Review: Where's Billie?

Title: Where's Billie? by Judith Yates Borger
Source: .pdf from the author, for review purposes, now also available for purchase on Smashwords.com
LendMe Status: Not available, see special note below.


There are two very powerful voices at work behind Judith Yates Borger's main character, Skeeter Hughes: a mother first, and then a journalist. The question is - what happens when one trumps the other? As the story progresses, Skeeter realizes she's closer to the story she's working on then she had ever thought. Questions of ethics, loyalty, and family play heavily into her decisions, and often it's clear the right choices will have ramifications equal to the outcomes of the wrong choices.   


Mysteries are not usually my main interest but I read a synopsis of this novel purely by chance, and I thought it was not only a really cool concept - but the author had a really great back story bringing her experience as a journalist to increase the authenticity of the writing. I could tell on every page of her novel, that Borger really infused her knowledge of the journalism business into her characters. There's also something special about reading about characters who live in similar geographic locations as you do. This novel is set in Minnesota and therefore a reader like me in Wisconsin can definitely relate to the winter scene and driving conditions that are present through a lot of the novel. Though I wasn't too thrilled that the Vikings were beating the Packers, I'll forgive it this time! 


This novel is a great read, and I'm very lucky to have been able to read it on my Nook, especially under the circumstances! It combines family drama, and mystery - and the characters are all very real, readable and relatable. I would recommend it for people who like mysteries, or family drama - but many other lovers of modern fiction would enjoy the plot twists and greatly informed writing of this author!

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Special Note: I have this novel under interesting circumstances, really, as it's not currently available for Nook. I took the initiative of contacting the author after reading a synopsis. She was nice enough to provide me with a .pdf version of her novel, which of course can be loaded onto the Nook, and read through the My Document folder. There's information in Barnes & Noble's FAQ detailing the process of getting documents onto your Nook.  

Where's Billie? is currently available on Kindle, and in paper from Nodin Press through Barnes & Noble, Borders, Amazon.com and many independent bookstores and libraries. The author is working on making it available on Nook, and I'll update the status when it becomes available.


3/19/10 - Just got word from the author that Where's Billie is now available for purchase on Smashwords.com! It is available there in a variety of formats, including ePUB which is readable on Nook!