Save Me: A Novel

by Lisa Scottoline

2015

Status

Available

Publication

St. Martin's Paperbacks (2015), Edition: First, 464 pages

Description

When an explosion rips through the nearly empty cafeteria of a Reesburgh (Pa.) Elementary School, lunch mother Rose McKenna leads two girls to safety before racing to rescue her own daughter, Melly. But Rose soon learns that she may face both civil and criminal charges for her heroics because one of the girls she saved was seriously injured in the resulting fire that killed three school staff members.

Media reviews

Rose McKenna was a wife and mother of two, she was helping in her daughter's school when something blew up near the lunch room and a fire started, as she was trying to help get the children out, she thought about her daughter that always hides in the restroom because of a birthmark on her face and
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she gets bullied for it. Rose fought through the fire and finally got to her little daughter and got them both out, but the smoke had got to Melly her daughter so they were both taken to the hospital. Not knowing then how bad the blast had been until later when she learned that a teacher and two lunch room workers were killed and a little girl was in a coma in IC. As the story progresses Rose gets blamed for the little girl that ran back into the fire and then she already had a secret that she had always kept. The father of Melly was dead and she was not married to the father of her baby son. But all through the book when something went wrong the word "Mother" was always in a sentence by itself and I could not understand why, until way over in the book when she disclosed it. I had no idea that this book would be such a great read as I have never read any of Lisa's work before even though she is a "New York Times Bestselling Author". The book is full of anything you may want to read about, love, mystery, children and the author really tells the story that will keep you turning page after page. No fair looking in the back to see how it all ends, sometime it is tempting but I don't ever. Thanks to St. Martin's Press for sending me this book free for me to read and enjoy, It is my choice to do the review.
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1 more
Scottoline, who shifts gears at every curve with the cool efficiency of a NASCAR driver, expertly fuels her target audience’s dearest fantasy: “Every mom is an action hero.”

User reviews

LibraryThing member SugarCreekRanch
I loved the first part of this book. Rose McKenna faces a tough dilemma when an emergency occurs while volunteering at her daughter's school: which child to save first? This scenario, and the second-guessing that comes later, is very well done.

But the other parents at the school react far more
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strongly than one would anticipate. Rose did a good job -- but they somehow think she should have been superhuman. It didn't feel right to me that there was almost no community support; would've been far more believable if the parents were divided over the issue.

And then the story completely lost its credibility when Rose becomes an amateur detective trying to figure out the root cause of the emergency. Too many coincidences, and too much out-of-character behavior.
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LibraryThing member CherieReads
I really wanted to like this book. I finished it in hopes that it would get better but I was disappointed. The premise - that a mother has to make a split second decision about whether to save her own child or someone else's and the consequences of that decision - was interesting and had a lot of
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potential. Unfortunately, that potential is never realized.

The problems?
1 - The dialogue is many times cheesy and unrealistic. I found myself rolling my eyes quite often throughout the entire book. Especially the scenes between Rose and Leo.

2 - The chapters are very short which irritated me. I suppose the author used this style to try and ramp up the suspense but in reality it just irritated me. Just when things were getting good the chapter would end. It made for some choppy reading instead of a smooth buildup of suspense.

3 - The characters were not believable. Many of them were very one dimensional - Leo (the husband), Melly (the daughter), Eileen (the other girl's mother), the lawyer and others. They all played a very specific role in the advancement of the plot - and that's all. They were never developed enough to be believable people to me and much of their personalities seemed cliched to me. Rose herself was a little ridiculous. She was very wishy washy. At first she's the assertive mother lion, then she becomes this jellyfish and then she becomes a superhero. If there had been good character development that showed the character's personal progression through these stages it would have been ok, but as written she seems to almost have multiple personalities.

