Jude by Kate Morgenroth

I just put down Jude by Kate Morgenroth. I finished it in a couple of days, and I think it was such a quick read for me because of character development. I love a good, believable, honest character, and Jude is just that. When we first encounter 15 year old Jude, his drug dealing father has just been murdered in front of him. With in the first few pages, he discovers his mother did not abandon him, as his father had told him. The truth? His father had kidnapped him and Jude's mother was, in fact, the DA of a neighboring county. The story is not, however, a drama telling of their difficult reconcilation and relationship building, but more of a suspense/mystery which is a little complicated to go into. I felt compelled to read on, and quickly because I felt connected and interested in Jude, his story, his emotions and his experiences all made me like him and want to know more. The plot didn't hurt either, as I couldn't wait to get it all unraveled. The ending was mostly satisfying, but I felt a little sad to leave Jude behind and move on to my next book. This was a really great YA novel, but it does have some "mature" themes dealing with drugs and prison time, and there is a fair amount of profanity in it. There is, after all, some prison time involved, but I'd say the author did a good job of keeping the prison setting in the background and not going too far with profanity/violence in prison, while still making it a believable experience for Jude. Borrowing from movie ratings, I'd give this a PG-13 rating.