Having read some of Michelle's previous works, I'm familiar with her literary, sometimes even poetic, writing style. The blurb definitely hooked me, and I was interested in how the author will provide a fresh spin on the classic Stockholm Syndrome, the psychological phenomenon whereby a victim develops an attachment to their kidnapper. 
 The story opens right after Naomi's abduction, when she wakes up in a motel room with two strange men. Her initial terror and confusion quickly drew me into the story. We are introduced to her kidnappers: the enigmatic, volatile Eric; the younger, gentler Jesse; then later, the kind, beautiful, and almost maternal Evelyn, and her husband Steve (who doesn't feature much in the story). 
 As the days pass and Naomi falls into a routine as the criminals' captive, her fear recedes to a dull numbness, replaced instead with an urge to escape. I felt her confusion at her captors' unusual kindness, so out of place in a kidnapping situation. She concocts a plan of escape: by seducing the youngest of her kidnappers, Jesse. 
 However, as days tick into weeks, then months, Naomi grows more and more attracted to Jesse and the other kidnappers, and her need to escape eventually gives way to a desire to start a new life with them. After all, what does she have to return to? Career-obsessed parents who leave her care and upbringing to an army of nannies; a cold mother she feels no connection with at all; a controlling, possessive boyfriend who was physically violent towards her ... and therein lies the story's over-arcing irony: that in more ways than one, Naomi felt more freedom as a prisoner than she did as the sheltered, latchkey daughter of parents who took two days to realise she'd gone missing. 
 The story is woven together like an intricate tapestry. I felt Naomi's loneliness, her frustrations, her guilt for giving up on her parents, her uncertainty of the future ahead, her confusion for the intense feelings she's developing with Jesse. Is it just another case of Stockholm Syndrome, or is it true love blooming in the most unlikely of situations? 
 The odd chapter is told from the perspective of Naomi's mother, Karen. In those chapters, we find a mother distraught by the disappearance of her daughter, who masks her distress by throwing herself into her work. Appearing cold and unfeeling on the outside, Karen masks the grief of losing her daughter, guilt at neglecting her, regret at having missed watching her little girl grow up, and helplessness as leads to find her disappear, and the trail goes cold. 
 The ending could not have been more unexpected, sad--or more satisfying. I was blown away by the intensity of this emotionally charged book, and have been late for work many a time, because I just could not stop reading it. The Breakaway is a spellbinding tale of freedom, love, and hope. Above all, it is a story about family--be it the blood-related kind, or not.