Hide and Seek ( Jess Tenant #3) by Jane Casey #BookReview

Title: Hide and Seek
Series: Jess Tenant #3
Author: Jane Casey
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Published Date: August 25th 2015
Genre: YA, Mystery,
Page Count:278
Format: Hardcover

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★.5

Goodreads Summary: 
It’s Christmas in Port Sentinel, the tiny English town where Jess Tennant has been living for more than a year now. Jess wasn’t sure how she felt about moving to Port Sentinel when her mom dragged her there right in the middle of high school, but even Jess has to admit the town has completely outdone itself for the holidays. There’s a Christmas market complete with mini ice-rink and fairy lights, and the bare trees stand stark against the sky.

But for Gilly Poynter, one of Jess’s classmates, the Christmas season is anything but magical. She’s disappeared, leaving behind only her diary and a lot of questions. Has she run away from her unhappy home, or has something more sinister happened? And will Jess be able to find her before it’s too late?

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 My Review:

"Whispers and rumors and people hiding in shadows added up to a mystery, and mysteries weren't fun. They were secrets that had to remain hidden. They were thoughts that couldn't be spoken. They were sacrifices and struggles and actions that didn't make sense in the cold light of day. They were a narrowing set of choices that could lead to disaster." 

Jess is still getting use to a new school and all of it's gossip and drama, so when she gets paired up with Gilly on a history assignment she doesn't really understand why she is acting rather strange about. But she tries to make the best of it, even when Gilly makes things complicated and insists on doing things a certain way or not at all. When she suddenly goes missing though Jess start doing what she does best. She starts to investigate what happens even though this does end up getting her into trouble, she just can't seem to stop and because of this she manages to figure it out for the most part. She tries to tell the police but they are to busy with other thing so once again she takes matters into her own hands which could end up having deadly consequences.

"So do that. Trust yourself. Trust in how you feel. Because if you don't trust yourself, how can you trust anyone else?"

Overall I did really like this book. I found Jess to be a good character that did what she did because she wanted to help people and she recognized the flaws that she had and tried to fix them. She of course made some not to smart decision, but what would a mystery be without a little suspense in fear for the characters lives.  I also really liked her relationship with her family and how it was shown in a positive light for a change despite the struggles they were all dealing with. I liked her relationship with her boyfriend and found it to be pretty realistic. I did have a few problems though with how the men in her life treated women like they were a prize, or something that they could win/take from someone else.

"I'd seen the things people did to one another in the name of hatred. I'd seen the things they did in the name of love too. Sometimes it was hard to know which was worse." 

As for the mystery itself I was able to figure it out pretty fast, but then I started second guessing myself because the person I thought wasn't even mentioned as a possibility for the longest time.
This is the third book in the series and I hadn't read any of the previous books so I was a little worried that I wouldn't understand what was going on, but thankfully most things were explained again so I was able to piece together what had happened. I do want to read the first two books in this trilogy though.