Review is based on an advanced readers copy.
I enjoyed the unique perspective and was happy to see a book featuring a story not often told. I think this book is a good addition to a narrative about trauma and being left alone at a young age. I think it left a lot of questions unanswered for me but fulfilled the main characters journey with a beautiful ending.

I really liked this book. It's a ghost story, and is also a story of acceptance for ones life and choices, as well as acceptance by others. Mila has been alone for much of the past four years. She had a beautiful childhood with her mother and maternal grandparents, until one day her mother breaks ties with her grandparents and she and Mila move into a "skeleton" house with her mothers new boyfriend. What happens there haunts Mila, and even after she is placed in the child welfare system, continues to do so. As she makes her way into the world, an interesting offer comes to go live at a farm far upstate on California's Mendocino coast. Mila wants desperately to be accepted and to belong, so she is forced to look at the truth of her memories.

Beautifully written, this book will appeal to YA readers, but as an adult reading it, I can also very much appreciate the value and charm of the story.

Nina Lacour's last young adult novel, "We Are Okay", is one of my favorite realistic fiction titles for teens, so I was very much looking forward to this new novel in 2020. I was also drawn to this because the foster experience and characters in foster care are still rare in YA, and Lacour is an author I trust to sensitively represent the experience for not just her main characters but the other teens and children who Mila meets on her journey. All that plus the promise of ghosts and suspense immediately hooked me; plus the cover is absolutely gorgeous.

"Watch Over Me" delivered on everything I expected. As with "We Are Okay", Lacour brings weight and richness to her story with her skill with sensory detail and atmosphere (like, I wanted to eat every meal prepared in this book). She is also an expert at depicting adolescent loneliness, doubt, and the myriad of other emotions brought on by coming of age while haunted by trauma. The puzzle of the plot (what is up with these ghosts? Can we trust Mila? Can we trust this family in the middle of nowhere?) was unpredictable and satisfying; I could not put this book down.

I will definitely be purchasing this for my collection and recommending it widely. Belongs in every library serving teens, as does "We Are Okay".