A young woman’s happy life is thrown into upheaval when her mother, a broker, collapses and is hospitalized after her office is raided by investigators who suspect her of fraudulent activity with her investors’ money. Grace has been raised in a wealthy and insular community and many of her friends’ families were heavily invested in her mother’s fund, leading them to turn against Grace even as her mother lies unresponsive in the hospital. The novel moves between this dramatic event and a time several months in the future when Grace decides to travel to one of her mother’s favorite destinations in Colorado and climb a mountain there, ostensibly looking for answers to the many questions she has about her mom’s history. However, she is trailed to her destination by Sam, a boy she knows from school whose family has lost everything due to her mother’s deceptions. This sets up a perfect (and predictable) premise in which the two are tortured by their burgeoning feelings for one another as they navigate the demanding path up the mountain. Readers may be willing to accept the somewhat outlandish set-up that places Grace and Sam in a wilderness survival scenario together but many will have a harder time sustaining interest as the protracted machinations of their star-crossed relationship play out. Still teen readers in grades 8-12 who’ve liked mystery/thrillers by authors like Gillian Flynn and Karen McManus will find enough to like and keep them engaged here.

Reviewed by Brooke Faulkner, McArthur Public Library, Biddeford