Review: No One Else Can Have You by Kathleen Hale @halekathleen

No One Else Can Have You by Kathleen Hale

Publication Date: January 7, 2014
Page Count: 380
Published by: HarperTeen
Source: eArc received from publisher in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Small towns are nothing if not friendly. Friendship, Wisconsin (population: 689 688) is no different. Around here, everyone wears a smile. And no one ever locks their doors. Until, that is, high school sweetheart Ruth Fried is found murdered. Strung up like a scarecrow in the middle of a cornfield.

Unfortunately, Friendship’s police are more adept at looking for lost pets than catching killers. So Ruth’s best friend, Kippy Bushman, armed with only her tenacious Midwestern spirit and Ruth’s secret diary (which Ruth’s mother had asked her to read in order to redact any, you know, sex parts), sets out to find the murderer. But in a quiet town like Friendship—where no one is a suspect—anyone could be the killer.

I've been looking forward to No One Else Can Have You since last summer, and I'm so glad I read it! This book is definitely different - and that's not necessarily a bad thing. No One Else Can Have You is set in a crazy ass small town called Friendship, Wisconsin, where every resident is quirky or different, don'tcha know.

Kippy is our protagonist, and when her best friend, Ruth, is murdered while on her way to Kippy's house, it horrifies and shocks the entire town. When the sheriff immediately arrests a suspect without an investigation, Kippy knows something isn't right and sets out to uncover the truth about Ruth's murder. Kippy gets a bit of help from Ruth's brother, Davey, and the two grow close while trying to uncover the real killer. Kippy goes about her investigation in an unusual way, and some hilarity inevitably ensues, but I loved how tenacious she was about finding her friend's killer. What Kippy was lacking in investigative skills she more than made up for with persistence, and she wasn't about to let the incompetent sheriff get away with railroading an innocent person.

Kippy definitely has a unique voice, but it only took me a little while to get used to her. I liked Kippy and I found her very entertaining. She is really weird and SO socially awkward, but it totally worked for her. She manages to say some of the weirdest and most inappropriate lines I've ever heard. It's almost as if she doesn't have a filter between her brain and her mouth.

The secondary characters were an odd bunch, but I found them extremely likable and full of zeal. Most of them are also majorly dysfunctional with totally over the top behavior. They are quirky and weird and completely unbelievable and totally unrealistic. Yet somehow this all works to make this a ridiculously entertaining read!

This story was so funny at times, and the murder mystery aspect really kept me guessing because there was no clear cut suspect. My one and only complaint with this book is how often the author throws in anecdotes. I thought the constant randomness about things that didn't add to the story took the focus away from the main plot. I found it to be pretty annoying at times.

No One Else Can Have You is one of a kind, and I'd be hard pressed to find another book to compare this to. It was a refreshing read with a terrific plot and wonderful writing. Take a murder mystery, throw in an interesting cast of characters, add a bit of romance, and you get a really great book. You should definitely give this one a chance! I'm glad I had the opportunity to read this, and I am looking forward to reading the sequel in 2015.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars