Review: The Rules for Disappearing by Ashley Elston

The Rules for Disappearing by Ashley Elston
Published: May 14th, 2013 (Disney Hyperion)
Pages: 312
Source: for review
Series: The Rules for Disappearing, #1
Buy the book: Bookdepository
Rating: ★★☆☆☆


She’s been six different people in six different places: Madeline in Ohio, Isabelle in Missouri, Olivia in Kentucky . . . But now that she’s been transplanted to rural Louisiana, she has decided that this fake identity will be her last.

Witness Protection has taken nearly everything from her. But for now, they’ve given her a new name, Megan Rose Jones, and a horrible hair color. For the past eight months, Meg has begged her father to answer one question: What on earth did he do – or see – that landed them in this god-awful mess? Meg has just about had it with all the Suits’ rules — and her dad’s silence. If he won’t help, it’s time she got some answers for herself.

But Meg isn’t counting on Ethan Landry, an adorable Louisiana farm boy who’s too smart for his own good. He knows Meg is hiding something big. And it just might get both of them killed. As they embark on a perilous journey to free her family once and for all, Meg discovers that there’s only one rule that really matters — survival.

Okay. So I really liked the idea of a story based around a character and their family in the Witness Protection Program, and I was pretty excited to get started on this one. Unfortunately, that ended up being the only thing I liked about this book.

Meg is our main character in this book and she mainly focuses on Ethan. However, every other character in this books feels so distant, so unfocused, that they were hard to tell apart. They didn't stand out from one another and I really found it hard to distinguish them. Once I realised that problem, it got on my nerves. And as I was unable to ignore it, I got more and more annoyed while I read on.

The storyline is so incredibly predictable that I had it figured out within a few chapters, but then I had to read another 250 pages to see that I was right. I *hate* it when that happens, but if the characters are awesome or if they have great chemistry, that sometimes makes up for it. In this case, not so much. For me, it had no redeeming qualities and the only reason I finished this book in the end was because I wanted to know if I was right about how the plot would unfold (I was). There were no surprises, no twists, nothing. The 'big reveal' was predictable and fell flat.

To be honest, I don't think this was a bad book. It's just the fact that it was unable to hold my attention, or to surprise me, or even come alive off the pages for the tiniest bit that annoyed me to no end. Quite frankly, I didn't give a shit about all of these characters. Personally, I wouldn't recommend it. There are way better books out there that are more worthy of your time, if you ask me.