Janie Face to Face

Janie Johnson #5

by Caroline B. Cooney

In this riveting and emotional conclusion to the thriller-romance Janie series, that started with The Face on the Milk Carton, all will be revealed as readers find out if Janie and Reeve's love has endured, and whether or not the person who brought Janie and her family so much emotional pain and suffering is brought to justice.

Genres: Young Adult, Mystery, Fiction, Teen, Romance, Realistic Fiction, Contemporary

354 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Caroline Cooney knew in sixth grade that she wanted to be a writer when "the best teacher I ever had in my life" made writing her main focus. "He used to rip off covers from The New Yorker and pass them around and make us write a short story on whichever cover we got. I started writing then and never stopped!"
When her children were young, Caroline started writing books for young people -- with remarkable results. She began to sell stories to Seventeen magazine and soon after began writing books. Suspense novels are her favorites to read and write. "In a suspense novel, you can count on action."
To keep her stories realistic, Caroline visits many schools outside of her area, learning more about teenagers all the time. She often organizes what she calls a "plotting game," in which students work together to create plots for stories. Caroline lives in Westbrook, Connecticut and when she's not writing she volunteers at a hospital, plays piano for the school musicals and daydreams!
- Scholastic.com

Reviews

[Sara the Librarian · Rating 1 out of 5]

How has what was once a pretty original idea for a novel somehow been milked (oh god forgive the pun) into a five book series!?

In stilted, formal prose that seems intended for a twelve year old audience from 1985 despite references to texting and things like Facebook Cooney once again attempts to get still more action out of the troubled, complex life of Janie/Jennie and the wackadoos who make up her circle of family and friends.

Will Janie/Jennie get back together with creepy Reeve? Will her horrid natural siblings ever stop being such giant assholes to her? Will her weird, manipulative "kidnap" mom get a grip? Will she ever decide which name she wants to be called!?!?! DO WE CARE SINCE THIS HAS NOW BEEN GOING FOR FIVE FIVE FIVE BOOKS!?!?!?!?!?!?!

If you care about the tiny bit of closure this book provides go ahead pick it up. The entire novel could be encapsulated in the last five pages when an actual conflict and resolution finally occurs. Nothing unexpected is revealed, no one has any dramatic insights or life changing personality shifts and god knows we'll probably be treated to another one of these when Janie/Jennie's own kid inevitably gets kidnapped by one of her deranged siblings in the next book.

[Susan (Wastepaper Prose) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Where do I begin? Janie Johnson's stories, The Face on the Milk Carton series, are among the few books I've kept since middle and high school. My well-loved, original copies, reread enough times that I stopped counting, remain on my shelf to this day. I was utterly captivated by the tale Caroline B. Cooney spun about a teenage girl shocked out of her comfortable life by the realization that the life she's always known wasn't the own she was always supposed to have. But after four books, questions remained.

Has Janie Johnson/Jennie Spring finally reconciled her lives and discovered who she is? Will Janie and Reeve, the boy next door (who is the epitome of boys next door!), rekindle their romance? And perhaps most important of all, will Janie's kidnapper ever be brought to justice?

Janie Face to Face, the fifth and final book in the series, answers those questions. It feels like the right ending.

This novel reminded me what I loved so much about Cooney's writing. It's gorgeous, direct, and feels like a genuine chronicle of her characters lives, raw and unromanticized. For example, in talking about Janie's birth mother's fury Cooney writes it was as if she were being "executed by a firing squad of her own rage."

Janie's in college in New York now. She's spending time with both her families, but she still isn't sure if she's Janie or Jennie. She's so conflicted that she even tries Jane on for size.

Chapters are interspersed with the kidnappers perspective. In her own words, Hannah tells us what happened then and through those glimpses into her life and mind you learn that the crime Hannah never planned and claims meant nothing to her is just as central to her life as it is to Janie.

Things have calmed down with the media madness, and just as Janie starts to get settled into what she thinks is her fresh start a nosy writer is hoping to turn her real life-struggles as the girl who saw her own face on a milk carton into his next true crime bestseller. He's bombarding her families and friends with emails and letters in hopes of getting the exclusive, and someone talks. Her past has come back to haunt her yet again and betrayal isn't far behind.

The crisis sends her back into the arms of the one person who knows everything - Reeve - and has always been there. He was just as I remembered him. Perfect without being unrealistic. His boy next door charms and protective nature made me fall in love with him all over again.

My main complaint with Janie Face to Face is that it's a lot of story packed into 352 pages and felt a bit like reading CliffNotes because years passed in mere chapters. It wasn't exactly info dumping but it felt a bit like speeding through information I should've had more time to digest. It's possible that's a product of this novel being distanced from the fourth novel by more than a decade, which I can forgive.

All in all, Janie Face to Face is a fitting conclusion to this series. While predictable in many respects, the final chapter of Janie's story offers the answers fans of the series yearned for. After all these years, Janie deserved closure and I'm glad she got it.

[Avril · Rating 3 out of 5]

Twenty-three years after the publication of the first in the series, The Face on the Milk Carton, Caroline B. Cooney completes the 'Janie' saga. I read the first when I actually fit into the 'Young Adult' demographic, and was so caught up by the plot that I have read each new book as it came out, no matter how long it had been since the last one. I was excited to find 'Janie Face to Face' in a bookshop on Thursday and devoured it in a couple of hours.

There are problems with a story that covers five to six years in diegetic time, and yet was written over 23 years. This last book is full of mobile phones and Facebook status updates, and ret-cons 'cell phones' into the lives of its characters, while also referring to the fact that they weren't around five/twenty-three years ago when the story started. I found this simply interesting rather than irritating, maybe because I've been on a bit of an Agatha Christie reread recently, and she had a similar problem after creating the already-elderly Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple and then giving them fifty-year careers. This happens to authors who write over a long period of time.

Other reviews of this book have complained about the writing style and it does have a kind of faux-naïveté that I can see would be irritating. But it works, I think, to reveal the kind of breathless emotionalism that would be felt by a privileged, middle-American fourteen-year-old girl who discovers that everything she thought she knew about her life is a lie. The emotions are sophisticated, the writing style isn't, it's almost flat, as everyone has to deal with the enormity of the situation - and I think that works.

The books ends with a marriage and with the protagonist taking her husband's name as one way of dealing with the choice between her two identities. I'd love to say that here the author is showing her age (the book is dedicated to her grandchildren) and that no twenty-year-old would do such a thing today, but I've married enough Gen Y couples to know that those women who choose to get married today do tend to take their husband's name, and that anyone who marries in their twenties is at least partly looking for some nostalgic version of marriage and home life that probably never existed.

