Review- Losing Francesca by J.A. Huss

Goodreads Summary:

This book will be published on July 1!

WARNING: This book contains no smut. It’s not smexy or hot. It’s sweet and filled with a longing so deep, your heart will ache and maybe even break. This book is about bare feet on the beach, the sound of crashing waves, first kisses, losing your faith and then, against all odds, finding it again. This book is about bad things that change people’s lives, a father’s love for his daughter, a brother’s love for his sister, a bad boy who finally figures out why he’s so broken, and a girl who grows up.

So if you’re looking for smut, or smexy scenes filled with groping and lust – move along. This book is not for you. (But my other book, TRAGIC, might be right up your alley!) ;)

Francesca Sabatini came to America to take in the sights, celebrate her high school graduation, and have fun wasting time before college starts in the fall.

That's not what happens.

Fresh off the plane and barely on American soil more than a handful of minutes, Francesca's face is recognized by TSA scanners to be a match for a child who was kidnapped twelve years ago.

Brody Mason remembers the day Fiona Sullivan went missing during a family vacation in Italy and it's haunted him his whole life. So when Francesca shows up at the Sullivan farm down the road, he's compelled to figure out if this girl really is his long-lost friend.

But Francesca knows she's not Fiona Sullivan. She knows exactly who she is. At least she thinks she knows – until Brody Mason relentlessly pursues her and she begins to have feelings for him. Maybe being Fiona isn't so bad?

Reality becomes blurred, secrets are revealed, and life will never be the same when the final questions are answered: Is she Francesca or Fiona? And where does she really belong?

Losing Francesca is a YA/NA crossover contemporary romance. :)

REVIEW:

*NOTE: We (The Readdicts) received a copy of Losing Francesca by author J.A. Huss in exchange for an honest review. We thank Julie for the book!

When you say out loud the title of this book, look at the girl with the gorgeous hair and eyes full of mystery on the cover and read the summary, Losing Francesca screams pretty and mystic and up to a certain extent, even spine-chilling. And what's amusing is the fact that the book is just like that. This was exactly the kind of book that I like to read.                                   
Francesca, which is just one of the many names beginning with the letter F that our protagonist goes by, is the daughter of a powerful and dangerous man who does all that he can to ensure his daughters' safety. Then one fine day, Francesca lands in the US as an Italian  pretending to be there on holiday. The authority figures that her face matches the face of a certain Fiona Sullivan, whose mother died while on family vacation and who has been missing since many years. She does not accept that she is Fiona Sullivan and is screaming it out each day while in custody. She then has to live with the Sullivans for a certain amount of time which results into being until drama unfolds. 
I don't even know what name I should go by while talking about the girl protagonist without giving away any information that might spoil the book, so I will just stick with the protagonist girl. So, the protagonist girl was totally different from other girl protagonists. She knew what she was supposed to do and never once questioned her father's authority. She was a nice girl at heart and even though she came with the baggage of multiple personalities, as a person, she was quite pleasing. I liked getting to know her story. 
The Sullivans were such a warm and kind family with a very big heart. The father Frank, the step-mom Angela, the bunch of siblings consisting of Sean, twin brothers and two more sisters, were lovely people. 

While at the Sullivan farm, the protagonist girl meets Brody who, in his heart, knows that she is Fiona Sullivan, his best friend, his soul mate, the girl who he could not find even after looking for her everyday, the girl who never came back even after he waited for a long time. He is convinced she is her and Brody was not only a great guy but an admirable character whose story and role I loved. Although the book is aptly titled Losing Francesca, somewhere along the way and at the end of the epilogue, I felt that it was as much about losing Francesca as it of finding her and most importantly, it was about finding Brody as well. 
Author J.A. Huss's writing is so pretty and the plot she has created so gripping that I found myself reading major chunks of the book in single sittings. The writing was just pretty pretty pretty. 

Truth be told, the way in which the last bits of information wove together to amalgamate into an ending wasn't something I thoroughly liked. I don't know why, but I was expecting a more crumbling, heart-shattering and messed up ending. Nonetheless, for a change, all I wanted was a happy ending for the protagonist girl and that's exactly what she gets and I was happy. Losing Francesca was a pretty, heart-breaking and heart-warming both at the same time, and a really really astonishing novel that I heart large. 

RATING: