This book was a first for me. I had never read anything that dealt with the family of someone accused of child rape, let alone the daughter, who was there during the supposed rape, and is so sure of who her father really is, that you're forced to believe her. And this comes after the first chapter, where you've already convinced yourself that the father was guilty. But, then comes Katie's questioning and uncertainty and you begin to wonder whether something could have really happened while she was right there or not.

At the same time, it reminded me so much of my childhood. Lulu and I were a lot alike as teens and I could have easily gotten myself into the same situation as she did. But I was lucky. So my heart went out to her more than it did Katie. Though it was interesting to get the perspective of a family member, who always thought that her dad had hung the moon and could never rape her best friend. You never truly think about those behind the scenes of the crimes, the ones who are forced to deal with the consequences of something they didn't do but will forever be changed by. In a way, it reminded me a lot of Kerri Rawson's novel about her dad, The BTK Killer, because it goes on to explain how her life was changed once she discovered who her dad truly was and how she is trying to mesh the two images of her dad, the great father with the serial killer.

This is definitely a book I would reccomend. It catches you from the beginning and never let goes. It easily brings you back to your own budding sexuality as a teen and how things could have easily gone the wrong way and how they obviously can so easily go in a direction that can't be undone.

This is a gripping, emotional story about the effects of childhood trauma. I felt it was a good read although it was slow in places. The ending wasn't as satisfying as I hoped for although overall I did enjoy the book.
Thank you to Katrin Schumann, Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

The Forgotten Hours combines family drama and a mystery to tell the story of Katie, whose past is fraught with trauma due to a friend accusing her father of sexual improprieties. Fast forward to the present, and she is forced to confront not only her father and friend, but she must also dig to find out what exactly did happen all those years ago. While the writing is emotional, and the pacing is competent, the ending as well as the plot feels a bit forced and too derivative of other novels in this genre.

I really enjoyed this novel, which involves a 20 something daughter, Katie, dealing with the fact that her father is soon to be released from prison after 6 years. He was imprisoned for having sex with her best friend when they were 15, something that Katie vehemently believes was a lie. However, because she never looked into the truth fully, she decides to search for answers/confirmation that she is correct in this belief. The depiction of her mother was thoroughly understood once we got more pieces of the puzzle.

I found, although a touch slow at times, the novel itself was gripping. It truly captured a daughter torn between the image of her adored father and the father that she may not have truly known. I liked that it was solely from her own perspective and how we experienced the emotional journey with her.

I also enjoyed the setting--NYC, as well as she mentions often of Vassar College(a very prestigious college), which is in Poughkeepsie, Ny, a city I went to high school in and is within a county I grew up in. The lake and cabin where the "crime" occurred though are not anywhere near Vassar, given that Dutchess county is heavily populated now and this fictitious lake is in a more rural area. I suppose it could be in Orange county, given that both Wallkill (a real life prison is indeed there) is mentioned for his prison as well as Walden, which is a mere 5 minute drive away from Wallkill. I also took issue with a 2 stop layover for a flight to London--Katie lives in NYC, she can easily get a direct flight there! These minor issues though didn't take away from the story for me.

However, the one part of the story I disliked was Katie's surprise pregnancy. It felt cliche and an unnecessary feature of the story. I get why she did it to push whether Katie and Zev would be together or not, but I felt it could have been left out entirely.

Overall, this story is both timely and thought-provoking. It leads you to think what if her father were your neighbor, relative, your own father? Would I have handled things differently? I was satisfied with the ending, although it was definitely not what I was expecting completely. This books leads us to ponder: Do we truly know our parents? Is our image skewed and if we did know all their secrets, would we still feel the same way towards them? A story that I see why it has gotten a lot of early buzz about. Highly recommended.

Thank you Netgalley/the publisher for my advanced copy and honest review.

I was really excited to get my hands on this. I have so many mixed feelings. It wasn't a bad read. It just wasn't a great read. It was definately anti-climatic. Katie was not a very good heroine. She was frustrating and I just couldn't believe she was as naive and the author portrayed. She didn't sell it. I think thats where I struggled. Nothing fit if I didn't believe in Katie.
I feel like Lulu deserved a little more attention. Overall it just fell flat for me.

I was excited to read this book because the plot seemed very interesting. My main concern with the book is that it jumped back and forth in time but the chapters were not marked this way. It was confusing and I had to read a few sentences to understand what if I was in the past or present. I enjoyed the main character and how she dealt with her struggles throughout the book. Overall the book has promise but was confusing to read.

I’m just going go be straight up and say this book was straight up disappointing. What ever the author wanted to achieve by making such a selfish and blazé character like Katie, the mark was missed by a long shot. She was the literal worst. The lack of acknowledgement for Lulu and what happened was maddening. I mean I guess it’s seeing the ripple effect but she was just choosing to keep her head in the sand.

This book just did not do anything for me. It felt very forced and fake. The writing felt jerky and rough to me. Almost like the this was a first draft and it needed a good work over.

This is one of my favorite NetGalley finds so far. A very well written story about a young woman who realizes that a pivotal event in her life might not have occurred the way that she originally believed. Katie is a young woman who spent the first fourteen summers of her youth at a resort town on Eagle Lake in the Catskills (which, incidentally, is a real place). One of these summers, her family takes a low income local girl under their wing and the two girls become close. Then one night, something catastrophic occurs. Ten years down the road, Katie's father is being released from prison, and Katie is slowly coming to the realization that the key players in the event that put him there might not be exactly who she thought they were as a child. As the story unravels both in the past and present, Katie comes to understand why people have chosen the paths that they did, and ultimately the story concludes in a dramatic final scene that frankly, caught me a little off guard. A lot of the characters in this are pretty unlikeable, but I felt that this was a great tale about how children see their parents versus reality.

