Mejia writes the kind of thrillers that are fun to read as long as you don’t think about them too hard. Maya is a newly-christened speech therapist working in a Duluth mental health facility. Her newest case is Lucas, a 19-year-old man who disappeared with his father into the Boundary Waters as a child and wasn’t seen again until he was caught robbing a store a few days ago. Since his capture he’s been combative and uncommunicative, but for some reason he’s willing to talk to Maya, who has her own baggage, including a mother who abandoned her. Perhaps she sees something in Lucas that makes her want to help him, even if that means breaking all the boundaries between clinician and patient. I say perhaps because I never quite understood any of the characters’ motivations. I also have some questions about how a man who, from age 9 to 19, interacted only with his father is able to interact in a normal way in an adult romantic relationship. You’d think that level of isolation would make a person weirder. See what I mean about everything falling apart under scrutiny? Anyway, if you’re willing to suspend your disbelief, this is a fun page-turner of a novel with some genuinely suspenseful scenes toward the end, and the rugged Boundary Waters setting is well drawn.

With regards to Atria Books and Netgalley for the review copy.

Maya Stark is a speech therapist working in a psychiatric facility. An interesting case enters the place and Maya is placed as the responsible person to bring this young man out of his shell and tell them what happened to him. You see, he showed up after going missing in the woods with his father 10 years ago and his reentrance into society was quite dramatic. At the same time, the reader knows that everything in Maya's life isn't exactly all sunshine and rainbows and its going to be a journey to find out.

I was on board with this book and liked most parts of it until one thing happened 2/3 of the way through - don't want to give too much away to spoil anything. At that point I just shook my head and was disappointed as to where I thought and realized the book was going to go.

I still liked Maya as a character and found her past to be the most interesting part of the book. I loved learning about how she became who she was in the present and how that affected how she treated her patients. At the same time, I also loved the chapters from the past of Josiah, the glimpses into how and why this father son ended up in the woods was the heart of the story for me.

I wish I had held onto this book to read on a cold wintry weekend. The location in Minnesota and the time of year made this book a good wintry read. I maybe would have enjoyed the setting of the book more if I was snuggled in a warm blanket.

In this novel, the main character is a young woman named Maya, who is working as a speech therapist at the same mental hospital where she was once a patient - and how now been assigned a new inmate has a patient, Lucas, who disappeared along with his father 10 years ago, but suddenly emerges from the wilderness but won't tell anyone what happened or where he's been. Unfortunately the book is nowhere near as compelling as that set up would make you think. Way too slow to qualify as a thriller, and even the various mysteries in the book are revealed in a very desultory manner. Plus, the characters feel kind of flat and never really fully come to life, and a lot of things happen in this book which strain credulity. I loved Mindy Mejia's previous book, "Everything You Want Me To Be," so I'm truly sorry to say that this one was kind of blah for me. 2.5 stars.

Leave No Trace by Mindy Meija was my second book by this author and I truly enjoyed it. This story was thrilling and suspenseful and had me turning the pages! I will definitely be reading more of this author’s work in the future!

Ten years ago, Lucas and his father disappeared without a trace. Now Lucas has been found and so many questions arise. He is placed in a mental hospital because it seems he cannot verbally communicate. Maya is assigned as his therapist and she has her own secrets and demons. Now we have so many more questions! What happened to Lucas and his father? What is Maya’s past?

Now Maya is trying to find a way to reach Lucas, but Lucas can be violent and acts out. Will Maya cross lines to help Lucas? Is she now in danger as well? This story was full of twists and turns. I was completely engaged with this story from start to finish and I devoured the last part of the book.

Happy reading!

Mejia’s evocative descriptions of the Boundary Waters area make this much more than the disappearing person book that it appeared at first sight. I particularly loved the description of Maya’s kitchen and the elements that made it part of the “Northwoods”. For anyone who has paddled the Boundary Waters, her use of the geology of the area as an integral part of the action in this novel is thrilling.

The other striking element of this book, the deeply sympathetic treatment of mental illness and its repercussions, was disturbing, but sensitively handled.

This wasn't as good as I was hoping but it was definitely unique! And now I REALLY want to visit Boundary Waters in Northern Minnesota! It's hard to even put this into a genre - not really a mystery or thriller, I guess more literary fiction than anything. I was expecting a bit more and to crawl inside the characters' minds a bit more but it was still good.

