I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I had originally requested this book because it sounded very interesting. I haven't read anything or even really heard much about this author before but the plot of the book sounded too intense to pass up. And intense it sure was! It was even a struggle for me to read it at first because of how frustrating I found it. Imagining what Audra was going through and (as a reader) putting myself in her shoes felt almost traumatic at points. If you push through that struggle at the beginning though, wow what a great ending! The reader will get the vindication of justice and also a couple great twists. I couldn't put it down and just had to know what happened during the last like 1/2 of the book. I thought it was a really interesting book and, while I have trouble saying I "enjoyed" it just because of the subject matter, I would definitely recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crown for this reader's copy. In exchange, I am providing an honest review.

Audra and her two children are making their way from New York to California in an attempt to get away from her ex-husband and the kids' father. After four days on the road, Audra is exhausted and ready to quit looking behind her shoulder in fear. And then the worst thing, she thinks, possible happens. She gets pulled over. In a pull-over that takes a bad turn quickly, Audra finds herself in handcuffs and in the back of the cop car watching a Deputy pull away in another car with her children. Believing she will see her children when they arrive at the station, Audra is shocked when they aren't there and upon repeated requests for them the only answer she finally gets is, "What children?" What follows is a nightmare. Audra is being accused of killing her children who are missing and nobody believes her that they disappeared under the care of the local police. The national news is covering this nightmare and miles away in San Francisco, Danny takes notice because it sounds just like his experience 5 years ago with his wife and daughter. Nobody believes this mother but Danny suspects she is telling the truth. He flies from San Francisco to Arizona interested in helping her and maybe finding some answers regarding his own daughter. Together Audra and Danny are going to find her children and take down the corrupt people who stole them and others.

So, this book is very well-written. So well-written that I almost had to stop reading it. It felt too...real. It was extremely disturbing to read a storyline involving abduction, the dark web, child trafficking, police abuse, police manipulation, and police corruption. Disturbing because not only is it plausible but I'm guessing a version of this story has happened in our world. Disturbing because I think there is a lot more police corruption than any of us realize. Just flat-out disturbing. Just about the point of giving up, I decided to read another chapter, and the story settled into a less disturbing arc. I was seriously concerned that the child trafficking storyline was going to be detailed more and I could not have taken that. But Beck didn't dive into detail on that part of the storyline, thank goodness. So I kept reading and I'm glad I did. But this book isn't for everyone and contains some significant triggers for people so I'm cautious in my recommendation of it. That being said, I will be reading the other Beck title and am going to check out his other titles written under his real name, Stuart Neville. Haylen Beck is his pen name.

Note: clearing old books from before 2019

Did not have time to read this book - still on my TBR. Thank you for the opportunity and my apologies for not getting to it.

What a great ride this was! I totally recommend this to anyone you likes a good thriller!

The story begins with a woman that is fleeing away with her kids, trying to escape an abusive husband. They are somewhere in Arizona, through the desert and the dust, avoiding main roads and interstates, in fear of being chased either by her husband or the police. While on a country road, she is being pulled away by a local sheriff. She is not unshaken and that gives the sheriff something to deal with. Only that. his behavior is very unsettling. Soon after, things go out of hand and she finds herself arrested and her kids being taken away by a deputy. Next thing she knows, everyone starts saying there never were any kids in the car.

Meanwhile, far from Arizona, on another side of the country, a man, skilled with knives and pistols, hears the frenzied news reports about two missing kids and a lone woman, their mother, being accused of harming them. This pretty much sounds like what happened to his own wife and daughter. He keeps following the case through the news, until at some points decides to take action.

As the story unfolds, we get glimpses of the past and bit by bit we come to understand what made that woman run away with her children and what she has been scared of. She has a pretty good idea of what might be happening and she is doing her best to make it clear to anyone. Only that, that sheriff’s doing and the reason of her arrest makes the police look in her past and form a picture of her that gives her no credibility at all. What happened to innocent until found guilty? It surely is not present in this case. If it where, someone would have listened to her side of the story and made some investigation. But the cops are biased and whatever she says, sounds like a lie to them. There is one agent that treats her better than the rest of the police, but even her doesn’t believe the woman’s statement.