4 - The story starts out as one thing and then turns into something different altogether. The first half of the book is about Rose's dilemma (as described in the book's description) and how she must deal with the fallout - other people's perceptions of her, the media, legal issues, etc. This part of the book was interesting despite the flaws above. And then, the second half of the book is something completely different. We no longer hear about the lawsuits or criminal aspects of the story. We no longer see anything about how she deals with the new public perception of her. Instead, this turns into a bad mystery novel where the main character goes off on her own to solve a completely unbelievable mystery - why the fire happened in the first place. The circumstances that are revealed are ridiculous to say the least.

This book is trying too hard to be too many things: a commentary on bullying, an emotional drama about an impossible decision, a Nancy Drew style mystery. It succeeds at none of them. I give it 2 stars because there were some parts (the first few chapters in particular) that held my interest and it was not bad enough for me to stop reading. Some entertainment can be had with this book if you are aware of its failings and are able to overlook them and suspend your belief for a little while. If you are looking for a real drama, look to Jodi Picoult or others. If you are looking for a serious mystery, look elsewhere. If you want a somewhat cheesy but maybe entertaining read continue with this one.
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LibraryThing member bakersfieldbarbara
Rose McKenna volunteers in her daughter Melly's school because her daughter is being bullied by Amanda. An explosion means that McKenna must decide who to save first, her daughter or Amanda and her friends. After making her decision, events that follow create a lawsuit, rocks her marriage and the
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bullying continues on a different level. As you follow McKenna in her detective work to see what really transpired and who ordered the explosion, and why, you will find it difficult to put the book down. Not to give away the rest of the plot, rest assured, buying and reading this book will keep you turning the pages until the very end. The author does a great job in describing the events and the characters, allowing you to feel as if you are right there as McKenna discovers the horrific way that criminal minds work. The twists and turns are enough to keep you interested, but the final pages are the frosting on this cake, as Amanda explains the one fact that was needed, why did she go back into the building after the explosion?
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LibraryThing member angela.vaughn
This book throws at you two very good subjects or topics. Bullys, and what would you do in a life or death situation. You can save only one child- yours or the bully, and the bully is closer to you.
I found that this book had more twists and turns than a road in Arkansas, and that made it even more
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interesting. I love the fact that there was a great moral message that was woven inw with the mystery and suspense. Sometimes it really does take a child to teach an adult how to accept and love.
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LibraryThing member suefernandez
Rose is a mom, trying to protect her daughter, as many of us do. Melly has a skin condition that causes her to be bullied. But, as she volunteers one day there is a tragedy that changes the course of everything, and could be taken straight from current events...i.e. blame in the media before all
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the facts, etc. A suspense plot is woven into the storyline, making it more than just a book about parents and how you handle bullying. I couldn't put this book down, and kept going back to thinking about how I sometimes make rash judgements. I went between wanting the book to last, but also wanting to hurry through it! I've read Lisa Scottoline before, and I think it is my favorite of hers.
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LibraryThing member efoltz
An explosion occurs during lunch and a mother makes a choice between saving the children she is with or looking for her child. The town is looking for a scape goat and is questioning her choice. In an attempt to protect her family, several surprising discoveries are made about people involved. A
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nice combination of drama and mystery so I never wanted to put the book down.
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LibraryThing member Cats57
Save Me by Lisa Scottoline

If you enjoy the type of novels that want you to ask yourself the hard “what if” or “what would I do in this type of situation” questions, then you may find this novel interesting…at least for the first 8 or 10 chapters, because that is what this novel asks you
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to do. It tries to ask you to put yourself in a situation that may make you uncomfortable, unpopular and may even call you ethics into question.

Or, after ten chapters you may do like me and simply roll your eyes at the antics of the “heroine” and want to call it a day. While the story could have been ‘all that and a bag of chips’ the stilted dialogue, unsympathetic characters, outlandishly unrealistic plot makes this a difficult read to take seriously or to even simply like. The plot is all over the place with no rhyme or reason, and some secondary stories just seem thrown in willy-nilly. For the life of me I cannot see why Ms Scottoline did things like this.. The main story of our heroine taking flak for supposedly saving her child above any other child, would have been sufficient to carry this book. The author chooses to throw in revelations that really had no bearing on the story and childish antics that has the heroine finding out that there was a nefarious plot going on to kill several people. Frankly, just the “what if” idea was enough for an entire book.

