This story had the usual plot line of a good page turner but the basic story line was something new to me. I really enjoyed it and actualy learned about a whole new teenager style and parenting proglems.

Hold Tight is a fast, roller-coaster type read. Coben did a fantastic job of weaving an exciting story and brought it together beautifully at the end. This is one of Coben's best. I truly enjoyed it and would highly recommend it if you like a fast track novel. I was not able to predict the end, which I liked. Great beach read. Or any time read.

I have to admire Harlan Coben. His books are nearly identical in their layout and basic story structure, yet each story is unique and independent and consists of its own plot twists and turns. Hold Tight does a great job of following the usual Coben plot twist of starting with several seemingly unrelated stories and weaving them together into one cohesive conclusion.

Along the way the reader is following along trying to guess what the next plot twist or turn will be and trying to anticipate if this action or that one is significant or not. I end up giving this book 4 stars only because I found that the author wrapped up the ending a bit to quickly and neatly this time and as a result found it a bit to perfect and neat. Otherwise I highly recommend this book!

Hold Tight is certainly very different to Coben's previous independent storyline novels which may immediately put off some fans. With Hold Tight Coben gives the reader a lot of simultaneous storylines running parallel. Unfortunately most of the adult female characters are pretty similar so it becomes a bit confusing at the start of a chapter or paragraph when Hold Tight switches storylines to know straight away which characters eyes you are looking through. Saying that though its not that long before you realise who it is and which storyline you are in again. All storylines which incidentally cross paths at one time or another. While not as good as Coben's masterpieces this will still please most fans of his work.

The most prominent storyline and one marketed on the back of the book revolves around overprotective parents Tia and Mike Baye who scared that their son Adam may follow in his friends footsteps and commit suicide decide they have to ignore the moral right of their son to his privacy and install a program on his computer so they can read every one of his e-mails and see which websites he visited. They start to freak out when Adam receives a message if he stays quiet he will be safe. When they learn of a drugs and alcohol party invite they decide to be clever in stopping Adam from going so he won't know they spy on him. Adam however stills bails on their plans and as they try and suttley work out a way to get him back they learn he has greater plans than just getting high and drunk, when they try and stop him he disapears and his friends and everyone can't help the frantic parents locate him.

Meanwhile an angry but wussy father wants retribution for his daughter whose life a teacher has made hell by pointing out her moustache. The mother of the suicide victim finds evidence her son was not alone on the roof the day he died. A couple also is on a violent rampage killing suburban housewives which will test a female homicide detective's ability to control her resentul of her promotion longer serving male officers who want to undermine her the first chance they get.

I've read most of Harlan Coben's work, and I consider myself a big fan of his talent. In recent years, however, his work has lapsed into repeating the same formula, one that almost always involves a thirtyish guy in the New Jersey suburbs discovering a shocking secret involving his family past. Coben's more recent books (like THE WOODS) are still fun, but they lack the creative spark of his earlier works like TELL NO ONE.

HOLD TIGHT is a bit of a departure from Coben's forumla, because it involves a large cast of characters instead of a single protagonist. Another reviewer described the plot as something of a jigsaw, and that's an appropriate description. In this book, you have a plethora of separate plot threads that eventually unite in the end. To his credit, Coben makes almost all these separate subplots original and interesting.

I primarily enjoyed HOLD TIGHT for this reason, because Coben had the guts to try something original and different. I suspect, however, that some of his readers won't like it. There are probably a few characters too many in this story, which makes it difficult to keep track of what's going on. I also found Coben's last-minute attempt to connect all the separate subplots to be somewhat contrived and unbelievable.

Still, Coben is an intelligent, thoughtful writer, and his storylines have an irresistable momentum that I rarely find in the work of other authors. HOLD TIGHT is no exception, and I recommend it highly to people who enjoy well written suspense. This book isn't perfect, but it's leagues ahead of your typical James Patterson or Mary Higgins Clark.