Then She Was Gone: From the number one bestselling author of The Family Upstairs

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Is it not more believable than a regular person saying she didn't like Floyd because he gave her the heebie-jeebies?

Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival. Floyd is the second loser in this lovely cast; when he discovers the true origins of his daughter, Poppy, he stalks Laurel, engineers a meeting with her and eventually falls for her. What are the odds of that? Now, this doesn't tend to be a favorite genre of mine. Because of this, it has to be creative and well written to keep me interested. If the author leans on hateable characters (like The Girl on the Train) or other thriller tropes (alcoholism, mental illness, etc.) I tend to find my focus drifting. If the author can find just the right combination of these things, then I will be right there ready to throw more stars their way.

From Noelle's perspective, in the past) After Noelle kidnaps Ellie, she keeps her in the basement. She gives her the hamsters as pets. One day, she drugs her and soon Ellie realizes she's pregnant. Noelle pretends to Floyd that she's pregnant. However, a month before the baby is due, Floyd breaks it off anyway.

I found a loose green muslin skirt of Kate’s in a bag she’d clearly been intending for the charity shop. It had an elasticated waist. She paired it with another jumper of mine, a soft grey cashmere one. She looked almost pretty. Like a quirky student coming home after her first term at university.

Gang, this one is more than just a a beautiful shell of a cover. But that cover IS stunning, amiright? You definitely want to add this to your reading schedule ASAP, especially if you're looking for a read that is so gripping you'll fly right through it. To say I'm waiting with bated breath for Lisa's next novel would be an understatement, and I hope you enjoy this story as much as I did. <3 Laurel’s life has been on hold in many ways since her daughter’s death, but she meets a new man, Floyd, and finds herself drawn in by his charm. She’s excited, happy and open to new possibilities again. It’s not until she meets his younger daughter, Poppy, though that questions arise. Poppy is lovely and precocious … and looks so much like Ellie that it can’t possibly be a coincidence. Then She Was Gone was fine as an undemanding beach thriller, but I wouldn't recommend it for readers looking for something new and innovative. As Laurel slowly finds closure, she begins to rebuild her life. She starts dating and it seems as if she has found love again with a single father named Floyd. But something isn’t quite right about Floyd, especially his relationship with his nine-year-old daughter, Polly. The more and more Laurel spends time with Floyd and Polly, she comes to realize that what happened to Ellie was not at all what it seemed.

This is something most parents do, and most of their children dislike. Laurel, in this novel, decided in the earlier part of her life to never do it to her children. A guilt trip is a type of emotional manipulation to make others think or do certain things in a particular way. Many of us might have involuntarily done this in our life. Lisa Jewell points it out very clearly in this book. This came from her like a stream of consciousness. She clutched her knees as she spoke, her hazel eyes wide with intent, with honesty. I believed her. I absolutely believed her. I said, ‘good. That’s really good. I’ll take you tomorrow. When Poppy’s at school. I’ll take you home. To your mother.’ Once again, I am impressed with Lisa Jewell’s storytelling. I thought this was a terrific story. Told from multiple points of view, alternating between ‘then’ and ‘now’, I was enthralled as everything was revealed. Floyd is kind and sensitive and has a young daughter named Poppy, who looks inexplicably like Ellie. I peered over her shoulder. A road much like mine, lined with semi-detached Victorian villas with gabled roofs, mostly gentrified. A fine place for the mother of my child to reside. It all seemed very neat. Very genteel.You know, how you get to forty and you suddenly stop giving a sh** about all the stupid things you worried about your whole life. Well, nine year old Poppy is already there." The interesting fact is the way of disappearance of Noelle reminds of her the way of disappearance of her own daughter. This story was very dark, gloomy, and creepy, but also quite emotional and poignant. Laurel's voice is so realististic, raw, and sympathetic, she nearly had me believing she was a real person and that this was a true story. Her emergence from a tortuous state of limbo and her fierce determination to get to the truth, and begin truly living life again was an amazing transformation.