Leave No Trace came out earlier this month on September 4, 2018, and you can purchase HERE. I really loved Mindy Mejia's release from last year, Everything You Want Me To Be and you can read my review HERE.

It was dark as I coasted down the hill from Congdon toward the giant shadow of Superior. The entire city of Duluth, Minnesota, clung to the side of an ancient basalt ridge, fighting the slope toward the water, and you knew you were close to my neighborhood when the pavement started buckling like waves on a high wind. Paint peeled off crooked porches where old couches and lawn chairs face the giant warehouses lining the docks. Lincoln Park was a hop,skip, and a world away from Canal Park, where tourists snapped pictures of the lift bridge, took their sightseeing cruises, and ate their fennel and watermelon salads. We didn't get a lot of fennel south of Piedmont.

different than the authors other novel. riveting and page turning. loved it. will be selling this to anyone I can!!

I couldn't wait to get my hands on another Mindy Mejia book and wow am I glad I did.

Leave No Trace is about a father and son who just disappeared one day. Then out of the blue the son is arrested and put into a mental facility where he meets Maya. Maya is his speech therapist who is the only person he opens up to.
After learning his story Maya believes in him and tries to help him break away from the facility and get back to his father. In the mean time Maya is starting to have feelings for him. She first saw him as a boy but after spending time with him and learning about all he has been through she sees him as the man he truly is.

Speech therapist in psych facility, Maya, inexplicably drawn to wilderness survivalist patient, Lucas.

Everyone knows therapists are supposed to keep a professional distance from their patients, but Maya has never been a rule follower and finds herself inexplicably drawn to Lucas and compelled to help him. Although I understood the whys, I still found many of Maya's choices questionable and implausible. I was intrigued at the beginning of this story but, unfortunately, my interest waned about 50-75% of the way through (to be fair, I should point out that I'm not a huge fan of wilderness survivalist stories), so by the time the story reached its major twist, I was no longer invested in the characters or their outcomes. With that being said, I must add that since the ending was strong, and the author's words about loss powerful, I am rounding up to 3.5 stars.

I very much enjoyed Everything You Want Me to Be (4 stars) by this author, and would highly recommend it!

Last but not least, if you enjoyed the story line about the "wild" boy living in the woods, then I would highly recommend Magic Hour (4 stars) by Kristin Hannah about a little girl in a similar situation!

I received an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Location: Duluth, Minnesota

When I read Mindy Mejia’s novel, Everything You Want Me To Be, I was immediately hooked by how well she wrote and how fantastic her characterization was. The premise of this novel grabbed my interest immediately because it was so different than other mystery/thrillers I’d read. While I loved her first novel, I unfortunately didn’t enjoy this one as much.

There are some great things about this novel. Mindy Mejia is extremely gifted at developing characters that feel like real people. I loved the character of Maya because all of her issues felt genuine. They didn’t seem thrown in to make her more interesting. I also loved the way she interacted with her dad. The setting of this novel was also a big part of the story. It was described so vividly that I felt like I lived in Duluth too. However, the problems with this book far outweighed any of the positives.

My biggest problem was Lucas and his relationship with Maya.

***spoilers ahead***

Lucas was extremely violent to a lot of people. He choked Maya, threw someone over a railing, was responsible for someone’s head injury and handcuffs an orderly to a desk in his efforts to escape. Nevertheless, Maya is romantically involved with him and helps him in a way that is morally and ethically wrong. She’s his therapist and completely crosses the boundary of a professional relationship for very selfish reasons. I’m very uncomfortable with the idea of a therapist being in a position of power and starting a romantic relationship with her patient. It’s just so wrong. There were so many lines that were crossed. This book just didn’t need this romantic aspect in it. Also, this book is slow-paced. I went into it expecting a book like Mindy Mejia’s first, but this was even slower. There was a lot of repetition before anything actually happened.

While I thought mental illness was handled gracefully, there just wasn’t enough to redeem this book in my eyes. While I’d still be interested in reading Mindy Mejia’s future novels, I didn’t connect to this one.

Having recently finished “Leave No Trace” by Mindy Meja, I am happy to have had the chance for the preview; thank you Net Galley!