Sadly, I expected so much more from an author of this caliber.
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LibraryThing member EdnaT
Rose McKenna was a wife and mother of two, she was helping in her daughter's school when something blew up near the lunch room and a fire started, as she was trying to help get the children out, she thought about her daughter that always hides in the restroom because of a birthmark on her face and
Show More
she gets bullied for it. Rose fought through the fire and finally got to her little daughter and got them both out, but the smoke had got to Melly her daughter so they were both taken to the hospital. Not knowing then how bad the blast had been until later when she learned that a teacher and two lunch room workers were killed and a little girl was in a coma in the IC ward.

As the story progresses Rose gets blamed for the little girl that ran back into the fire and then she already had a secret that she had always kept. The father of Melly was dead and she was not married to the father of her baby son. But all through the book when something went wrong the word "Mother" was always in a sentence by itself and I could not understand why, until way over in the book when she disclosed it.

I had no idea that this book would be such a great read as I have never read any of Lisa's work before even though she is a "New York Times Bestselling Author". The book is full of anything you may want to read about, love, mystery, children and the author really tells the story that will keep you turning page after page. No fair looking in the back to see how it all ends, sometime it is tempting but I don't ever.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for sending me this book free for me to read and enjoy, It is my choice to do the review.
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LibraryThing member lulu150
This is the second book that I have read of Lisa Scottoline's and I did enjoy this one. I know that this one was a little bit different from some of her other books and I do plan on reading more from her.

This book did make you stop and think, what would I have done in that situation and did this
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in several different parts of the book. At times I did feel the pace a little bit slow but at other times it was much faster. So, if you like a little mystery and a book that makes you think a little, then this is a good one to read!
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LibraryThing member Beecharmer
This is a tired story that's been told too many times. Not Scottoline's best work.
LibraryThing member melanie1721
I was thrilled to win an Early Review of Save me sent from St. Martin's Press. I couldn't wait to dive into the story. I have read a few of Lisa Scottoline's books and have fairly enjoyed them. The description of this novel reminded me of similar books to Jodi Picoult which I always devour.

You are
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grabbed right in the first chapters when a cafeteria explosion starts a fire. Rose who is volunteering to be a lunch-mom to keep an eye on the bullying that is happening to her daughter Melly must make a big decision. Who will she rescue? Her daughter or the two girls who are bullying her daughter.

So Rose leads Amanda and her friend to the hallway that leads to the door to head out of the school and then goes back for her daughter. Now Rose is considered a hero, until the stretcher rolls by with Amanda on it. Amanda ran back into the fire to get her ipod and ends up in a coma and now Rose is accused of saving her own daughter over the others.

The first half really grabbed my interest but the second half felt like a completely different novel.
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LibraryThing member Marlyn
About a month ago on Crime Fiction Collective, I wrote a review of two books that shared the theme of bullying. More recently, I read Lisa Scottoline's latest book and wished I could have included it in that review.

Rose McKenna's eight-year-old daughter Melly was born with a facial birthmark, a
Show More
wine-colored blotch on her left cheek. They've already had to move once because of the way Melly was treated at school. When she tells her mother that it's happening again, Rose volunteers in the school cafeteria to keep an eye on her.

When she sees her classmate Amanda putting jelly on her face in mockery of the birthmark, Melly runs to the girls' room to hide. Rose begins to chastise Amanda, but is interrupted by an explosion which knocks her momentarily unconscious. When she comes to, she leads Amanda and her two friends to the exit before turning back to find Melly.

Rose does get her daughter out of the building, but then learns that Amanda isn't with the other girls, having apparently gone back inside for something. Melly is taken to the hospital, treated for smoke inhalation and sent home a few days later. Amanda remains unconscious for some time.

Amanda's mother and many of the other locals blame Rose for not making sure that Amanda was out before she went back for her own daughter, and Rose learns how ostracized Melly has felt all her life. Rose decides that the only way to fix the situation is to figure out what caused the explosion and track the resulting events, a decision that causes her to realize who she is and what she's really capable of.

