Nowhere to Run by Amy Wallace

Ashley Walters is a police officer. She and her fiancé Patrick will be getting married soon. The only thing standing in their way is Ashley’s stalker. He has been stalking Ashley for 12 years. She didn’t know of him before, but now there is an urgency in him since he knows that Ashley should be his wife and not Patrick’s. 

When Ashley’s stalker puts the people that she loves in danger she decides to take the advice of her boss and disappear. Ashley and her best friend Margo go to the Mennonite and Amish country to be hidden by friends. Ashley doesn’t want to hide though. She wants to draw out the stalker and end her nightmare. She doesn’t want to put her friends and family in any more danger.

Not only is Ashley struggling with the fact that she has a stalker, but she is also struggling with not being able to sense God’s presence in her life. She is feeling abandoned by Him and struggling with her anger at God for not answering her prayers. Her life is in turmoil and danger and she feels that she can only rely on herself to fix the situation. 

This is the second book in the Place of Refuge series. Having not read the first book I felt like I was coming into the middle of a story, but I caught up quickly with what had gone on before. I really liked the suspense of the novel, but found myself getting a bit frustrated with the spiritual aspect of the story. This is where maybe reading the first book in the series may have helped as I might have understood a bit better where Ashley was coming from if I had the background from the first book. Ashley is definitely a strong female character but sometimes I thought she was a bit too impulsive and foolhardy. For the most part it was entertaining and kept me reading through to the end to find out how it all turned out.

Famous by Todd Strasser

Jamie Gordon is famous for being the youngest paparazzi. She has a knack for getting just the right pictures of the stars. Her fellow paparazzi think that she is just a one-hit wonder. Her mother refuses to call her photography skills a career. And her boyfriend seems to be distancing himself from her. 

When superstar Willow Twine requests Jamie come to LA and do an exclusive photo shoot for a week, Jamie is thrilled. Willow is trying to boost her career. After coming out of rehab she has one last chance to clean herself up or she becomes a has-been. Willow is bent on destruction though as she has her former boyfriend Rex come stay. When Jamie finds some unexpected pictures on her camera she must decide what to do, betray a friend to boost her own career or delete them and miss her opportunity for fame.

Also while in LA, Jamie tries to get in contact with her best friend. Avy moved to LA when he was 15 to seek his acting career. When Jamie finally meets up with him she is shocked by what he has done to himself. Plastic surgery has made him not even look like the Avy she used to know.

On the positive side I liked Famous very much. I was engaged with all of the characters. I wanted to know what was happening in their lives. On the negative side the book was written so choppily that it sometimes got hard to follow. One minute we were reading about something that happened in 9th grade and then the next chapter we were in the present, then the next chapter we would be early in Jamie's 10th grade year. Somehow though I managed to become involved in the story and then it was hard to put down.