I really enjoyed the setting and suspense of this book. I love when I read a book in the middle of summer that has me feeling chilled because of the attention to detail; this book put me in Minnesota and made me want to cover up with my oh so soft IKEA GURLI blanket… even though it was definitely not necessary… in Michigan… in August. Early on I had a hint of the direction this story may be taking me… but the journey throughout, and the eventual revelation of the mysterious brown haired woman was great. I wasn’t sure how everything would be wrapped up as I was getting closer to the final pages, but all my questions were settled when I closed the book on Maya and Lucas’ story for the last time.

And…we are back to thrillers! Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia will have you reading quickly and so many questions swirl around from the first couple of chapters, you want to know what happens and how the pieces fit together.

Lucas and his father headed into the wilderness one day and were never heard from for ten years until Lucas was arrested while robbing a store. He’s brought to the place where Maya works as a speech therapist and she is assigned to work with Lucas, who has been refusing to speak. The two have an unsettling encounter where Lucas attacks Maya but somehow, the two quickly form a bond and its only Maya that Lucas will communicate with.

So many questions right away, why did Lucas and his father head into the wilderness without a trace? Where is the father now? And Maya’s mother abandoned her, why? I wondered about Maya’s connection to Lucas and his father. The book delves into all of those questions and more as the author builds the suspense.

You will love this one!

Synopsis:

There is a place in Minnesota with hundreds of miles of glacial lakes and untouched forests called the Boundary Waters. Ten years ago a man and his son trekked into this wilderness and never returned.

Search teams found their campsite ravaged by what looked like a bear. They were presumed dead until a decade later…the son appeared. Discovered while ransacking an outfitter store, he was violent and uncommunicative and sent to a psychiatric facility. Maya Stark, the assistant language therapist, is charged with making a connection with their high-profile patient. No matter how she tries, however, he refuses to answer questions about his father or the last ten years of his life

But Maya, who was abandoned by her own mother, has secrets, too. And as she’s drawn closer to this enigmatic boy who is no longer a boy, she’ll risk everything to reunite him with his father who has disappeared from the known world.

Readers loved Mindy Mejia's thriller, EVERYTHING YOU WANT ME TO BE. She's back with an equally suspenseful nail-biter, LEAVE NO TRACE (Atria) about the mysterious disappearance of a boy and his stunning return ten years later.

There is a place in Minnesota with hundreds of miles of glacial lakes and untouched forests called the Boundary Waters. I've been there and you don't want to get lost. You need to be there with someone very experienced with the area. I live in Florida now, and I'd compared it to the Everglades. There's something prehistoric .... uncivilized about both locations.

Ten years ago, search teams found their campsite ravaged by what looked like a bear. They were presumed dead until a decade later...the son appeared. Discovered while ransacking an outfitter store, he was violent and uncommunicative and sent to a psychiatric facility. Maya Stark, the assistant language therapist, is charged with making a connection with their high-profile patient. No matter how she tries, however, he refuses to answer questions about his father or the last ten years of his life

But Maya, who was abandoned by her own mother, has secrets, too. And as she’s drawn closer to this enigmatic boy who is no longer a boy, she’ll risk everything to reunite him with his father who has disappeared from the known world.

The characters are complex, as is the landscape the where the story takes place. LEAVE NO TRACE grips you from the start until the surprising ending.

*****



Mindy Mejia is the author of The Dragon Keeper and Everything You Want Me To Be. She writes what she likes to read: contemporary, plot-driven books that deliver both entertainment and substance. Watch for her next thriller, Leave No Trace, coming September 2018.

Thanks to one of our favorite PR peeps, David Brown at Simon and Schuster, we have one copy to giveaway. Just tell us about a favorite thriller you've read recently.

We'll announce a winner soon. Good luck.

Giveaway: USA only please.

2.5 stars

Very underwhelmed in comparison to my reaction to Mindy's debut book [book:Everything You Want Me to Be|29276588], which I really connected with.

My biggest issue was the lack of intensity and suspense. This was a flatline for me from start to finish. It’s not a bad story, and initially the mystery had me intrigued. But as the story unfolded, there were a lot of liberties taken to help move the plot forward which were too unrealistic for me to take seriously. This, along with the lack of intensity, made this a soon to be forgotten read.