Unlike the heroines of the Rosato and Associates series, the protagonist of this stand-alone is not a lawyer (though her husband is), but an ex-model, so her investigative skills are definitely those of an amateur. But she somehow manages to ask the right questions of the right people in her quest to find out what really happened.

This is a quick read, with cliff-hanger chapter endings that keep the reader hooked. The ending is perhaps a little pat, but essentially satisfying.

*FTC Full Disclosure: I received this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.
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LibraryThing member amandacb
The premise of Save Me sounds interesting enough -- but the novel quickly digresses into a cacophony of side plots and farfetched theories. The protagonist, Rose, is an unsympathetic creature whom I wanted to have more fire at the beginning -- she seemed to just sit back and let everything happen
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to her. Then, all of a sudden, she began doing insanely stupid actions. It just made little sense to me. I kept reading because, honestly, I was fascinated with what direction Scottoline was going to go in next.
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LibraryThing member rlanders
I have read other books by Lisa Scottoline and was thrilled when I received it to review. However, this book was not one of my favorites. The main focus was on the mom and she started out as a very weak person but then became this crime fighting mom that was just a little too unrealistic.
LibraryThing member MsGemini
Save Me is a thought provoking story about a mother and her love for her daughter. The story starts with a tragic fire in the school cafeteria. Rose, the main character is a volunteer at the school. She is faced with some difficult decisions during this tragedy. After reading the first couple
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chapters I was not sure how this story line would stretch into a 370 page novel.
The author takes the story off into many directions. While sub plots can add interest to a novel, I did not find that to be the case with this novel.
Rose started out as a loving Mom and then in the second half of the story she becomes a super hero. The book started strong and then just fizzled. I felt the second half of the book was unrealistic and the ending felt rushed.
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LibraryThing member shannon4462
Eh. The last half of the book was better then the first half. I could not relate to Rose in this book making it extremely difficult to enjoy. I also don't care for a child's voice (as a main character) in a book, authors never really pull that off very well.
LibraryThing member grammyellen
Rose works at the school where her daughter Melly attends. One day there is an explosion and Rose works diligently to get the children out. Then she goes to find her daughter. Amanda goes back in the school because she left her ipad behind. Amanda is injured and everyone blames Rose that she did
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not make sure the girl was outside. Rose is treated terribly and decides to find out what really happened.

Very good read, a real page turner. Rose is a very strong character and you root for her the whole way through. She is very tenacious in finding out not only what happened in the explosion but who murdered Amanda's father. Good minor characters too. The story flowed easily from beginning to end. Recommended read for all Scottoline fans.
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LibraryThing member asomers
I have to preface my review of this book with the fact that I am an educator in NJ. In recent months teacher's have been demonized and school bullying has been a hot topic in this state. That being said, I found the portrayal of teachers and school officials offensive in this book. I honestly gave
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it my best shot, but I could not even finish reading it. I thought the teachers were portrayed in a very negative light. I thought the scenario in which a new parent volunteer is placed in the same lunch period with her daughter and the girl that she had already filed a complaint against was completely out of touch with what goes on in a real school. I realize that this is a work of fiction, but I found it's negative attitude towards the educational community very disturbing.
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LibraryThing member Sharn
Well, here's what I thought. The first 50pgs - great - the next 150 awful - the last 150 redeeming.

I hated the first half of this book so much that I couldn't get past it. There was no way to redeem it for me but it did get better.

The story is about a lunch room volunteer trapped in a fire with
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the choice to save 2 other girls or her own daughter. She tried to save all 3 but it wasn't good enough and she got a lot of crap from other parents about her saving her own daughter and not the other two. Rose came off as weak, passive doormat and I had a really hard time with that. At one point, I almost didn't even continue to read it but then she went and uncovered and help catch all the bad guys.

