Favorite by Karen McQuestion

Published: April 2011

Publisher: Amazon Encore

Copy: for review

Summary: Goodreads

Angie Favorite was just eleven years old when her mother disappeared, leaving Angie and her brother Jason to be raised by their grandmother while their rock-star father hit the road with his band. Since that day, Angie has gone through the motions of everyday life. She thinks she has everyone fooled — until the summer morning when she’s abducted from a mall parking lot. She narrowly escapes and her attacker, Scott Bittner, is arrested, but the weirdness has just begun. When Angie receives a letter from Scott’s mother, entreating her to meet so that she can apologize for her son’s actions, the girl reluctantly agrees. But it is soon obvious that Scott’s attack wasn’t random at all and that there is more to the strange Mrs. Bittner than meets the eye. In fact, she may hold the key to Angie’s mother’s disappearance. Part thriller, part coming-of-age tale, Favorite is an engrossing young-adult novel from a captivating author.



I was lucky enough to be sent an arc of this title for review. I had never heard of Karen McQuestion before, but the blurb on the book sounded interesting and I thought I'd give it a try. I'm very glad I did.

Favorite was a short (under 200 pages), quick read with some serious suspense going on. I couldn't help thinking as I was reading that the story would make a great movie. It was full of dark, mysterious rooms, weird servants and strange older characters. I kept hearing creepy movie music in my head. This made me laugh a bit, but it certainly shows that Ms McQuestion got the atmophere right in the book.

Angie Favorite, the main protagonist is 16 years old and a little naive, although she has had some serious sadness in her life prior to the start of the story. I thoroughly enjoyed the snarky, sarcastic asides that Angie delivers throughout the book, and these contributed to the realistic feel of the story. Angie's brother, Jason, also seemed like a very real character, trying to make the best out of a bad situation and the appearance of Mike helped to add that little touch of romance that we all love with books these days.

Events in the books take place very quickly and the suspense really doesn't let up at all throughout. Favorite is one of those stories that seems predictable, but you have to keep reading to see how things will play out - just in case it doesn't turn out quite the way you're expecting. It's a very clean read, and would be completely suitable for younger teens that like a contemporary suspense story. I thoroughly enjoyed it.



It looks as though Favorite was originally published in November 2009, with the cover below

Not sure which one I prefer. Favorite is being re-published through AmazonEncore, which is a fairly new enterprise from Amazon. Here is what amazon.com has to say about it:

Unearthing Exceptional Books and Emerging Authors for More Readers to Enjoy
Even great books can be overlooked. And authors with great potential often struggle to connect with the larger audience they deserve to reach. We’re fortunate at Amazon.com to have customers who know a good book when they read one, so we've introduced AmazonEncore to help connect authors and their books with more readers.


AmazonEncore is a new program whereby Amazon will use information such as customer reviews on Amazon.com to identify exceptional, overlooked books and authors with more potential than their sales may indicate. Amazon will then partner with the authors to re-introduce their books to readers through marketing support and distribution into multiple channels and formats, such as the Amazon.com Books Store, Amazon Kindle Store, Audible.com, and national and independent bookstores via third-party wholesalers. Browse our books below, and check out AmazonEncore titles available on Kindle.

From young adult, to women’s fiction, to thriller novels and beyond, we’re excited to unearth and share these emerging authors and their engaging works with you.



If you are interested in reading more about it here is the link