a girl who was kidnapped from an affluent family years ago. Since Vivi’s parents died, Jo thinks she can convince their close friends to believe that she’s Vivienne and that she’s escaped from her kidnapper after years of being hidden away.
  • Not so smart plan. Jo isn’t nearly as smart as she thinks she is, and things start to go wrong pretty early on.  Sometimes it might bother me to have a main character who thinks she’s smarter than she really is, but I felt like it worked in this story. You sort of saw the whole world unraveling around Jo, and you couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for her, even though she brought it all on herself.
  • Sad background. Jo isn’t exactly a likable character, but like I said, I still felt sorry for her. She’d been through a lot in her life, and I was genuinely hoping she’d find some sort of happy ending.
  • Interesting POV. The book was told with an interesting mix of first and second person POV. Jo is essentially telling the story to Temple Lovecraft, her new “sister,” in her head. (She refers to Temple as “you” throughout the book.) Again, this is one of those things that might work well or might fall flat. I ended up liking it.
  • Super quick read. This book is made up of three parts, and the game gets changed in each of them. That keeps you flipping the pages, and I flew through the book (which is a big plus for me lately, since I’ve felt a little stuck in my reading).

What Left Me Hungry for More:

  • Predicted some of the twists. I figured out what was going on with the Lovecrafts pretty early on—or, at least, I had a pretty good idea. I was still a bit shocked to find out the details, but I wasn’t all that surprised at the actual reveal. After that point, I did find some of the Lovecrafts actions and plans surprising, though. And part of the ending was surprising, as well as sort of sad.
  • Pacing in the middle. There was a point, after the big reveal and before Jo realizes that she’s in a desperate situation, that things lagged a little. But this was pretty minor. Like I said, I flew through the book.

Overall, I’d say this was a creepy and enjoyable read. If you like twisty stories that get a little dark, this one will be perfect for you!

***Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher via Rock Star Book Tours in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***

About Kim Savage

I was born and raised in Massachusetts, on the South Shore, which sounds beachy, even luxe. Think Winnebagos and chicken coops. My three brothers, 16, 10, and 8 years older, were teens by the time I became a person. Happiest around adults, who often forgot I was there, I spent days eavesdropping on gossipy moms in lawn chairs and nights listening under the table during tipsy Scrabble parties.

My dad read to me nightly. Eventually and early, I read to myself, everywhere. On top of an enormous freezer chest stuffed with meat. On drives until I grew nauseous. In bed until my eyes gave out. I read anything I could get my hands on. V.C. Andrews and Dickens. Black Beauty and the Bible. The Economist. Madeline L’Engle and Margaret Atwood. National Geographic.

I got a bachelor’s degree in English from Stonehill College and a Master’s in Journalism from Northeastern University. For a while, I worked as a business journalist. Instead of waiting for the Federal Reserve to release the Beige Book, I pitched story ideas along the lines of “Stigmatized Properties: When Murder Kills Property Values”. You see where things were headed.

Today, I live with my family northwest of Boston in a town a lot like Shiverton, near the real Fells reservation of AFTER THE WOODS. Born with dysgeographica—I’m directionally challenged—the fear of getting lost in that lovely, dark forest lives close to my skin.

Author Links:
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1 winner will receive a finished copy of IN HER SKIN and BEAUTIFUL BROKEN GIRLS, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

3/19/2018- Bookhounds YA– Interview

3/19/2018- Hauntedbybooks13– Review

 

3/20/2018- Falling For YA– Excerpt

3/20/2018- A Gingerly Review– Review

 

3/21/2018- Dani Reviews Things– Interview

3/21/2018- Book-Keeping– Review

 

3/22/2018- Nerdophiles– Review

3/22/2018- JustAddAWord– Review

 

3/23/2018- Literary Meanderings– Interview

3/23/2018- The Desert Bibliophile– Review

 

Week Two:

3/26/2018- Pretty Deadly Reviews– Excerpt

3/26/2018- Riddle’s Reviews– Review

 

3/27/2018- Feed Your Fiction Addiction– Review

3/27/2018- Smada’s Book Smack– Review

 

3/28/2018- Storybook slayers– Excerpt

3/28/2018- Twinning for Books– Review

 

3/29/2018- Rainy Day Reviews– Review

3/29/2018- Here’s to Happy Endings– Review

 

3/30/2018- Bibliobibuli YA– Interview

3/30/2018- FICTION FARE– Review

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24 responses to “In Her Skin by Kim Savage: Review & Giveaway

  1. I don’t think I’m familiar with this author. I certainly never heard of this book–and I think I need to! I love the sound of it–and your review has me even more intrigued. Great review!

  2. Life-hijacking stories are pretty fascinating. I’m sorry to hear you guessed some of the reveals/twists, but it’s good it could still surprise you a bit in some ways. Thanks for sharing! This sounds pretty good.

    Lauren

  3. Glad you liked this one! It sounded a little similar to Good as Gone, which was a big bust for me a couple years ago, so I’m a little hesitant to add it to my TBR. But if bloggers I trust (like you!) give it the thumbs up I guess I need to indulge my curiosity and give it a try 🙂 Great review Nicole!

    JJ @ This Dark Material recently posted: book review: my dear hamilton
  4. Are you surprised that we felt the exact same way about this book? Me either. You know, the problem with my procrastination is that you beat me to reviewing books and then Idk what to say because you said all the good stuff already 😀 Great review!!

    • Yes, sometimes I can read a book with a narrator who thinks they’re smarter than they are and I’ll get aggravated because I’ll think they should have figured things out. But in this case, I felt like Jo really did have a lot of street smarts and she was justified in thinking she knew what was going on—she just had some big things wrong.

  5. This sounds super fun. I’ve been on a bit of a thriller binge lately, so I’ll have to add this one. I always think of the classic Josephine Tey mystery, Brat Farrar, as my gateway drug to stories of imposters.

  6. I haven’t actually read this one but I have seen it around before. It’s interesting that the character thinking herself smarter than others – although something that usually annoys you – actually worked well for this book. The premise intrigues me a lot. I don’t mind predictability in some cases but pacing being off does bother me a bit.

    • Yeah, I think a lot of times when a character seems to think their smart but misses things that you find obvious as a reader, it can be really annoying. But in this case, you could see that the MC had a lot of street smarts but she was letting things get out of hand because she just wanted it all to work so badly. I ended up being okay with it because of that.

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