Eyes Like Mine by Sheena Kamal

Eyes Like Mine by Sheena Kamal
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It begins with a phone call. Fifteen years ago Nora Watts gave her newborn daughter up for adoption. Now Bonnie has vanished and when the police don't seem to care, her desperate parents turn to Nora as a last resort.

Nora knows only too well what happens to missing girls, especially when they aren't blonde or white enough. Despite herself, she sets out to find the daughter she's never known protected only by her instincts and a freakish ability to detect truth from lies.

As she plunges into her own dark past, Nora uncovers a violent conspiracy on a grand scale that will take her from the rain-soaked streets of Vancouver, to the icy mountains of the Canadian wilderness, and ultimately to a remote island where she will face her most terrifying demon. All to save a girl she wishes had never been born.

The opening of this novel was quite promising; an out of the blue phone call from the adoptive father of the girl Bonnie who Nora Watts gave up for adoption 15 years ago was asking for her help to find her. The reason Nora gave up her child becomes clear as we travel forward through the book and it seems history is about to repeat itself with her daughter.

Bonnie's disappearance is linked to Nora and her abduction 15 years previously and Sheena Kamal takes us on the journey to find her. Although the story was OK it wasn't the best psychological thriller I've read and I just didn't feel any emotional attachment to Nora. For me Nora's character was devoid of any warmth and although I appreciate that what she went through must have shaped her character she didn't show any human natural response for me. Because I couldn't emotionally connect with her (although I was curious about where Bonnie was and the story behind the abduction) I didn't really 'buy' into the story. I also felt that in places the pace was laboured and sometimes slow which is not what I expect from this genre.

I did guess the reason why Nora's daughter was abducted but felt the ending was a bit flat. Nora was quite a cold character and pushed everyone away from her (including me as a reader) so that in the end I didn't really care about her at all. I did care about her dog Whisper and was glad she eventually went to people who would give her a a decent home but overall the book was too long and too cold for me. Can only give this one 3 stars.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.