I gave this book 4 stars. It was a really wild story arc. Going into this book I wasn't sure what I expected. I have read quite a few of this author's works. I enjoy her paranormal books a bit more than her contemporary, but it was still something I had a great time reading.

Chloe Holden has just moved from the home she has always known to Texas. That's always a good way to start off a book. Also, I'm not surprised this is set in Texas. ANyway, Chloe has a lot of things she needs to juggle from trying to make new friends, to making sure her mother doesn't sink into a deep depression, to finding out if she was kidnapped as a baby. Wild from start to finish. If you're interested in Young Adult Mysteries then this book may be for you.

Cash Colton grew up a con. He had a strained relationship with his father, stunting his ability to bond with his foster family, one that actually seems to care. Cash meeting Chloe initially assumes she is a con because of the resemblance she has to the stolen daughter of his foster parents and thus ensues the wild ride.

There was a little while there where Chloe was driving me crazy. There were so many questions that were unanswered and she just didn't want to know the answers. If something like this had happened to me I would have been unresting trying to find out the truth. She was so passive about it. I understand that she was trying not to hurt her mother's feelings and such but come on. I think she should have talked with her mother about what she thought was happening, and maybe her mother would have been able to help her in some way. I think the fact that Chloe was keeping secrets made things a bit worse in the end.

This is one of those books where you just need to get past the first couple of chapters and then you really get into it. It took me a while to read the first 10 percent of it, but then I read the rest in 2 days. It is very fast paced once you gain some momentum with it.

Overall, if you enjoy a little mystery, a little action, a little bit of dysfunction, and a tad bit of romance then I would suggest reading this one.

This book and I did not get along at all. With the depictions of the characters (especially the inner monologue of Chloe specifically stating she has B-cup boobs.... why.), the fact that Cash is a "hero" because he stopped a girl from getting raped only to have her deny it because she wanted to be a cheerleader, and the fact that the adoption agency faked that Chloe was the product of rape so they could get away with their deeds, I cannot recommend this. And those items just scratch the surface of everything that was wrong with this book.

This is the second book I’ve read from this author and I must say… I’m very impressed. I don’t know how In Another Life and This Heart of Mine compare with her paranormal romances, but I am positively in love with C.C. Hunter’s writing style. I think it’s absolutely gorgeous, incredibly compelling and wonderfully emotional.

The moment I started reading In Another Life, I was immediately intrigued and excited. I had a good feeling this would be one of those books that would have me glued to the pages, holding on to my breath, clutching my heart, and preparing for the worst. Well, it surely did that and MORE. It was emotionally intense, but also filled with adorable lighthearted moments. It was heartbreaking, but also sweet and charming. It made me cry, but it also made me smile, laugh and swoon. It had all the worst and the best FEELS and I loved it.

As I’ve already said, I really loved the writing style. Not only was it easy to read, but it’s just so beautifully affecting and evocative. I felt what the characters felt and it was an excruciatingly amazing experience. I liked that there was a good balance between the heavy drama, the light mystery, the sweet intimate scenes, and the adorable heartwarming moments. The characters were interesting, likable, and realistic. I loved Cash and Chloe and rooted for them so hard… not just for them to be together and have their romantic HEA, but also to find their own happiness as individuals. The romance was swoony, sweet and relatable. I liked that there were some challenge and problems in the relationship and that made the story more interesting. I also enjoyed the mystery part and trying to guess what really happened. Even though I would have liked more build-up, anticipation, and suspense, I still found myself anxious and thrilled with the twists and turns. The ending had me in tears, but it also filled me with warmth and joy. This was truly a lovely read and I enjoyed everything about this book.

In Another Life by C.C. Hunter broke my heart over and over, but also made me feel so much love and hope. I liked the message of this story about finding yourself, forgiveness, trust, love, and learning how to move on from pain and anger. It’s absolutely a wonderful story and I cannot wait to read more from Hunter.

I received an electronic advanced reader copy of this book from the publisher, Wednesday Books, via Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Wednesday Books!

In Another Life is a Young Adult Thriller about Chloe and Cash. Everything changed when they met each other, but is it a good change?

In Another Life is the second book I’ve read by C.C. Hunter and I didn’t really know what to expect. I really loved This Heart of Mine so I wanted to give this book a try. I don’t normally read Thrillers but I really enjoyed this one. The story was so interesting and I wanted to know what really happened.

