Thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Books, and B.A.Paris for the opportunity to read her latest twister! I've been a big fan of this author and this is another good book, although maybe not as good as some of her previous ones for me.

Finn and Layla are young and in love. They are coming home from vacation when they stop at a service station. While Finn goes into the restroom, Layla waits in the car. When he comes out, Layla has vanished. Fast forward 10 years and Finn is engaged to Layla's sister, Ellen. Layla has never been found but all of a sudden there is a sighting of her and Finn starts receiving mysterious emails. Finn has never been completely truthful with the police about the night Layla disappeared nor is he completely honest with most every one else in his life.

Told in Finn's voice from the present and the past along with chapters from Layla, this one will keep you guessing!

Hey now... I hit the spin pretty early, but I was still pretty entertained with this book. I am a lover of books from "across the pond", so this captured my interest with the natural dialect and spot on characters...

Mostly written from his point of view, which can sometimes be difficult... was not in this story, it flowed and was so, so good.

No spoilers, not the way I roll, I will say if you enjoy a well written psychological thriller, you may want to give this one a shot. thank you to NetGalley for giving me a copy to review prior to release. 3.75 stars.

This is the third book I've read by BA Paris, becoming a loyal fan after the thrill of Behind Closed Doors. This book is written similarly, flipping between past and present with the main character, Finn. The writing was good, and the plot moved fairly quickly, but the overall plot just didn't add up for me. It seemed too far-fetched to be believable.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC. All thoughts are my own.

***Thank you to Netgalley, The publister and author for this arc*****. 3.5 stars. A fast paced, page turning thriller that had me guessing the whole time. I was sure I knew what happed and then nope not even close! I really liked the ending, felt like it was perfect way to end of Finn and Layla’s story!

Finn and Layla are on their way home from a vacation when they make a stop at a rest area. When Finn returns Layla is gone! 12 years later Finn is trying to move on, when these Russian Dolls start to pop as clues to Layla‘s disappearance.

This started out as a promising novel about a young couple who stop at a rest stop and then the female disappears. Flash forward ten years and we see the man living happily with another female but soon he starts getting these strange little nesting dolls and knows of only one person who had those same dolls… he’s presumed, dead girlfriend. At this time we find out his new girlfriend is her sister. WTF??!! How crazy is that?

So the search is on as to who is sending these dolls and what do they want? We get two timelines in this read, the present and how the couple met which was interesting and kept the book moving along.
I was really getting this storyline it was intriguing and it kept my attention some twists were really good but the “main” twist towards the end what so far fetched in my opinion I couldn’t believe it! Like really?? Like how could something like that happened and the person didn’t know? While I didn’t really like this part, story-wise it was great plotwise. I didn’t see it coming and that’s what I look for in a good read.

While there were parts that I kind of rolled my eyes at, overall the parts I enjoyed outweighed the others. While this wasn’t my favorite B.A. Paris read the story is a good one. This is definitely something you could take to the beach or poolside and enjoy it for what it's for.

Finn and Layla. Finn and Ellen. Who will Finn choose? Will he make his choice in time?? And once he makes his choice, will she choose him back? There is a new twist around every corner, and this book will keep you guessing until the her end.

I was hooked on this book with the first chapter. Finn is a believable character with an unusual problem, his wife has disappeared from their car in a rest stop. Ten years later he has moved on with his life and now he hears from various people that Layla is back.

Finn and Layla were a perfectly happy couple. Finn was kind of obsessive and paranoid, but he loved Layla, she was content with him, life was good. Until one night in France, at a rest stop, when Layla disappeared.

10 years later: Finn and Ellen are a perfectly happy couple. Finn is kind of distant and paranoid, but he kind of likes Ellen, she's content with him, life is a'ight. Until one day he comes home, and finds Ellen holding a tiny Russian doll.

Oh, right, and also Ellen is Layla's sister.

I really enjoyed B.A. Paris's first two books. Neither was particularly earth shattering, but she has a real way with words, and a good bite with a twist ending.

This book makes me very concerned she's lost some of her magic. And that makes me sad.

It's not that this book is bad, it's far from it. But there's no magic to it. I saw another reviewer use the word 'cheesy', but I think 'overwrought' would be more accurate. I think the plot and premise are so good, so interesting, with so much potential, but it was really mishandled.

You end up not caring about any of the characters, whether in flash back or current day. Honestly, Finn's dog Peggy is the only one I'm particularly concerned about.

So disappointing. I'm not giving up on Paris all together, but...I'm not looking forward to her future books, either.

“But there’s a darkness in my mind that won’t go away.” Finn is a man with a dark side. Controlling. Ellen seems quiet and maybe a bit submissive. The two find themselves in a game of whether or not Layla is alive. I found the suspense in the first part of the book to be slow-building. It wasn’t until the last quarter of this book that things really picked up for me and I was engrossed in the story. That being said, the ending baffled me. And it ruined it for me.

Oh dear. I’ve read The Breakdown and loved it but it’s hard to believe that this was written by the same author.

The story of a young couple Finn and Layla on their way back from a skiing trip in France and how Layla disappears when they stop at a service station.

12 years later, after being cleared of any wrong doing by the police at the time, Finn is now living with Layla’s sister Ellen and as they announce their engagement publicly, Finn starts to receive emails from someone who claims to be Layla. A game of cat and mouse ensues as Finn wants to meet up but the email sender remains elusive and slowly drives an already short tempered and occasionally violent Finn to the end of his tether.
Can he find out who is sending these ever more disturbing emails? Are they really from Layla or from her potential kidnapper, or worse from one of his ex girlfriends or close friends??? And is Finn actually in any danger form this person or worse still, is Ellen?

I’m going to have to be brutally honest here. This story was a drag. It started off well enough with an entruiging set up at the beginning and I was looking forward to getting my teeth stuck into this mystery. Once it got going though it just plodded along, repeating scenarios again and again. Finns narration constantly throwing questions at the reader as to what was going on and going through every scenario he could think of was extremely tiresome and not at all engaging.

Finn as a character was pretty two dimensionally written and very unlikeable. The same with Layla. It was hard to have any empathy with either of them which made it hard for me to be invested in their story.
This was amplified by the fact that the story seemed to go on forever before reaching a conclusion with the “reveal”. I feel this story is a short story somehow stretched into a near 400 page novel.

The ending was fairly ludicrous. Just totally implausible.

I’m sorry to be writing such a brutal review but really there was little I liked about this book. It was a chore to read and left me totally unsatisfied. Really poor unfortunately.

Thanks to Netgalley, St Martins Press and B.A. Paris for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Buddy-reading a B. A. Paris Thriller has become our thing, our tradition of sorts. Behind Closed Doors was a brilliant debut Thriller we loved. The Breakdown was a little disappointing. And now Bring Me Back. We both didn't even read the blurb, we only decided to buddy-read it because it was the latest B. A. Paris. Plus, going into a Thriller blind is exciting. There's something thrilling about finding out about the characters and their antics, while at the same time the story is forming in your mind. You never know what's next and what the characters are going to do.

The first few chapters were really mysterious. We got to know the main character, Finn, and his girlfriend, Elle. They seemed to be very much in love but it was obvious from the beginning that something was overshadowing their relationship. Bit by bit and chapter by chapter Ashley and I found out what that something was - at least that's what we thought. We didn't know that the book had so much more suspenseful, creepy and mysterious parts and situations coming.

I really enjoyed the book's division which added a lot to the story's suspense. It kept us guessing about Finn's past, his current situation, and most of all his future: how was this book going to end?
As Ashley already mentioned, the story was unpredictable until the very last page. In my opinion, the secondary characters played a big part in that. They all seemed suspicious but at the same time they didn't seem suspicious at all, it was insane.

Although I predicted the plot twist of Bring Me Back, neither Ashley nor I figured out how the book was going to end. Honestly? I didn't think the book was going to end the way it did, it was totally crazy and so good. And B. A. Paris wouldn't be B. A. Paris if she didn't top it off with one last big and memorable bang: the last sentence was everything! Wow!

This was such an intriguing read by B.A. Paris! In a post-"Gone Girl" and "Girl on a Train" world, it's typically quite easy to guess the endings of these psychological thrillers. About halfway through this book I had three working theories in my mind, one of which being the most prevalent. I'm happy to say that the ending was my LAST theory and still managed to keep me entranced in the story. I had one lingering curiosity about the ending that was answered in the very last sentence. Highly recommended!

4.25-4.5 STARS

Once upon a time, Finn was on holiday with the love of his life, Layla, when she mysteriously disappeared from a rest stop. Now, 12 years later, Finn is engaged to Layla’s sister, Ellen. But as their impending nuptial approaches, the past makes an unexpected appearance in the guise of a little Russian doll—a symbol that points towards Layla’s possible return. Which then begs several questions. Is Layla really alive and back to claim Finn as her own? Or is there someone out there playing a sadistic joke on this unsuspecting couple? And if it turns out that Layla is truly alive, then who will Finn ultimately choose—Ellen or Layla?

As the story progresses, flashback scenes are woven into the story, and we discover that Finn’s account of what happened the night that Layla disappeared differs from what actually occurred. And as Finn struggles to discern whether or not Layla is actually alive, we learn that Finn’s deception isn’t just a thing of the past. In fact, his whole relationship with Emily is cloaked in deception. Because with each secret he keeps, and every lie he tells, Finn is content to leave Emily in the dark.

Upon reading this story’s premise, I was immediately intrigued. Then, delving between the pages, I found myself captivated from beginning to end. That said, the “revelation” was a bit of a disappointment. Not only was it a bit farfetched, but I figured out the “mystery” pretty early on; hence, it held no real surprises. Still, “Bring Me Back” is a quick, enjoyable read overall.

Finn told police the half-truth about Layla disappearing from a rest stop on their vacation in Fonches, France. More than a dozen years later, strange happenings at home in England make Finn believe that Layla is alive and upset that he is about to marry her sister. Paris leads the reader on a wild adventure, implicating culprits right and left, with Finn alternately dismissing suspicions and accusing friends aggressively. Hints of Layla show up in objects significant to her life and emails with information only she would know, causing Finn dreadful hope. The author brilliantly traverses through the landscape of a troubled mind, then reverts to a trope of spelling out the resolution in a lengthy letter, a bit disappointing after such magnificent writing. The resolution itself may astonish the most clever reader in its unique take on the concept. It’s a definite must read. I was fortunate to receive an ARC of this fantastic thriller from the publisher through NetGalley.

I post this to my website, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and B&N.

A quick read! Thank you, Netgalley, for this arc. Not one of B. A. Paris' best, I don't think, but I blew through it and it mostly kept my attention.

I acquired this from NetGalley a few months ago, and had seen a lot of reviews by various GR friends, and their friends, popping up in my feed, with very polarised ratings, so had held off reading it, other books always seeming to take priority. With publication this week, however, it was time to try it for myself. The beginning hooked me in, and I rapidly found myself engrossed in the mystery - what happened to Layla, and is she now back? (Layla happens to be the name of my cat, the most beautiful cat in the world - named for the song, about a woman so beautiful the man falls in uncontrollable love with her, which seemed appropriate.)

The story begins twelve years earlier, with Finn, successful city trader, arrested in France for the suspected murder of his younger girlfriend Layla when she disappears from a motorway rest stop. Her body is never found, and the case is dropped for lack of evidence. Finn, telling the story, hints that there is more to it, but he can’t remember and is as bewildered as everyone else.

In the present, Finn is now engaged to Layla’s sister, Ellen, and living happily in a Somerset village, when they start finding little Russian dolls, identical to the one Ellen lost as a child, that she had always suspected Layla had stolen. While they are both thrilled to think she may still be alive, Finn is conflicted and fears that if she returns, he will choose Layla, and break Ellen’s heart. He therefore starts to hide things from Ellen, including more dolls that keep appearing...

