Wait for Me
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this book.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Sara Shepard's Wait For Me is a fast paced romantic thriller with interwoven storylines about past lives. Seventeen-year-old Casey Rhodes is a sophomore at New York University on scholarship when she meets fellow student Marcus Coleman, the heir to a media empire. It's a real-life Cinderella romance until Casey begins to hear disturbing voices in her head and has violent flashbacks to the past. Terrified, she leaves New York City and flees to a beach town in Long Island, where she runs headlong into the reality of that past, finds an instant connection with a young man who says he knows her as Becky, and uncovers two long ago accidents that were actually murders. There's a bit of kissing and a small amount of profanity ("f--k," "shit," "damn"). The scenes in which someone is trapped underwater in a car and trying to escape could be disturbing to some readers. The characters are White and one teen is pansexual. Throughout the story, Casey's friends treat her with compassion as she struggles to understand what's happening to her.
What's the Story?
WAIT FOR ME is told in the voice of 17-year-old Casey Rhodes, a sophomore at New York University. When she meets 19-year-old Marcus Coleman, she can't believe he'd be interested in someone like her, as Casey is a scholarship student and Marcus comes from a wealthy and prominent family. But none of that matters to Marcus. Their romance seems to be headed toward a Cinderella ending until Casey hears a threatening voice in her ear: "You've been a bad girl." But whose voice is it? Could it be Marcus? Terrified, she leaves New York and finds her way to Avon Shores, a beach town on Long Island. And it's not just voices that are terrifying Casey, it's flashbacks -- visions of a bride being kidnapped on the day of her wedding and of a girl named Becky, a girl Casey thinks she may have been in a past life. Things become even more confusing when she meets Jake, who's lived all his life in Avalon Shores and says he remembers meeting her. But when they met, her name was Becky not Casey. As the visions and flashbacks become more vivid and unsettling, Casey's friends (Marcus, Pippa, and Jake) are unsure if she has a mental illness or if she could really be remembering a past life in which she was Becky. Then Casey realizes that two visions from her past were not tragic accidents, but murders. And the murderer is now after her.
Is It Any Good?
This romantic paranormal thriller has complex and head- spinning plot twists. Fans of Shepard's Pretty Little Liars won't be disappointed. And there's a storyline to please any reader in Wait For Me -- romances both past and present, reincarnation and past lives, unsolved mysteries, and a murderer on the loose.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the relationships of the characters in Wait For Me who come from very different backgrounds. Why is it important to see someone for who they are and not where they come from?
How important is showing compassion in a friendship? Has a friend shown you compassion when you were going through a hard time?
What's more important in a good thriller -- the characters or the plot?
Book Details
- Author: Sara Shepard
- Genre: Mystery
- Topics: Friendship, Great Boy Role Models, Great Girl Role Models
- Character Strengths: Compassion, Courage
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Union Square & Co.
- Publication date: November 1, 2022
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 14 - 18
- Number of pages: 320
- Available on: Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: January 10, 2023
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