Closure. This book provides closure. I'm glad I read it, and sometime when I feel the need to wallow in YA-ness I'll probably read the whole series through.

[Marianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

i really enjoyed this series but there were so many inconsistencies between all 5 books. In one book, Lizzie tells Reeve that Hannah is dead, but by this last book, it isn't mentioned again and Hannah is definitely not dead. In book one, written 23 years before this one, janie is listening to cassettes in the car, and by the last book, which really only takes place 5 years later, janie has an iphone, ipad, ereader, and facebook page. I think Cooney could have done without all the technology references to make it more fluid. That being said, i did enjoy the mystery and the series as a whole. It was good to finally have a conclusion in Janie Face to Face.

[Kꌗꓘ · Rating 4 out of 5]

1) This title was illogically chosen. It's called Janie Face to Face and you would think that it would refer to Janie finally coming face to face with Hannah considering the premise, however she doesn't. That was the most disappointing part of this book.

There are few books where I am unable to guess the plot if not large chunks of it but surprisingly this was one of those books. The premise talks about a famous crime writer wishing to write a story about Janie/Jennie/Jane but it turns out that the writer isn't who we think he is. Everyone in the book considers people around them for choosing to write the book and everyone has their own motivations. It turns out that some of Janie's Spring family resent her for choosing her Johnson family over her bio-family for what seems to be the last time by allowing Hannah to still go free in the last book. But it turns out that despite everyone's desire to catch Hannah and get justice, it's no one we know betraying Janie. Instead, it's Hannah. Like I said, totally surprising. I don't know how I didn't see that coming from the moment that we heard the book's title, The Happy Kidnap and all the badmouthing the author did towards Janie's Johnson parents. In the end, however, Hannah does get caught but without any sort of confrontation that I was waiting/hoping for. Instead, she gets arrested in the Johnson's new house while they are at Janie's wedding and that's the end of that.

I felt like the ending was sort of rushed. Like maybe the author didn't know how to make Janie and Hannah come face to face so she just didn't allow them too.

I loved this book but I also hated it too. I loved that Janie and Reeve got married and they had that romantic airport proposal with all of those people watching. That was probably one of my favorite scenes in the book. And it was fitting that later when Reeve gave Janie her engagement ring, it was also in the airport. I just wish we had gotten to see some of the time Janie and Reeve had together during the weekend that led to the spontaneous proposal. Without it, it makes me feel slightly lost.

I hated that Janie was becoming Jennie Spring. That she was leaving behind her Johnson family in favor of the only family she was supposed to have. But I think that she and the author forgot that nothing was how it was supposed to. I hated everything that Janie was doing to become herself. I loved her college essay, I loved her emotional turmoil. It all reminded me of Juliet from Shakespeare's question, What is in a name?. I wanted Janie to continue to balance her lives, her selves. Because she wasn't just Janie Johnson but she wasn't just Jennie Spring either and it felt wrong to me for her to give up everything she was in order to be someone she never got the chance too. She wasn't the Jennie-who-might-have-been, so why try now? I hated all of that. I wanted her to choose a new wedding dress for herself, not use her Spring mother's old one. I wanted her to figure out a way to tell both of her families at the same time that she was getting married. I hated Janie's evolution into Jennie but luckily she married Reeve and became someone with a different name entirely.

Overall, though I did enjoy the book although some of the repetition with things bothered me. I do recommend fans of the series read this book. We got into Hannah's head quite a bit. She hates Janie. She believes she stole her parents, her money and all the love she should've had. Every time someone is mean to her, she blames it on Janie. We learn that she viciously chose to give Janie to her parents believing that they would get busted within days and thrown in jail for kidnapping.

[Lindsey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't usually take the time to write book reviews, but brother, I wish I'd READ some before picking this up. If you, like me, were a big fan of Ms. Cooney's books as a young teenager, do yourself a favor and leave your fond memories unsullied. Within the first two chapters, I found myself thinking that this book was written by someone who was somewhat out of touch with technology and bitter about it (Within 4 chapters, the sentence "Nobody would talk to anybody because they were all on their phones" is used). Then there was Janie's preoccupation, at the ripe old age of 18, with "meeting her future husband". Aside from that rubbing me the wrong way in general, the way she thought about it just sounded wrong for a character who is supposed to be a college student in the 2010s. And then with her ending up married to Reeve after being so conflicted about him (and everything that led up to that, like her being tricked by Michael), it seems like the story would have been a lot less weird if she had taken longer to catch on to Michael, and simply ended up back together with Reeve by the end of the book. But I guess when you know you met your perfect future husband in high school (or whatever), who betrayed your trust and who you couldn't even decide if you wanted to forgive or not, why waste time?

I could have forgiven most of that if any of the characters had been likable. At all. Unfortunately, all any of the characters seemed to do was think about how badly they'd treated each other in the past and whine about all these hurt feelings (not to mention secrets) that they are clearly going to spend the rest of their lives bottling up and allowing to fester as mental illness. Those were our brave heroes, who were also joined by some heroes who were completely self-obsessed or who thought the worst of their family members and friends for no apparent reason. The only difference I saw between some of the heroes and the villain was the full-throttle insanity that was paired with the self-obsession.

Honestly, the only reason I read the entire book was to see where the villain's crazy train would stop. The book might even have been better if it'd just been about her, even going back to her early life before she ever took Janie. To be fair, I did hate her the most. I was glad that her plans didn't succeed. I do kind of wish there had been a final chapter about her, telling what ended up happening to her (prison v. institution) and what had been wrong with her from the beginning, etc. But I'd have been much happier if I'd simply read a summary of this book instead of taking the time to read it myself.

[Bryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are just some books you read as a kid and maybe...they just shouldn't grow with you.

I was a huge Cooney fan in my middle school and even into high school years, so I picked this up for the nostalgia and to see what had happened.

And I realized, no offense to my taste in books as a 12 year old, this really is terrible writing (call me a book snob, I'll live).

It's not a terrible story. It's just told in this removed third person flattened tone with horrible word choice that hearkens back to a simpler time that clashes with the modern pace set by the social media slammed into this book. It's the James Patterson of young adult books. Oh wait, James Patterson is the James Patterson of young adult books. But maybe Cooney is a distant second in perfunctorily ignoring the craft and art of storytelling.

And I'll totally climb on the bandwagon of Janie-hating. She's a bit whiny for sure and all that (eh, forgivable), but I do wish we'd seen her just once find her independence or lady balls or whatever and not need to view her worth through whatever male she's connected to. If that could have happened once, I would have no problem with the rest of the story.