Because I had seen various reviews obliquely referencing the well known book that started the whole unreliable narrator/psychological suspense deluge, I thought I had it all worked out, but then the truth seemed to be revealed too early. There are red herrings and mini-twists until the shocking, and to me completely implausible, reveal. It was however cleverly done and I did not see any it coming.

I didn’t really like any of the characters (apart from the dog, and at one point I thought something terrible had happened to her, but be reassured, nothing does) and lost all respect for Finn who is cowardly and weak, and Ellen, who seems so dull it’s hard to believe he fell for her after the more vibrant Layla.
That doesn’t necessarily stop me enjoying a book, and meant the ending seems fair. I would certainly read more from this author. 3.5 rounded up for good use of suspense and writing that doesn’t get in the way of the plot, and the symbolism that I only appreciated afterwards.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Paris is back to top form with this one; I enjoyed the characters and the cat-and-mouse aspects. The final twist was indeed surprising. Well done.

While driving through France, Finn and Layla stop so he can go to the restroom. When he returns to the car, Layla is gone. She is never seen again. Twelve years later, Finn is happy and engaged to Ellen, Layla's sister. Mysterious messages start to arrive, and they seem to be from Layla.

Told through alternating time periods - before Layla went missing and after. About halfway through, the narration also alternates between characters. The story has plenty of suspense to keep the reader interested, but I was not a fan of the characters. I never connected to them, and, ultimately, they felt a bit flat.

Psychological thriller. Unreliable narrators. Twisty ending.

Bring Me Back is a psycho-thriller that takes you on a wild ride, beginning with a disappearance in France. Finn and his girlfriend Layla live in England but are on a skiing holiday to France when Layla disappears while Finn is in a rest area bathroom. Finn loved Layla and was ready to ask her to marry him when she went missing. At the time he doesn't remember what happened but there in no trace of her whereabouts. Seven years after she goes missing, a memorial service is held in her memory. Her sister Ellen attends the service and connects with Finn and his friend Harry. Twelve years after the disappearance, Ellen has been living with Finn for about a year when he asked her to marry him. Their wedding is set for several months away when small Russian dolls start appearing outside their cottage. Only Layla, Ellen and Finn know the story of the dolls. Both sisters had a set of the dolls but Layla lost her smallest one and took Ellen's. Now it appears that the doll is being given back to Ellen. Does this mean that Layla is alive? If so, where has she been? Finn is torn with his feelings about the possibility of Layla being alive. If she is alive, would he choose her? He loves Ellen, so surely he would choose her. Ellen is excited but fearful. Would Finn choose her or Layla? There are many more events that tear Finn apart and tear him and Ellen apart. Is he loosing his mind? The story will spin you around and it has many twists and turns with a crazy surprise ending. 3.5 Stars
I received a complimentary copy of the book from St. Martin's Press through NetGalley. The opinions stated are mine only,

3.5 stars. This started out soooo intriguing. A great mystery to be solved. And I love psychological thrillers! A young couple, Finn and Layla, love each other. While traveling together Layla disappears one night and it is believed that she was kidnapped and killed. Finn has to put his life back together without Layla. He does that with the help of Layla's sister, Ellen.

Years later, Finn and Ellen are living together and are planning to be married. Finn is contacted in email by someone who appears to know something about Layla's whereabouts (as the crime was never solved, and Layla's body never found, if indeed she was murdered). It gets intense for a bit and there is this whole Russian Doll thing happening...but it was over played in my opinion. The middle is pretty slow and I found myself losing interest. Finn continues to be teased by someone who appears to know all of his secrets and push all of his buttons. Russian Dolls keep getting delivered. All part of the puzzle. He is going out of his mind. Ellen is acting weird. So many secrets to cover up. The ending was a thrill ride.

I enjoyed this book, however, I felt I had to suspend disbelief too much for some of it. I am willing to do that and don't take issue. But this one part....which of course I can't tell you about...well, if you read this lets talk. It was over the top for me. I do recommend this book and found it a nice summer time thriller. I read one other B.A. Paris, The Breakdown, and will look for others to add.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an Arc to read in exchange for a review. I recommend this for lovers of psychological thrillers and pretty warped characters. Very enjoyable thriller.