Review Detail

Caroline B. Cooney's Janie series is a lot like popcorn or chocolate. Once you've read one of them, you have to read the rest. You just can't help it. "What's happening to Janie now?" you wonder. "Will she ever find out the truth about what happened?"

So when the fourth book arrived on my doorstep, I read it that very day. While I did learn a little bit more about Janie and her situation, I was ultimately a little disappointed. Ms. Cooney's point, perhaps rightly, is that Janie needs to get on with her life and let go of the past.

That's a wonderful lesson and one that I tend to agree with in real life. However, as a reader, I really wanted to know once and for all what happened to Janie and Hannah. Just why did Hannah do it?

In this conclusion to the series, Janie finds out that her Connecticut father may have known more about Hannah (her kidnapper) than he let on. She goes on a quest to locate Hannah and we are with her as she grapples with whether she should continue down that path or not.

She finds strength and comfort in her "real" family, as well as with old friends. Her ongoing and newly re-started romance with Reeve is also explored and will interest readers of the third book, The Voice on the Radio, in which he betrayed her confidence.

I recommend this book to those who have followed the series from the beginning. However, if you're like me at all, prepare to be a little frustrated at the end. Ms. Cooney -- how about just one more chapter, where we get to meet Hannah at last?