Thank you to net galley for an early copy!

Rating: 3.5/4 stars
Spoilers ahead!
I don't quite know where to start where this book. As I first started reading it, I quite enjoyed it. Although the genre of missing children can be quite exhausted, I still found this interesting to read. So much so I finished the book in one sitting.

I found that after a couple of chapters, there wasn't much mystery left, as the readers knew what had happened, and the characters were the ones who were figuring things out. I much preferred Rosie's point of view, since Anna's was slightly repetitive in the beginning.

It wasn't until the middle of the book where we proper learn about Father Paul does another element of mystery enter. It was nice to see the varying stories from Michael and Mary, as they both talked about Father Paul, however it was a little confusing at times jumping between the stories.

The ending was the most frustrating part for me. While I found Rosie's POV's quite intriguing, Anna was getting on my nerves slightly. There she was all tied by by 'Mamma', constantly getting drugged, and yet she still spoke of how she felt sorry for her, and how she wanted to be with her. It was very frustrating to read. It was only after Mary told her story of being raped by Father Paul, and her first child did I feel sympathy for her. But my annoyance of her rose again when she was trying to justify kidnapping Emily.
Yes, yes I know, she's gone through a lot and because of that is mentally unstable, but it was still vexing.

Overall I did like the story, even though I did think it took a bit of a dark turn with the whole cult plot. But I enjoy this kind of genre, so I felt it pleasing still!

When I read the synopsis of the book I thought I know how this is going to unfold but I was very pleased to be proved wrong.
The basic premise is Anna turns 18 and lies to her religious mother to go to Astroland theme park with her boyfriend. On arrival she somehow has a memory of being there before.
Rosie has been living under the shadow of her missing sister for the last fifteen years. Rosie decides she needs to find her sister alive or dead. This is where the usual storyline is completely blown apart.
I will be looking out for this author in the future if this is an example of her writing. The book had me gripped from page one and I devoured it in one sitting.
Thanks to NetGalley and Century publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was just OK for me - it was going along nicely, then the truth of what had happened began to be revealed and I did not like this development. I did not find the characters particularly engaging and the whole thing was forgettable.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Not my usual genre but will be on the lookout for more of the same.

Will recommend the author to friends and family, and eagerly await more material

Just wow. From the very first word I couldn’t put this book down. The heartache from Emily’s family to the life of Anna just drew you in and kept you within their lives until the end. I would’ve liked the story to continue a little further for the time after they were reunited but the book was amazing.

I'd firstly like to congratulate the author on her contest win. Even though I didn't find her story particularly gripping, it's a great achievement and not a prize that I had heard of until reading the acknowledgements at the end of the book. I guess that I really didn't understand if I was the target demographic for the text, which seemed to me much more suited for younger readers who could easily identify with some of the teenage themes. I felt the book seemed like an extension of a short story idea or creative writing project in that it was very simple throughout. Besides Rosie we barely got to know and therefore sympathise with Anna's bio family. The neat freak cult with their cleanliness obsession was just one of many callbacks to the movie Carrie, referenced once by name. I also questioned how long it took anyone to pick up a phone or tablet and simply Google for the answers they wanted, when by now that is human nature for even unimportant things. The police were eventually simply described as "not believing" a teenage boy who came to report not only a missing girl, but that her identity may be one of the most high profile disappearances in recent years. Maddening.
What I did enjoy were the more believably human moments, and the inner dialogues that both Rosie and Anna had in regards to their family, their situation and each other. Our feelings are never straightforward. It takes talent to convey those issues.

Wow! I couldn’t put this book down!
The story is written from two girls’ points of view. One who has lost her sister to an unknown fate and one who is living a difficult life and finds out that she may not be who she thinks she is. We learn about all the characters in the story and eventually work out that there is evidence that the sister is alive , then discover that that sister is the other girl in the story who discovers who she really is.
It’s a great mystery that gets more and more involved and interesting and has a great conclusion.
Highly recommended read!

I wasn't sure about this book when reading the first chapter as it seemed difficult to get into but after that I was totally hooked. A tale of two sisters caught up in a web of deceit that affected their lives in different ways. Anna only knows the life she has but thinks it strange there are no photos of her as a baby. She starts to have flashbacks and memories reappear.
Rosie has never really known or remembered her sister as she disappeared at an early age but Rosie is determined to trace her.
All in all, a fascinating story.

Very tense and exciting book about a girl that intuits something is not quite right with her home life, and the people that are looking for her.

Expertly written, the thing I e joyed most about this book was the excellent way the author managed to really capture how these people, both the girl and her lost family, must feel - the whole gamut of emotions from rage to sorrow to guilty for being even momentarily happy. It's an excellent look at how trauma can tear people's lives apart, and how time isn't really a healer, when it comes to the bonds of family.

Both the separate threads of Anna and Rosie were well crafted and fleshed out, fully believable characters.
My only criticism is that if Anna has been brought up in a strict Christian household and has sexual intimacy for the first time, more of a big deal would have been made about it - wondering whether her mother could tell, feelings of shame and guilt marring the innocent joy of it, whereas it felt much like, oh, yeah, we had sex, now let's get back to the plot, and that felt a little jarring.

Recommended for anyone that enjoys a mystery that starts off with the answer and shows you how it was done throughout the course of the hook.

I found this a very powerful book, written with skill . The two girls are so very different in both their upbringing and their view of life.
Without going over the story line, I just found it fascinating to see the juxtaposition of ideas and feeling engendered by the girls. How well the descriptions of Anna's mother were drawn, a passionately religious woman more through desperation rather than pure belief..Watching the gradual awakening of her 'daughter' and knowing what was bound to happen.
Of the ending, so very sad.
Thanks to Net Galley for a review copy.

A thought provoking story which is skilfully told from two different viewpoints. I found the ending really sad.

18 years ago, a British girl went missing at an American theme park, and Anna, an American girl, was born to a religious woman. But what is the truth of their stories?
This is a compelling and fast-paced thriller alternating between narrators - Anna and the sister of the missing girl. You’ll need to suspend your disbelief on one crucial point - that Anna could easily solve the mystery of who she really is if she googled a couple of words - but this is a novel and a good one,
Destined to be a bestseller and a film.

My Name is Anna by Lizzy Barber is a story that kept my gripped from the first page to the last. I could not put it down and read it in one day.
Anna lives with her mamma in a house with little comforts and has a very strict religious upbringing. On her eighteenth birthday she goes to a Florida theme park for the first time but remembers having been there once before.
Rosie's elder sister Emily disappeared when she was three years old when they were on holiday in Florida and now fifteen years later she decides that it's time to find out what happened to her sister.
This was a very emotional story. The heartbreak that the family had to endure after their child went missing and the consequences that followed for the extended family and friends was very well written and believable.
I really enjoyed this book and will be eagerly awaiting Lizzy Barber's next book.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House UK Cornerstone for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.