When Lightning Strikes (1-800-Where-R-You #1)

ALSO ON MY GOODREADS
I'd been planning to read this book for a while, but just now got around to it. I am so glad that I did. I read the first two books in half a day.

THE SUMMARY

This series is about Jessica "Jess" Mastriani, a 16 year old girl who, other than the facts that she tends to get into fights and only has one friend, is basically a normal teen girl. Until she and her best friend, Ruth, get caught in a thunderstorm and hide under metal bleachers. And she gets struck by lightning. They walk home, thinking everything's fine, but when she wakes up the next day, she knows where some missing kids are. Thus starts her journey.

After detention, she goes with Rob Wilkins (senior hottie) to where the first missing kid, Sean, was supposed to be. He's there, all right. But he doesn't want to be found. Jess calls the police after they return home and they find him.

Jess keeps in touch with the missing children hotline- 1-800-where-r-u, and gives them locations daily. One day, the FBI catches her making the phone calls and offer her a "job" with them. Someone tells the media about her, and her house is surrounded with reporters. When her brother Douglas goes berserk about it, she decides that maybe the best thing to do is to go with the FBI.

When she finds out that the first boy she reported to the police actually had a reason to not want to be found, she goes to look for him and fix it. He had runaway from his abusive father that he'd been returned to, and she found him at the bus station. She buys him pizza and they talk about what to do, when the FBI shows up. They run, and eventually are both caught. They end up locked in the FBI base.

Jess calls Rob asking him to break them out. He does so, and causes a great amount of commotion. They go back to his house and stay the night.

Jess then decides to give Sean and his mother the $10,000 that she received for finding a kid to start over, and get away from the abusive dad.

She tells the reporter that she has lost her psychic ability, when she hasn't, to get the media off her butt.
The book ends with a police note that she should be watched.

THE REVIEW

Wow, this book was great. Like, 4 stars out of 5 great! I didn't really like that it was written as the MC writing a police report, but I completely forgot about it while reading. I like the idea that being struck by lightning can give you superpowers, and this book really did a great job with that. I was hooked the whole way through, and really understood what Jess was feeling when she did certain things.
The characters were likable, and completely relate-able.
This book was well written and the ideas flowed smoothly. I am definitely going to read the rest of the series.

^^OMG THAT WAS A SHORT REVIEW *DIES*
I might fix it later.

Reader reviewed by Vicky B

I am a huge fan of Cabot's, having read every single one of her books, but the 1-800 series was a hard one to get my hands on! However, when I read this book (and the rest of them), I was blown away, once again, by Meg's incredible gift that make me fall in love with her characters, blow me away with her awesome plot lines, and make me anticipate what she's going to come out with next! This series is one of my favorites, mostly because of her awesome, independent female lead, Jess Mastriani, and her bad-boy companion, Rob. They are a duo not to be messed with, and I will love them forever! If you're a fan of Meg's and haven't picked up this series, get on it!

Reader reviewed by Ruthie

This book was freaking awesome! Jess is a girl anyone can relate to. She's spunky, couragous, and gets detention. (Hey, not all traits can be good!) The plot line is interesting and the ending stores certain excitement and anticipation for the next novel in the series. In fact, I'm rereading the serious right now. It's my first and favorite of all the Meg Cabot books! In addition, the 1-800-where-r-u? series are coming out with a new cover and two books per sold copy. It's going under the new name Vanished.

Reader reviewed by christie

this is the first book in the series by meg cabot. i liked how it began and i love the character jess.i think shes really cool because shes all tough and she doesnt give a hooey aout what anybody thinks except what the oeople she cares about thinks.shes got a rally cool older brother named doug whos the quiet comic book obsessed shy guy whos really cool and he really cares about jess.then when jess goes to detention she sees rob wilkins and hthen as time passes shes slowly fallong for the bad boy.jess also rides a motorcycle or would like to ride one.my favortie part is when jess is in the schhol cafeteria and then the guy behind her says something and she punches the guy in the face breaking his nose.and she ends up in the gudiance counselers office who she calls by his first name since shes been there so many times...but then she gets striken by lightning and gets powers by when she sleeps she sees where all the missing kids in the world are..

Reader reviewed by Allire

This is the first book in the 1-800-where-are-you series.
The main character is Jess.
Jess has been stuck by lightning and now she has psychic abilities.
When she dreams she can see missing children, and the next morning she can find them.


In this first book, I thought that it was okay. The more into the series that you read, the better the books get. I liked how the storyline was so unique and different. It's not just 'another story'. It's all very original. However, I thought that the beginning was a bit hard to get into. That's just my opinion though. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a unique read, or to someone who likes Meg Cabot.

Reader reviewed by Gracie

Jess Mastriani is not your typical teenage girl. Instead of joining Cheer or an extracurricular club, she spends months in detention for getting into fist fights with people twice her size. But a walk home from school, into a huge lightning and thunderstorm, will change her life and give her extraordinary abilities which will make her one of the most sought after person, by many people including the FBI.

The first book in the 1800 where r you series, I thought When Lightning Strikes was a great book and I recommend it for all YA book lovers.

Reader reviewed by edith

okay, first of all, i would like to say that this book, no scratch that, this series, is AWSOME! You have got to read it. okay, so, jessicas friend, Ruth, is obsessed with losing weight. so, she makes them both walk during a lightning storm. but, Jessica gets hit by the lightning. and you know how when lightning hits you, it has to find a way out of you? and you can usually find the escape hole thingy? well, after talking to her brother, she realized that the lightning never left her body. and the next day, she knew where two missing kids were at. the lightning had given her the gift where, if she saw a missing kids picture, she would be able to know where they were at the next morning. so, she meets this guy named Rob in detention i think. he rides this motorcycle, and is super cute! problem is, he's not a very good boy (obviously! he was in detention!) and, he's from the wrong side of town. he asks her for a dat, and she says, fine. but first, she has to help him find a missing kid. he agrees, and it turns into a big adventure full of fighting and laughter. what happens next? read the book and find out!

Reader reviewed by Kaitlin

The story starts out, basically when Jess is under metal blechers in a thunder strom (smart right?) and gets hit by lightning. She gets the power to find missing kids. However, she gets in all sorts of trouble and causes problems for one kid who doesn't necessarily want to be found. All of this is mixed with a romance with Rob. Overall, I think its a pretty good book and I would encourage everyone to read it. It may be more of chick book though, so some of the guys might not like it as much.

Reader reviewed by damaris

I had seen this book on the bookstore shelves many times before i actually brought it.It's about Jess Mastriani, who has the "misfortune" of getting struck by lightning on one stormy afterschool day. She soon realizes that she is able to find missing children that she has never met before and tell the exact location of their whereabouts.So the dilemma comes when the fedral burau of investigation discovers her talent for finding missing indiviuals and propositions that she help them find missing suspects.
Other characters like Rob wilkins, local bad boy and secert crush help to make this an interesting read. It was funny and readers will instantly like Jess's inability to keep her fists at her sides when it comes to protecting her love ones.
i recommend this and the the 4 other books in the series for anyone who likes to be entertained.

Reader reviewed by ToRi

This book was really good.

It's about a girl who gets hit by lightning and now has a kind of super power but it's not like it seems. It's not really a little kids book because the super powers and stuff it's more about Jess.

Jess can find missing children by just seeing their picture and dreaming about them. She has to stay away from the people who want to use her as if she were an experiment but she also really wants to help these kids.

After some cases where the children didn't want to be found it kind of put her off a bit but she still continued.

You have to read this book it's really good and i reccommend it to everyone 12 years and up!!