Forbidden by Caroline B. Cooney

Rating: 3/5 stars
Publication Date: October 29th 2013 

Blurb:

A secret that could destroy two legendary families threatens to change the course of true love in Caroline B. Cooney’s mesmerizing novel

Annabel Jayquith and Daniel Ransom meet at a party. They fall instantly in love, unaware that their lives are inextricably bound together by the crime that shocked a nation.

Daniel is the high-profile son of a slain US senator who had presidential ambitions. Annabel is the daughter of a billionaire businessman. Like Daniel, Annabel is haunted by the discovery of her family history—a past she never knew existed.

Annabel is rich and beautiful, but eighteen-year-old Jade O’Keeffe is poor and alone. She hates her mother, the fabulously successful TV talk-show host Theodora Jayquith, for giving her up for adoption. But most of all, she hates Annabel, Theodora’s spoiled, much-loved niece. And Jade is going to make them all pay.

As Daniel’s search for the truth about his father’s unsolved murder puts him in the crosshairs of Jade’s revenge, a killer slips from the shadows. Now a secret that could bury two powerful families could also destroy Annabel and Daniel’s growing love.

Review:

Warning: This is the version of a book that was originally published in 1993.

Imagine my surprise when I read that phones (not sell phones) were amazing, about a Prince Andrew and the phrase "This is the America of the 20th century"!!

Even without these hints the story had a feeling of oldness, the feeling you have when you see an old a movie. If I knew that the book was happing in 1993 I would have enjoyed the story more. I think. 

As for the story I liked it most of the time. The book ended with some unfinished threads. It gave some vague idea about what the future was holding for the characters but for me there was still an uncertainty. An epilogue would have been a good idea.

I am not convinced about Annabeth and Daniel's love. A spark or something was missing and I would; don't have minded if they had taken different paths in life. The point of view was tricky and didn't always make sense.

I will give points to the book for the unexpected turn of the events but I cannot say that I was 100% into the book.