Would I want my future daughters reading this and taking Janie as any kind of example of feminism? No, no, no, no, no.
Is it still a good suspense story? Sure - perhaps more so if the reader is 12.

[Clementine · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this conclusion to Janie Johnson’s harrowing story about being kidnapped as a child and raised in another family, readers finally get answers to all the questions they have about Janie’s life, Janie’s families, and what happened to Hannah, the woman who kidnapped her.

Except this is a hot mess of a novel and pretty much undoes any of the good that the beginning of the series ever did. Unless you’re a die-hard fan of Cooney’s early 90s series, there’s no reason to pick this one up. Ever. At all. A confusing timeline, what can only be described as flat, lifeless writing, and virtually NO PLOT make this one a total miss.

Nothing about this ever gels. Janie’s in college now, but she’s still as vapid and childish as she ever was. The way she talks and thinks about the world is from another era, but somehow we’re in present-day, where everyone has Facebook and iPhones and is connected via social media. If we’re only five years in the future from when the first book took place, how did we make such a jump in terms of technology? Nothing about the previous story lines work within the context of present day, and because of this, nothing about this story feels at all plausible.

None of the other characters make up for Janie’s rampant obliviousness and selfish actions. I read one review where the reviewer referred to Janie’s family as a bunch of “wackadoos,” and it really couldn’t be more apropos. Everyone in the novel is straight up crazypants, and not in a fun way. The only person with anything resembling an interesting voice is Hannah, and the novel’s rushed ending ruins even that.

Therein lies the real problem here: nothing happens. For 300 pages, Cooney wastes everyone’s time by not doing anything to really further the plot. It’s only in the novel’s rushed final pages that readers and characters alike get anything resembling a conflict, a climax, and a resolution. It’s a bore and a chore to get through this one, and the pay off isn’t nearly worth the time invested.

If you’re a die-hard fan who must know if Janie and the totally cardboard Reeve get together, read the last couple of pages. Other than that, this is a total miss. Just go re-read the first novel in the series again and bask in the 90s glory. A total disasterpiece.

Janie Face to Face by Caroline B. Cooney. Delacorte Books for Young Readers: 2013. Electronic galley accepted for review.

[Natalie Schloss · Rating 2 out of 5]

the only book i've had this much beef with recently is sisterhood everlasting when i reread it a few months ago. which funnily enough both cases are sequels to a series of four that really made anything i previously had beef with in the series seem like not a big deal. in both cases i was delighted to see there was a new book but with sisterhood everlasting i read it the first time after it came out, but didn't get around to this until seven years later and i reread all the other books first so

the modernization was SUPER annoying as i already said about the short story. what was the point. it's always like "oh we didn't have this kind of technology back when this happened" when it's talking about events that were supposed to have happened five years ago. it was just stupid but the plot and all the inconsistencies were so much worse

so i'll talk about inconsistencies first.
1. "it has taken her three years to use that word with donna" she called donna mom back in the voice on the radio when she told her about what reeve did?? that was probably like a year into the whole situation.
2. frank hadn't been supporting hannah for those first twelve years. he didn't know where she was until the arrest when the payments started, which was three years before the events of what janie found. AND he had kept the phone number in case hannah called and this had hannah trying to call and finding the phone disconnected, which it hadn't been until after the johnsons found out about the kidnapping. obvs it sucks that he hid it, especially from miranda but like. it wasn't that long term
3. why does brendan wanna stick it to janie by doing these interviews he literally was always indifferent (which......was never really explained like just bc he and brian were wrapped up in their twin world? and then later bc he was wrapped up in his athletics? it was weird bc he was barely a character in the first four books and this made him way more significant) and now he has issue with janie the way the rest of his family does? why
4. i mentioned in my review of the short story but talking about hannah and all her big dreams it was like.......since when did she want to be any of those things esp bc she seemed to have an issue with people who have so much wealth she would not have wanted to be any sort of celebrity or whatever it was weird. i just think the previous books made it seem like she wasn't such a villain and we just didn't know what exactly happened when she took janie but this made her a villain AND whiny

the springs STILL being assholes and not considering how hard the situation must be for janie literally i've spent the whole series annoyed with them, not her
1. jodie still telling janie her name should be jennie and "we always wanted you, you never wanted us" like what more does janie have to do??? she's in their lives, she didn't dump them!
2. "janie never does the best she can" please shut up stephen oh my god yes she does
3. "janie could have arranged for hannah to be caught!" literally the reason she didn't go through with it in what janie found was bc stephen said how much dealing with hannah and a trial would fuck him up lmao their relationship was in a good place at the end of that book too why did cooney do this in every book where things would be better with the springs and then they would STILL hold this grudge against her

some of my little annoyances:
1. reeve was still asking for janie back at his graduation party when they were together for probably a year and had been broken up for three years?? let them move on
2. i had no idea what was coming obvs but oh my god they're SO YOUNG why do they have to get married also i assume janie isn't going with her biological age so even though it says she's twenty and he's twenty three, she's actually nineteen right? yikes
3. i hated them speeding through janie's freshman year of college like there might as well have just been a time jump (and what was the point of the short story hannah was supposedly planning her revenge while janie was a senior year in high school)
4. janie was just obsessed with and then betrayed by michael and she's just like "yes reeve of course i will marry you"
5. hannah was truly SO annoying like you chose not to have the life you're acting like janie stole from you skjdfkjs you LEFT her with your parents and said she was their granddaughter christ
6. when will authors get that young people don't share information like that on facebook like she had adair posting about janie's trip to boulder during high school and had everyone posting about the wedding like you keep that shit private for the people who are invited and that's NOT everyone you know on facebook. and given the circumstances people would wanna keep everything private for janie's sake like......her KIDNAPPER is still out there y'all
7. jodie was upset bc the focus will be on janie's wedding instead of her trip to haiti??? like if you're helping other people just to get attention for good deeds it's not a good deed!!! plus the way it compares haiti to america......it's gross
8. "there was one person in this church who might never feel joy again, who had no hope and no future. miranda." okay obviously she's in a VERY painful situation with her husband but to say all hope is lost and she'll never have a happy fulfilling life again.........is an extreme take
9. way way WAY too many POV switches. the other books did not show us that many characters' thoughts lmao

horrifying bits:
1. HANNAH PUT JANIE IN THE FRONT SEAT THEN DIDN'T PUT THE SEAT BELT ON HER EVEN WHEN JANIE ASKED LIKE CHRIST SHE'S THREE
2. that michael dude got on the train and janie asked how he knew where she was and he straight up said "i stalked you" and then she just snuggled up to him like hello???

