So this is what happened…..

Goodreads Buddies: Sandy? SANDY!

Moi: What?

GB: OMG, you have GOT to read this!

M: Really? Let’s see….riveting suspense, missing woman, suspicious husband….no. No. No. No.

GB: Just listen! I know you said you were done with the whole domestic drama/do you really know your spouse thing that has spawned a kabillion books since Gone Girl.

M: Aww, so you HAVE read my reviews *blushes*

GB: Em…sure. Anyhoots, this is different. It’s smart, has killer twists & a great MC.

M: Look, I appreciate you wanting to pass on a book you enjoyed. I truly do. But I read a whack of these & I’m going to be brutally honest. At the end of the day, I found most of the stories, characters & titles interchangeable & formulaic. Some of the MC’s really got on my last nerve & don’t even get me started on the credibility of plot lines. In fact I rolled my eyes so much..

GB: Yeah, yeah, you thought they’d get stuck backwards. You mentioned that. Several times. But this is the real deal! And it doesn’t even have “girl” in the title.

M: Valid point. Ok, tell me why you loved it.

GB: Oooh…where to begin. Two missing women, two men searching for them & one cop trying to figure out what the heck happened. The story is told through the eyes of 3 narrators. This keeps things ticking along at a great pace & heightens the suspense until you reach an ending that will knock your socks off. And you’ll love the MC. She’s smart, kickass & doesn’t make one TDTL decision. You’ll be cheering for her so hard you’ll need pom-poms.

M: Pom-poms. Seriously? For the love of….I might be speechless.

GB: *mutters* there’s a first time for everything…

M: Sorry?

GB: We said: you’ll get a thirst from reading this thing. It’s completely addictive & you’ll finish it in a day. So keep a beverage handy, stay hydrated.

M:

GB: Hello?

M: You’re kind of scaring me right now but ok, I’ll give it a shot.

And I did. True story. I’ve had a rocky relationship with this sub-genre & after trying many that were highly rated, came to the conclusion it was simply a mismatch between content & personal preference. But clearly they’re not all the same, just like the people who read them.

So do I recommend this one? From the bottom of my cold, dark heart. Don’t take my word for it. If you head over to Goodreads there are many reviews that make a more convincing & coherent case than anything I could throw together. Once again I have fellow crime lovers to thank for a great read.

BTW, if you pick this up & need a pair of pom-poms….

Kat Jenkins has let her young son, Ethan, go on an overnight field trip with his class. When she wakes up in the middle of the night to the sound of a policeman pounding on her door, she prays it has something to do with her ex and not their child but that's not the case. Ethan is missing. The authorities have come up empty-handed and the search dogs have lost his scent in the mountain forest. Another mother, Stef Huntington, whose child is in Ethan's class and on the same field trip doesn't know much about Kat but her son's disappearance affects her own life in a big way.

I really liked The Marriage Lie and I enjoy Kimberly Belle's writing so obviously this book was good! I was hooked from the very first page. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. What happened to Ethan?! Lots of suspense and tension. I did see some things coming a mile away, and it did start to unravel for me towards the end, but overall this was an entertaining read that held my attention and had me looking forward to when I could pick it back up. I liked reading from Kat's perspective as well as Stef's and I liked how they were woven together. I can't wait for more from this author.

Iris and Will Griffith seem to have a perfect marriage - they're crazy in love, they live in their dream home in a nice neighbourhood, and they both have rewarding careers. But on the morning Will was supposed to fly to Orlando for business, Iris learns that he was on a plane going to Seattle. She only learns this because that plane has crashed, killing everyone. Iris has trouble believing this is happening. She has so many questions - why was he going to Seattle? Why did he lie about going to Orlando? And she's determined to get answers.

This book grabbed me from the very first page and kept my interest all the way through. Sometimes the writing itself was just okay, and I wasn't crazy about what went on in the last couple chapters. But the very end, ooh, that was fantastic! I absolutely loved it! Poor Iris was on an emotional rollercoaster. There was one thing after another. I was impressed at how many things the author threw in there and still made it all work. I was shocked a few times. I don't know what I would do if I was in the same position as Iris. A very suspenseful and compulsive read for me.

Iris waves her husband off as he leaves for a conference, so she's not worried when she hears about a plane crash en route to Seattle, but then she's told he was on board and doesn't believe it because he was going to Orlando. This story grabs you hook, line and sinker right from the start as we go with Iris on her emotional roller coaster as she tries to find out what Will was doing on the wrong plane. I for one couldn't put this down, didn't skim read either, trying to keep up with the fast moving events. Certainly one of the best books I've read in a while and I was delighted to see that this author has written other novels too as I love her writing style and descriptions of various places.