Finally, The One and Only Jennie Spring!

Expected Publication:  January 8th, 2013

Janie Face To Face (Janie Johnson # 5)

By: Caroline B. Cooney

Delacorte Books for Young Readers

ISBN-13:  9780385742061

In this riveting and emotional conclusion to the thriller-romance Janie series, that started with The Face on the Milk Carton, all will be revealed as readers find out if Janie and Reeve’s love has endured, and whether or not the person who brought Janie and her family so much emotional pain and suffering is brought to justice.

Review

       It has been two years since Janie Johnson discovered that her other Father, Frank Johnson, knew where her kidnapper (his biological daughter) was the entire time the FBI was looking for her and he was sending checks to support her.  Since stopping the support, dealing with Frank's failing health and Miranda's incompetence in a crisis situation, Janie has almost gotten past everything.  Janie is at college in New York, equidistant to visit both sets of parents.  She has made new friends who know nothing about her past as a kidnap victim and is finally able to breathe, standing on her own two feet.  Janie is gravitating towards her real parents, Jonathon and Donna Spring, and her siblings after fighting the reality of them since she found out about her kidnapping.  She is finally becoming Jennie Spring, after all the years of being Janie Jonhson.  But now there is a true-crime writer named Calvin Vinesett poking into the family's harsh past.  When someone betrays her to the writer, Janie is pushed back into boy-next-door Reeve's arms.  Happy as she is, Janie still hasn't heard the last of the writer and with him finding a way into her personal business, Hannah also grows closer than ever before.  Will Janie's kidnapper ruin her life once and for all, or will she finally get her happy ending?

       I, like many readers of the Face on the Milk Carton books, felt like What Janie Found left things far too unresolved.  I wanted to know whether Janie and Reeve would end up together, where she would go to college, whether or not she would ever really try to connect with the rest of the Spring family.  The most important unresolved question was whether mentally unstable Hannah would ever be caught and locked up.  All of these questions are answered and we finally get a window into Hannah's reasons for her actions.  She came across as unbelievably cunning in the final few chapters for someone who acts ridiculously childish and has zero reasoning skills for the majority of the book.  Then again, it did make sense in a very twisted way.  I liked the different POVs, letting us see what was happening with basically everyone.  I felt like we could have done without Sarah-Charlotte on that front though.  She was sort of extraneous as a character.  I like seeing where Stephen, Jodie, Brian and Brendan were and what they were doing.  The fact that Janie finally accepts her other family made me fist-pump in joy.  I loved that she became Jennie in the end, like she was always meant to be.  Overall, a great conclusion to a harrowing and heart-breaking series.  Thank you Ms. Cooney, for finally letting them be happy! :)

VERDICT:  4/5  Stars

**I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication date is January 8th, 2013.**