Well written, and gripping from the very first page! Another fantastic book in the Max Revere series. Can't wait to continue on to see what happens next.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I truly appreciate it!

Allison Brennan is one of my new favorite authors. I am going to binge all her books. Utter amazement! Give me all the books in Investigative reporter Max Revere series now, please.

I haven't read any other books in this series, but I love a good mystery and this was an excellent one. I liked the character of Max Revere and I did not feel lost at all. This was a very fast-paced read with some decent twists.

Although this book starts off a little slow , it quickly picks up pace as Max searches for answers as to what happened to her mother. This book is well written, and the storyline is easy to follow. The plot is intriguing and kept me interested even in the parts that were a bit slow. I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy reading suspenseful stories.

Max Revere is a well-known investigative reporter, an author of several books, and also hosts a TV Crime Series, featuring her solving cold case crimes.

The one investigation that she's never tried is the mystery of what happened to her own mother. When Max was nine, her mother, boyfriend in tow, left her with her grandmother.. and never returned. She did receive postcards from time to time, but even those stopped after a few years. Her mother was eventually declared legally dead.

With a single clue―that her mother’s car disappeared sixteen years ago in a small town on the Chesapeake Bay―Max drops everything to finally seek the truth. As Max investigates, and her mother's story unfolds, she realizes that Martha teamed up with a con man. They traveled the world living off Martha’s trust and money they conned from others.

When she learns that there is still an on-going FBI investigation with the con man being their target, Max teams up with an FBI Agent.

The more she investigates, the more she comes to understand that no one wants to admit knowing her mother, or the con man boyfriend. The more she uncovers, the more she is having to change her view of her mother, of her childhood.

Discovering what happened to her mother just may cost Max not only her career .. but her life, as well.

This best-selling author has written a poignant story featuring a woman who has felt abandoned her own life. There is nothing more she wants than to discover what happened to her mother and why she never came back for her.

The story is told in two time lines ... the present .. and things that happened when Max was a child. The characters are finely crafted and indelibly living in my head. This is a real page turner .... hard to put down for any length of time.

Although 5th in the series, this one can easily be read as a stand alone. I highly recommend starting at the very beginning of this most interesting series.

Many thanks to the author / St Martin's Press - Minotaur Books / Netgalley for the digital copy of this suspenseful thriller. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

KB
New York, Cold Case Investigator reporter Maxine Revere finally decides to take on a very personal case. A case of her missing mother, Martha Revere some 16 years ago. Max has to find out why? Why was she abandoned with her grandparents who she never met at age 9? why her abandoned car in the small town? With only a few clues she's set out to find out what truly happened to Martha and why?

I loved Max! Max is the type of person every girl wants to be. Shes smart, strong - headstrong, charasmatic individual who lives life to the fullest. With twists I didn't see coming I would definitely recommend this book. This was my first book by Allison Brennan and will not be my last

This was a really intense and surprisingly sweet novel. I enjoyed reading it very much, though I won't be able to post a full length review.

I have voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this title given to me via NetGalley. Abandoned is the fifth book in the Max Revere series and this was just another great installment to this series. I really enjoyed this book. It was really well written and it just had you trying to solve the mystery. I look forward to seeing what’s next from this author.

Abandoned By Allison Brennan

New York, Cold Case Investigator reporter Maxine Revere finally decides to take on a very personal case. A case of her missing mother, Martha Revere some 16 years ago. Max has to find out why? Why was she abandoned with her grandparents who she never met at age 9? why her abandoned car in the small town? With only a few clues she's set out to find out what truly happened to Martha and why?
I loved Max! Max is the type of person every girl wants to be. Shes smart, strong - headstrong, charasmatic individual who lives life to the fullest. With twists I didn't see coming I would definitely recommend this book. This was my first book by Allison Brennan and will not be my last.

This was a great read!! I really the suspense and thrill of the book. This is my second review here for this book.

Abandoned A Novel by Allison Brennan is the 5th book in this series but the first book for me. While I have been reading this author since I was about fifteen years old I like many others had a hard time connecting with it. This for me was a fail because I didn’t know enough of the story to be able to move it forward. The mystery was there the grit was there my only issue was the romance felt a bit rushed and unfinished.

She abhorred lies - especially to herself, but when called out, she didn't realize the deep truth. She was scared. She feared learning the whole truth about her mother because it would in fact change who she was and how she viewed herself in the world. Not knowing had driven her for years, and once the truth came to light, what would she do? Who would she be? But fear was no excuse.

Max Revere brings the truth to light in cold cases. Cold cases that leave families with doubt, fear, that can be paralyzing. Max has a cold case of her own. The disappearance of her mother Martha Revere. Her mother left her with her grandparents when she was a young girl. Grandparents that gave her acceptance, dignity and purpose. Everything that her mother could not give Max. Her mother being a selfish woman, did not have desire to care for her child. Always looking for the next con and she found it with a man named Jimmy. Given new information about her mother, Max heads to Florida.

It is there that she finds Gabriel. Gabriel who has spent his whole life cleaning up the messes that his brother Jimmy has made and is not willing to speak with Max about her mother. He is afraid and Max must discover what he afraid of to find what happened to her mother.

Her pursuit of finding out what happened to her mother, she must battle fear of what she will find and reign in her emotions as she discovers who her mother really was. There are twists and turns in this mystery however, with each turn there is a resolve in the Max's character. A resolve that truth will indeed set you free.

