Actual rating: 4.5 
 First line: "When Loo was twelve years old her father taught her how to shoot a gun." 
 The more I think about this book, the more I fall in love with it. The writing is stellar and there's an atmosphere to it where you're never quite sure what can happen. As I was nearing the end, I realized that throughout it I was quietly anxious and on the edge of my seat. It's a story that builds slowly and it's more about the journey than the final destination. 
 This story is all about it's relationships and oh my does it have some intense ones. The bond between Samuel Hawley and his daughter, Loo, makes your heart ache because they both have so many secrets but they love each other more than anything else in the world. The story between Hawley and his late wife, Lily, is heartbreaking and you just want to give this guy a break from the world. 
 The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley manages to be both dark and gritty, and heartfelt and beautiful, with morally gray characters that show the good and bad in human nature. Hawley and Loo are two people that I've fallen in love with, and while I was slightly let down by the ending, this is going to be a story I'm thinking about for a long time.