Customer Reviews

The Girl She Used to Be

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I thought this would be an interesting read. I have always been fascinated by the witness protection program, and I often thought about what happens if you are found? I had no idea how much I would enjoy this book.

There are few authors who can keep me reading all night until I finish a book. David Cristofano just may be one of them. I did have to put this book down because I had things that I HAD to do that were work related, but boy was it hard!!!! The very act of his writing in Melody's point of view was incredibly believable. It was nice hearing a woman's voice that sounded so true. I don't know how he did it so well. The man really had a touch on the pulse of this character. I have often groaned at how perfect a female is played or how sappy. It was great reading about a character who is lovely in description without being described as the typical full lipped, bright eyed exotic beauty with the typical too full hips and breasts. It gets a little dull picturing blond, brunette and read headed Angelina Jolies all the timme. David Cristofano created a character in Melody that was simply beautifully real. I could relate to Melody. She was quick witted and quirky.

Pros...romantic but not wishy washy in your face with butterflies and birds chirping on every page. Romantic tension built up and played out superbly.

Pros...characters you wanted to see succeed. I became immediately invested in both Melody and Jonathan.

Pros...realistic. In the long run the ending totally makes sense and is true to life.

Cons...the book ended. I loved it and wanted more!

I will definitely be keeping my eye open for more books by David Cristofano. This was an absolutely splendid piece of work. Cristofano is definitely an author to watch.

In the debut novel, The Girl She Used to Be by David Cristofano, little Melody McCartney was only six years old when she and her parents witnessed a brutal murder. The family was placed into the federal Witness Protection Program and Melody spent her childhood moving from one city to another, from one name to another. Twenty years later, Melody is alone, using the Program to start over when boredom and ennui strike her. During the process of "starting over", a man approaches her and calls her by her real name. Melody finds the lure of being with someone who actually knows her, knows her past, her name, the real her, so irresistible, she defies the feds and goes with the man. This man is Jonathan Bovaro, the son of the mafia crime boss who started everything when Melody was six. Who can she trust? The federal government who she knows sees her as a pawn in their effort to bring down the Bovaro crime family? Or Jonathan, the son of the man who destroyed her life?

First, a disclaimer, I don't usually like Mob books or movies. I know, it's a wildly popular genre, but I've just never been all that interested. That said, I really liked The Girl She Used to Be. I've read many reviews that commented how difficult it was to believe that the author was male, and I've thought, "Hm, that's an odd thing to mention". But now that I've read the book, I understand what they mean. Cristofano's dialogue and thoughts are spot on, and the voice of Melody is authentic. And the other reviewers are right, when I stopped to think about it, it did seem surprising.

The Girl She Used to Be works on many levels. Superficially, it's an interesting story, about a young woman finally discovering whom she could be when allowed to choose for herself. But it's also a story about new beginnings, about each of us. Who hasn't looked at themselves at least once during their lives and thought, "That's it, I'm done. I want a do-over." This book shows that "do-overs" aren't all they're cracked up to be, and by sticking it out and choosing our own paths through life, we finally can get the life we want.

The concept of this book was fascinating, and the first fifty pages had me hooked. But as the story unfolded, I found myself more and more irritated by the characters' portrayal. They said things and did things that no person would really do, and at the end, I felt like the whole story had just unraveled and left me very unsatisfied.

It was very apparent that it was a man writing a woman's point of view, as the protagonist seemed extremely unplausable. There was no strong female character. She was weak and will-less.

I was blown away by this book. The powerful evocative imagery is something that can be elusive in novels, but here it was crystal clear. I found myself rooting for the "good" and the "bad" guy in this book, and I wonder if that is what the author intended. To skew the lines, and show that sometimes, there really is no escaping your family and the footsteps they've laid out for you.

Melody McCartney has spent the last twenty years of her life being someone else. Several someone elses in fact. It wasn't that she wasn't content with herself. She was stripped of the choice when, at six years old, she and her parents witnessed a murder carried out by a mafia boss. Due to her childish inability to remember her new identity, her third identity was doled out pretty quickly also. Now, at 26, Melody is alone, her parents long ago having been found and taken care of.

Now she gets the itch every now and then, the resentment of not knowing who she is, who she could have been, and tells the Feds she's been found. In the midst of one more life change, she is found. By none other than the boss's son, Jonathan Bovaro. His tactics are strange to her, and her analytical, mathematically inclined mind never lets go of the knowledge of he is and what he's after, but she trusts him and goes willingly. The journey they set out on is a dangerous one, and you hope for the best possible outcome.

I've been doing really well at not reading the back of the book first, but I almost couldn't help peeking at the end of the story. I am so glad I didn't! There was nothing predictable about this story at all. There were a couple of points I almost cried and while I'm disappointed in the ending of the book, I am in no way disappointed at the writing of the book from start to finish. I can only hope, though I'm sure it's not the case, that this could be the set-up for a sequel to spring from. Regardless, David Cristofano, in my humble opinion, is an amazing novelist and I look forward to many more to come from him. Hopefully, there may be more Melody McCartney in the future.

"The Girl She Used to Be" was one of those books that I read in one sitting; not because it was short (it isn't), but because it was good. Damned good. David Cristofano's story about a young woman in the Witness Protection program who changes identities whenever she becomes bored is an interesting one, just like Melody (the main character). She is a lost soul ever since her family witnessed a mob killing. Melody just wants to be herself. But once Jonathan, the son of the mob boss locates her, falls in love with her, she really has to decide what to do. This is a pleasurable story, even if it isn't a fairy tale.