A Special Thank You to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

This is actually the first book I have read in the Max Revere series and I don’t think that diminished my enjoyment for this book at all. You could definitely pick this up as a stand-alone novel if you wanted. After reading this, I am absolutely interested in reading the other books in the series. I loved Max as a character. She was smart, strong, independent and not afraid to make it through life on her own. No matter how dangerous her investigation became she never backed down. She was willing to do whatever it took to get to the truth and I respect that.

Overall, this is a very solid mystery with strong investigatory elements. There were a lot of leads to follow as there is so much going on in this book: family drama, small town secrets, art theft and forgery, con-men/women and more! I usually do enjoy mystery/thrillers where the protagonist is a journalist but this one is especially well done in my opinion. The story leaves off with a lot of changes going on for Max so I definitely think this series will be continuing and this won't be the last time I read about Max Revere. That's for darn sure.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Minotaur Books, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review. Max is just the kind of protagonist I love so I had a really great time reading this!

I've read a ton of thrillers and suspense this year. I usually only read romance. But it's been a good change to mix up my genres. However, I couldn't get into this book. It just wasn't that exciting for me. But...tje writing style was really good. And I plan on doing a re read and maybe coming at it with a new perspective.

Allison Brennan's Abandoned sits firmly as a 2.5 star read for me. Abandoned is the fifth installment to the Max Revere series. Max is a celebrity investigative reported who's focus is primarily on cold cases. Up until this point she's never used her vast resources to investigate the cold case of her mother leaving her until now.

Abandoned offers insight from the past as well as follows Max's present journey through her mother's sordid past as she gathers clue after clue of her mother's disappearance sixteen years earlier. And I won't deny it, I was definitely sucked into the story. Brennan offers an easy read that is littered with moments to escape into, there was just something I couldn't get past when reading this title and that is the reason for my 2.5 star rating.

This novel is fun. Everything is fun about it. The mother's disappearance and how it ties into present day events was fun unlocking. Being introduced to the quirky FBI agent who helps Max's investigation was fun well. Even the parts that were a tad predictable were fun to read and held my attention like a bad accident. What became not so fun about this bad accident I couldn't tear away from is the overuse of the word fun. It's as if Brennan had no thesaurus in site and decided to lazily keep saying that Max's mother, Martha, simply couldn't be bogged down with a child so she abandoned her only child, with her (rich) grandparents, so she could have fun.

Don't believe me? Read the book. There's "fun" here, "fun" there, "fun" is just about everywhere.

I digress... as usual.

Guess I was having some fun with the word fun.

Anyway...

Abandoned was a... fun read. I don't mean that insincerely. I did have quite the time with this read and when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking how all the dots would connect. Some dots connected sooner than others, but I'm pretty good at this mystery thriller thing. Fans of this series won't be disappointed. I just wish the use of the word fun wasn't so distracting that it almost caused me to abandon this title... almost.

I always enjoy books by Allison Brennan. Abandoned does not let down the interest. Great plot and a startling ending. Would highly recommend this book.

This is my first book to read in the Max Revere series. I might have enjoyed the book and all the characters more if I had read the entire series. The book centers around the mystery of the life of Max’s mother. The book kept me engaged at first, but was a little slow during the middle of the story.

Abandoned – Allison Brennan
I was fortunate to receive this novel from Netgalley.com as an Advance Reader Copy, in exchange for an objective review.
Maxine Revere is a successful investigative reporter, with her own series on cable news. However, this journey is personal. Twenty two years ago, when Max was 9 , her mother, Martha and her boyfriend Jimmy, left her at her grandparent’s home, never to return, only sending the occasional postcard. Now, aided by her assistant, and law enforcement connections, Max is determined to find out what became of her mother.
The recent discovery of an alias used by Martha to purchase a car several years ago in Miami sends Max to Northampton County, Virginia, where the car was later discovered abandoned, and where Max suspects that her mother had died. Coincidentally, Jimmy’s family is from the same area of Virginia, and Max is hoping that Jimmy’s younger brother Gabriel can provide some information.
But Gabriel Truman has secrets of his own, and he’ll do whatever he can to protect them and his teen-aged daughter Eve…
I LOVED this character! Max is smart, savvy and in control, making this book a delight to read. It’s fast-paced, alternating between past and present as Max slowly pieces together her mothers past, and outcome. This was a quick read as I could not put it down!! Love, LOVE Max Revere, and look forward to many more adventures with her!

This is my second Max Revere novel, I also read the previous (#4) in the series, which I really enjoyed. Max is a good protagonist and complex enough to for her own series. This ‘episode’ focuses heavily on resolving her past, namely what happened to her mother who disappeared 16 years earlier. The set-up sounded great and the beginning of the book is strong. I found the middle and the ending lackluster. Max’s mother is not that interesting of a character and quickly becomes predictable. I stopped caring what happened to her. The larger mystery that she was involved in also didn’t engage me; perhaps because the outcome was not that surprising. There just wasn’t enough of Max, doing what she does best, in this tale. I missed her. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

I actually own and have read book one to this series and loved it , but after reading this one I can't for life of me understand why I just stop reading the series and ever got the rest of the books, but after reading this I remember why I loved the first one as well as the main character and will be looking forward to.getting the rest of them ,thanks Netgalley for letting me read and review this book as well as reminding me as to why I loved the first book