I really loved the main characters, Chloe and Cash. We read in their perspectives as well as in someone else’s perspective. I’m not going to say who because that’s a spoiler. I love that we get to read in Chloe and Cash’ perspective because I love getting to know both of the main characters and not one.

One of the characters that really annoyed me was Chloe’s mother. I know that she’s been through a lot but she kept on being mean about Chloe’s father and I know that depression is really hard but you cannot let your daughter be the mother.

Besides that, I really enjoyed reading In Another Life. This book reminded me a bit of Hopeless by Colleen Hoover, which is not something negative because Hopeless was an amazing book! In Another Life was such a good read, it was well written and fast paced. I highly recommend In Another Life to anyone who’s looking for a good YA Thriller!

4.5/5*

Did you ever have that feeling when you pick up a book and after reading the first pages you know you're going to be drawn into the story? Well, that is how I felt when I read In Another life!
From the start, I loved Chloe's character; at first sight, she appears as this funny, kind, and friendly girl who just moved in the neighborhood. But when you peel the layers, you discover someone who is going through a rough and emotional time, and she is left to go through it on her own. When her parents divorced, she had to leave her house, school, and friends behind, and as soon as she arrived in this new town, she got thrown into this mysterious affair. Little does she know, now, she founds herself torn between two lives; but her curiosity is piqued when flashbacks and blurry memories resurface once she arrived in Joyful. You always need a good duo in a mystery book, and Cash and Chloe happen to be a good one. They decide together to start delving into the past, but when they discover that Chloe's adoption was not that legal, something more dangerous comes out of the dark!
I doubted Cash's motives for almost half of the book; at the beginning, I didn't know what he was hiding and why he was so interested in Chloe. When you first meet him - from Chloe's POV - he appears as a crazy guy who just saw a ghost. But then when you switch to his POV, he acts like a professional stalker; eavesdropping on Chloe's conversation, checking her social media * creepy guy alert *, waiting for her outside the school, to ask her questions he already knew the answers. It's such a weird behavior, and at first, you might not understand why he does all that but later when we discover the real reason behind this broody and secretive type, you can't help but fall in love with this character, and root for him and Chloe! He is such a cute & tough misunderstood cinnamon roll; although I still had this tiny shadow of a doubt about his motivations because I always protect my heart when I'm faced with this kind of character just in case, I end up being wrong about him.
When Chloe and Cash met for the first time in the beginning, I knew for sure that these two would end up together; their encounter is not precisely a meet-cute, but we are not far from it. But then as you uncovered the secrets one by one with Chloe, I started to wonder if maybe that would not end up being the case. Can a relationship overcome that many secrets?
I don't want to go into too much detail though, because I want this review to be as spoiler free as much as I can, and also because it sucks to spoil the action of a thriller story.
In overall, the story was finely woven and packed with mind-blowing details that had me doubt everything and I couldn't help but anticipate what was about to happen; it also made me change my views on the characters many times throughout the story. The plot didn't take too long to start, and we are immediately thrown into the action, which I love because there's nothing worse than reading pages after pages and waiting for something to happen!
And that's why I loved reading this book, because you can feel the mystery unfolding around the characters, and you just can't put that book down for one second. I remember finishing the book at night around 2 am because I couldn’t stop until I found out what happened! And let me tell you that when you have to wake up early the next day, it better be good; but don't worry it was really worth it!
I will recommend this book to any mystery/thriller action book lover if you also like a little bit of YA romance mixed with suspense and build-up tension, then you won't want to miss reading In Another Life!

Many thanks to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for the chance to read this novel!

This was one of the most entertaining YA books I’ve read in a long time. It made me long for my younger self! It would have been precisely the type of book I would have loved in my early high school days with bits of mystery, suspense, and romance all added in to make an interesting story.

Overall, this was a well-paced novel that kept my interest from beginning to end. I haven’t read many mysterious adoption stories and this was a nice change of genre and topic. I liked the contemporary coming-of-age feeling at the beginning of the story and slow morph to more of a thriller by the end. The suspenseful feel was there throughout, yet there was a sense of being bottle fed each detail. I hoped for less predictability and more surprise from such a novel. Unfortunately, the ending felt a bit rushed in my opinion as well. I hoped to see more of the events we came to expect in the story being fleshed out in further detail.

