Member Reviews

What a page-turner! I loved the characters and the multi-layered stories going on. Jennifer Lynn Barnes can go in lots of directions for sequels and they would all be amazing! I am very excited to see what comes next!

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Loved this book from the first page to the last. I hope there is a sequel. It was well-written and the drama built as the story progressed. There was internal family drama and external tension throughout the story. Great character development. Highly recommend!

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Gripping story that won’t let you put it down and leaves you wanting more. Kira’s flashbacks and inner monologue give the reader wonderful insight into her character. The reader is town between her past and current situation and cheers for her at every step.

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The Lovely and the Lost is certainly a cliffhanger at every turn. The author weaves the present and the past of the narrator's life into the plot as the scenes unfold. Hinting at suspicious characters as the mystery is revealed, Jennifer Barnes concludes with a surprising ending.

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A new suspenseful, fast-paced adventure from Jennifer Lynn Barnes will not disappoint readers. Unique characters, twisted plot lines, lots of action, and magnificent dogs make this a great read! Kira was a lost child and a lost soul until she was found and adopted by the Bennett family and their team of Search and Rescue dogs. As Kira nears her time to become a certified handler, a small girl goes missing in a nearby National Park. Will Kira and her dog, Saskia, be able to find Bella in time or is it already too late? As Kira’s own past haunts her and the town seems to hold all the secrets, searching takes on a whole new meaning.

To be Published May 2019
Reviewed from NetGalley

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I can not wait to get my hands on an actual copy of this title, I have several students that are going to enjoy it.
Once again, I have not been disappointed by a JLB novel. I am a fan and The Lovely and the Lost is another enjoyable read. If I'm lucky, there is a series planned.

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I loved this book. I loved her determination to be normal after overcoming a traumatic past. I loved her connection to her dogs & the trust they put into each other. I love how she overcame fears.

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Once again, this author does not disappoint! Fantastic story, fantastic writing, fantastic characters. The plot keeps the reader guessing right until the end. The characters have depth, the story is unique and the writing wonderful. YA Readers will love this book!

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This was a good read. The conclusion was a bit rushed and there are some unanswered questions but overall I enjoyed this book. The suspense and family bonding really hold things together. Plus who doesn't love a book that includes dogs :)

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Personally this book was more of a 3.5 for me, but I’d absolutely recommend it to young adult readers looking for a mystery story combined with a dash of survival know-how and lots of family drama (at times, Grey’s Anatomy levels of it). Jennifer Lynn Barnes has done it again, and this is a must-purchase anywhere her Naturals and Fixer series are popular.

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Jennifer Lynn Barnes is an autobuy for my library. Her books fly off the shelves, and get passed from hand to hand by my students, male and female.

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As usual, Jennifer Lynn Barnes blows me away with her understanding and portrayal of the human mind. This book was as much a coming of age tale as it was an exploration of how much our pasts define our futures.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2635427705

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I did not know I wanted to read a book about search and rescue dog until I read The Lovely and the Lost. Adopted by the woman who rescued her as a child, Kira still struggles with the trauma of her past. Repressed memories come flooding back when she and her family agree to search for a young girl missing in the wilderness. Kira isn’t the only one who must confront their past during their trip. The search takes them back to the town Kira’s adoptive mother Cady fled from 18 years previously.
This is a suspenseful story with surprises at every corner. It’s a story about recovery and the bond of family. It’s about being unconventional instead of broken.
Also, Jude is amazing. Everyone should a Jude in their life.

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Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC of this title for review. All opinions are my own.

Jennifer Lynn Barnes DELIVERED on this one. For those readers who were fans of her Naturals series, this is the next book from her that you have been waiting for. While I did read Little White Lies and enjoyed it, this is the style and characters from her other series that will make her readers, and tons of others, into auto-buy type of fans. Highly recommend, especially for those who like mysteries or adventure stories (this has tons of both to please fans of either genre). Completely suitable for grades 7-12 as there is no sexual content and very little, if any, language. The character are 17, but are not written in a way to keep younger readers from the story. A first purchase for most collections.

Kira was found as a young girl after living on her own in the forest. Cady, her foster mother, took her in and raised her, training her to work in search and rescue, just like Cady, just like her brother Jude, and just like the pack of dogs they work with. All of this training comes in to play when Cady's estranged father shows up and asks for her help looking for a little girl who has gone missing in her hometown. It's been over a day and Bella hasn't been seen. Kira, Jude, their neighbor Free, and the dogs head to help with the search. As they traverse the mountainside looking for the missing girl, bits of the past come up for both Cady and Kira and there are unexplained mysteries and family dramas that need to be dealt with.

Like I said, this was a great read. I loved it. Pick up a copy. I will be ordering at least two for my school collection.

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Jennifer Lynn Barnes is one of my favorite writers. She says it best in her acknowledgements, this book is what happens when you mix Raised by Wolves and the Naturals and add in generations of family drama. Kira is a young woman who is part of a make shift family of search and rescue K9 trainers. She has had to adjust and suffers from frequent PTSD episodes from a time when she herself was a rescue victim found surviving when she was lost in the wood for several weeks. The story focuses on her struggle within in the pack and within her human family. It is not paranormal. When her adoptive mom is called in to her home town to search and rescue a missing child, Kira, her step brother Jude, and their best fried, Free join Cady in uncovering the missing girl, but also many hidden secrets that must be put to rest once and for all. This is another great book by Barnes....and it centers around the dogs...they a family, too.

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I will happily devour anything written by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, and this was no exception. A great mystery, with a fantastic backstory and compelling characters. Teens will eat this up.

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I loved this book! The full review will be posted soon at kaitgoodwin.com/books! Thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity to connect books to their readers!

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As I mentioned in a recent review on another book set in the wild, I love books set in the wild (that other one was <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35238072-not-if-i-save-you-first">Not If I Save You First by Ally Carter</a>). This one was good though it had a lot of disturbing flashbacks and not a lot of exposition or resolution on them. I mean, it did try to tie up a large number of threads and backstory over the course of the book - possibly too many as almost every single character had some buried secrets and baggage. There were kind of maybe too many characters? I mean, I loved Free but was she really necessary? Also Mac honestly. Eh, no he had some key pivotal moments, I guess.

The trained search and rescue dogs were great.

Multiple triggers in this for child abuse primarily but also death of beloved pets, spousal abuse, probably other things I'm blanking on now.

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This book was received as an ARC from Disney Book Group in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

Our readers are fans of Jennifer Lynn Barnes books because of her writing style to be always exciting with edge of your seat action and they will not be disappointed with The Lovely and the Lost because the book brought that and then some. The characters and their motives were so enticing that you wanted to follow along with Kira and find out if she will ever escape the demons that haunt her past and then the story of Cady and the relationship she has with her father just added more flavor to the story. I could not stop reading this book and I know our readers will not want to stop either.

This will definitely be considered for our YFiction collection at the library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

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