No One Else Can Have You by Kathleen Hale

No One Else Can Have You, by Kathleen Hale
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Mystery/Thriller/Murder
Rating: 5/5 stars

Small towns are nothing if not friendly. Friendship, Wisconsin (population: 689 688) is no different. Around here, everyone wears a smile. And no one ever locks their doors. Until, that is, high school sweetheart Ruth Fried is found murdered. Strung up like a scarecrow in the middle of a cornfield.
Unfortunately, Friendship’s police are more adept at looking for lost pets than catching killers. So Ruth’s best friend, Kippy Bushman, armed with only her tenacious Midwestern spirit and Ruth’s secret diary, sets out to find the murderer. But in a quiet town like Friendship—where no one is a suspect—anyone could be the killer.

Review:

• THIS COVER IS BEAUTIFUL, there, I said it. The stellar cover is one of the reasons I picked up this book, not gonna lie. As soon as I began the novel, I was addicted, it was like a drug.
• From the first chapter, the author digs you into the book. The whole time I was reading it, I felt like I was living in the novel. It was so detailed and I didn't even get distracted by the largest things, I didn't know that time was passing.
• I love how this takes place in an unknown small town. There won't be a large amount of press and the whole murder investigation wasn't airing all over America, that would change the book completely. 
• At first, I thought that it would be some hillbilly redneck book with weird language use and strange references, thank goodness the author got past that. *phew*
• The writing was amazing. I was stuck with this book until it was over, and when you read it, make sure you have time for one whole sitting with this baby.
• Kippy, the main character, was strange. At some points I liked her, and at others, I wondered why she was so attached to the whole investigation and why Ruth meant so much to her even though she treated her like a piece of rubbish. (See what I did there? :p)
• This book has so much to do with psychology, I'm not going to lie. There are characters featured with tough lives and who were currently going through some sort of disorder. That's what made the book even better, because you never know what could be going through someone's mind at the moment.
• There were so many suspects that I had in mind for the real killer, but by the end, the author definitely shocked me with the outstanding outcome. Murder mysteries don't usually end like this but this amazing author really did something special here. 
• I need more from this author as soon as possible, but I sure am happy that she is not turning this into some kind of murder mystery series or trilogy, it's over and done with. A definite 5/5 star rating for this book, it was beautiful.