Want to Go Private? by Sarah Darer Littman

Abby has always been the smart, well-behaved girl. Very reliable & dependable for anything really. Moving up to high school is just another step towards accomplishing all that she has worked so hard for in school. But, it's different. The good things aren't the same & the bad things are just more prominent. With a best friend turning into a social butterfly, Abby turns to a teen website for chatting & socializing. That's where she meets Luke.

Luke is charismatic, cute, supportive & everything Abby wants; but he is far from what she needs. Despite dating Billy, her lab partner, Abby is drawn to Luke's presence & needs him in her life. She doesn't think anything of telling him very personal details & even accepts gifts from him. It's all fun & games until Abby starts spending so much time with him online that she begins to neglect her studies & her real life. After a particularly nasty fight with her parents Luke suggests a weekend getaway to "teach them a lesson." Abby falls for it & begins a nightmare that she will never live down.

Want to Go Private? was a haunting tale that mirrors real life so much it scares me. Abby is a brilliant young woman who is at one of the most vulnerable stages in life. Feeling isolated & lacking self-esteem, she turns to the one person who knows how to make her feel better. Luke is a prime example of the scariest type of urban predator. He preys on vulnerable girls & uses their own issues against them, to hurt them. The storyline between these two characters was so authentic, I felt like I myself at 14 could have been wooed by his abilities.

This book is a bit more graphic than I was expecting simply because I wasn't 100% sure how far the author would expose the characters. Sarah Littman goes all in, sparing no detail to get across just how awful things turned out for Abby. The author also shows how things can be turned around & start to look up. While this is a difficult subject matter, the book was filled with hope & the message that we need to be just as careful electronically as we are in person.

An amazing read that I couldn't put down, Want to Go Private? is as striking & authentic as Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott. If the subject matter doesn't bother you & you want to read something gripping, then this is your book.

ARC graciously provided by Around the World Tours.

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