Everywhere You Look
Jade has spent the last ten years completely weighed down by guilt after losing her dad in a tragic accident. She’s pretty much hit rock bottom, but a normal dinner out changes everything when she glances through the window and sees the absolute impossible—her dad, alive and well. She scrambles out to the packed sidewalk, but he's already vanished into the crowd. After a decade of heartbreak, Jade refuses to let him slip away again, and she's ready to risk it all to track him down, even if it means uncovering some seriously dark secrets along the way.
- Jade (Mia) - Medical assistant
- Lucas (Kenneth) - Jade’s father
- Benedict - Jade’s boyfriend, University professor
- Kat - Benedict’s new girlfriend
- Sally - Jade’s aunt, Lucas’s sisterNathan - Mia’s stepfather
- Jade blames herself for her father’s death because he was on the phone with her when he got into a car crash.
- Jade sees her father who she thought was dead when she’s having dinner in New York.
- One month earlier: Benedict cheats on Jade with one of his former students and breaks her heart.
- Present: Jade gets a copy of Lucas’s autopsy report and sees that the man who was burned beyond recognition in Lucas’s car after the accident had 10 full fingers, but Lucas had previously lost the tip of a finger in a woodworking accident.
- Jade finds a newspaper article about a missing child named Mia Campbell and a hospital ID with the name Kenneth Walsh and her father’s picture on it.
- Jade’s father worked at that hospital under his real name, Kenneth.
- Kenneth dated Mia’s mother when she was separated from her partner, Nathan. Kenneth is Jade/Mia’s biological father.
- When Kenneth saw Jade in the hospital and realized she was his daughter, he kidnapped her to protect her from Nathan, who abused Mia and allegedly killed Mia’s mother, and changed their names to Lucas and Jade.
- Lucas faked his death for the life insurance money to pay for Jade’s treatment when she got very sick at eighteen and health insurance wouldn’t cover it, and Sally has been helping him stay hidden.
- Jade tells Lucas that Nathan is dead so he can become Kenneth Walsh again without fear of retaliation.
- Jade sees in the news that Benedict is being accused of plagiarizing his best selling book and he has already been fired by his university.
- Kenneth says he’s the one who sent the information to the news outlets after he investigated Benedict and found out he was a phony; he did it to protect Jade.
Everywhere You Look by Liv Constantine is a quick novella with short chapters that keep the story moving. For a shorter book, the character development is good, and you get a decent feel for the cast in a limited amount of time.
However, the plot structure didn't hit the mark for me. The flashbacks with Benedict felt like they belonged in a completely separate story instead of weaving into the main one. They finally tie into Jade's father at the very end, but the connection is incredibly loose and pretty silly. While the twist itself was an interesting idea, the end result just wasn't logical at all. It ended up feeling a bit too absurd rather than delivering a satisfying conclusion. This book is fine if you want a quick read but there are better novellas out there.
- Thought of suicide
- Death of a parent
- Car accident
- Fire
- Child abuse
- Domestic violence
Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
ASIN: B0CHD23ND4
Publication Date: March 19, 2024
Note: Details are for the original edition. Other formats, editions, and audiobook versions may be available.
