In Place of Never by Julie Ann Lindsey

Pages: 269
Publish date: Febuary 2nd 2016
Publisher: Lyrical Press
ISBN: 160183487X
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

In Place of Never:

I received an e-arc of In Place of Never by Julie Anne Lindsey from Lyrical Press, Kensington Books via NetGalley. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.

I don’t know what I was expecting when I started this book. I hadn’t heard much about, I read it on a whim as the synopsis intrigued me and I am glad I did.

In Place of Never follows protagonists, Mercy as she tries to come to terms with the death of her sister. Even though it happens years before, something died in Mercy when her sister did. So when the last people that saw her alive comes back to town – she has to confront them, however everything isn’t all it seems. She finds an expected ally is Cross who sees her for her for the first time and not someone from the outside.

Mercy is a troubled one. Her life has been school and boys. She had to suffer through the terrible drowning of her sister Faith and then the suicide of her mother, leaving her with her overprotective father. And herself. Mercy suffers with depression and heartache, all I wanted to do was wrap her in my arms and hug her. Everyone treats her differently and all she wants is answers. So when the traveling gypsies come back to town she knows where to get them. Everything isn’t what it seems and then she meets Cross.  

I loved Cross, he was such a loveable character that you couldn’t help, but smile every time he was mentioned. Maybe it was because of Mercy and how she felt about Cross or maybe it was since Lindsey was such beautifully written. I normally hate when characters are musicians in novels simply as I think it’s so cliquey and I have seen it so many times before, but there was something about Cross, that it didn’t matter.

The storyline of In Place of Never was truly intriguing, I wanted to know what happened to Faith. As each step into the novel, we find out stuff that leads us in one direction and then boom! We are in another. It was thrilling and I couldn’t get enough of it. I liked how everything unfolded slowly and not until the end. However, I felt the ending was rushed and wasn’t intense enough for the situation at hand.

The writing was beautiful. Julie Anne Lindsey is captivating and brings the reader on the journey with both Mercy and Cross.

The family dynamics. True, but upsetting. I didn’t like Mercy’s dad, at all. I know that he behaved that way because he already lost his wife and daughter and couldn’t lose what he had left. However he was obsessed and not in the way that Mercy was, he was determined that the traveling gypsies were to blame, but he didn’t ask the questions. He didn’t have much character development

In Place of Never is a heartbreaking novel about finding the truth, death, depression, sacrifice and what it’s like to live when everything else is falling apart. Julie Anne Lindsey writes a beautiful novel that lets the reader pond upon life and what it’s truly like to live. It’s about love, faith and finding all the little things that count.