okay but my BIGGEST issues with the story:
1. there is no explanation as far as i can tell as to WHY janie has decided she has to become janie and basically ditch the johnsons. like what was wrong with trying to split time equally between them children of divorce have to do it i don't get it??? (she should've hyphenated her name or s/t. janie spring-johnson. there now you have both your family's names). is it supposed to be bc she still feels betrayed by her father supporting hannah? her mother didn't know about it so why should she suffer. if the short story has any significance is it supposed to be bc of that song and how she feels so guilty for supposedly choosing the johnsons over the springs? (she chose both! she has enough love in her heart for all her families! she just wanted to live with the family who raised her! what's wrong with that!). anyway it was just so weird i didn't UNDERSTAND why she did this, why she chose to hurt her already suffering parents this way. like the whole series claims that she dumped the springs for the johnsons, which she didn't, but then in this she actually DOES seem to dump the johnsons for the springs. this book turned her into the asshole that the springs (and many goodreads reviewers) have been treating her as the whole time! and she can't just bring jennie spring back, she can't become her, she ceased being jennie like seventeen years ago. she can't be her three year old self. she can be janie and love and respect both her families there was NO need for this identity change. and hey, there was never any indication that the johnsons were mad at her for spending time with/loving the springs, but the WHOLE series the springs blamed janie for wanting the family who fucking raised her. i hate this constant thing of her "real family" and her "real parents" like why do they get to be her real family just bc they're her biological family. but the point is she could have balanced both families instead of abandoning one of them
2. all of that and no confrontation???? what was hannah's plan after getting all her information (i should've realized immediately the situation with the book was her doing but i thought it was just another situation with the media being cruel to janie and as always refusing to have empathy for her and the impossible situation she was in) like she showed up and was in the johnsons' apartment to steal but then what? she was just gonna find a way to get all of their money or something? it just feels boring that neither janie nor her parents faced hannah like that's what the story should've been building to
3. the last line??? "janie johnson vanished for good." why?? she was feeling weird about the jennie thing towards the end so is she still sticking with being jennie? or is it bc she's now janie shields?? (also it made me feel like her whole identity is now being reeve's wife like........i just wanted her to keep being janie and have both her families without all this angst and feeling like she can't love them all enough bc she CAN there isn't a limit on love caroline b cooney!) like all these years later and this sequel doesn't feel like it wrapped anything up i feel like i understand less AND i'm annoyed by a large portion of the book like she should've just left the series alone imo

ik some people feel it's resolved bc we know what happened to janie and hannah but i really think cooney could've stopped at books three or four. not perfectly resolved, sure, but neither was this, and those books were at least a little less frustrating and more consistent. i just..........don't feel like the story is truly resolved, like i said she could've hyphenated her last name so she could have both parents and we could've FINALLY gotten some hannah interaction bc hannah whining the whole book didn't do much for me. i can't even think of the few bits i did like. most of the book truly disappointed me (were all those positive reviews just bc of nostalgia??? i don't get liking it BECAUSE it goes against the entire original series lmao)

[Tiff · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the final installment of the Face on the Milk Carton series, Janie is twenty, a sophomore in college, and trying to put the kidnapping behind her. She's made amends with her New Jersey family, while her "kidnap" family has wasted away - her kidnap father Frank has had a stroke and can barely communicate, and her kidnap mother Miranda has moved into a nursing home with him.

Janie feels that she's trying to decide between her two families forever. Meanwhile, there's a true crime writer who is trying to get the whole family to open up about the kidnapping so that he can write the ultimate bestseller. And we finally get a glimpse into the mind of Hannah Javensen, the kidnapper.

The book shifts between Janie, her family and friends, and Hannah's points of view, giving fans a true conclusion to the story.

This is the fifth and final book in The Face on the Milk Carton series. I read the first one way back in 4th or 5th grade, and I've read every book since. The basic premise is that Janie Johnson is a regular 15-year old girl who recognizes herself on the back of a milk carton as a missing child one day. Shocked, she's not sure what to do. Her parents are awesome, and she's really happy - so how could she have been kidnapped? What she decides to do with this information is the premise of the first book. and her decisions (and the decisions of others around her) pave the way for the rest of the series.

I felt like the plotting of this final installment could have used a lot of work. A lot of it felt too fast, kind of dialed in. A commenter on another review said that she felt like the author had "fanfic'd" her own characters. That's exactly how I felt about it - it was as if Cooney desperately wanted to give her characters a happy ending, no matter what. But I thought the strength of the other four books was allowing Janie to have some closure without a happy ending or an easy fix. The brilliance of books two, three, and four was the unresolved nature of the crime, and how people deal with it.

Read the rest of this review at Mostly YA Lit

[Anne Osterlund · Rating 4 out of 5]

Janie heads off to college intent on leaving behind her old family(ies) and her old boyfriend, Reeve, in order to become someone else. Not Jenny Spring, the name she was born with and forgot after being kidnapped. Not Janie Johnson, the name she was given by her kidnapper. Instead, Janie will become Jane.

And she will begin a new life. Perhaps with Michael, who knows nothing about her and about whom she knows nothing.

Until the day when she learns that Michael is “researching” her as a subject for a true crime novel. Will her life never be her own? And why is it that as soon as she learns Michael’s true identity, the first person Janie wants to see is Reeve?

Janie Face to Face is the fifth and final novel about Janie Johnson. I read the first book, The Face on the Milk Carton back in the seventh or eighth grade, and I am thrilled to see the series come to a full conclusion. Janie’s character in particular has gone through a great deal of development throughout the books, and while it is ALWAYS a challenge for an author to create a finale that lives up to the imaginings of the readers, I am so glad that Caroline B. Cooney has tackled that challenge with this concept and these characters.

[Sage Nestler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I honestly don't understand why everyone thought this book was so terrible. Sure, the technology was way off for the time frame this book should be set in and the ending was abrupt, but it gave a great background for just about every character. I mean, can't readers just be happy to see Janie having such a great relationship with her birth parents? That's all I could have every wanted.

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 2 out of 5]

This latest YA novel by Caroline Cooney is the conclusion (really this time!) of the popular Janie Johnson series begun back in 1990 with The Face on the Milk Carton. This final book addresses all the issues explored in the first book and its four other sequels: Janie’s two families, her relationship with Reeve, the motives and mental state of her kidnapper, and Janie’s own true name and identity. The plot focuses mainly on two things - a true crime writer who is trying to collect interviews from Janie’s family about her kidnapping, and Janie’s sudden engagement to long-time on-again, off-again boyfriend Reeve Shields. Practically every character ever introduced in any of the books makes an appearance - both Johnson parents, both Spring parents, and all the siblings, Stephen’s girlfriend, Kathleen, Sarah-Charlotte, the family’s FBI agent, and of course, Hannah Javensen. Because of the huge cast, the story reads like a reunion episode of a 90s sitcom.

