Harlan Coben spins off from his successful Myron Bolitar series to reach out to young adults with his Mickey Bolitar series. Mickey is Myron's nephew. Mickey has come to live with Myron after witnessing his father's death and his mother ends up in rehab.

Mickey has spent his life traveling around the world with his parents and they do mission work with The Abeona Shelter. They had returned to the states so Mickey could attend a regular high school and college.

New schools are always tough but Mickey makes two new friends at orientation day. One is the beautiful Ashley and the other is Ema, a plus size girl who thinks Mickey is only being nice to her out of pity. But when Ashley mysteriously disappears right after school starts he teams up with Ema and another new friend, "Spoon," to try to find her.

As they follow a trail to find Ashley they walk in to a world that leads Mickey to question everything he thought he knew about his life. It also puts him and his friends in danger they only thought happenned in the movies. Hang on tight, this is a wild ride.





My Thoughts
I am a huge Harlan Coben fan and was really intrigued when I heard he was venturing into the Young Adult reader genre and taking his star character Myron Bolitar with him. The set up for this book started when we were introduced to Mickey in Coben's Live Wire in March. I was very interested to read Shelter to see how the author completed this transition.

I loved this book and while featuring high school kids as the leading characters they took on some very adult problems. I am sure teenagers will enjoy this action packed thriller. Coben does an excellent job of explaining Mickey's life before Shelter so that the new generation of readers understands the history. I only question if I followed everything so easily because I have read the entire Myron Bolitar series.

Like all books written by Harlan Coben the story is masterfully plotted, full of twists and turns while adding the perfect amount of humor. All the things that makes him a great author and his novels must reads.

All fans of Coben will love this book and then pass it on to their teenagers to enjoy. My son is waiting for me to finish this review so he can read this book because he has heard my husband and I talking about it. Hopefully as a new reader of this author he will be able to answer my one question above. I will keep you posted.


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the G.P. Putnam's Sons, A Division of Penguin Publishing. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255 : Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

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I didn't realize this is a book for teens. Even so I still enjoyed the story. Not one to keep you on the edge but interesting enough to keep you reading. I'd say it is more of a book for a 15 year old.

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This is a great YA read.

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You just cannot go wrong with any Harlan Coben book ! This was my very last Coben book to read ( very sad) and just as intriguing, suspensful and difficult to put down as all of his others. Highly recommend !

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Young Mickey has all the attributes an ideal teen needs, brains, looks and standing 6'4" at age 14, just a bit improbable, but hey, this is a novel for entertaining and appealing to the readers. However as a new kid in town, a loner living with his estranged uncle, Mickey doesn't have the friendship circle many teens have ...but the adventures and mishaps push him in with other loners and they form a solid group/team which will probably be involved in future mysteries and action adventures to come.
Mickey acts and reacts, somewhat uncharacteristically, like a young adult as he digs into sordid events, his missing friend and other disappearing young women, and also seeks the truth of his own parents' past. Circumstances seem to very coincidentally fall together so he succeeds. That said, it was a fun if rather improbable read.

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I am a huge Harlan Coben fan, having read every book in the Myron Bolitar series. Mickey Bolitar is Myon's 14-year-old nephew, and in true Coben style, this is an excellent page-turner. I love the twists that the story takes, and it certainly held my interest throughout. The reading level recommended is "Young adult" and there is the major difference in the two 'heroes'. The book definitely reads for a younger audience, and although I wouldn't say that I was disappointed, I did miss the more adult humor that is interjected into all of the Myron books. Myron has such a tiny role in this novel that his unassertive actions border on being out of character. He doesn't even guess that his nephew is in trouble?? Come on!!

All that being said, I would definitely read another in the Mickey series. And would then pass it along to my teenage nephew.

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It's hard to just flip through Harlan Coben's books, the story seems to change every page. This was less believable than most of his stories, it could be because he's attempting to write for the young adult market.

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