4.5 First Time's a Charm Stars
* * * * 1/2 Spoiler Free
Every once in a while, I will step away from my Romance Addition and read something that reminds me of all the Mystery/Thrillers, Etc. I use to gobble up like M&M's. Nothing could get my heart pumping and brain working into overdrive like a book with an intricate plot for me to figure out before the author gave all of the clues away.

When Kristin(KC) posted she was thrilled to have gotten Girl Last Seen by Nina Laurin from NetGalley, I checked out the blurb and was sold. Lucky Me, I got it and dug right in.

This is a first novel and I thought it was truly solid. Laurin set the situation up and I understood from the start how deeply messed up the main character was...After all, to have been kidnapped, sexually abused and have other unspeakable things done to you for 3 years...I don't know how a child taken at 10 and released at 13 could be any different. And those things that happened to her are only the tip of this Iceberg tale.

10 years later, the main character is trying to exist. She has physical scars she hides from the people around her... and the mental ones are only manageable with the help of chemical wonder pills. She has 2 jobs she barely is able to hold on to...and it is during a shift with her day job, she gets the shock she has been waiting for...

You see when she was held captive, her abductor was very, very careful. He made sure she never saw his face, heard too much of his voice or saw anything that would help her lead the police to where she was held. When she was surprisingly let go and discovered by two policemen, she could barely speak or walk...And through all of the interviews, no matter how hard she tried... there was nothing she could give the police that would help in their investigation.

So on this fateful day... a flyer of a missing girl needs posting at the store and it is our gal who must tape it to the window. She has done this before with others...always looking and checking to see if any of these children were like her...and none were until today...

The face staring out at her has the same coloring, the same curls and is the same age as she was when she was taken...she knows deep down... the same man who hurt her, who took her... now has this child.

When the policeman who found her by the side of the road all those years ago shows up at her second job and tells her about the missing girl...

We know the hunt will begin...
This will not be like the usual, though...
Everyone is just too damaged... and it will be slugging through the ugly, confusing and out right evil to find all of the answers.

I bought into this from the start. It had an overcast tone... nothing pretty or easy about it. I was able to feel EVERYTHING this woman felt... as effed up as it was....There were so many factors I will not share... for learning them at the pace of this story is the power in the reading.

I did work out a few things but not all ahead of schedule and that is important... there was a lot of tension and complexity... nothing ever was what it seemed.

If you like to be drawn in.... to feel others pain, to have your mind work to see if you could have all the facts lined up before you should...Then you will enjoy this book. To have it be a first novel and read so well was impressive. I will look for more from this author.

●•●•●•●•●•●•●•
We all have seen the breaking news....
Small child gone... disappeared...
And the flyers have all of the details....

But how would you deal if not that long ago...
You were the one who was missing...
Destroyed from the experience...

And They Never Found Your Captor...

Now there is another child gone...
More Flyers and You cannot Turn Away From...

Girl Last Seen-June 20, 2017

A gifted copy was provided by Grand Central Publishing via NetGalley for an honest review.

Right so stand by for a really subjective review of this book its mostly personal perhaps due to over saturation.

SO first of all the rating I give this book in actuality is 2.5* and that is all because the writer has skill. Talented prose building, for anyone new to psychological thrillers (or for those who just love them for whatever reason) a definitely intriguing and page turning story and Nina Laurin has a great eye for characters.

But I'm bored of the same old excuses and reasons to move the plot along. Or rather to hold off on allowing anything to be solved until the finale. Our main protagonist is once again a pill pushing loner with poor judgement skills due to a childhood trauma. And her mobile phone keeps dying. Every time her "thoughts slipped away from her" or she couldn't think straight or something happened and she immediately drank or did something stupid I wanted to stab this book with a fork. Whenever (and it happened more than once but she didn't learn) she had no battery in her phone I wanted to stab the book with the knife as well as the fork. I was stabby I tell you. And it took me away from the (honestly really fascinating) original premise. That of 2 girls years apart who may or may not be connected to one monster.

