I really love the cover and story. Author Holmes is a favorite author of mine and I always enjoy her storytelling.

Filled with mystery and suspense, this book will have you questioning the unpredictable characters. I simply couldn't put it down! Heavy subject matter includes untreated mental illness, broken family, and death.

Thank you to NetGalley, as well as the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review.

Somehow this book was a slow burn and but managed to keep up a good pace. There are secrets. BIG secrets. All families have secrets. It's full of characters that frustrated me. And as we move towards a better understanding of the staggering cost mental illness has on a person and a family, the books really seems to get the heart wrenching parts right. You try and guess the ending...and you just don't know for sure until you get there.

I liked the premise and enjoy books with a mysterious element (which this had), however, I found myself wanting to love it more, The pacing was off and I didn't feel much for the characters. I had a hard time connecting to this story.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was intrigued by the synopsis of this book. Who hasn't ever had a secret or family drama? What I didn't expect was how deep it was. I thought the characters were really well developed and though out. I felt deeply for them, especially Elle's mother. Lots of drama!

Great storyline with good strong characters. Very well written. I would recommend this book to anyone.

I really enjoyed this book. It does a really good job of portraying a family dynamic where secrets are kept. At once frustrating and honest. Told from all views of the characters, it is a good look at how perception changes the story.

The Forgotten Ones by Steena Holmes is a twisted suspense tale with more than one unreliable narrator that will keep you guessing and long after you’ve finished reading.

Elle has been told her entire life that she doesn’t have any family, only to discover her David, her grandfather, is alive, but dying. As he endures the last days before his death, Elle listens to him tell stories of her grandmother and her mother growing up. Her mother doesn’t want to remember those days and her stories vary widely from David’s. Elle doesn’t know what to believe, and neither will readers. If you enjoy dark twisty suspense in the vein of The Girl in the Window and Gone Girl, this is a must read.

The Forgotten Ones immediately drew me into the story. Hidden stories, a man on his death bed, a wife who suffered with mental illness before she passed away, a daughter he loved and wanted to protect from her mother. Should the reader feel sorry for David or be mad at him for the choices he made? This story is a good insight into a family dealing with a mental illness. I know his story will stick with me for awhile.

I hate to say it, but this one fell flat. I usually enjoy Steena's stories, but this time...it was very immature writing. This was not building up to anything. It just felt like the story was being forced along by her constant questioning. There was some conflict between a man and his daughter, and now that he's dying, he is trying to reconnect.

I wanted to love it. I received a copy from NetGalley and then won a copy from Goodreads. YEAH!!!

But alas, no, no, no. It wasn't engaging, it felt like it was an unnatural progression. And it wasn't very realistic about what a nurse is going to share about a patient. There are serious laws in place about that kind of thing. It was just the final straw of an awkward story.

This is a story of mystery and intrigue! Captures you from the first page to the end! highly recommend

Wow. This story is f’ed up. So many twists and turns. I was constantly changing my mind about what really happened, and even after finishing the book I feel skeptical of the final answers.

The writing is very believable though, and I loved the relationship between Elle and Brennley. Brenn definitely gets the Best Supporting Actress award.

The Forgotten Ones is the first book I have read by Steena Holmes and I can't say that this was an enjoyable experience.

It's a hard thing writing a review without spoiling the story, especially since the things that frustrated me the most are events that I can't write about. I will say this, I felt really, really sorry for Elle's mother. She's definitely the victim in this story and I was furious that her father didn't do more for her. Speaking of her father. David should be ashamed of what he did or rather did not do. His action or lack of action gave Marie scars for life.

I struggled with the story quite badly because like Elle did I get fed up with questions not being answered. I mean come one, I would have been furious if I had been Elle and found out that everyone has been lying around me. Also, the story is pretty predictable, right up until the end when the author did a u-turn and abruptly ended the book.

I listened to the audio version and that was a blessing because I'm not sure I would have finished the book if I had read it. But, I liked the narrators. I gave the book 2 stars at first, but the more I think about the story the more ludicrous it becomes.

"I guess in the end, you start thinking about the beginning."



Elle, a nurse who grew up in less than normal family. Her mother having mental illness and having no other family (at least that’s what her mother told her, her grandparents died before she was born).She is shocked to find out that her grandfather is dying at the same hospital she works at. Elle's best friend Brennely, who is a nurse as well, is the one who has been taking care of Elle's grandfather, David. He confesses to her that he is estranged from his daughter and granddaughter. Not knowing that he is Elle's grandfather, Brennely convinces him to write letters to his daughter and granddaughter.

Elle of course has a ton emotions and questions. Why would her mother lie? She decides to get some answer herself, she begins to visit him regularly and he starts telling her stories of the past and a lot about her mother, Marie. Marie of course is not so happy and repeatedly tells Elle that the stories are lies.


A heartbreaking yet beautiful novel of love, family, heartbreak, and mental illness.

