~Spoiler Alert~
Do not read if you do not want to know how the book ends!
"The word normal had never described her, even now. All she had done for
the last month was sleep, eat, and read. She obeyed every order. She
was their perfect puppet. Her mind was in a rut like a song stuck on
repeat. She was getting so sick of it she wanted to curl up and die. Had
she felt like this her entire life, or did she only notice now because
the situation was more intimate?" -- The Breakaway
Naomi Jensen
is kidnapped and held captive, yet her captors are likable characters
and start to treat her as if she were family. How do you react to that
when all you've known your whole life revolves around parents who care
more about their careers than their daughter? Naomi is torn between how
she should feel and react in this situation. She even falls in love with
one of her captors, Jesse, but is this just a residual effect of
Stockholm Syndrome? Well you must read this book to decide for yourself.
As
for me, I absolutely loved this book! I couldn't put it down, but of
course had to as I have a 10 month old daughter and got distracted
constantly! If I had had the chance this book would have been read in
one sitting. It had a way of captivating me, Michelle's writing flows
and is so lyrical and descriptive that I literally felt a part of the
book.
Naomi's character was one that I hated and loved all at
the same time...yet I understood how she reacted to being kidnapped. She
felt weak and helpless and that she wasn't a brave person at all, but
really who would be in that situation? I even found myself liking her
captors right down to the end of the book, and was sad when they were
caught. Yet, technically I shouldn't have felt that way, who wants a
kidnapper to go free? Or better yet, who wants the kidnapper and
kidnappee to fall in love? I did! I wanted her to stay with them. I
loved this line in the book and perfectly describes how Naomi felt once
free..."Jesse was right. She was free now, but what was freedom without
happiness?"
I loved that Michelle combined kidnapping, cooking,
good food, classic literature, suspense, drama, and romance in this
novel. At times I almost could smell the food they were cooking and
eating in the book. It read more like poetry and I loved that!
A great young adult book that I would highly recommend for high school students and even adults!