That sitcom reunion feeling is exacerbated by Cooney’s constant gratuitous use of technology. Her characters, who have previously not been very tech-savvy, due to the time period in which the series began, suddenly only read books on e-readers, constantly update their Facebook pages with no regard for their privacy, and text each other messages and pictures every time anything significant happens. It’s as though Cooney is trying too hard to make her book relevant to today’s teens. Unfortunately, her knowledge of technology seems to come from generalizations in magazine articles and not from any experience with actual teenagers. I think I’d have liked it better if she’d left the technology out altogether; at least then this book would have felt more in tune with the earlier ones of the series.

I also took issue with the way Cooney uses Catholicism in this story. Having just gotten married in the Catholic church myself, I might be more aware of these inconsistencies than a non-Catholic reader, but it drove me nuts that Janie was allowed to plan a wedding in a Catholic church on such short notice, and that neither she nor Reeve were required to be Catholics themselves. I think even the wedding ceremony itself was incorrectly described. I’m a huge fan of religious themes in books for children and teens, and I love many of them, but it’s a real pet peeve of mine when authors don’t bother to portray a specific religion accurately. Authors who name specific religions in their books have a responsibility to be respectful and do their homework on how those religions operate.

My biggest problem, overall, is that I never felt settled into the story. Every time I got used to one character’s mindset, the narrative shifted into someone else’s. I can imagine that after years with these characters, the author might know what every character would think and feel in a whole host of situations, but that doesn’t mean every single one of those reactions should make it onto the page. I found it exhausting having to keep track of who knew what, and who held which opinion about Hannah, and I looked forward to the end of the book. The ending, too, is significantly flawed in my opinion because it does not fulfill what I think the title promises: a face to face encounter between Janie and her kidnapper. There is a resolution of sorts to Hannah’s role in the entire story, but after so many years and so many books speculating about her life, her motivation, her mental state, and her living conditions, I expected a much better one with a lot more excitement. There is a ton of build-up throughout the story that made me anticipate a whopper of an ending, but everything fizzles out in the last chapter, and I was halfway into the author’s note before I realized the story was even over.

The Face on the Milk Carton remains a fond memory from my early teen years, and it’s a book I still think kids should read today, whether it seems dated or not. I’m less certain about the sequels, and I think all but the most devoted fans can skip this final installment, which only detracts from the strengths of the original premise.

[n · Rating 3 out of 5]

1/21/13
Waffling between high 2.5 and low 2.5. Waffle, waffle, waffle.

1/22/13
When I was in fifth or sixth grade, The Face on the Milk Carton was the book to read at school. (I went to a Catholic school and it actually ended up getting banned because SEXY TALK!! I remember feeling very edgy when I brought in my own copy to read during class. Sinead O’Rebellion!) I read it, Whatever Happened to Janie?, and The Voice on the Radio (probably the best one, in my opinion) over and over and over. Then, thirteen years ago, What Janie Found was published: the last book in the Janie Johnson series, for better or worse, the end. I wasn’t mad for the ending but it was what it was. No more Janie/Jennie!

Then a few weeks ago, I found out a fifth Janie book was coming out. I spazzed excitedly, told my entire family (who were unmoved), and hopped on the library waiting list. On Friday I got the book and my joy at being the first library patron to crack its spine and turn its fragrant, Janie-filled pages was unimaginable. As was my sorrow when Janie Face to Face turned out to be less than what I’d expected.

I feel like Cooney tried to tackle too much at once with this one. I appreciate that she wanted to give closure to all of the characters, but anyone who has read the Janie series knows that is A LOT of characters to cover in one book. There were a few parts that dragged and bits I didn’t really care for at all (i.e., anything involving Kathleen—why is she still around after What Janie Found? Go away, Kathleen!—and the abrupt romance), and sometimes all the hopping from one perspective to another was dizzying. I don’t think the Johnsons got much closure and I’m not sure how I feel about the ending they were given; their story is still very open and Miranda’s wounds are still quite raw. And Hannah wasn’t what I’d expected. I’ve always imagined her as a little more psychopathic and gritty and a lot less whiny. Plus it’s a little weird going from a series of books without technology to iPhones and e-readers being all over the place.

But there were parts I really liked, some I even loved. I enjoyed being able to see the story from the points of view of Sarah-Charlotte, Donna Spring, Jodie, and Brendan. Stephen’s portion of the story—the way he still isn’t healed, may never be quite healed—was sad but authentic. Just because the rest of his family is moving on doesn’t mean he can yet. I also liked the commentary on how people are putting everything online; the fact that Hannah got so close to the Johnsons and the Springs just because one person related to them is cavalier with her information on Facebook is realistic and creepy as hell. Most importantly, Janie is finally able to stand on her own two feet and solve her problems. I really am so glad she finally embraced her birth family and became Jennie and that she grew up and was okay. It’s probably lame to be this excited about a fictional character getting a happy ending, but I yam what I yam. Love me, love my overreactions to books.

Anyway, the ending isn’t perfect. There are still some messy bits and loose ends. But the most important things are taken care of and the closure is there for any Janie Johnson fans who needed it. This is not Cooney’s best work, it’s not even her best Janie Johnson novel, but it shows how all the characters have begun to heal and reconcile with their situation and each other.

So high 2.5 it is, then.

[Katy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay, I rarely put spoilers in reviews but this calls for it.

Admittedly, I only read this book after learning about its existence in ‘Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of '80s and '90s Teen Fiction’ and being overcome with nostalgia. I read the original books in the ‘face on the milk carton’ series as a tween and loved them.

Well- I’ve remembered that there’s a reason I left the mountains of 80s and 90s teen fiction I read back in the last century. This was truly awful. The characters vapid and flat, the motivations murky. The writing itself is shockingly bad. ““Her laughter began low and quiet then rose in pitch and flickered all over the room, like blood splatter.” Her laugh was like a blood spatter? If you try any harder to be ominous, you’ll pop something.

And another thing! It’s called Janie Face to Face because she’s supposed to finally come face to face with her kidnapper, which doesn’t happen. She just gets arrested at the exact same time as the pathetically sad wedding that becomes the pinnacle of this book.