The background story of the woman’s life is really strong. It’s a story that many women all over the world go through and very few of them find the power and the help to get free of it. An abusive husband is not easy to deal with. A clever and patronizing husband, that orchestrates everything and looking ahead of time to create the perfect environment that will clear himself in the future, if ever needed and make her look like the bad person in the equation is even worse. Especially when she has no friends or family she can turn to. It’s a really good way to draw awareness to the matter.

The other equally strong theme that is portrayed in the story is that of child abuse. This becomes visible from the beginning but thankfully it’s only there as an idea, of what will or might happen if everything goes according to plan. But it does create a really vivid picture of what our world is made of.

Overall, this was a really good thriller with the exact doses of agony one could take. I would like to see more of Danny, the man with the knife skills, but I guess this was done this way on purpose by the author and I accept that.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. The views expressed are my personal and honest opinion.

I found myself feeling so frustrated on repeated occasions while reading this book, but in this case, that's actually not a bad thing. The main character, Audra, goes through a lot of extremely frustrating experiences throughout the book, and you can't help but feel it right along with her. It was probably best that the book ended where it did, otherwise it might have dragged on too long, but I do wish I knew just a bit more of what happened to Whiteside, Danny, Audra's ex, etc.

I personally do not care for “children in peril” plots, but this novel is an exception. I appreciated the way the characters acted, especially the children who were clever and did all they could to help themselves in their dangerous situation.

Audra Kinney and her two children, eight-year-old Sean and five-year old Louise, are driving across country to escape a child custody fight with her very wealthy ex-husband. In a sparsely populated Arizona county she is pulled over by a sheriff who is concerned about how overloaded her car is. Forced to open her trunk, she is horrified when Sheriff Whiteside discovers a cache of marihuana. He quickly handcuffs her and calls a female deputy to take the children into protective custody

Then the unthinkable happens. When she is booked in the jail of a dying desert town, Sheriff Whiteside denies he has seen any children. Soon the press and the FBI are convinced Audra had murdered her children somewhere between the last surveillance video and her apprehension.

With everyone accepting her guilt and her ex-husband giving interviews back in NY begging her to reveal the location of the bodies, Audra is alone in demanding that the authorities look for her kidnapped son and daughter, not their corpses.

The story is told from multiple points of view: Audra’s, the captured children, the thoroughly evil sheriff, FBI agent Jennifer Mitchell and finally, a shadowy figure Danny Lee who has his own reasons for believing her account.

This is a fast-paced, exciting thriller which I really enjoyed.

In her debut novel, Haylen Beck takes the reader on a parent's nightmare worst fears.

Audra Kinney is fleeing an abusive marriage with her two children and she thought that they would be safe, she just needs to get to California. On a pit stop she spots a police officer and Audra is wary as her husband has quite a bit of influence, and she had a right to be wary. Sheriff Whiteside sees an opportunity in Audra and her children and when he pulls her over and finds a bog of marijuana in her vehicle he arrests her for possession. Audra know it is not hers, she does not know where it came from but when she asks about her children and the response is "What Children?" her worst nightmare has just begun. Across the county a man watches the news about Audra's case and it all sounds way too familiar to him and he see an opportunity to find out what really happened to his family, but the answers they find are even more than anyone can imagine.

This book is very very unsettling and extremely terrifying and traumatizing as a parent. From the very first scene Back is able to grab hold of the reader and keep that hold until the end. This book is really well paced and I liked that Beck took the time to have several points of view as this was needed as we know who the bad guys are so there is no mystery there, it was more about what will happen to Audra and her children. I find that this created a more well rounded story and plot as a whole. There are also shifts in time in this book as we learn where Audra came from and why she was running away from her husband.

I think one of the most interesting characters within the book was Sheriff Whiteside, and how he ended up on the other side of the law. He is probably one of the most evil men that I have read about in a long time and he is basically the perfect antagonist in this book and the lengths he is willing to go to protect himself were great. Also as the Sheriff this gave him additional powers that he has no qualms about using. However, while Sheriff Whiteside is an interesting character, the rest of the cast was not so interesting, they acted fairly predictable in my opinion and I think that Beck missed an opportunity with Danny Lee

I wish Beck would have had more with Danny Lee at the end of the book as his part and what occurs seems to end suddenly so this does make me wonder if maybe there will be a second book featuring him with his own personal quest. I also felt that Danny Lee was not developed as much of a character as he could have been.

This was a good debut novel and the farther you read in to this book the more invested you become in Audra and her children. I look forward to seeing what Beck comes up with next, a new author to keep an eye on for sure.

Enjoy!!!

Wow! What an exciting read. Haylen Beck had me from the first page although I wanted to jump in the book and help this desperate mother find her children.

This was an excellent thriller. I read a lot of this genre and can honestly say that this one brought something new to the table. I was up until 3 am on a Sunday night/Monday morning finishing this!

Here and Gone is a story about an abused mother who decides to take her two kids and run. While on the run she is pulled over and her kids are taken away from her and she is told she will see them after they get the reason for being pulled over taken care of. After she is put in a cell she asks where her children are (she has been asking over and over since being pulled over) and the sheriff says..................What children?
This is a story about what a mother will do to protect her children. What a mother will endure to get her abducted children back in her arms.
Here and Gone was a good read and kept my interest throughout the book. It was easy to follow and although it was also easy to predict it was still a good story.

Skillfully crafted! This was oh, so good. A mother's worst nightmare comes true while traveling with her children and getting pulled over by a police officer. Audra is on her own and can't trust anyone. I love the way this plays out. Audra refuses to be manipulated and won't give up without a fight. If you're looking for your next thriller, here it is. Once you start, you won't get anything else done.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Crown Publishing for providing me this digital copy of Here and Gone by Haylen Beck in exchange for my honest review.

This book had such a good premise but the plot and the characters fell flat. The main character Audra constantly acted against her best interest, the obviously corrupt Sheriff Whiteside is never questioned and all the characters speak in a clichéd fashion. The only saving grace of this book was the tenacity of eleven year old Sean who acted more like an adult than any of the actual adults in this book. I felt that when there was a lull in the story it was filled with random, gratuitous violence. Unfortunately this book read as contrived and was ultimately disappointing.

The story of Here and Gone is every mother's worst nightmare come true. I had all kinds of feelings reading this book! It was an intense ride reading the story of Audra, how she managed to get away from her controlling and senseless husband with her kids. We meet a little bit about her husband on their way to California. How she became an alcoholic pretty much induced by her own husband, which I was so so happy when (SPOILER ALERT) she finally punched him straight in his face! How her husband made her life miserably sad, because he wanted to control her by making her drinking more. My heart ache with Audra when him and his mom took away the only thing mothers are able to do, breastfeeding.
Well, this whole story starts when after a quick stop, Audra is stopes by a sheriff who said found drugs in her car. He calls for another officer to take care of the kids and (when you think this is the worse part is not) when the take her to the sheriff jail and she asks about her kids, the sheriff looks at her and says "what kids?"

Hang on because this story will make you swim through the pages as you discover that nothing is what it seems like and no one should be trusted. Audra's case will get to the ears of Danny, who went through a similar situation and with his help they both will open a Pandora's box of dark and cruel people, children's trafficking and more. I give this a 5 awesome stars. Thanks for this galley!

What a jaw-dropping, rollercoaster ride!

I started this book back at the beginning of the month, thinking that I could read two books at once but for the second time, I realized that I am a one book kind of girl. So back when I started this book I had read about four chapters and in that short amount of time, I was hooked.

Picking it up again two weeks later, the novel only intensified. This book was a perfectly well written novel about a mother who will stop at nothing to save her children.

Opening up the novel we meet one of a couple main characters, Audra, mother of Sean and Louise. Audra is a wife who is scared for not only her well being but also her children’s and when she gets pulled over on the highway, she knows something bad is about to happen. The fear of running from New York, running from her husband and running from social services is nothing compared to what she is about to endure when Officer Whiteside pulls her over.

