The Last Thing I Remember (Homelanders #1) by Andrew Klavan

Publisher - Thomas Nelson
Publish Date - April 2, 2009
ISBN - 978-1595545862
Pages - 352

Ok, so I have a secret.  Wanna know?  Of course you do, who doesn't love secrets?!  I love to read Clive Cussler books.  Not familiar?  Go check them out.  I do so love Dirk Pitt! That would be the leading man of a good number of Clive's books.  Yeah, I know he didn't write this book.  But to get why I like it, you have to know about my secret love of Clive and Dirk.

This is a total guy book.  Charlie West last remembers having a great day at school even getting the phone number of the girl he's infatuated with, having an argumentwith a guy who used to be his bff, doing homework and playing games on the computer.  But he doesn't remember how he got into a torture chamber.  That's where he is when he wakes up and he has no idea of how he got there or why he's there.  But he does hear someone order him killed and the phrase "Homelander".  Charlie manages to get away, but it's a constant race for him to keep away.  Someone is looking out for him, but he doesn't know who it is and he doesn't know what he's done.  It's not just the bad guys, the good guys are after him too.

Charlie remembers that he is patriotic, honest, religious and loves his family.  What everyone is telling him, what he's reading in the newspapers...that's not who he remembers being.  Can he prove that he isn't the person they think he is?  The first installment in this series left me wanting more!

I will say that I was a little concerned about the patriotic and religious tones, but honestly they just added to the story.  I generally get a bit annoyed by too much of either, but it just seemed to define who Charlie is and that's important to the story.  I think that boys and reluctant readers would love this book (girls, you'll love it too!).