I will not recommend this book to anyone.
I won this from LibraryThing.com!
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LibraryThing member mom2conner
I have never read anything written by Lisa Scottoline before, and after reading Save Me and I can't wait to read all her novels! What a beautifully written, amazing story. I found my self feeling the same emotions as Rose, the main character, right along with her as I was reading. Lisa really hits
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home when describing bullying and it's effects on everyone. Save me is a must read and a page turner, I had a hard time putting this book down! The story was just incredible. Having said that, I was constantly distracted by the extreme number of chapters. Save Me has 89 chapters, none more than a few pages long. Also, I was a bit agitated by the fact that the main characters name kept being shortened from Rose to Ro. I felt it was unnecessary and sloppy work. Rose is a short enough name and shouldn't need to be shortened for any kind of effect to take place. Regardless, I will be recommending this book to as many people as possible, it was a great read!
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LibraryThing member poolays
I have read Scottoline's other books and enjoyed them, so was looking forward to this one.

It's about a mom volunteering in a school when a fire breaks out. I didn't much like the mom at first, and couldn't relate to the story, even though I am a mom and a teacher. She was spineless and
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overprotective. The first part of the book reads like a made for TV movie. It does get better, with unexpected twists and turns, but the characters were never well developed.

An okay light read, but nothing I would recommend.
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LibraryThing member ParkcrestLakewood
About a month ago on Crime Fiction Collective, I wrote a review of two books that shared the theme of bullying. More recently, I read Lisa Scottoline's latest book and wished I could have included it in that review.

Rose McKenna's eight-year-old daughter Melly was born with a facial birthmark, a
Show More
wine-colored blotch on her left cheek. They've already had to move once because of the way Melly was treated at school. When she tells her mother that it's happening again, Rose volunteers in the school cafeteria to keep an eye on her.

When she sees her classmate Amanda putting jelly on her face in mockery of the birthmark, Melly runs to the girls' room to hide. Rose begins to chastise Amanda, but is interrupted by an explosion which knocks her momentarily unconscious. When she comes to, she leads Amanda and her two friends to the exit before turning back to find Melly.

Rose does get her daughter out of the building, but then learns that Amanda isn't with the other girls, having apparently gone back inside for something. Melly is taken to the hospital, treated for smoke inhalation and sent home a few days later. Amanda remains unconscious for some time.

Amanda's mother and many of the other locals blame Rose for not making sure that Amanda was out before she went back for her own daughter, and Rose learns how ostracized Melly has felt all her life. Rose decides that the only way to fix the situation is to figure out what caused the explosion and track the resulting events, a decision that causes her to realize who she is and what she's really capable of.

Unlike the heroines of the Rosato and Associates series, the protagonist of this stand-alone is not a lawyer (though her husband is), but an ex-model, so her investigative skills are definitely those of an amateur. But she somehow manages to ask the right questions of the right people in her quest to find out what really happened.

This is a quick read, with cliff-hanger chapter endings that keep the reader hooked. The ending is perhaps a little pat, but essentially satisfying.
Show Less
LibraryThing member busyreadin
A woman's hard choice between saving 2 school girls she is in charge of or saving her own daughter when a fire breaks out in the school lead to division, pain, and loss.

What would you do?
LibraryThing member liisa22
Save Me, by Lisa Scottoline. I am in the process of reading, still! been a CRAZY few weeks. So far, so good! I have to be failed by the author, and am pleased to say that it continues!
LibraryThing member julyso
Rose McKenna, mom to Melly, is helping out by volunteering in the school cafeteria when there is an explosion. She has a tough choice to make and does a good job... but not everyone gets the complete story and there are hard feelings. A secret she has held in for a long time also comes out causing
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additional problems. A child is hurt, lawyers are hired, reporters are everywhere, and rumors of lawsuits abound. Rose digs deep to find the truth.

I just didn't really buy this story from the beginning. I never really got attached to any of the characters. As the book went on, it got really unbelievable. The things this woman did were just so out of character for a regular person. It wasn't suspenseful, just not very realistic. A disappointment for a Scottoline fan.
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2011

Physical description

464 p.; 4.19 inches

ISBN

031238081X / 9780312380816

Barcode

1602430
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