Review: Strings Attached by Judy Blundell

 

Strings Attached was quite a surprise for me. The storyline itself was interesting: Young woman Kit Corrigan has left her home in Rhode Island. She has left her family and a boyfriend who has just enlisted in the Army. Working as a dancer in a show that is about to close she is contemplating her next move when her former boyfriends father Nate Benedict comes into her life with an author she may not be able to refuse. What makes this book so interesting is that it is set in 1950. I really liked Kit. She is talented and mysterious. As she accepts a place to live from Nate he promises he will leave her alone, he just wants her to reach out to his son Billy to give him hope of a reunion and possibly reconcile with him. Kit is torn, its obvious she still has feelings for Billy and some secrets that involve her family and Billy's.

Through an introduction set up by Nate Kit's career is now thriving. She is a dancer in one of the hottest shows. There is however a price for this. Nate starts leaving mysterious packages in her apartment that she is to give to strange men. The club she works at is full of reputed mobsters and Nate is in the thick of it as their attorney. When Kit finally reconciles with billy she finds he is tortured inside. Some dark secret is eating away at him. Tragedy strikes and Kit finds her very life in danger due to Nate's machinations.

An enjoyable read. Blundell doesn't dive too deeply into the time period but you get a sense of it. The characters appealed to me and I wanted to know what happened to them despite some lag time in the middle. I didn't mind the flashbacks of Kit's life in the previous months but the later ones set in the 30's were kind of confusing but soon became relevant to the overall plot. I look forward to reading more by Judy Blundell in the future.

Thanks to Scholastic Press for the opportunity to review this book.