ARC provided by NetGalley

"Leave No Trace" by Mindy Mejia, Emily Bestler/Atria Books, 334 pages, Sept. 4, 2018.

There is a place in Minnesota with hundreds of miles of glacial lakes and untouched forests.

Ten years ago, Josiah Blackthorn and his 9-year-old son, Lucas, went camping and disappeared. The campsite was torn apart as if a bear attacked it.

Fast forward. A man breaks into an outfitters store and attacks store owners Robert and Monica Anderson. Monica dies. The man is arrested. It is Lucas. The big questions are where is his father and where have they been living.

Lucas is violent. He is admitted to Congdon psychiatric hospital. He isn't speaking, so speech therapist Maya Stark, 23, is called in by Dr. Mehta to work with Lucas. Maya has her own issues. She was once a patient at Congdon herself. Her mother disappeared when she was a teenager. Her father operates a tub boat and has received a grant to search for historic wreckage.

When Maya works with Lucas, she finds that he speaks well and he says she looks familiar. He keeps trying to escape.

While Mindy Mejia writes wonderful descriptive phrases and good dialogue, the plot is just not plausible. There is a major twist that really adds to the unbelievable plot.

In accordance with FTC guidelines, the Advanced Readers Copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

When I first saw that this author had written another book, I had to jump on it. I was in love with her first book, Everything You Want Me to Be.

In the likes of her previous book, the plot is unique and intriguing. You get pieces of the current story intermingled with the past and how they eventually connect. I was a little shocked in how the past connected to the present. The author is a genius in this fact.

The downside. I was disappointed in the telling of this book. Most of the book drug. There was more down time in the book than things actually happening. I found myself struggling to keep going in many places. I needed a little bit more in this book for me to fall in love with it.

Overall, this wasn't necessarily a bad book. I am sure there will be people that will fall in love with it. However, there will be many that will be bored due to the lack of things happening to keep their attention.

Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia Book Review
A young man off the grid shows up after everyone assumed he was long gone. A Speech Therapist, with her own baggage & history, seems to be the only one who can reach him. Great writing from Mindy Mejia adds in a bit of mystery. Along with descriptions of the treacherous & beautiful terrain of Minnesota, the omnipresent draw of the wilderness is one of the main characters in Leave No Trace. As is should be. The heart of the wilderness is really the center of this book for me.

Off The Grid
Have you read Into The Wild? It details Chris McCandless's short-lived life & his final days living in Alaska's wilderness. Its beautiful, heartbreaking & I understand it. There's a saying that some people are not meant for THIS life. This rat race, dealing with humans, the emotional turmoil, working 9 to 5, playing by THEIR rules. I fully understand the draw of living "off the grid". Spend one night in the Redwoods in California, or look into the abyss of the Grand Canyon or hike along the Blue Ridge Parkway & you too may understand why someone can willingly choose the wilderness above all else. Once the wilderness truly touches your heart, there is NO going back.

Stellar Writing
Sincerely, the writing in Leave No Trace is nothing less than stellar. There are so many metaphors & so much symbolism running deep into the story. There are so many "full circle" moments in this book I want to tell you all about, but I don't want to ruin anything for you! Just know there are several instances where I paused to appreciate & admire Mindy Mejia's writing skill.

We're All a Little Mad
Leave No Trace is a thriller. Nut it's more than that. This book explores the notion of sanity. Heavy subject matter, right? Mindy seeks to define what sanity means to each character individually. There’s a part where Maya compares sanity to a line in the sand. The question is what side of the line are we each on at any given time. When I think about that for a second, it's a really great question. Also, who draws the line & who determines/judges which side of the line you may be on at any given time. Truly, it's a precarious situation & one that Mindy explores in Leave No Trace.

THE VERDICT
I am Really Into This book! Leave No Trace is a tale about love & understanding. Just like life, there are pieces of this book that are heartbreaking & pieces that are beautiful. I'm also really into Mindy's Everything You Want Me To Be & you can read my review here.

Special thanks to Mindy Mejia, Atria/Emily Bestler Books & NetGalley for providing my copy in exchange for an honest & fair review.

Let’s connect with books!  We have all of our reviews on Goodreads!

