Don't Let Me Go - Catherine Ryan Hyde ★★★

I watched the movie "Pay It Forward" and I read the novel "When I found You." Based on my opinions of those two titles, when I had the opportunity to download a free Amazon/Kindle copy of  "Don't Let me Go" by Catherine Ryan Hyde I jumped at the chance. Both Pay It Forward and When I Found you, are books that I would  recommend someone else. They would be books that I would suggest be the next Book Club Read....Most people have seen Pay It Forward by now and most likely will agree with me that it was a very good movie. I'm sure that this is also an instance, where the book was better. When I found you, had me reading late into the night until my eyes couldn't take it....It left me wishing the book would not end. So, with that I expected the same greatness for Don't Let Me Go.
I think I may have set my standards too high.

Don't Let Me Go is about a 10 year old girl Grace whose has no friends and an addict for a mother. She ventures out onto the front steps of her apartment for hours on end and no one says a word. Billy, her agoraphobic neighbor, does something he doesn't normally do. Ever. He talked to Grace. What was one little conversation, turned into Grace making friends with a few tenants from her apartment complex. After social services came by to check in on Grace after an anonymous phone call, her friends decide that Grace cannot be taken away. They devise a plan to keep Grace out of the system, and to get her mother clean.

After I finished reading this novel, I was undecided how I felt about it. I thought 3/5 stars was fair. I guess I may have liked this title better, if I didn't have my expectations set on the same level as I did with the previous works from Hyde. I wanted there to be more sustenance I guess. Yes, there is major character development, but I wasn't really feeling it. I'm still on the fence on how I felt, so I'm not entirely sure I can give a very good review of this book. I'm leaning more towards is just being another novel that I read that doesn't leave a lasting impression. Not something that would be the first book I recommend to someone. Maybe when I have the chance to pick up another title from Hyde, I'll go into without any preconceived notions or high expectations.