My only good comment about this book is that it occasionally gets so SO bad it is hilarious. Like so:

“Kathleen had not worn high heels since forever. Mandy’s stunning yellow leather heels, with a frosting of yellow leather roses, were so high Kathleen could hardly stand erect, let alone walk. But she conquered that in a minute and walked up to Stephen all slinky and sexy and grinned at him.
“Wow. Great shoes,” said Stephen. “You have the best ankles in America, you know.”

[Sarah Mae · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Face on the Milk Carton was a favorite of mine as a young teen but this ending is just too happily ever after. The writing is repetitive and the characters are flat. The addition of current technology and social networking is shoehorned in. Janie/Jennie is still conflicted about which parents she should spend more time with. The only interesting part is seeing into the mind of her kidnapper, Hannah, as she plots her revenge on the girl she believes stole her parents and had the easy life she should have had. Only hardcore Janie fans will read this.

http://yarsocalif.blogspot.com/2013/0...

[Maggie61 · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I saw this book in the book store, I remembered reading "the face on the milk carton" as well as seeing the tv movie so many years ago. I not sure anymore which ones I have read in between but it was great to read the final book in the life of Janie Johnson/Jennie spring.
I felt this book was written in a more mature narration. There were some cheesy parts but for the most part I enjoyed the writing. It didn't have the same feel as a teen book, but something more resembling an adult book.
I felt for Janie who is stuck in this impossible life. Having two sets of parents, how do you love them both without hurting one of them. How do you divide your time between them to be fair to everyone including yourself? I felt bad for Miranda, Janie's second mother, who comes to realize that slowly, the girl she and her husband raised is becoming their daughter less and less. I find it a little odd that she would refer to both sets as mom and daddy and not have another name to call them, I think a girl will only have one daddy. And it bothered me that while most of her siblings were accepting and maybe even loving, they all seemed to be extremely resentful of the upheaval the kidnapping and later the return and seemed to blame Janie. She was three, surely they would grasp that the three year old is not responsible for her kidnapping so many years prior. And I am a little disturbed by the sudden relationship and proposal from Reeve, when she was all gaga over Michael so short a time ago.
There is still the mystery of a Caroline cooney novel. Where is Hannah and what happened to her? We get a gradual view into the life of Hannah from the kidnapping to the present told in alternating chapters and with the hint of a new crime book to be written on the kidnapping, there are still untold aspects of the whole kidnapping story.
All on all though, I enjoyed the final journey. Would have given it 3 1/2.

[adaynasmile · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand it was a very good book. I enjoyed the story line and the suspense. On the other hand it drove me crazy that the timeline did not match up with the original. In 1990 we did NOT have cell phones. And I didn't know anyone with one until about 1998 when they borrowed their parents. They most certainly did not text or use the internet for social purposes. If the original story took place in 1990 and this book is 5 years later, there should have been consistencies. It would have been easy for Caroline B. Cooney to simply write the book as though it was 1995 instead of 24 years later. The other issue I had was that the end was fairly anticlimactic. I would have liked a more...I don't know...something more satisfying for the conclusion of a series I have been reading for a large part of my life. I felt disappointed, I guess. Authors need to stop writing books 20 years after their first super popular one if they aren't going to take the time to really formulate a good finale. Long story short, as a novel set apart from the series, I enjoyed it. I liked the characters, I wanted to know what was going to happen next, and I enjoyed the love story. But as a part of the series I was highly disappointed.

[Elena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally. Done with this series, never to revisit again. That was so rough. And kind of awful.

I enjoyed/cringed every time she used technology like, "look guys! I'm cool! I'm hip! I can write from modern times!"

[MJ Codename: ♕Duchess♕ · Rating 1 out of 5]

I expected a lot more. This book was terrible. I ended up skipping to the end, and you ready for all we got with Hannah? A couple of cops going into her parent's nursing home apartment, and Hannah going, "they owe me money." That's it.

This book was a travesty, and I don't understand how it got published. And don't get me started on how this book is supposed to take place five years after The Face On The Milk Carton, which came out in the early '90s. Suddenly everyone had iPhones, Facebook, and iPads. It also doesn't help that the series was written for an entirely different generation. And it shows in the writing.

Janie is still as flippant, childish, immature, selfish, and vapid as she was in the previous installments. I can understand that happening in the first two books, but not now as a supposed grown adult. And then, nothing happens. There is no rhyme or reason for anything that happened. None of the events that take place make sense. All of the characters are entirely OOC. Jonie suddenly takes a year off and goes mission work in Hati. Stephen is still with Kathleen, which makes no sense considering she doesn't know how to keep her mouth shut.

Then there's the relationship with Reeve. OMFG. Janie changes her mind about Reeve more than she changes her underwear. One minute she's all "omg, I love him," and the next she's all "I can never, ever, ever, ever, trust him." Then he proposes, and suddenly all of the resentment Janie has felt for Reeve just goes poof right out the window.

I don't care about Reeve and Janie's wedding. OMG, the wedding. The whole relationship with Reeve was turned into a joke. One minute, Janie is falling in love with this random dude named Michael, who raised all sorts of red flags. Then the moment he ends up betraying her, she rushes into Reeve's arms and agrees to marry him. The guy she said she was only half in love with, in half a relationship with, and could never forgive him.

Let's also talk about how incredibly rude she was becoming to the Johnson's for zero reasons. To the point where she basically cut them out of her life, but she had no problem taking money that her grandmother left for her to pay for college. Janie is nothing but an immature, greedy, selfish brat, and she had been that way from the very beginning. I used to feel sympathy for her, but she really has no regard for anyone but herself. The whole "MY REAL DADDY IS GIVING ME AWAY, DADDY!" nonsense just proved how immature Janie truly is and how she hasn't even grown as a human being.

Speaking of her biological family, I stopped caring that Jodie and Stephen were angry over things they should have been over at this point. They all betrayed Janie when it came to the book the crime author wanted to write, and at the end of the day, Janie is all, "lol, omg, I love you guys! You're my real family!!!" The only sibling of hers I can understand her being close to is Brian, that's it. Stephen and Jodie were nothing but rude and cruel unless it suited them. And Brendan was so wholly absent the whole time for him to suddenly pop up and start telling Janie's secrets, only to be welcomed by her with open arms.

Every single person Janie trusted broke her trust, and she forgave every single one of them. But it took her how long to forgive Reeve for his transgressions? Right until the moment, he proposed in the airport. Absolutely nothing about this book made sense, nothing. It was under-developed, rushed, terribly plotted, and about as immature as the first book was.

I also stopped caring about Hannah. Her character made zero sense. Hannah was under-developed (like I said she should be). The whole back and forth between the present day and Hannah's events from kidnapping Janie and after were just so unconvincing it wasn't even funny.

