In the interest of full disclosure, I'm going to say this: I had absolutely no idea that And She Was was the start of a new mystery series. I honestly thought that it was a stand-alone novel. Had I known that it was written as the start of a series, I might have been more lenient towards it as it is only the first of what is (probably) many and therefore, it's going to (probably) get more detail-oriented (and better) as the series goes along. But again, I had no clue, so leniency was not given. And I do have to say that with And She Was...I was just not impressed.The Good: I liked most of the characters. And now realizing that this is going to be a series, I can totally get on board with numerous books featuring these characters. I liked Brenna. She was sassy and sarcastic and just how I like my female characters to be written. I adored her relationship/bromance with Trent. In fact, that was probably my favorite aspect of And She Was. I was interested in Brenna's background and wanted more of it. I wanted more of her relationship with her sister and her relationship (both past and current) with her mother. Her disorder (can't remember how to spell it) was intriguing enough that I want to read more about it.The Meh: Okay, I'm just going to get this out of the way, I don't like bratty teenagers...And despite my love for YA novels, I hate reading about them. Therefore, I could not stand Maya. Her general existence (as well as her overbundance of eye-rolling) really aggravated me. Another thing that really took me out of And She Was was the name-dropping that kept occurring. Great, the author knows who Death Cab for Cutie is. Awesome, she knows about Rachel Yamagata...but I really couldn't care less. Especially since the name dropping had nothing to do with the case. It seemed like the author was just trying to show how "cool" and "hip" she is...it didn't work.The Bad: Brenna's disorder is interesting. I would love to read a non-fiction book about it. Her disorder is also really annoying to semi-experience from a reader standpoint. The constant flashbacks that would happen seemingly out of nowhere and had absolutely no order to them confused me. I understand that that was the whole point of the way And She Was was written; to somewhat showcase what this disorder does, but again, as a reader, I was turned off by the way it was executed. I'm someone who can generally follow along pretty well in a mystery novel. But the flashbacks serving as a semi-introduction to way too many characters meant that I spent the first half of the novel trying to figure out which current character was in which flashback and the second half of the novel finally not giving a crap. Too many characters that only showed up as a blip on the radar made it sort of hard to follow, at least for me. So by the time I reached the end of And She Was I just didn't care about the case or the whodunit...I just wanted it to be over with.So overall, I found And She Was a bit disappointing. It had all the elements of a good series: intriguing characters with intriguing backstories, but the case on this one was just not up to snuff...at least for me. And as a standalone, it left a lot to be desired...As the first book of the series, I guess it was okay. I'm interested enough that I will definitely be taking a look at the next in this series. Got this as a 1.99 nook book special, and it was definitely worth that price and more. I'm not normally a mystery/crime/suspense reader, but the premise sounded interesting enough as I was scanning cheap nook books for a vacation. Definitely liked the writer's style and the plot was engaging. Some parts were a little predictable but overall was good, will probably read the (spoiler) sequel coming out this winter.
What do You think about En Ze Was (2014)?
Had to concentrate to enjoy because of the flashbacks. Can't wait for next book to be released.
—chinge
slow. not very well written. not the brightest investigator. I stopped half way through.
—Alex
I don't know that I actually like crime novels. I really enjoyed reading this novel.
—MrzLadeeSmith24
Interesting, although confusing at times. I liked the characters.
—Amyra
