Lingering Echoes by Erica Kiefer | Book Review

Summary from Goodreads:  “You can’t change the past… no matter how much you want to.”

If only Allie Collins could go back to that tragic day one year ago, perhaps she could escape the guilt that haunts her. In reality, there was no altering her cousin’s death or the role she played. Then she meets Damien Michaels, a dark-haired stranger on a dirt bike, who seems to watch Allie and know more about her than he should. Veiling his own secrets, including a mysterious scar and unexplained tattoo, Allie knows she shouldn’t trust him—especially as she digs up a past Damien desperately wants to forget. She also doesn’t believe in summer romances, yet she finds her attraction to him growing beyond his striking grey eyes.

Unfortunately, Allie discovers too late that he is hiding a dark past which is far from over, endangering her life and those she loves. 

I included the summary from Goodreads, because I'm afraid I don't have any positives to talk about for this book.  I hope you believe me, reader, that I do NOT enjoy writing negative reviews, but I slogged through the entire book and it just never improved.  The plot was flimsy to start with, and got more unbelievable as the book went on.  There's a "reveal" near the end that involves a one-in-a-million chance occurrence.  The characters were incredibly flat, and the secondary characters were downright caricatures.  And the main character even describes them as such!  Speaking of the main character describing things... Allie uses internal language to describe people, places, and events that is totally disingenuous to ordinary teen experience.  To top it off, Allie makes some very questionable decisions in the first half of the book that had my inner "squeevy" alarm going off.  You've just met a 19-year-old guy ten minutes ago?  (Allie's 17.)  Sure, let's get on his motorcycle and go to who-knows-where for the day!  Scrolling through Goodreads, I see that I'm in the minority with my review, so perhaps the fault is with me and not with the book.  I was glad to see that I was not alone, however, in noticing the very thinly veiled racism near the end of the book.  Goodness.  Didn't expect that in a book published after 1950.  Unfortunately, I can't recommend this one.

*I received a copy of Lingering Echoes from the publisher in exchange for my fair and honest review.