Just... no. This book was a joke and a joke to the series.

I honestly couldn't care less about any of these characters anymore, and it's a shame. The series had the potential to be really good, and it turned out to be just as bad as Tumblr fan fiction.

[Shantele Laviolette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plot:
Janie Face to Face is a wonderful book created to close the Janie series. She goes through many trials beginning with the realization of her kidnapping and going into her struggle to find herself. In this particular book, it begins with Janie in college and struggling to keep two families as her own; the one she was born into and the one she was left growing up with. She's still unsure of what to do, but soon enough she finds someone she thinks she could love-at least until she finds out that he's only using her. The only part she doesn't know is that he is working for Hannah, her kidnapper. Of course, she goes to Reeve like she has so many times before. After spending that weekend with Reeve, she's ready to just go back to college and be closer to home. As she's about to get on her flight though, Reeve throws her off guard. He proposes! In the end, she says yes, but they only end up with ten days to set up the wedding and have it done. She has never been happier. It really pleases Janie to finally know that he truly wants forever with her; however, what she doesn't know until the last minute is that Hannah is back, and she's ready to kill the girl she kidnapped and have her life back. All is going as Hannah wants. She finds all of Janie's family members, she tracks down her parents...she even gets herself into her parents' home. Everything goes well until finally this criminal is caught and locked behind bars. Janie can finally have a safe life and a forever of her own.

Characterization:
Janie is a very complex character. One day, she's still fighting the truth that she's really Jennie. The next, she wants to be Jennie. She never knows what she wants until it's time for her to plan her forever with Reeve. She finally chooses her true family and has a normal life again. She is Jennie Spring and soon enough, she will be Jennie Shields.

Personal Opinion and Audience:
This series is not only heartbreaking but also lovable and chilling. Caroline B. Cooney has a very interesting take on this story and an interesting plot set down. She is an amazing writer, and I would give her five stars. This book also gets five stars. It is an amazing heartache thriller romance novel and I absolutely love it. I would read it again in a heartbeat. However, it is recommended for mature readers only. Books like this, however, are recommended for teenage girls who like fictional books with some truth or realism within them.

[Shannen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh.
Sick of Janie being blamed and hated for loving both families. That is some serious bullshit. The amount of resentment (and calling her a brat and whatnot) toward her, for trying to love both sets of parents and constantly being conflicted is just ridiculous. I had hoped as time went on they would become more accepting and grow up and realize what an impossible position she is in, but we are constantly reminded that EVERY SINGLE THING SHE DOES HURTS SOMEBODY. Usually underscored by their seething POV. Ridiculous. There are also heavy implications that her adoptive parents are not her "real" parents - the author even says as much at the end - and that is complete BS. I hope none of your readers are adopted, or even adoptees, Caroline. Talk about causing people pain. Also she flat out says she wanted the readers to worry about Janie instead of giving the books resolution, which I don't care for.

I was so looking forward to getting Hannah's perspective, because her parents literally kidnapped the kid she brought them from her and moved away and cut contact. That is some shady shit, and I felt that the cult explanation was a bit simple for a plot device. But Hannah turns out to be a cartoon villain whose only joy in life seems to be upsetting others.

Also errors. Twenty years have passed between when Janie's story starts and finishes, and yet only a few years pass for her. But in that few years 20 years of technological advancements! She went from learning typing on the typewriter and having to get her story from newspaper archives to having at least three personal devices in only a couple of years!! There were also several continuity errors between books, but that is less frustrating than the other issues.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've loved the Janie books for over 20 years and am delighted to read a final one to end the series in an amazing way.

This book is rich with suspense, mystery, heart, emotion and the ending was very satisfying. I won't spoil the story, so will just say I found it refreshing that marriage is included as a subplot for two young people in love--rather than moving in together, focusing solely on career, or dating casually with no commitment. I personally like commitment. And I love happy endings. This book delivers.

There's a wonderful Author's Note at the end of the story which explains how each book in the Janie series came to be - and how it wasn't meant to be a series. There was also a movie starring Kellie Martin, a recent eBook called WHAT JANIE SAW and there are some fun extra details in the Author's Note that made me smile.

[Lydia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book and actually got a little bit emotional at the end. I remember reading the original Janie Johnson books around 5th or 6th grade, and I was thrilled to find out that this book existed when I recently began a re-read of the series, all these years later. It was exciting to pick up with the story and find out "what happens next." In my opinion the plot was a little more intense than the previous books, in a good way! An A+ read, and my favorite book of the year so far.

[Abi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Super disappointing end to an otherwise cool series. It read like terrible wish-fulfillment fanfiction.

[sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book felt very unneeded in the series but also kinda ended on a cliffhanger????? idk but i'm glad to finally finish this series after like 8 years lol

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't know there was a fifth Janie book until I saw it on Goodreads, and I knew I had to read it to finish out the series. Like many others on here, I read The Face on the Milk Carton back in the 90s as a preteen myself, and I loved it so much. The other Janie books were good, too. I read What Janie Found as an adult, and I still enjoyed it. This book wasn't great for me. I'm giving it three stars because there are aspects I like, and Janie's decision at the end to have her Connecticut parents move to NC near her and Reeveredeemed it for me a little, but overall, the book is very boring. I couldn't wait to be done with it, and that's very rare for me with books.
What I liked about it: having a conclusion to Janie's story, some suspense, Hannah's plotline and perspective, the way the whole Spring family and others come together to help, getting various perspectives throughout the book
What I didn't like about it: Janie's attitude through a lot of it, the rush of everything, the lack of development of the suspense and the focus on a wedding rather than on the kidnapper, which was always the whole story--Hannah and Janie and how their lives intertwined and why, the fact that, for some reason, Cooney jumped to 2013 tech instead of maintaining the timeline of the original books--she wrote them back in the 90s, so why couldn't the book have just taken place in 2001 or whatever it would have been? I don't get it. And they keep saying "five years ago," and they say they didn't have tech then, but we all know iPhones and e-readers didn't come out true to the timeline, so it's just awkward and not necessary at all for a good story, attitudes--everyone has such terrible attitudes and is so mean and talks so poorly about others--with Hannah, this makes sense, but with everyone else, it's off-putting, why do we keep calling Frank a "ruined man"? It's so insensitive to stroke victims, and they act like he's comatose or braindead--someone even refers to him as a vegetable in a offhand way--yet he can still talk and observe, so I don't get it--it's really mean
With everything I didn't like, it was going to be a two-star book, but I am happy that Janie finally has a happy ending, and especially that she decided to do the right thing and found a way to balance.

