Title: Finding Magdalena
Author: Shannon Condon
Publisher: Rowanvale Books Ltd.
ISBN: 978-1912655311
Pages: 370
Genre: Thriller / Drama
Reviewed by: Liz Konkel
Hollywood Book Reviews
Maggie Curran has lost everything. During her Freshman year, her parents are killed in an accident, leaving her to work through her grief at boarding school, and with the help of her best friend (who may also be in love with her), she makes it through another year. Her new roommate Sarah brings fun back into her life and draws her back into the real world. She even gives Maggie the courage to enter the dating world. Opening her heart to someone charming and new was supposed to bring her happiness but when her new boyfriend begins to show his dark side, she soon finds herself in the fight of her life. Just when she thinks she has her life on a new path, her past comes back to haunt her. Author Shannon Condon blends drama and thriller in a story grounded by a protagonist that is strong-willed, realistic, and a creates a voice for abuse victims. This is the first book in the “Magdalena” series.
The story opens with the last moment Maggie shared with her parents and serves as an example of the happiness she had with them. The tone quickly shifts to grief after her parents die which is a tragedy that realistically stays with her throughout the story. A lighthearted opening fades into tragedy and then weaves in elements of hope, friendship, relationships, trauma, and healing – of which Condon brilliantly incorporates into each stage of Maggie’s life. Each shift in tone accompanies a natural transition in Maggie’s journey. Friendships are the most important relationships in her life with Sarah drawing her back into the world and Graham standing by her as she grieved. Sarah has an important role within the story as a conveyor of light when Maggie needed it the most and an inadvertent source that draws darkness into Maggie’s life through Sarah’s brother.
Her journey is divided into three significant parts that blend grief, romance, survival, thriller, and coming of age. Shannon Condon takes an honest approach to Maggie’s stages of grief and how friendships help her step into life again. Romantic entanglements are incorporated throughout the story from the unrequited love of her best friend to the charming Mateo she meets in Italy. The second arc of the story is the darkest as her dream-come-true morphs into a nightmare when her seemingly perfect boyfriend shows his dark side. Condon tackles abuse with honesty as Maggie’s story transitions from a young girl grieving her parents to a young woman’s survival in an abusive relationship. The strength in Maggie is a testament to the courage she finds to come through the darkest moment of her life and still open her heart to love again.
At the heart of the story is a tale of survival, healing, grief, and loss which is layered under a journey ultimately about happiness, love, and new beginnings. The third arc of her journey finds Maggie taking a second chance at love with the tone changing to one that is romantic and lighthearted. The thriller elements are included by the dramatic escalation that comes when her past quite literally hunts her down. These elements balance out the romance, coming-of-age, and self-discovery moments that Maggie undergoes throughout the course of events in the story.
This is the perfect read for those that enjoy thrillers, drama, romance, survival stories, and strong heroines. One girl’s journey of grief, tragedy, healing, trauma and survival in Finding Magdalena gives voice to victims of domestic violence and abuse in a drama that blends in elements of the thriller genre and romance.