Review: Arabesque by Colin Mulhern

Amy May is the best at everything she does. But how do you know you're really the best until you're tested? Until you're pushed to the limit?

A botched kidnapping attempt drags Amy and her best friend into the depths of a criminal underworld, a world where the players think with bullets and blackmail. Where they will stop at nothing to get what they want.

And what they want, only Amy May can provide

***

Quite honestly I loved this book. I always find catnip titles are a little bit different with unique ideas and more than one thing that makes them special and this offering is no exception.

I really enjoyed meeting and getting to know the main character Amy. She is a gymnast who has the potential to be Olympic standard once she turns 16 and has both a quiet confidence and enough humility to know that she has to to work hard if she wants to continue to to achieve at a world class standard which comes from a mantra her father drilled into her about being her best.

The book starts dramatically with Amy and her friend Mia being kidnapped by a crew of criminals who a desperate to extort cash from Amy's mother. I enjoyed seeing how Amy overcomes all panic to focus clearly on doing what needs to done to keep her and Mia alive whilst thinking outside the box to try and make the most out of any opportunity that might arise to get free.

Despite their best efforts to escape Amy and Mia end up split up by their captors with Amy being forced into participating in the theft of an expensive painting and Mia ends up in a seedy house where the girls are involved in some kind of seedy photographing business. What I really liked about this book was that it wasn't afraid to pull its punches. The story gets gritty and nasty in places which is something some YA authors can shy away from. I was actually left feeling incredibly uncomfortable at places but I loved that the book was able to make me feel that way.

The story itself throws out loads of twists and turns once the action gets going and I didn't see any of them coming at all. The action was jaw dropping and the end left me a sobbing mess.

Think Liam Neeson's Taken for a YA audience with a young gymnast as the main character. A cracking and surprising read which I thoroughly enjoyed.