Missing You by Meg Cabot

The final instalment in the incredible Missing series is absolutely brilliant. It is a little older than the previous novels, Jess is now living in New York (well, Hells Kitchen) with best friend Ruth. She is going to Julliard and working very hard to keep her place as first chair in the flute section. Jess is just a normal girl. And that's the problem, she is normal - her powers are gone.

Jess had gone to help in Afghanistan. What was she supposed to do? People needed her and they needed her there. So off she went leaving behind her sort-of boyfriend, Rob, and her whole life to find people for the US government. But now that she is back, she is having nightmares, she can't find people anymore and she sure as hell isn't sure what she is doing with her life.

That is... until Rob shows up on her doorstep.

I absolutely loved, loved, LOVED this book. Jess is older now, but just the same, if a little more grown-up. She is broken, or at least that is pretty easy to say when it comes to her powers, but she is even letting Skip take her out on dates!! She is letting her mother tell her who to be. Where has Jess gone?

The best parts of this book surrounded Jess's family (Mike, Douglas, Ruth, her dad) and Cabot's interesting portrait of post-traumatic stress in a teenage girl who went to war. She brings a little bit of reality to her stories that keep you reading, (hooked, really). This whole series has been one big discussion about the US government and their tactics, if you were a teenager would you really want to work for them?

There is also a pretty nice reference to the TV show based on this series, Missing that obviously changed quite a few plot points. One being her father (in the TV show he is dead). It is a cute reference and is a great benchmark to show her notoriety in her home town has not diminished.

I read this in one sitting, it is an absolutely brilliant book that straddles the teen and adult market perfectly. There are adult themes that didn't exist in the previous books, but Jess is older now. I only wish there were more of this series, but sadly this is the last. I hope you do read it. The whole series is well worth reading, especially now! Go out and buy them or even borrow from your local library. Let's show the books, and the incomparable Meg Cabot, some book-buying/borrowing love.