Bone Deep by Kim O'Brien

Title: Bone Deep

Author: Kim O'Brien

Publisher: SpencerHill Contemporary

Release Date: May 19, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

When Paige Patterson travels to Arizona to spend the summer with her archeologist father, she expects answers. Why did her parents divorce? Why did her father choose his career over family? She doesn’t expect to be reunited with her best friend Emily Linton, a girl she has always admired and secretly wanted to emulate, or to find herself falling for the project manager’s son, Jalen Yazzi.

But the summer takes a terrible turn when Emily vanishes. As the police struggle for answers, Paige sets out to find the truth.

The search takes Paige from Cliffside ruins of prehistoric Native Americans to the Navajo Nation to the horrifying possibility that the answer is much closer to home. Emily, it turns out, was not the only one good at hiding things.

Her father has no alibi of the night Emily disappeared. An intern with the motive insists he’s innocent. And Jalen has some secrets of his own.

Old bones might not be the only things buried in the ruins. As Paige digs deeper into Emily’s disappearance, she realizes that uncovering the truth may cost her everything—even her life.

I love stories with suspense and mystery, I just don’t tend to read them as often as I watch them on TV. But when I find out about one that interests me, I’m usually all over it. And that’s how I found myself reading Bone Deep by Kim O’Brien and getting sucked into the mystery.

Paige isn’t looking forward to spending the summer in Arizona on an archeological dig with her father. After he chose his career over her and her mother and moved across the country, Paige wants some answers about what exactly went down during her parents’ divorce. But her dad isn’t really ready and willing to give her the answers she wants. Instead, Paige is reunited with Emily, and to find herself falling for Jalen, the project manager’s son. Paige’s summer is shaping up to not be so bad after all. But then Emily disappears and everyone starts blaming everyone, especially Paige’s father who doesn’t have an alibi for the night Emily disappeared. Paige is trying to figure out what happened to her friend, but in the process she’s discovering more than she bargained for.

When it comes to my TV viewing habit, I watch a lot of TV shows that include an element of mystery or suspense. It wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that at least half of what I watch falls in that category. So, yeah, I love mystery and suspense. But when it comes to my reading choices, I find that I don’t read as much mystery and suspense. It’s not because I like it any less in book form, I just don’t gravitate to the books as much as I gravitate to the TV shows. But every so often, I will pick a book up that falls in that category, and that’s how I found myself reading Kim O’Brien’s Bone Deep. I was intrigued by the premise, about how archeology would play into the story and into the greater mystery. And it definitely turned out to be an interesting story. I loved hearing about the history of the site where they dig was taking place and seeing how that history fit into the greater mystery that was at the heart of the story. And on the topic of that mystery, I had some guesses as to who was responsible for Emily’s disappearance but I was never able to see it coming completely. And I loved that! So often, I’m able to guess the twists before they happen, but this time I didn’t figure it out until it was pretty much all laid out in front of me.

As much as I enjoyed Paige as a character by the end of the novel, I didn’t really think much of her at first. I could understand her being upset about her parents’ divorce and being forced to spend the summer with her father when all she really wanted to do was stay home with her mom, but it just felt like she complained a lot. But that eventually worked itself out, when Paige reluctantly accepted her faith for the summer and started spending time with Emily. And thinking that maybe she should do something about the feelings she may or may not have had for Jalen. But then Emily disappeared and Paige pretty much felt at a loss. But at the same time, she became determined to figure out what happened to her friend and I respect that. And I liked seeing her struggle with what to do with the information she was finding out, especially where her dad was concerned. Generally speaking, I really enjoyed seeing Paige’s evolution over the course of the story. She went from being this really closed off, angry person, to someone who was okay with letting other people in again and was willing to give a second chance to her father.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Kim O’Brien’s Bone Deep. If you’re looking for a book where the mystery will keep you guessing with a good dose of history thrown in, then this is the book for you.