I finished this book in two days--couldn't put it down. The premise (woman in WITSEC falls in love with the son of the Mafia boss who wants her dead) was fresh and interesting. Some folks would say implausible too, but it works in Cristofano's hands.

Cristofano does an excellent job of writing from a woman's point of view. Some reviewers have complained about Melody's character, saying that she was whiny and self-centered. Was Melody a spunky, kick-ass character? No. Was she realistic? Yes. She was flawed--frustrated, unhappy, bored, etc., etc.--at times. Pretty much how I imagine I'd be in her circumstances. I'd like to think I'd be different, but the reality is--probably not. I found her very relatable. A few times I wanted her to take a little more control instead of letting herself be guided alternately by WITSEC and Jonathan, but given her situation and how she'd grown up, it made sense that she was rather passive. She does grow up in the end, however, when forced to. (And isn't that true of most people?)

Some reviewers complained about the premise. If you can believe that a person (the Jonathan character) could hate being part of a Mafia family, then everything that happens makes sense. If you don't, then don't buy this book. I quite enjoyed the freshness of Jonathan's character; he struck me as believeable too. He's grown up a certain way and he loves his family, but he just wants to live a normal life. His family makes that impossible. He didn't choose his circumstances any more than Melody did hers, and he's done his best to fight against them, but to a certain extent, he's as much a product of his environment (the Mafia) as Melody is a product of WITSEC. However, he proves to be a role model for Melody and the catalyst that changes how she thinks about her life; when he gives her a shot at controlling her destiny, she takes it.

My one complaint about the book: the chapter titles were all math equations that I couldn't make heads or tails of. I know they have significance, so it would have been nice to have had a "translation" of what they mean for the non-mathmatically inclined among us. (I also would have liked an ending that was less bittersweet, but you can't always get what you want.)

Overall, very enjoyable book. I'm looking forward to Cristofano's next one.

Only a few pages into " The Girl She Used to Be", I understood why it was nominated for Best First Novel. Take Lisbeth Salander from Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, put her in a sundress and allow her the brilliant dialogue espoused by Will in Good Will Hunting, and you have Melody, the heroine in this story. This imperfectly captivating woman tells us her story first person, and does not gloss over the grittiness, mistakes and insecurity she feels. She is at the same time pitiable and enviable, and always riveting. David Cristofano writes Melody's story and paints his characters with a brilliant clarity and believability.
The story begins with a 26 year old Melody, who wants to shed the life chosen for her by agents of Witness Protection Program (WITSEC). She is however, bound to them and in need of their protection. Just when it seems that Melody has made some tough decisions about her life, she meets two men, who each seem to possess conflicting traits of deception and honesty. She wants to trust them, but doesn't know if this trust will result in her betrayal and death.
Throughout, this novel is thrilling, darkly humorous, romantic and enthralling. Up until the final pages, I was dreading the story ending, but hungrily awaiting the answers and revelations the end provided. To quote Melody, this book, "Rocked me like a hurricane".

I read that this book has been optioned for a movie, and am not at all surprised. The book is so well written, that I believe it would easily translate onto a big screen. In fact, there is a scene in the book that I think will make movie magic, and be talked about for years: Melody is rundown, dirty, hungry and generally having a horrible day. When a college kid mocks her for the benefit of his friends, Melody's response eloquently shreds him to pieces.
I highly recommend readers giving taking Amazon up on the offer to read the first chapter for free. Fair warning, you'll want more.

The Girl She Used to Be is a story that I will be remembering and contemplating for a very long time.

This unusual glimpse into the Witness Protection Program was interesting and engagingly written, though I had some problems with its fundamental plot devices. The story grabbed me from the very beginning, with clever dialogue and quick surprises that kept me turning the pages. Melody was a well-written and quite loveable narrator -- Cristofano is to be highly commended for his ability truly to capture a woman's voice in such emotional and intelligent detail.

And yet, for all the highlights this novel held, I was ultimately disappointed. Other reviews seem to view the ending as realistic and honest - I, on the other hand, felt it was wildly unrealistic and also unsatisfying. Not that I expect a book to end with every character's problems solved and the story wrapped up - on the contrary, I much prefer novels whose characters suffer real problems with real, not-so-sexy solutions. But Melody and Jonathan were tortured yet false - I just didn't buy it, at the end of the day I guess I just didn't buy it. I was rooting for Melody, I thought Cristofano perfectly captured her uncertainty, the confused psyche that might allow her to have romantic feelings for her would-be assassin -- the romantic elements of the story was not my problem. But I finished reading and felt let-down, felt almost angry at the cop-out ending.

I give this book 3.5 stars -- it was thoroughly enjoyable and Cristofano is definitely an author to watch - I just wanted more from this particular book!

Absolutely fabulous book. Page turner, suspenseful. Couldn't put this one down, devoured this book in a day. Loved the relationship/romance between Melody and Jonathan and kudos to David Cristofano for writing from a woman's point of view and getting it just right. Characters, dialogue and plot were fantastic. Riveting story of a woman bored and alone in the governments witness protection system and kidnapped by the son of the mob boss to keep her safe from his father who wants to kill her. Couldn't get this story off my mind for a few days after I finished the book and disappointed that I don't have something just as good to move on to next. Incredible story, can't wait for the author's next book. Hope the wait is not too long.

This book had languished on my Kindle for a couple of months while I kept passing it by to read others. I finally got around to starting it, and I was hooked! I enjoyed it throughout, no lags or slow parts, and I wondered all the way just exactly what was going to happen...could have gone a number of ways. I recommend this book!