I know that "victims" often grow up to have problems but it seems to be such a well worn plot device that you begin to feel that nobody who suffered a trauma ever went on to be a well adjusted member of society who actually could cope in any practical or realistic fashion when life threw them another curve ball. And we all know that's not true. Plenty do. There is no right and wrong. I understand that maybe that's not so interesting to write about I'm sure it could at least be attempted - but every book like this I've read since the girl phenomenon started, it feels like the main character is either too doped up to have any common sense or has turned themselves into a kick ass ninja killer type. There are no levels anymore. No nuances. Now of course NONE of this is the fault of this particular author who writes extremely well and is just after all telling the story she wants to tell. So I feel I should be sorry that this one annoyed me but I'm afraid it did. And I have to be honest therefore when reviewing it.

The good news? It has a small level of unpredictability and a certain amount of redemption for Lainey and a really good thrilling ending to it. The writing flow is lovely and if I hadn't spent a lot of the read randomly growling at the bits of cliche I reckon it would have been a much higher rating from me. If you love psychological thrillers go for your life - Girl Last Seen has all the elements you need for a good one, the writing is taut and atmospheric, if this was the first of this type of novel I'd read I doubt I'd be complaining at all.

I'll certainly read the next novel from this author.

This one? Probably wrong read wrong time. But sometimes that's how it goes.

Wow,Wow and Wow again,this is a totally riviting twist packed story that I would gladly give far more than five stars if I could and would happily recommend to anyone who enjoys reading a damn good thriller.

Ten years ago Ella Santos escaped from the clutches of the monster who had kidnapped her and abused her for three years.She has changed her name to Lainey and has tried really hard to get on with her life but the person who kidnapped her has never been caught and Lainey has always known that one day that person will strike again and now it's looks like he has.

Olivia Shaw has disappeared from outside the entrance to her school,the right look,the right age,the right circumstances and she could be a mirror image of Lainey thirteen years ago.

Lainey just wants to get on with her life but sometimes you can't move on until you confront events from your past.

This gripping thriller is voiced by Lainey who understandably after everything that she has been through is a emotional wreck.She is a drug addict who has a short temper but deep down inside she is just a lost little girl who just wants to be loved.She didn't have a very nice life before she was kidnapped and it didn't get any easier after she escaped,I just hope real kidnap victims are not treated the same way that she was treated throughout the book.The characters are well developed,realistic and totally untrustworthy,the story is fast paced,packed full of twists and you have no idea what has happened to Olivia until the very last chapter.

This is a very well written debut thriller that had me hooked from the gripping prologue right to the very last word and I look forward to reading more books by this author in the future.

The description for this book is chilling. This is a dark psychological thriller with plenty of suspense, and I believe this will be one of the most talked about books this year. Nina Laurin has an excellent writing style and descriptive imagery that grabs you from the prologue and never lets go. She taps into the main characters thoughts and shares them as an internal narration throughout the book. The character development is extensive and very well done. I believe this is Laurin's debut thriller, and I look forward to more reading more novels from her.

The first big plot twist that I didn't see coming comes about 10% into the book. Definitely an "oh boy" moment. As the book progresses, Lainey (Laine) gets pulled deep into the investigation of the current abduction. The detective on the current case was involved in Laine's abduction a decade before. She is naturally apprehensive about getting involved in the new case, and the detective also voices his concerns against it.

Laurin does an excellent job portraying Laine's internal struggles with her past, and her many coping mechanisms to deal with her past and the present situation. A series of plot twists ensue that will keep you guessing, because nothing is as it seems. Laine scrambles to keep up and desperately tries to stay in front of the dangers around every corner. She soon comes to the startling realization that she's all alone again, and her desperation and determination intensifies. Before long her past and present worlds collide and crash down around her, and she must scramble to figure out a way to resolve things before it's too late. The conclusion is shocking and explosive.

I hope this book will be adapted into a movie, but of course there is no way the movie could match the caliber of the novel. I would recommend this book to fans of suspense and psychological thrillers. I received this as a free ARC from Grand Central Publishing on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What if reliving the most traumatic event in your life might save the life of someone else? Would you be able to face the demons that you have been hiding from for over a decade? Olivia Shaw has disappeared from her elementary school, and a woman reading the story of her disappearance stares at the girl’s photo and sees herself, thirteen years earlier. They could be sisters. But the nightmares of the basement she was kept in and what happened to her there are things to terrible to speak of aloud. Still, this is what she’s been waiting for, another girl, just like herself, taken by the same person for the same twisted reasons. She must confront her demons and attempt to save Olivia, if she doesn’t she may as well have died in that cellar thirteen years ago. A harrowing tale of terror, courage and revenge