The Rules for Disappearing

Author: Ashley Elston
Goodreads Rating: 4.12
Pages: 314
Format: ARC from the Publisher

She’s been six different people in six different places: Madeline in Ohio, Isabelle in Missouri, Olivia in Kentucky . . . But now that she’s been transplanted to rural Louisiana, she has decided that this fake identity will be her last.
Witness Protection has taken nearly everything from her. But for now, they’ve given her a new name, Megan Rose Jones, and a horrible hair color. For the past eight months, Meg has begged her father to answer one question: What on earth did he do – or see – that landed them in this god-awful mess? Meg has just about had it with all the Suits’ rules — and her dad’s silence. If he won’t help, it’s time she got some answers for herself.
But Meg isn’t counting on Ethan Landry, an adorable Louisiana farm boy who’s too smart for his own good. He knows Meg is hiding something big. And it just might get both of them killed. As they embark on a perilous journey to free her family once and for all, Meg discovers that there’s only one rule that really matters — survival.

This was a pretty sweet book. I really love my crime shows as some of you may have noticed, and one of my favorites was In Plain Sight which was about the Witness Protection program. What I really liked about this book was the plot line that they were in witness protection and that they had to be moved around a lot. I feel that everything that Meg had to face made her a little more realistic.

At first I was annoyed at Meg's attitude towards her dad, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how hard it must of been for her and her sister. As a teenager, that is the time that you're supposed to figure out who you are and who you want to be, but how can you do that when you're name is changing once a month and you're never really settled down. Not only that, but you have no time to get to make friends and you feel like you can't trust your own parents, I just can't imagine what that was like for Meg.

That being said she was pretty awful towards to dad as everyone in the family struggled to adapt. I was agitated by Meg's mother, and how she acted so selfishly. I understand that it was so hard to move around and to lose yourself, but when you have children that you need to take care of, they should be your priority, they should be who you take care of.

I adored Ethan and how he used little things that Meg said to figure out that she was lying about everything. I love that even when Meg pushed him away, he pushed back and tried to get her to open up to him. I loved that even he had a point that he couldn't take her not trusting him because I think that in YA, there is a problem with the guy being a little too perfect. Which Ethan was, but he was very adorable about it.

I really enjoyed the little rules that Meg added to the top of each chapter that sort of clued you in as to what was going on in that chapter. Ie the one that talked about not using the internet when she wanted to. (Although it would be more suspicious to be a luddite and avoid all things internet and technology in todays world.) I felt that that was really cute. I didn't really like Meg's whole plan when she got to Louisiana which was to not get to know anyone and try to figure out what her dad did. The latter part of the plan was fine, but I felt that she went about trying to not get to know anyone all wrong. When you got to a small town and you're the freshest meat these kids have seen since Kindergarten, there is no flying under the radar without a little bit of info. I think the plan would have worked much better had she dropped little bit of information and was a little friendly, then she could have passed by with no hassle. (I think)

All in all, I enjoyed this book quite a bit, it was a cute, fun read that had me hooked from start to finish. I loved the mystery that was wrapped up in Meg's ordeal and how she slowly pieced things back together using clues from her old life and her new one. 

The Courts Decision: