Finding Paris

by Joy Preble

Overview

An evocative and compelling story of two sisters who would do anything for each other—perfect for fans of Thirteen Reasons Why and Speak. Joy Preble's stirring new novel explores the lengths to which sisters go to protect each other, and the winding road that brings two strangers into each other's lives.

Sisters Leo and Paris Hollings have only ever had each other to rely on. They can't trust their mother, who hops from city to city and from guy to guy, or their gambler stepfather, who's moved them all to Las Vegas. It's just the two of them: Paris, who's always been the dreamer, and Leo, who has a real future in mind—going to Stanford, becoming a doctor, falling in love. But Leo isn't going anywhere right now, except driving around Vegas all night with her sister.

Until Paris ditches Leo at the Heartbreak Hotel Diner, where moments before they had been talking with physics student Max Sullivan. Outside, Leo finds a cryptic note from Paris—a clue. Is it some kind of game? Where is Paris, and why has she disappeared? When Leo reluctantly accepts Max's offer of help, the two find themselves following a string of clues through Vegas and beyond. But the search for the truth is not a straight line. And neither is the path to secrets Leo and Max hold inside.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062321329
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	04/21/2015
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	634 KB
Age Range:	14 Years

About the Author

Joy Preble is a Texas girl who grew up in Chicago and a former high school teacher who now writes full-time, which means she gets paid for making up stuff. No one has ever left her mysterious notes. She is, however, a fan of cross-country road trips. Joy is also the author of the Dreaming Anastasia series and the Sweet Dead Life series.

Editorial Reviews

Preble skillfully paces the quest as her character development gently unfolds along the desert highway.

Booklist

A compelling page turner—the perfect mix of heart-stopping plot and memorable characters—fully formed, flawed, and worth cheering for. A road trip story, a mystery, and a romance, along with Preble’s pitch perfect descriptions of place and you’ve got a real winner. I couldn’t put it down.

Jennifer Mathieu

Joy Preble’s signature style-breakneck pace, whip-sharp dialogue and sly humor—is the perfect fit for this ride-or-die novel of Leonora and Max. An inspiring story of lost souls, and the hope and compassion that must piece together a family long exiled and devastated by secrets.

Adele Griffin

Leonora, known as Leo to her friends and family, begins the story awakening to her sister, Paris, demanding to be taken to an all-night diner for pie because she broke up with her boyfriend, Tobias. Leo agrees to go with her sister and ends up meeting a young man, Max, who works in a museum in Las Vegas that features the Bikini Atoll explosion. Once in the diner, Paris leaves Leo stranded but has set a scavenger hunt of sorts all throughout the city of Las Vegas—not to find a prize, but to find Paris. In the first cryptic note that Leo finds, Paris has written, “Stay calm, Leo. This is the only way. He’s making me. You have to find me. xParis 0 00 1 36.” Leo, who dreams of becoming a doctor, is certainly intelligent enough to figure out the clues that will lead her to her sister, which she sets out to do with Max, who has quickly become a love interest for Leo. The sisters’ mother, who works at a casino in Las Vegas dealing blackjack and is rarely in the picture, has an alcoholic boyfriend who lives in their home, and sensitive readers will need to be made aware of such a circumstance. Readers who appreciate adventure with a dose of romance will certainly enjoy Preble’s Finding Paris, as will those who are already her fans. Reviewer: Beth H. Green; Ages 15 to 18.

VOYA, April 2015 (Vol. 38, No. 1) - Beth H. Green

01/01/2015
Gr 9 Up—Leo and Paris are sisters; very different personalities, fathered by different men, but bound together by their need for stability and support. Their mother, who has dragged them from town to town and man to man, now has them living with her latest acquisition, who seemed cool enough at first, but since moving to Las Vegas, has begun showing his true colors. Leo is fed up with their lifestyle, and is working hard to get into Stanford to study medicine. Paris, the artist, has no clearly defined plan beyond escaping her present circumstances. Late one night, Paris awakens Leo claiming that she's in need of pie and sympathy. At the diner, she dares Leo to talk to an attractive young man seated at a nearby table. Shortly after Leo accepts the dare, Paris disappears along with the car and Leo's cell phone. Max, amazingly accommodating for a stranger she's just met, offers Leo his help, and together they locate a cryptic, hastily written note from Paris containing an obscure clue and a plea for Leo to find her. What follows is a scavenger hunt in which notes bearing clues to various locations lead to more notes. In a dramatic climax, the steady, step-by-step progression of the plot takes a surprising turn and suddenly barrels forward, blindsiding readers with unexpected twists. An intricate guessing game of sisterly devotion, romance, and quiet desperation.—Cary Frostick, formerly at Mary Riley Styles Public Library, Falls Church, VA

School Library Journal

2015-01-10
Paranormal author Preble (The A-Word, 2014, etc.) crosses over to straight teen fiction with this drama wrapped in a mystery. Studious Leo and artistic older sister Paris live in Las Vegas with their mother and stepfather ("Tommy Davis, who shouldn't be anybody's idea of permanent, only our mother married him anyway"). Leo studies for the SAT and dreams of her escape; "eventually I will be something…maybe even a surgeon. Surgeons don't hesitate once they've decided what they need to do." For now, the sisters watch out for each other—at least they do until Paris sets Leo up with Max and then drops out of sight, leaving behind a scavenger hunt of worrisome clues that draws Leo and Max together. A road trip (complete with analysis of the metaphorical content of country songs and the sharing of life-altering secrets) ensues as messages from Paris increase in urgency. With her lodestar AWOL, Leo is forced to consider whom to trust and who is really protecting whom. Adults are somewhat clichéd (waitress-with-a-heart-of-gold, creepy stepdad, distracted mom), but the teens have character and complexity to spare. Leo's heart may pound, hop, race, skip, skitter and thud, but her straight-A, Stanford-bound personality has depth, and the more mercurial—and mostly absent—Paris remains engaging and believable. Fast-paced with intriguing teen characters, a budding relationship and a bit of mystery—curiosity will keep those pages turning. (Fiction. 13-17)

Kirkus Reviews