I believe I have seriously misjudged this author! I had believed that Steena Holmes wrote good stories that I enjoyed. I have been wrong. Steena Holmes writes beautiful fiction that twists your heart into mush and then makes you cry crocodile tears!

How much do we know about our families? That's what I thought as I was reading this book. Did I really know my parents and grandparents beyond the life I led around them? Elle knows only the family she has lived with - her mother and her mother's companion, Grace. Because of a complete coincidence, a friend discovers that a terminally ill patient may be Elle's father. This starts a cycle that takes Elle and her family on a journey that is incredibly sad and joyous at the same time. No one will ever be the same!

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review of this book.

Elle and her best friend Brennley work at the same hospital together. Brennley has become attached to one of her patients. He's a grouchy old man named David and he is dying of cancer. No one ever comes to visit him and this breaks her heart. He is estranged from his daughter and granddaughter so she convinces him to write them a letter. To her surprise his granddaughter just happens to be Elle.

Elle is rocked by the news because her mother told her that her grandparents died before she was born. Why would her mother lie? So she decides to meet the grandfather she never knew existed and he tells her a tragic and heartbreaking story of why her mother is the way she is and how she came to be that way. You see her mother, Marie, suffers from mental illness something that Elle is terrified to inherit.

To be honest this started really slowly for me but once we got to the tale that David has to tell I was completely gripped. I just had to know what tragedy befell this family. Elle had so many questions and it seemed everyone was dancing around the answers and I could feel her frustration. Heck, I was frustrated for her. I wanted to yell into my kindle for someone to just be straight with this poor woman.

All of the characters were wonderful. Elle, Marie, Brennley, Grace, and David. I cared about each of them. I tend to read a lot of books where everyone is unlikable so this was such a nice change of pace for me.

Steena Holmes did a wonderful job giving you just enough information to hook you from chapter to chapter. Not until you turn the final page do all the pieces truly come together. Highly recommended!

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I have read more than half of Steena’s books & I can confidently say this is her best book yet! This story is wonderfully interwoven telling the story of Elle’s family and the secrets that broke it. I loved that the ending showed how healing can happen. I spent most of the book stuck between wanting to race through to see what happens & wanting to savour every moment. The end was absolutely perfect and gave resolution while also giving a glimpse into what comes next for the characters. Amazing!

This is a tale of unreliable narrators and a reader trying to figure out who to trust. There are two narrators. Elle is a daughter and that is all she has been her whole life that is the only family relationship she has known. David is counting his days in the hospital and as he hasn't had communication with the rest of his family he is pretty sure he will die alone.

Very early in the book, the reader finds out the connection between David and Elle and I loved the premise that his days are numbered and Elle must quickly get the truth of the past out of him. I loved how that easily took us back in time through David's eyes to see the past.

The thing that I didn't love completely was that everyone was second guessing everyone else's version of the truth. I can handle an unreliable narrator, but it felt as though no one in this book could be trusted and it lasted for a very long time in the book. I am not sure that I would change anything, but I could see myself getting frustrated once David told a story and I was ready to hold that as truth and would have other characters possibly dispute what he had just told.

I am and will always be a fan of Steena Holmes. Her characters are built so well and the stories are always interesting. Her writing is easy to read, but still has depth. All of her books are easy to curl up with on a rainy afternoon and read basically in one sitting - I love those kinds of books!

Favorite Quotes:

Truth be told, I’ve been ready to greet death for a while now. But there’s a difference between greeting death and accepting it.

They say life flashes before your eyes when you’re about to die. I tend to believe the memories of the life you miss surround you until that’s all you see.

I guess in the end… you start thinking about the beginning.

I look at Mom in shock. The disdain in her voice is unexpected. Like finding out the sweet little puppy you adopted is really a snarling, ankle-biting, rabid wolf.

How are you doing? Do you need anything? Some water? Wine? A time machine so we can start this day over?

My Review:

I quickly tumbled into this divinely written and evocative tale that was so lushly detailed, I felt like a spectator rather than a reader. This was my first exposure to the remarkably talented scribe known as Steena Holmes and I was an instant convert to her cult. Ms. Holmes is a master storyteller with major word voodoo. I was enthralled, appalled, completely engaged, and immediately drawn to the character of Elle, as I well know the chill of looking down your family tree and seeing the deeply diseased roots of mental illness. My long-standing joke is that “stupid and crazy is everywhere in my family forest.” The storylines were ingeniously crafted, cleverly honed, and held taut at a cunning and maddening pace to the very end. I was a quivering mess and consumed with curiously to unravel the multiple layers of devious secrets Ms. Holmes had ruthlessly taunted me with, secrets that had been literally and figuratively buried for over sixty years. It was exquisite torture. Sigh, I’ve added her entire listing to my TBR.

It was a disturbing read at times, but I also thought the story was a little confusing - as if the author was trying to lead you left, and providing hints that things were going to go that way, but then at the end, nope, you were wrong, we went right after all. Try and keep up, mmkay?

Other than that, the writing was great, the story was teased out within a reasonable time, and detailed enough that I got completely immersed in the story from 1956.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.