I also found Chloe to be a bit harsh or pushy in dealing with her mother’s depression resulting from her failed marriage. I would have liked to see more empathy from her. It was a great opportunity for character growth that wasn’t used to its full potential. Her mom’s life had drastically changed, in a horrible way I can’t possibly imagine trying to survive through, and her daughter just seemed to add to the drama she was facing. As you can see from my perspective, I was too old to read this book since I was able to better identify with the mother than the daughter’s point of view.

I think this would be a great read for it’s intended audience, but less so for adult lovers of YA. I wish I could have read this one as a teen myself! Pick up your own copy on March 26th or pre-order today.

In Another Life is written specifically for younger readers, I’m not the target audience. However, that did not quell my enjoyment of the book by any means, it only suggests that I had to read it from a different viewpoint. Chloe’s life going into her final year of high school (senior year for those outside of the US) is already depressing. Her loving. adoptive parents have gone through a horrible, ugly divorce due to her father’s cheating. Her mother is depressed and barely coping leaving Chloe to pick up the pieces. She doesn’t really have high hopes for a great year until she meets Cash. Naturally there is a romance between the two and it is sweet. He also has ulterior motives which I won’t go into and spoil the book for you.

There isn’t a huge amount of mystery here, it is more a coming of age story and, truly, I think that is how I would have branded the book but I never agree with the genres that are slapped on books so this could just be me. It is a very well written contemporary, coming of age, discovery, teen romance book and if you like those and/or know of a teen who might, then I highly recommend In Another Life. The story, from beginning to end, is captivity and the characters are one with whom I identified and empathized. It is definitely a book I would have chosen to read when I was 14 or 15 years old, perhaps a bit younger or older depending on the maturity of the reader.

In Another Life will be available at WEDNESDAY BOOKS on its publication day, March 26, 2018. Thank you to @Wednesdaybooks and Meghan Harrington for my advance copy.

Overall, I still really enjoyed this book. The writing was good but the lack of consistency and lack of perspective change affected my reading the most. The plot was well thought out and pulls the reader into the book. The mystery of how this all happens keeps the reader interested. The characters started off flat but gained some substance as the book progressed. I particularly liked the relationship between the two main characters. Thank you so much to Wednesday Books for providing me with a copy of this book!

I could definitely see this story translate well as a Netflix film. You hear that Netflix? Please and thank you.

Chloe’s senior year is the pits: on top of her parents divorcing, she is starting at a new school. Ripped away from her old life and friends she must start over while taking care of her mother and resenting her father. Oh and the real kicker…someone suspects that she was in fact kidnapped as a child and her real parents live nearby. As if high school isn’t hard enough?!

It’s fast paced and holds your attention. You can whip through this book in a few days. As a young adult book, I felt it was relatable to high school life and teenage emotions. Being adopted, or a foster child, added another complex layer of emotions; and, author C.C. Hunter explored a wide range of internal battles with love and accepting love.

Thank you to the publishers for providing me the arc of In Another Life in exchange for my honest review.

This was unexpected. I knew I would enjoy it, but was unaware exactly how much I'd love it! Both Chloe and Cash are exceedingly relatable for different characteristics and I loved them both. Chloe is going through her parents' rough divorce, as well as a move during high school, so she's very much struggling to cope with all the changes in her life. Plus, we find out her mother has been very sick lately and struggles with depression, so there's already a lot going on with her. Cash is a kid who's been in the foster system for years and has learned to trust no one because they probably won't stick around. He also thinks people are inherently trying to pull tricks on you due some things that occurred in his childhood. Match made in hell, right? But I felt it worked well.

The theme of foster homes and adoption (which I don't really see much in YA) really got to me, as I had my fair share of touches with the system growing up, making for an emotional read. Both Chloe and Cash are affected by the care system in different ways, which is kind of the main aspect of the story and why they are connected in the first place. Chloe's biological parents are Cash's foster parents, so he knows who she is as soon as she steps into him. I'll admit, I was shocked by the beginning scene... I couldn't figure out why it was related at all, but that quickly becomes apparent once we see more of Cash's scenes. There was also a particular scene I loved between Cash and his foster father about consent and I loved the SHIT out of it! So good!

