THROWBACK THURSDAY PICK OF THE WEEK

I began this Throwback Thursday meme as a way to share some of my old favorites as well as sharing books that I want to read that were published over a year ago. You know, the ones waiting patiently on my TBR list while I continue to pile more titles on top of them:)! I like that these older books are usually much easier than new releases to get a hold of at libraries and elsewhere. If you have your own Throwback Thursday recommendation feel free to jump on board, you’re welcome to use my pic as well. If you’d just link back to me I’d so appreciate it.

My PICK this week is:

Published 2011 by Arcade Publishing 

My Rating: 4.5/5 Stars 

Narrator of Favorite Sons Hutch Van Buren is fifteen years old, playing sports and searching for arrowheads in a small industrial town in Ohio with his three closest friends when an altercation between the comrades and a troubled seventeen- year-old, leads to an accidental death. Together, Hutch and his friends become ensnared in a web of secrets and moral dilemmas. Each boy shoulders the burden of truth in his own way as each attempts to leave the past behind.

Thirty-three years later, in 2004, Van Buren is the prosecuting attorney in Summit County, Ohio, and a candidate for state attorney general when he learns that he and his boyhood friends weren’t the only ones keeping a secret about the death.  Van Buren must decide between his political career and the duty of the office he has sworn to uphold. 

******

I have to say I’m on a roll lately with these older reads that I’m managing to squeeze in between new release reads. Favorite Sons is another fantastic read by Robin Yocum, an author I hadn’t heard of a year ago, yet I now consider an auto buy!  Over the last few months I’ve read (and loved) A Brilliant Death ( review here) and A Welcome Murder (review here) and Favorite Sons, although published before both of those, was just as good. This story again takes place in a small, southeast Ohio river town and Yocum really nails the setting because I literally felt like I was there watching the events unfold. I’m an Ohioan so I really love the fact that he sets his books in my home state.

The story begins in 1974 when four teenage boys who’ve been friends since they were young kids find themselves involved in a death and make a spur of the moment decision that will alter the course of all their lives. Yocum has created the ultimate moral dilemma  and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough to find out what consequences would befall the boys. Because you just know there’s going to be consequences at some point in time, right? Especially since someone else, an “innocent” someone, ends up paying the price for the death. How all this plays out as well as how each boy’s life changes is the basis for the rest of the story which about the halfway mark moves to present day 2004 and we get to see how each boy’s life has faired after that fateful summer day and that one split second decision.

This is a compelling coming-of-age story filled with mystery, drama, and complicated moral/ethical questions that beg the reader to think about ‘what would I do’ in that situation. I think it would be a perfect pick for book clubs as there’s so much to discuss and I have a feeling opinions would vary greatly in terms of the moral questions.  If you like well-plotted mysteries with a small town, coming-of-age backdrop and you haven’t yet read Robin Yocum, I hope I’ve encouraged you to pick up one of his books, I think you’ll be happy you did!

HAPPY READING!

More Throwback Thursday Picks Around the Blogosphere 

Jill at Jill’s Book Cafe

Deanna at DeesRadReads and Reviews

Amanda at Literary Weaponry

Susan at Susan Loves Books

Stephanie at Stephanie’s Novel Fiction

Abby at Crime By the Book

Cathy at Between the Lines

Delphine at Delphines Publications