The Promised World

Yesterday I wrote about The Promised World by Lisa Tucker for Teaser Tuesday. This book was so hard to put down that I finished it up this morning at school (before contract time, of course! :) ) Tucker's writing is the type that sucks you in from the first page and keeps you wanting more until the very end.

Lila and Billy are twins- they share an unnaturally close bond. Both are brilliant, although Lila's intelligence is the type easily noticed by academic success, while Billy works at construction, had a child at a young age, and as the novel progresses appears as though he may be mentally ill, not just brilliant. Lila and Billy's parents were killed in a car accident. That is what Lila believes and what Billy has always told her. However, after Billy's tragic suicide it comes to light that Lila's mother is alive and well, living in a nearby town. Patrick is left to question all the stories that Lila has told him and whether their life together is also a lie.

Tucker creates a novel where there are a lot of unanswered questions. Lila, who is at the center of them all, is unable to answer them. She is without any significant memories from her childhood, and what she does know is only what Billy has told her.

I wanted to know what really happened to Lila as a child. I had my own guesses and was right about some of the things, and off the mark on others. While Tucker's resolution is satisfying, there are still things I want to know about Lila's life - as a child and after the novel's end.

If you read yesterday's teaser and that didn't spark any interest, hopefully this review will. Tucker's other novels are equally as good as her latest, and anyone looking for a new author should check her out.