The blurb for Defending Jacob caught my eye right away. I am always drawn to character driven stories, and I felt like this book delivered!

It was gripping and very thought provoking, and truly had me flipping pages as the courtroom drama unfolded after Jacob is accused of a terrible crime.

*many thanks to Delacorte Press and Netgalley for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own

I loved this legal thriller meets family drama. A family is in crisis after the son of a district attorney gets accused of murdering his classmate. I thought this was dark but super fascinating and made me ask myself a lot of questions, like: How far WOULD I go to protect my kid? What do you do when your morals are at odds with your heart? And so on. The courtroom pieces were my favorite- they really felt true. The ending took me off guard but made sense- as my favorite kind of resolutions do.  Can't wait to watch the series now!

I think the real problem with this one for me was that I read it a few years too late. This book originally was published back in 2012. I’ve read so many books since then that are so similar to this one, I was just flat out bored. I keep all my reviews spoilers free, so this review is hard to write. I say that because the ending was just so predictable for me or anyone who reads crime thrillers that it was almost laughable. I really just rolled my eyes at it. I hate that I feel this way because I may have been shocked by the twist if I had read it when it first came out. Or maybe it really just is that predictable? ​The writing was okay, nothing extraordinary for me to write home about. This one, I guess, was just a hard pass for me.

I can't decide if I want to give this book 3 or 4 stars. It was good and kept me on the edge of my seat-but has left me feeling unsettled with no resolution.