The car is over packed, Audra and the kids are hot and tired so the officer so kindly helps them lighten the load of the trunk until a mysterious substance is found inside and Audra is arrested. After Whiteside calls it in, Officer Collins comes to help and takes the children somewhere safe while Audra is read her rights. But what Audra doesn’t know is that these two officers planned on kidnapping her kids before she was even pulled off onto the side of the road.

Amidst the backlash from the police, FBI and reporters Audra is stuck in a world who wants her head on a silver platter. Watching the news from a local bar is a man who feels connected to Audra, who feels her pain, who has seen this same situation. Danny knows how she feels because it happened to him. He has a violent past and an eye for an eye future. His brain books a flight to Arizona before his body can even process what he is doing. He has to help. He has to know who took his six year old little girl.

This story is chilling, intense and electrifying. It is a page turner that you won’t want to set down. There were times in this book that I actually had to stop reading because I would get so upset and angry.

One thing I really enjoyed about Beck’s writing style is the way he broke up the chapters between different points of view. Between Audra’s, the officers, Sean’s and Danny’s you get a look into the different emotions and perspectives that makes this novel so frightfully amazing.

I want to talk a little bit about a certain character. Sean. Audra’s eldest child. He was so resilient in this novel. The way he steps up from a boy to a man to not only protect his sister but also to take care of her in times of need. He stopped at nothing when it came to finding an escape and his will to survive was astounding. He was easily my favorite character inside the story.

One thing that I wish would have got touched on a little more was Danny’s character at the end of the novel. Something HUGE goes down and it’s left wide open. For the sake of not giving away any spoilers I will leave it at that and once you read it you can let me know what you think may or may not have happened!

I completely enjoyed this thrill ride and will be a book I recommend to others!

I lucked out and was able to read most of this book in one sitting which was great because it was fast paced and suspenseful. Imagine being pulled over, charged with something bogus and arrested, having your children stripped from you and being told immediately once you were locked up that you had no children with you. As you become the biggest story to hit the newspapers in ages, people look at your past and have immediately condemned you, believing that you murdered and dumped your children. Your saving grace? A man who happens upon the news story with a sickening sense of deja vu who decides he won't stand by and let another family suffer.
I was hooked from page one and really enjoyed this one.

Here and Gone is an addictive read that I easily devoured in two sittings. Immersed in the action from the beginning, the story is dark and disturbing, and any mother’s worst nightmare.

Audra has left her abusive marriage and is traveling through Arizona with her two children when the local sheriff pulls her over. What appears to be a routine stop quickly turns into an illegal search and ultimately leads to Audra’s arrest. Her children are then placed in the car with a deputy and she is told they will be taken to a safe place, so why should she suspect otherwise?

Upon arrival at the police station, she becomes filled with worry and asks Sheriff Whiteside where her children are. When the sheriff replies, “What children?”, Audra’s worst fears become an unimaginable reality.

The story is told from multiple points of view. We get a glimpse into Audra’s abusive relationship with her husband as well as the present day horror of frantically searching for her children. When the Media becomes involved and Audra’s story is broadcasted across the nation, Danny, a man with a similar story to her own, wants to help uncover the truth. While the pair searches for her children, we also get glimpses into Sean and Louise’s time in captivity. I really enjoyed the sections that focused on her son’s point of view because he was wise beyond his years and would stop at nothing to protect his younger sister. There were also sections from Sheriff Whiteside’s point of view and some very disturbing emails/messages that added more layers to the overall story.

Haylen Beck did an excellent job building suspense and evoking emotion, I didn’t want to put this one down. I highly recommend.

Here and Gone has the kind of plot that immediately grabs me. I love thrillers because I like how fast-paced and adventurous they are. I never go into a thriller expecting amazing writing, but I do expect a good plot and decent characterization. Fortunately, I did get that from this book.

The plot was extremely fast-paced and kept me turning the pages, and the story was interesting and unique enough to keep me reading. A lot of the times, the book felt very cinematic, and I could see this book as a movie without any problems. The plot is very suspenseful and as the story unfolds, it gets a lot darker.

