Review of Hanging By a Thread by Sophie Littlefield

Title/Author: Hanging By a Thread by Sophie Littlefield
Publisher/Date published: Delacorte BFYR, September 11th 2012
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

Goodreads summary: Summer is the best part of the year in Winston, California, and the Fourth of July is the highlight of the season. But the perfect town Clare remembers has changed, and everyone is praying that this summer will be different from the last two — that this year's Fourth of July festival won't see one of their own vanish without a trace, leaving no leads and no suspects. The media are in a frenzy predicting a third disappearance, but the town depends on tourist dollars, so the residents of Winston are trying desperately to pretend nothing's wrong.

And they're not the only ones hiding something.

Clare, a seamstress who redesigns vintage clothing, has been blessed — or perhaps cursed — with a gift: she can see people's pasts when she touches their clothes. When she stumbles across a denim jacket that once belonged to Amanda Stavros, last year's Fourth of July victim, Clare sees her perfect town begin to come apart at the seams.

In a town where appearance means everything, how deep beneath the surface will Clare dig to uncover a murderer?

So you may have noticed I don't read a lot of mystery books, mostly because I usually guess what's going on WAY before the characters and it makes me want to shake them. But I was drawn to Hanging By A Thread because of the paranormal twist with Clare being able to see memories when touching clothes. Because that is just awesome.

And I was pleasantly surprised because seriously, I really enjoyed this book! Clare is a very likeable main character, she's smart and has a clothing style I don't really get, so it's probably cool and I'd kill to have her designing skills! She felt like such a real girl, trying to fit into the town she just moved to, maybe twisting the truth a little to get people to like her and genuinely wanting to get to know a boy her friend doesn't really approve because of his not entirely clean past.

And I did like the boy because he just accepted Clare for who she was and didn't think she was crazy and yeah, I kinda like that in a guy. So while I thought Clare was a bit naive for just trusting him despite his violent actions in the past, I do approve of the boy. Am I making any sense?

I loved seeing the murder mystery unravel and while I did guess who did it way before Clare figured it out, I was still pretty happy with the way things turned out!
The only thing I didn't really like was the interaction between Clare and her mother, they were constantly at each other's throaths and sometimes it seemed like they WANTED to be fighting all the time. Maybe it's because I love my mom so much, but I can't imagine treating her that way. So that kinda bugged me.

But aside from that, I really enjoyed Hanging By A Thread and it has convinced me that there are mysteries out there that are my kind of books, so yay!

My rating: 4 stars