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Book Review of Salem Falls

Salem Falls
dolleygurl avatar reviewed on + 32 more book reviews


Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult

Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Audio Book

All Jack St. Bride wanted to do was find somewhere quiet to start his life over; somewhere people wouldn't know who he was or what baggage he brought with him. Unfortunately for him, a small town is not the place to do this. In a small town people come together to protect their own from outsiders at ANY cost.

Gillian Duncan has everything a teenage girl could want â her father is the wealthiest man in town, she is pretty, and has a bunch of girlfriends. She is also carrying around some heavy secrets, such asâ¦she's a witch. One night when her and her friends are celebrating a pagan ceremony things get very out of control. When the dust settles Jack St. Bride is accused of felonious sexual assault on Gillian Duncan â the second time in a year he has been accused of this type of crime! Jack adamantly denies this charge, as he had with the previous one, but no one believes him. How will he ever get out of this situation? How many times does lightning strike the same place?

I had started reading this book in hardcopy about two years ago, but I didn't get very far â for reasons that I can't remember now. Once I started listening to the audio book I quickly fell into the story. The story jumps back and forth in time between Jack's youth, his first charge of sexual assault, and the present (the second charge). It was relatively easy to follow these time shifts because Jack's life is so radically different. One of my favorite characters was Jack's lawyer, Jordan McAfee. His perception of Jack from when he first comes to town, to representing him as his lawyer and flip flopping as to whether he believes him or not mirrored many of my own thoughts. If you have read The Pact, another Picoult book, you might recognize him as the defense attorney for Chris.

The ending will absolutely blow you away! A traditional Picoult book with that hook ending that you never see coming, but once you read it, you recognize all the signs that were pointing there all along. Amazing!

4.5 out of 5 stars!