The James Logan Courier

By Krislyn Perez, Courier Staff Writer

Lynn Weingarten’s Wherever Nina Lies tells the story of a 16-year-old girl named Ellie.

When Ellie was 14 her sister, Nina, the person she looked up to and adored most, ran away from home. Since then Ellie has been obsessed with finding her sister, but Nina never came back. Ellie eventually accepts that her sister is gone and stops talking about her altogether.

Two years later at a thrift store, Ellie finds a picture that Nina has drawn and left in a book. Ellie then throws accepting her sister’s disappearance out the window and decides to look for her sister.

Through a community bulletin board Ellie finds news of a party going on that her sister would most likely be attending and decides to attend the party herself. She has no luck finding her sister, but instead finds a cute boy named Sean who is willing to help her find Nina. So with Sean’s help Ellie goes on a cross-country road trip to find Nina. As you can probably predict, Sean and Ellie become very close and “fall in love.”

Ellie and Sean follow any clue that Nina has left behind to get to their next destination. But then the story takes an unexpected turn. Is Sean helping Ellie find her sister because he truly does love her or did he have some odd connection to Nina in the past?

Weingarten does a wonderful job of keeping her readers interested and excited to read what happens next.