Love’s Lost

Fragments of the Lost by Megan Miranda

Summary from Netgalley:

Jessa Whitworth knew she didn’t belong in her ex-boyfriend Caleb’s room. But she couldn’t deny that she was everywhere–in his photos, his neatly folded T-shirts, even the butterfly necklace in his jeans pocket . . . the one she gave him for safe keeping on that day.

His mother asked her to pack up his things–even though she blames Jessa for his accident. How could she say no? And maybe, just maybe, it will help her work through the guilt she feels about their final moments together.

But as Jessa begins to box up the pieces of Caleb’s life, they trigger memories that make Jessa realize their past relationship may not be exactly as she remembered. And she starts to question whether she really knew Caleb at all. 

Each fragment of his life reveals a new clue that propels Jessa to search for the truth about Caleb’s accident. What really happened on the storm-swept bridge?

ARC provided by publisher via Netgalley for an honest review.

This book wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I ended up liking it.  It was the right mix of mystery and how much we don’t ever really know the ones we love.  

Jessa was a very interesting character.  I felt so sorry for her, being made to pack up her dead ex-boyfriend’s room.  I didn’t get that at first.  Being a mom of a young man, I’m not sure I would want his girlfriend cleaning out his room for me.  Maybe if I had liked the girlfriend and had a good relationship with them, but that was not the case with Eve and Jessa.  As the story unfolds and Eve’s motivation behind it becomes clearer, it bothered me less. 

I am not a huge fan of flashbacks, but they were necessary for this book to work, and the author did them well.  Jessa and Caleb had an interesting relationship, and while I don’t doubt that they loved each other, it was not a lasting love and was doomed almost from the start.  Mostly because Caleb never fully trusted Jessa with his secrets and with his true feelings.  I really liked that the memories were triggered by an object she found in his room, and because of that they were not in chronological order.   This made it harder to decide and figure out what had really happened to Caleb.  I was on the fence throughout most of the book as to whether or not he had faked his death or if he was really dead.  And if he had faked it, why?

Like most books of this genre, the final pieces of the mystery don’t fall into place until the last 50 or so pages of the book.  Although there are lots of clues along the way about what was really going on, it wasn’t until Jessa put the final pieces in place for us that the whole picture was seen.  I really enjoy mysteries that keep me guessing until the end about what is really going on.  The end of the book becomes a bit of a roller coaster ride of emotions as Jessa finds out the truth about Caleb and his family.

A very well crafted mystery thriller that will leave you breathless and staying up late to finish it.