About The Book
She was fifteen, her mother’s golden girl. She had her whole life ahead of her. And then, in the blink of an eye, Ellie was gone. Ten years on, Laurel has never given up hope of finding Ellie. And then she meets a charming and charismatic stranger who sweeps her off her feet. But what really takes her breath away is when she meets his nine-year-old daughter. Because his daughter is the image of Ellie.
Buy The Book: https://amzn.to/41wG1vK

My Rating

I had heard nothing but good things about this book. And, going into it, I was expecting it to be a thrilling mystery-thriller. However, the story wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be.

In the book, we follow Laurel, whose daughter Ellie disappeared when she was just fifteen year old. 10 years later, Laurel meets Floyd, whose daughter Poppy looks almost identical to Ellie.

The plot sounded so intriguing, but predictable from the start. Honestly, there wasn’t many shocking twist in the book. I think even a newbie mystery reader could have figured out where the story was going.

As a main character, Laurel was a classic mother of a missing child, at least as far as pop culture is concerned. She took 10 years to even attempt to move on from losing Ellie. And, she had a strained relationship with her other two kids and husband because of her resentment towards them for Ellie’s disappearance.

“When I read a book it feels like real life and when I put the book down it’s like I go back into the dream.”

It was interesting to get chapters in Ellie’s perspective. Reading those chapters made me imagine what it would be like loosing a child. Nothing can compare to that kind of nightmare. It’s a horrifying, and nobody should have to go through that kind of situation.

However, the writing wasn’t as engaging as I’d would have liked. I found the pacing to be pretty slow. I’ve heard a lot of people mention that it is a quick read, and while I did finish it in a day, I wouldn’t necessarily consider the book to be fast-paced. Still, the story wasn’t interesting enough to keep me reading.

Overall, I would say that this for sure a mystery but not at all a thriller. For the most part, you already no where the story is going to go. Also, I found the book to be very sad. The ending broke my heart. I just felt so bad for Laurel, Ellie, Poppy, and mostly every character by the end of the book.

Before you read this book be sure to check out the trigger warnings. StoryGraph is a great resource for looking up trigger warnings in books. Don’t forget to like this post and follow my blog to get post alerts.

Until The Next Chapter,
Bunny