This story is told in alternating PoV's chapter by Chapter, so we get both Chloe and Cash telling the story. I thought this really added to the experience, as we get details from one that we might not necessarily get if it was just one PoV or the other. It is a VERY fast-paced novel with a lot of foreshadowing to keep you invested as you read. I read this in less than 24 hours because I simply could NOT put it down. I needed to know what happened ASAP.

Complete FIVE STAR read for me!

In Another Life was a quick read, I flew through it in just two sittings, and found it to be marginally interesting.
I love stories about kidnapped kids being raised by different parents, I have no idea why, and so the plot really drew me to this book, but the end result felt pretty lacklustre.
My main problem with this story was the writing.
My favourite thing about this book was the characters, more specifically Cash.

Review of IN ANOTHER LIFE:

IN ANOTHER LIFE is a heartwarming and emotionally powerful story about seventeen-year-old Chloe, who moves with her cancer-stricken mother from El Paso to Joyful, Texas, because of her parents' divorce. They move into her late grandmothers' home, and Chloe starts in a new school. Anxious over her mother and furious about her father's infidelities, Chloe encounters Cash Colton, also 17, foster child of wealthy physicians, who suspects Chloe is a con artist like his sociopathic late father. Chloe resembles the daughter of his foster parents, kidnapped at age three almost 15 years ago. Both Chloe and Cash suffer serious trust issues, but they must learn to trust each other if they are to discover the truth.

Chloe Holden’s life has been flipped upside down when her parents get divorced and her mother moves her to a new city. Dealing with the aftershocks of the divorce and her mother’s burgeoning health issues isn’t easy, but now Chloe has learned a secret from her past that could change everything that she has ever known about herself for the past 17 years.

This isn’t exactly a new premise, but I was sucked in from the very beginning. I did find that the story itself felt a little drawn out and prolonged for what it was, since the reader knows exactly what the reveal is going to be for a long time before it actually happens. With all that being said, I still wasn’t bored. I did find that after all the time I spent reading, the ending of the story was a little too easy, but overall this was a pretty enjoyable read.

In Another Life was a quick, entertaining read. While the outcome was quite convenient and predictable, it was still worth the read.

It was easy to to feel for Chloe because she was dealing with so much in such a short amount of time. It was interesting to think about if you were in Chloe's place would you really want to know the truth?

At the same time, I wish Cash would have allowed the Fullers to be a full part of his life. I did appreciate his willingness to be so supportive of Chloe even though he was still trying to deal with his own past.

Overall it was an enjoyable book!

The premise sounded so intriguing and this was good, but I was left disappointed.

The book is suppose to be a thriller, but there was nothing thrilling or suspenseful. This is a good, if a tad long, story about teenage love that threw in a bit of mystery about our protagonist’s adoption. I kept waiting for the “bad guys” to show up, but it was so far towards the end, I almost didn’t care anymore?

As a Non thriller YA novel however, I would give this a solid 4 stars; still a bit too long and angsty for me. I sincerely hope they don’t end up marketing this as a thriller & suspense, but rather as a typical YA.

Posted to Goodreads: Chloe Holden has known that she was adopted her whole life and never cared. Her parents were great and she had a great life. However, when Chloe's parents get divorced and her mother moved Chloe to Joyful, Texas, Chloe meets Cash and her life starts to change. Cash recognized Chloe but not because he knows her. Chloe looks like the daughter of Cash's foster parents who disappeared almost 15 years ago. Chloe and Cash form a connection as they investigate Chloe past and what they uncover may change everyone's lives.

This book had a great premise that will appeal to teen readers however, for me, it didn't live up to other books by Hunter. The character didn't feel quite as well as developed as in her fantasy books and the villain felt a little too evil to the point of almost cartoonish. I will keep reading Hunter's books but I wish she would do back to her fun supernatural romances.

Chloe Holden has always known she was adopted, her parents love her and she has a good life. Suddenly her parents are divorced and Chloe and her Mom are left to deal with cancer and a move to Joyful, TX right before Chloe starts her senior year.

While Chloe's life is turning upside down, she meets Cash a foster kid of the Fullers who lost their daughter, Emily Fuller, 15 years ago, kidnapped under the watch of her Nanny.

