I’m very excited to take part in the Saving Ben tour today! Keep reading for my review and be sure to enter the awesome giveaway!
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Pages: 240
Published: January 31st 2013
Series: N/A – Stand Alone
Source: From Xpresso Book Tours for review
Life is sweet for Katherine Langley. A freshman at the University of Virginia, she is free from the drama of her parents’ dysfunctional marriage and ready to focus on studying to become a nurse. Her brother, Ben, belongs to the hottest fraternity on campus, and her new roommate, Emma, is beautiful and charming, a party girl whose answer for a hangover is happy hour. She is also a psychopath.When Katherine’s obsessive-compulsive overprotective brother succumbs to Emma’s charms and falls dangerously off-track, Katherine must save Ben from himself. Lives are threatened and someone disappears on New Year’s Day. The only evidence left: a single set of footprints in the snow.
From the university campus to a cozy cottage on Carter’s Creek, Virginia, Saving Ben is a haunting tale of love and loyalty, anger management, substance abuse, and betrayal.
Wow. It is very hard for me to put into words what I experienced when I read Saving Ben. This novel is gutwrenching and that is the only true word I can use to discribe it.
I truly felt most of the characters in Saving Ben. Katherine was wonderful. She was so, so loyal and a good person inside and out. Ben, although he also had his fault, just broke my heart and I really felt for him. Despite his poor decisions he honestly loved and cared about everyone that was close to him. Emma… well Emma was a bitch. I hated her, exactly like I was supposed to. OMG I wanted to scream because she made me so angry. My favorite character, was Abigail or Yabba. I absolutely adored her. Her soft-spoken, kind manner was so honest. The characterization for Saving Ben was remarkable. I didn’t feel like these were characters created, I felt like they were real, true people and we were listening to their story.
As this is a mystery type novel, although you don’t find out the mystery until quite close to the end I don’t want to reveal a lot of details. The most important part about Saving Ben is the build up to the ending. I didn’t understand that when I was reading that, until the ending, so I became quite antsy waiting for something to happen. Don’t go into this waiting for the mystery, that’s my advice as because of this I had a few problems with pacing. I thought it was a bit slow at times.
The writing is absolutely phenomenal. As it was for the characters, I felt like this was a story I was in, not reading. I was completed enveloped in the story and I truly felt for the characters.
The ending is bittersweet, as well as several other parts during the novel. I blinked back tears several times and when I finished I had that familiar aching in my chest that I only have when I read books such as Code Name Verity.
I wouldn’t pass up Saving Ben, it’s beautifully written and has wonderful characters.
*3 signed paperback copies (US only), 2 ebook copies (INTL), and a $25.00 amazon gift card (INTL). *
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About Ashley Farley
I wrote a novel, SAVING BEN, in honor of my brother, the boy I worshipped, the man I could not save. It’s not a memoir, but a story about the special bond between siblings.
I'm a wife and mother of two teenagers. I have lived in Richmond, Virginia, for seventeen years, a city I love for its history and traditions. Personal experience with my brother inspired me to become involved with the leadership symposium in my son’s school where I’ve helped bring in speakers to raise parents’ awareness of the alcohol and drug problems children face. When I’m not steering volunteer committees or working on my next novel, I can be found swimming laps or playing tennis.
Happy Reading!
xo Lauren
This certainly sounds like a fab book and I will be adding it to my wishlist now! I love characters in books, so I’m so thoroughly glad to hear they are great ones in this! And I’m glad the mystery isn’t delivered too soon.
Fab review. 🙂
Thanks Livvy! I can’t wait to see what you think. It was really a pleasant surprise(how much I loved it, not the book… pleasant wouldn’t be the word to describe it lol) and it keeps you hanging on to the very end.
Wow so happy you enjoyed it! It sounds like a book that really guts you I’d have to mentally prepare! 🙂 Great review!
You would Giselle!! So many sad and twisty things happen that you just want to close it and sob a bit lol.
Woah, her roommate is a psychopath? I AM DEF. IN FOR THIS ONE! I have not read that much mystery books so I am looking forward on this one. I’m pretty sure I will hate Emma too lol. Glad you liked it! Hopefully I don’t find the book’s pacing as slow.. cause it just turns me off really quickly.
Leigh @ Little Book Star
I think the only reason I found this slow was because I was waiting for the mystery from the synopsis. Now that you know it won’t happen for awhile hopefully you won’t find it slow 🙂 I hope you enjoy it Leigh!!
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