Hmmm. In this day and age of #MeToo, it's hard to read a book like this. Katie is a 24 year old woman living in New York. 10 years prior, her life fell apart after her father was on trial for rape.

This story - could have been so great - but instead felt disjointed and kind of...didn't follow any sort of path. I understand jumping back and forth in time but....this didn't quite work here. Also, Lulu is kind of terrible. She's selfish and narcissistic. Katie was annoying.

A lot of potential, but ultimately this book is bad.

Thank you NetGalley and Katrin Schumann for the ARC!
Beware Spoilers!

I wasn't sure what to make of this book. In a way it reminded me of a more twisted version of Summer Sisters by Judy Blume, but with a rape charge hanging over it. I truly wasn't sure what Katie's obession was with Lulu or why she wanted to be her so much. It seemed to have just been that Lulu was pretty and full of confidence!

I went back and forth regarding the "rape". At times the father seemed to be fantastic and at other times creepy. I wonder if it was Schumann's intend to have him appear to be great when Katie was younger vs much creepier when Katie was older to show how Katie viewed her Dad at a young age. Lulu's story at the end made it seem as if the younger version of him was the correct version.

There were a few unanswered but pointless to the plot questions I had....who did John text when he was out of prision and if Grumpy disliked him so much, why did he help set him up when he got out.? Again. not really important to the plot at all. but still made me wonder.

All in all this was a good book and it did keep me guessing.

Excellent heartfelt novel. Katie and Lulu have been friends for their entire childhood, spending long summers at Katie’s house on the lake. Their friendship is irretrievably broken when Katie’s father is accused of inappropriate conduct with Lulu. As the years go by Katie is finally determined to find out what did or didn’t happen that fateful night at the cabin. Painfully moving story about growing up and learning that people aren’t always who we think they are. Beautifully written.

Secrets and lies. Katie's been in denial for years about her father but now that he's getting out of prison, she's rethinking what she believed. While she's more than a little naive, especially in today's world, give her a break as she tries to face facts. There's a twist here too. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

The Forgotten Hours is a captivating book that explores the difficult issues of sexual assault and consent.

The book centres around the inner turmoil of Katie as she struggles to understand what really happened. She is in the difficult position of being both the daughter of the accused and best friend of the victim. As the story moves from present day, to the time of the assault, Katie begins to unravel what really occurred.

The author has created a story, that will stay with its' readers for a long time afterwards. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from this author in the future!

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC.

I love this book at the beginning. The story is all about our main character
Katie, now grown up, who is suddenly thrown back into the worst moment of her life when she was a child.
The back and forth of time frames which I usually find jarring was very well done and gives the reader
a good look at how things came to be and the residual effects that they caused. Katie's father is being
released from prison for the rape of katie's best friend. When the trial hit Katie sided with her father
however now the more she starts to think about what actually happened she comes to realize that she might
have made the wrong choice. The book talks about before the trial as well as after and during so it was
nice to see how things came to be. Very interesting mystery that kept me guessing. The only thing I didn't like
was I found the flow of the story to be a little fractured and jarring. I think it was the time jumps it made
it very hard to follow. I think if they were a little smoother or a little better laid out then the whole story
would have been much more exciting. While there were a few things I wasn't a big fan of overall I enjoyed this
story and I'm very glad I got the chance to check it out.

This certainly had a shocking twist! I never expected her father to have operated under a veil that let him live a life truly different than his kids expected. The thing that bothered me is that she was nonchalant about everything that didn't involve him.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, you can purchase a copy to read here : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D6R3FQ6/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
#TheForgottenHours #NetGalley

I want to start this review by saying I LOVED this book! I am currently living in upstate NY and most of the places that are referenced in this book are very familiar to me. We toggle between upstate NY and the city. This book takes us back to the summer of 2007 in a time where cell phones weren't so predominate and things were different. Summers at camp are so much fun, until it is not!
We begin in June 2007 with a friendship like no other in Lulu and Katie. They were closer than sisters. They are summer buddies until something happens. We are then sent to the present day with Katie's dad getting out of prison. This stems so much investigation and rediscovering. I was so intrigued on what information would be discovered next. This was a very well written mystery!

A solid story of childhood memories and family frustrations. The prose is lovely, but it lags a bit in the middle and the wrap up at the end seems rushed. This is where I wish I could give half stars, as I would definitely rate it a little higher.

Katie finally feels like she’s getting her life on track, with a new job and a new lover, as she starts to put her troubled past behind her. But just as she starts to think she’s pulling away from her past, her father is released from jail. Locked up after being convicted of raping Katie’s best friend at their lake cabin a decade before, he’s returning to the lakeside. Katie stood by her father’s side and insisted he was innocent during the trial, but now, as her memories begin to come back, she’s forced to admit she may have been wrong. I have to admit I was a little frustrated by Katie’s inability to accept reality, especially in these times with the Me Too movement hopefully making everyone more aware

This book was riveting, as it tells about the relationship of two friends via the past and present. The father of one of the girls is charged with statutory rape of the other girl. This book follows the fallout and lead up to that event.