Mindy Mejia garnered global acclaim last year with her outstanding rural noir THE LAST ACT OF HATTIE HOFFMAN (aka EVERYTHING YOU WANT ME TO BE). Sometimes after a big hit authors can struggle with their next book, but from the first pages of LEAVE NO TRACE it's clear that Mejia hasn't suffered that fate.

This is a compelling page-turner, with depth. A one-night kind of read that still has plenty of layers.

Speech therapist Maya Stark is tasked with giving voice to a violent young man who’s reappeared a decade after vanishing in the forest-rimmed lakes of the Boundary Waters with his father. A ravaged campsite, a possible bear attack, father Josiah and son Lucas were presumed dead. But it turns out at least one of them survived. But what has Lucas Blackthorn being doing for the last decade? Where has he been living?

And what happened a decade ago?

Now Lucas is a celebrity patient at Congdon Mental Institution, and Maya needs to get him to reveal his secrets in the very place she was hospitalised herself as a teenager. Two people with troubled family histories and plenty of secrets must learn to work together, even as rules get in their way.

Mejia keeps the revs high while instilling plenty of humanity in her tale. It's clear how much she loves her home state and its natural wonders. There's a really good sense of place. With fresh turns of phrase and little touches that elevate the writing to a higher level, coupled with keen insight into people and their messy relationships with themselves and others, this is a cracking good read from a talented author.

In Leave No Trace, Mindy Mejia takes readers to Duluth and the Boundary Waters, creating a setting that is darkly atmospheric, and in which the environment is almost as much a threat as the challenges the characters are facing. Lucas Blackthorn has reappeared after he and his father have been missing for a decade, and Maya, a new speech pathologist at the hospital he's being held at, has been assigned to work with him in hopes of finding out where he has been, and where his father might still be. Their relationship develops, with Maya struggling with appropriate boundaries as she sees much of herself and her own history in Lucas. As her story and background are revealed, along with Lucas's, the book becomes impossible to put down, twisting towards final chapters that are unpredictable and surprising. I hope that Mindy Mejia keeps writing, and taking readers to the more rural and remote parts of the upper Midwest, exposing the possibility for darkness in these areas.

Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia is a highly recommended character driven novel of suspense.

Maya Stark, 23, works as a speech therapist at the Congdon Psychiatric Facility in Duluth, Minnesota, but she is also a young woman with a past. Her mother, Jane, left home and abandoned her when Maya was 10. While her father did the best he could, Maya fell into a rough crowd after that. She also was a patient at Congdon at one time. But after that she pulled herself together, attended college, received her degree, and got her position at Congdon.

When 19-year-old Lucas Blackthorn is admitted to Congdon after a burglary attempt it makes the news because Lucas disappeared along with his father, Josiah, ten years ago while camping in the Boundary Waters area in Northern Minnesota and Canada. They were presumed dead, but here is Lucas, alive and well, although at the hospital because he is uncommunicative - until he meets Maya and seems to recognize her. Their first encounter is violent, but they eventually form a truce and begin to connect. She learns that Josiah is still alive, maybe, and Lucas was just trying to get him help. Lucas, however will not tell her where they were living.

While the narrative follows present day Maya and Lucas, it also reveals the backstory of Maya and Josiah, which makes for some very compelling intense reading. There are some similarities between Maya and Lucas's stories, but also many differences. You can see the motivation behind their actions and thought processes. They are both flawed characters; loners, wary, but also survivors. Maya is a brilliant but flawed character and I was fascinated by her even while I was thinking, "No, don't do that - bad choice!" Maya's background is much more troubled and brutal, but Lucas's survivalist background living alone with his father in the Boundary Waters through the brutal winters you know had to require determination, tenacity, and skill.

Mejia knows how to write an exceptional story and she has given us another very good suspense novel with Leave No Trace. The plot is taunt and riveting with enough action to keep the steady pace moving. The backstory and character development in Leave No Trace set it apart and makes the novel a riveting story. Yes, there are a few moments where you will question Maya's choices and others where you will have to suspend disbelief; but, setting that aside, I know I sat down to read Leave No Trace and finished it that night.

The setting in the Boundary Waters resonated with me because I actually was on a camping and canoeing trip there years ago. I could picture the maps of the area (or dig out my old one) and clearly see how someone could disappear in the area wilderness.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Atria/Emily Bestler Books.
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