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.

3.5 rounded up because I love JLB's writing and because she writes quality teen suspense, an under-represented genre in teen (imo). 

As usually, I was immediately sucked right in. JLB seriously knows how to start a book. No winding your way to find out about her characters. You instantly get a sense of who they are and the tone of the story. For me, the story then slowed a bit in the middle. The conclusion was satisfying if a bit rushed and, as usual with a JLB, there are some unanswered questions and under-explored resolutions that leave room for a series. 

I pretty much always enjoy reading a JLB book, and this was no exception, but I don't think it is her strongest.

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.

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.

This is hands down the best book I have read in a while. I was completely taken in with all of the characters. The character development is amazing. I laughed and cried throughout this book. I just couldn't out it down.

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.

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!

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.

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.