[Anna Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been two years since Janie Johnson discovered that her other Father, Frank Johnson, knew where her kidnapper (his biological daughter) was the entire time the FBI was looking for her and he was sending checks to support her. Since stopping the support, dealing with Frank's failing health and Miranda's incompetence in a crisis situation, Janie has almost gotten past everything. Janie is at college in New York, equidistant to visit both sets of parents. She has made new friends who know nothing about her past as a kidnap victim and is finally able to breathe, standing on her own two feet. Janie is gravitating towards her real parents, Jonathon and Donna Spring, and her siblings after fighting the reality of them since she found out about her kidnapping. She is finally becoming Jennie Spring, after all the years of being Janie Jonhson. But now there is a true-crime writer named Calvin Vinesett poking into the family's harsh past. When someone betrays her to the writer, Janie is pushed back into boy-next-door Reeve's arms. Happy as she is, Janie still hasn't heard the last of the writer and with him finding a way into her personal business, Hannah also grows closer than ever before? Will Janie's kidnapper ruin her life once and for all, or will she finally get her happy ending?
I, like many readers of the Face on the Milk Carton books, felt like What Janie Found left things far too unresolved. I wanted to know whether Janie and Reeve would end up together, where she would go to college, whether or not she would ever really try to connect with the rest of the Spring family. The most important unresolved question was whether mentally unstable Hannah would ever be caught and locked up. All of these questions are answered and we finally get a window into Hannah's reasons for her actions. She came across as unbelievably cunning in the final few chapters for someone who acts ridiculously childish and has zero reasoning skills for the majority of the book. Then again, it did make sense in a very twisted way. I liked the different POVs, letting us see what was happening with basically everyone. I felt like we could have done without Sarah-Charlotte on that front though. She was sort of extraneous as a character. I like seeing where Stephen, Jodie, Brian and Brendan were and what they were doing. The fact that Janie finally accepts her other family made me fist-pump in joy. I loved that she became Jennie in the end, like she was always meant to be. Overall, a great conclusion to a harrowing and heart-breaking series. Thank you Ms. Cooney, for finally letting them be happy! :)

VERDICT: 4/5 Stars

**I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication date is January 8th, 2013.**

[Whitney · Rating 1 out of 5]

I loved the Janie books when I was younger. I first read The Face on the Milk Carton when I was 10 (so 1995) but it was first published in 1990.

Caroline B. Cooney released the fifth and last Janie book this year, Janie is now 20 and in college with all the modern amenities of 2013. Remember how I said it started in 1990? I can actually recall Jennie Spring's birth date being 1970 something. How did we go from Janie using a payphone to call her Connecticut parents to "Hi I'm Janie, I have an iphone, ipad, ereader and a Facebook page." Either Caroline B. Cooney did the math wrong (timeline wise it should be mid 90s) or Janie was a super-senior several times over. This child from the 90s found it irksome.

So the storyline, Janie goes to college going under the name Jane and running as far away from her kidnapped persona as possible. That is until she receives a letter from a true crime writer who wants to write a book on Jennie Spring.

Jane flees to the comfort of her new boyfriend Michael who is not at all what he seems despite Janie thinking he is "the one". That is one thing that bothered me about this last installment, I always knew Janie was a limp noodle but I got a 1950s vibe from her, that the sole point of going to college was to find a husband, have a passel of kids and let your degree collect dust on the shelf, setting the women's movement back several years. Then the inevitable happens, Janie breaks-up with Michael after learning he's in cahoots with the true crime writer and gets engaged to her rebound -- Reeve Shields.

Remember Reeve? The guy who sold her out to further his career in radio? Well, she took him back. The rest (or majority) of the book is Janie running around like a chicken with her head cut off, planning a wedding in ten days. All while having an identity crises, should I get married as Janie Johnson or Jennie Spring?

Another thing that bothered me was Jennie choosing her biological family and dropping her "kidnapped" parents. I think it's great that she reconnect with the Springs but to turn a 360 and drop the Johnsons like yesterday's news came off as poor taste and Janie looking like a bitch.

Hannah is also part of the narrative, therefore giving the reader more depth into the kidnapping, really tying up lose ends. Crazy, delusional Hannah held some of my favorite parts in the book and wish there had been more of them.

Everything is neatly tied in a bow, Hannah is caught and Janie Johnson becomes Jennie Spring, who becomes Jennie Spring-Shields.

At the end of Janie Face to Face, "Janie Johnson vanished for good". As did my enthusiasm for this book.

[Chelsea · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh boy was this awful.
I'm so glad I've finished this terrible series. Overall I would not recommend even bothering picking up this series. The interesting premise spirals into all sorts of ridiculous that's not worth the investment. This last book was by far the worst as literally every character is disgusting and frustrating. My blood was boiling through this one!
Janie is in college and decides Frank and Miranda who raised her for 15 years were garbage and she was "over them". Because over a year ago she discovered Frank was sending money to his biological daughter who had kidnapped Janie when she was 3. So Janie decides to reinvent herself at college and be Jane. But she frequently visits her "real parents" who she's treated like garbage since she met them 3 years ago.
Her sister Jodie hates Janie because she thinks she's a spoiled brat. Stephen wants to kill Hannah and his girlfriend Kathleen is obsessed with Janie for whatever freaky reason. Brendan hates Janie for getting all the attention. Brian is only mentioned in passing. Oh yeah, and when a guy pretends to like Janie but is secretly just researching to write a book on her, Janie decides to forgive Reeve after all this time and they decide to get married in 7 weeks.
Yupp. Some true crime guy wants to write a book about the Janie case...and despite Janie not giving consent literally everyone else except Reeve tell this researcher everything. Even Kathleen who doesn't actually know anything other than what she's heard secondhand. But then Brendan feels guilty when her realizes that the book is in favor of the kidnapper. Right. So who cares that you're destroying your sister...it'll hurt your mom...who's also been cooperating with this writer in hopes Janie would "come around eventually."
And the real middle finger to Miranda and Frank...Janie up and decides at her wedding she's getting married as Jennie Spring. And that's legit the only day in her 20 years of life she's been called that. What a slap in the face. Janie was immature and a brat in the end and I hoped Hannah would find her and kill her because so many people would be happier with Janie gone. Instead in an off-hand paragraph they find Hannah trying to find money at Frank and Miranda's room. Cause Hannah was actually relevant in this one and it's revealed she stole Janie just for fun.

Moral of the story...mental health matters and if you've had a family member kidnapped or are reunited after 15 years of being seperated...seek a professional for help or you'll end up like these losers. Miserable and alone and manipulative...and awful.