Review: Cold Fury by T.M. Goeglein

Title: Cold Fury 

Author: T.M. Goeglein

Publication Date: July 24, 2012

Publisher: Putnam Juvenile

Genre(s): Young Adult (Crime, Mystery)

Challenges: Debut

Source: Publisher
Format: ARC

Pages: 313
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Sara Jane Rispoli is a normal sixteen-year-old coping with school and a budding romance--until her parents and brother are kidnapped and she discovers her family is deeply embedded in the Chicago Outfit (aka the mob).

Now on the run from a masked assassin, rogue cops and her turncoat uncle, Sara Jane is chased and attacked at every turn, fighting back with cold fury as she searches for her family. It's a quest that takes her through concealed doors and forgotten speakeasies--a city hiding in plain sight. Though armed with a .45 and 96K in cash, an old tattered notebook might be her best defense--hidden in its pages the secret to "ultimate power." It's why she's being pursued, why her family was taken, and could be the key to saving all of their lives.

Action packed, with fresh, cinematic writing, Cold Fury is a riveting and imaginative adventure readers will devour.

Cold Fury was a roller coaster. It had its ups and downs but the end sealed it for me. It is a solid beginning to this thrilling series. I loved how the genre of this series is different from the usual YA novels. I LOVE crime/mystery novels/movies/shows and it finally transcending into the YA world just brings joy to my life! (a bit dramatic I know). Cold Fury has been on my wish list ever since I read the synopsis and I'm glad I was able to read it! 

The story starts off when everything already happened. When Sara Jane already knows her family is entangled with the mob.. correction, her family IS the mob. So the bakery business her family runs is just a front. Also, her family has been kidnapped and she's all on her own. Oh, and she's a trained boxer. At the age of sixteen. How awesome is that? I was so excited to dive into the action straightaway but the next chapter takes us a couple of weeks before everything goes down. I was a bit unnerved at that because the story seriously slowed down. I wanted the action! the thrill! not Sara Jane in school, starting to like a guy, and worrying about a school dance. In a typical contemporary that would have been cute, but here? after getting a taste of the thrill at the beginning? not so much. Also Sara Jane keeps on eavesdropping on her parent's cryptic conversations along with her younger uncle's issues with her family because he isn't being included in all their secrets of the other family business. It took me a while to get through the 100 pages or so but I knew the book had promise and I loved Sara Jane's voice. She was definitely a powerful and smart female protagonist. 

Sara Jane also possessed the "Cold Fury" which would be explained in a bit too much details (i ended up really confused) in the latter half of the book. Now when we finally get answers, we get them at an overwhelming rate that I ended up being a bit confused. There was a lot of history and people involved that I couldn't wrap my head around. However you don't really need to know that much information and throughout the book you gather the necessary info to keep you in the loop. When Sara Jane has finally gathered the info she needed and starts to take action, I couldn't put the book down. The amount of times she faced the bad guys and had to use her brains and boxing skills to fight them off or escape, I held my breath and couldn't flip through the pages fast enough! The last 100 pages or so were what made the book for me. I was on murky, meh ground but when the action finally started, I didn't care if it was a bit too late, it was worth the wait! 

I expected the story to resolve at the end of the book however 30 pages to the end I told myself there was no way it would and I was right. Cold Fury is the first installment in a series, therefore I understood why the beginning was slow and the information was loaded on us. T.M. Goeglein spent most of this book building Sara Jane's world and the end of her kicking butt. While many issues weren't resolved, I have no doubt that we will jump straight into action for the second book and for many of those unanswered questions I have to be answered! I definitely recommend this book to all YA readers who want to read a different genre from the usual!  

4 musical notes!