What's the connection between Emily and Chloe?

The plot keeps you engaged and entertained, you really feel bad for both Chloe and Cash for their own respective hard points in their lives. There's more of Chloe's parents in this book than most YA novels so that was actually a nice change.

The characters are not very deep but the fast pace of the plot makes up for it and you do get enough into Chloe and Holden's heads that it doesn't feel like they're shallow, just that you could have left wanting more.

There's some awkward writing at some rare moments, but overall Hunter was fun to read.

It was paced fast enough that I really didn't want to put it down after starting it and I thought the ending was great.

An enjoyable and easy read, I would recommend it to those who like this sort of YA 'mystery' genre or looking for a quick read. I would pick up another book by C.C. Hunter.

I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I do not know much about adoption, but I was excited to dive into this book. It takes a lot of strength and finesse to cover such a tough topic and I have heard so many great things about this author. I felt like this book was a fairly smooth read - the hardest part for me was keeping up with the constant switching between POVs. It had a hint of suspense, tackled a difficult subject, and developed the characters in a way that reeled me in until the end.

I mostly loved this book. It was so fascinating and it give me a little bit of the The Face on the Milk Carton vibe. It's not a perfect parallel but the feeling is there.

There is some very real instalove, which I found unrealistic (would you fall for someone who's potentially essentially your stepsibling?)  but my biggest problem is the way that Chloe felt about being adopted. I'm also adopted and she keeps thinking about how her birth mom got rid of her. And I know that there are people who have bigger problems with being adopted than I do, but I also don't know of any adopted person who calls their birth parents their "real parents." So that rankled a bit.

But neither of those things affected my enjoyment of the book. It's a fast, fun read and I very much enjoyed it. I can't even imagine the realization that you weren't actually adopted; you were kidnapped. It was the most fantastic concept and I liked the execution, as well.

Like with CC Hunter's others, this is a really fun escape from the real world.

This was my first time reading a book by C.C. Hunter and I am definitely intrigued and would love to read more! I am always drawn to mysteries, but sometimes YA mysteries can be a hit or miss for me. However, I really did enjoy this book so much, and although I had a few issues with some of the characters, I really think fans of young romance mixed with a hard-hitting mystery would enjoy this book.

This book follows two POVs: Chloe and Cash. Chloe has a strained relationship with both of her adoptive parents. Her father had an affair and is dating someone new, while her mother is a cancer survivor struggling with depression.

Then there’s Cash, a “mysterious” and “tough” character who enters Chloe’s life when he suspects she might be someone else. Cash is also a foster child living with a married couple, the Fullers. Chloe and Cash’s worlds come together when Cash recognizes Chloe in a missing person’s age progression photo. He thinks she may be the Fuller’s missing child.

This story had a lot going on from the get-go: Chloe and Cash have an insta-love budding romance, Chloe is her mom’s caretaker, Chloe is constantly fighting with her father, Cash has a strained relationship with his foster parents, and then there’s the big mystery of who exactly is Chloe Holden?

While this book starts off feeling more like a contemporary, it quickly turned into a mystery as pieces of the adoption and kidnapping came into play. I also really appreciated how such hard-hitting topics were woven into this story. Cash has an extremely tragic past, and even though he’s with a wonderful foster family, he feels immense guilt for being there.

I think what made me lower my rating a bit on this book was how much Chloe had to act like the adult and caretaker for everyone. Not only was she still struggling with her parent’s divorce and her father’s infidelity, but she also became the sole caretaker for her mother during her cancer treatments. And while I completely understand depression is horrible, I was so mad at her mother for how she treated Chloe. Her mother clearly needed professional help but kept piling her anger toward her ex-husband on to her child. I just… felt really, really uncomfortable reading those scenes.

But I really did love Cash so much. He was trying so hard to do the right thing, and I really liked how his and Chloe’s relationship bloomed. And I really felt for Chloe. I couldn’t even imagine being in her position, let alone finding out I might possibly be a kidnapped child? Like, how would I even begin to process that information?

I really enjoyed how the mystery played out and I was second-guessing a lot of things until the very end. And I found the ending soooo satisfying!

Trigger/content warnings: Cancer, divorce, infidelity, kidnapping, child abuse, depression.