I also thought the characters were all really impressive. The story switches between the perspectives of quite a few characters, and they were all well-written. Their voices felt different and I was impressed with how dynamic they all were. My only qualm was that Audra’s backstory was really cliched. I think women with her backstory have been seen in thriller novels over and over again. My favourite character was Danny, and I wish there had been more chapters from his perspective.

I enjoyed the book’s writing style, but there was nothing literary or very impressive with the writing since this was a plot focused novel. However, this was a very enjoyable read and I recommend it to fans of thrillers.

Traveling Sisters NetGalley Sister Review by Brenda with Norma, Lindsay, and Kaceey’s thoughts.

Here and Gone was a surprise and last minute read that we were able to come together and read as a Traveling Sister NetGalley Read.

Here and Gone is a haunting, unsettling and chilling story that drew us in shortly after meeting nervous and desperate Audra who is fleeing on a country isolated road. We were drawn into her life and her fears and then into her nightmare of losing her children in a heart stopping moment as they were here and then they were gone.

Haylen Beck does a great job bringing on a parent's worst nightmare not just with the missing children but with the dangers lurking in a place where things can be bought and sold and where some of the “worst expressions of humanity” can be found. He cleverly leaves it lurking in the background of the story and leaves out any disturbing descriptions. We all were very happy for that.

In some ways Here and Gone read like a crime and action movie for us with the villain and the kick ass hero and in a way that was entertaining. After reading the book we found out the rights have been acquired for a movie. We found that interesting.

We found the FBI agent, and the sheriff were somewhat unbelievable and not so convincing for us, making them hard for us to connect with. We did find Audra a well-developed character and loved her strength and liked how she fought for her children and not take on the role of a victim. We all really liked how strong and protective Sean was for his sister Louise and seeing into Sean’s perspective added some suspense and tension to the story and left us cheering them on.

Not too many surprises or twists to this one however the tension did build for us as we read the ending together. We all absolutely love reading the ending together. We all held our breath except Kaceey who was yelling again, right to the end, leaving us all satisfied with the ending.

Thank you to NetGalley, Crown Publishing and Haylen Beck for a copy to read and review.

4 stars for another enjoyable and entertaining novel!

HERE AND GONE by HAYLEN BECK is a gripping, intense, terrifying, and fast-paced suspenseful thriller that had me racing through those pages as fast as I could with my heart palpitating quickly all the way to that killer ending.

HAYLEN BECK delivers an extremely angst driven read here with an unsettling storyline that had me totally panic stricken for Audra and the safety of her children, Sean and Louise. Although, I really enjoyed this story I thought some of the scenes from the FBI was a little unbelievable in the way that they handled Audra’s case. I wanted to jump into the book and say listen to her already! Please….lol

To sum it all up it was a compelling, enjoyable, suspenseful, fast-paced, quick and easy read with an intense, heart pounding, and a killer ending! Would recommend!

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Haylen Beck, and Crown Publishing for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Review can be found on my Blog:
http://www.twigirlslostinacouleereading.wordpress.com

Crown Publishing and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Here and Gone. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

While driving across the country to escape a bad domestic situation, Audra Kinney, her son Sean, and daughter Louise caught the attention of Sheriff Whiteside in the small town of Silverwater, Arizona. The sheriff had something in mind for the kids, so he hatches a plan to get Audra out of the way. Something sinister is afoot, but will anyone help Audra and her kids before it is too late? Will the FBI take the word of the sheriff or will they do some further investigation? Will a mysterious stranger hold the key to it all?

In a fictitious wealthy world of human trafficking, the dark web is a likely scapegoat. The biggest issue that I had with Here and Gone is the believability factor. Yes, there are probably real-life law enforcement personnel that use unsuspecting individuals to fatten their coffers, but I doubt that any right-minded instrument of the law would go to such extremes. The holes in the story were big enough to drive a truck through, especially considering that the author would have readers believe that the FBI would just take the word of the local police. Here and Gone was a fast read, but there was nothing particularly unique about the book or its characters.