When Lightning Strikes

By Meg Cabot

When lightning strikes there can only be trouble - as Jessica Mastriani finds out when she and best friend Ruth get caught in a thunderstorm.

Not that Jess has ever really avoided trouble before. Instead of cheerleading there are fistfights with the football team and monthlong stints in detention - not that detention doesn't have its good points - like sitting next to Rob - the cutest senior around!

But this is trouble with a capital T - this trouble is serious. Because somehow on that long walk home in the thunderstorm, Jess acquired a new found talent. An amazing power that can be used for good. . . or for evil.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Release date: Oct 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9781471104879

Meg Cabot

MEG CABOT’s many books for both adults and teens have included numerous #1 New York Times bestsellers, with more than twenty-five million copies sold worldwide. Her Princess Diaries series was made into two hit films by Disney, with a third movie coming soon. Meg currently lives in Key West, Florida, with her husband and various cats.

Reviews for When Lightning Strikes

[nagisar.b3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Jessica Mastriani gets struck by lightning when she hides under metal bleachers during a thunder storm. Soon she wakes up the next morning knowing where a missing child is. Jessica calls an agency known as 1-800-Where-R-U. She is then to discover that she is psychic. Jessica keeps waking up knowing where a missing child is and is all over the news. Soon the FBI kick in and take her to a base and try to have her use her powers on missing convicts in the area that are said to have escaped jail, but are dead. Her boyfriend Rob Wilkins and his friends help her and a little boy taken from his mother by his abusive father from the base they are being kept at. The FBI s keep track of Jessica and will never leave her out of their sight.I really enjoyed this book and the rest of the series. I like putting myself into the book and imaging that I am Jess and get struck by lightning and have psychic powers to find kids that are missing. Recommend this book to teens and tweens that like to read mystery mixed with romance and unique people. I like reading books that put me into the place of the main character and suspiciousness. I rethink the story after the book and replace the main character as me instead. I somewhat reenact the book in my mind as if it really would happen to me in real life. This book tempts me to hide under metal bleachers during a thunderstorm to see if I would get a star scare like Jessica and get psychic powers. Of course I wouldn't risk it but in my mind I visualize it happening.

[tldegray-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

"It's all Ruth's fault." That's Jess' statement about everything that happened, from getting struck by lightning, gaining mysterious psychic powers leading her to find missing kids, and getting tangled up with the FBI. Oh, and punching Jeff Day for calling her best friend Ruth fat.

I'm not sure I so much cared about the psychic aspects of this book because what was more important to me was how Jess dealt with her new powers and all the responsibility that came with them. One of the most important moments was when Jess went out to check on the location of a missing boy that she'd dreamed and was told by that boy to go away and leave him alone. She assumed he was afraid of his kidnappers. He was really afraid of the abusive father that his mother kidnapped him from and when she reported his location she nearly messed things up for him and his mother in a big way. This sticks with her, it guides everything she does from her on out.

There's also her family, the mother who sews them matching gingham dresses, her father who owns three restaurants and still finds time to be an awesome father, her brother Mikey the computer genius who spies on his sunbathing neighbor, and her older brother Dougie who tried to commit suicide and hears voices when he forgets to take his medication. Jess loves them all, but the way she is with Doug is marvelous. She treats him like her brother, like her sometimes expasperating, sometimes strange, brother, and not like a mental illness.

And, lest I forget, there's Rob Wilkins, the handsome motorcycle-riding guy from the wrong side of the tracks that Jess meets in one of her many detention sessions. He's 18 to Jess' 16, he's on probation, though for what he won't ever say, and despite their obvious (and occasionally admitted attraction) he won't touch Jess because she's jailbait. Yeah, I have to admit, watching them resist and kiss and resist again was a big part of the attraction for me. Oh, Meg Cabot, you know what I like.

Oh, right, the plot. Jess saves a bunch of kids, agrees to go with the FBI "to be studied" mostly because the reporters on her lawn were making her brother Dougie come close to "episoding," gets broken out by Rob and a bunch of others, and lies and says her powers are gone. Fun.

[wealhtheowwylfing · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The main character is sensible without being overly so, smart and bookworm-y, and is overall quite likeable. The books are short--less than 300 pages--but each one thus far has told a very enjoyable story. Fun mind-candy!

[layla23_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Pretty good book. The author takes you on a journey with Jess, the girl who got struck by lightning and now all of a sudden can locate the missing people who's photographs are on the back of milk cartons. Beginning of the series. Easy Read.

[thelibraryhag · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When Jess is struck by lightning, she seems to be fine, until she goes to sleep. Then she wakes up knowing where the 2 kids on the back of a milk carton are, right down to the address. It is a really cool thing to be able to do until the government gets involved. And then Jess discovers that one of the kids she found would have been better off missing.OK, I love Meg Cabot but this was still a pleasant surprise. Jess is a really interesting and quirky character. The first person "statement" that she makes is funny and compelling. I would recommend this for most readers with the stipulation that there is some language but nothing I would not expect real teens to use.

[midnighttwilight10_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The 1-800-Where-R-You series by Meg Cabot is one of my favorites. One day walking home from school Jess was hit by lightning, after that whenever she slept she saw where missing children where. I love Jess’s attitude, and Rob is one of my favorite characters.