10 Stars!!
I just finished this and wow. This one made me cry. I have so much to say and not sure where to start.
The writing is amazing. A.M. Taylor has a way with words. I was highlighting everything just because it touched me so deeply. The words are raw and real and painful and so connected to the characters. Poetically emotionally if that’s a thing?
The whole plot had a “who killed Laura Palmer?” theme which I couldn’t enough of. But that ending...I only read psychological thrillers/mysteries/murder books, but this one went way past that. I was SO there. I could feel the cold Wisconsin snow on my face and I could feel the pain of 10 years without my (missing) best friend and I was there in the bar with everyone at a crowded table in a small town diner where no one knows who is guilty or grieving. I could smell the fries and cheese curds and hear the beer bottles on the tables each time someone took a sip and put it down ...but my heart could feel the loss and the suffocating airless bar along with Maddie.

I CRIED at the last 10 pages. I can’t say more than that. But this one got me. First book that made me cry. Thank you @A.MTaylor
So real. So raw. You made us love her too.

Thank you to #NetGalley, the publisher and author for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.
10 stars, but my stars are tear covered and I feel like I’m grieving the loss of a friend.

I received a free copy from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. I liked the book, but it seemed a bit long. I felt like there was a lot of extraneous plot points that didn’t add to the overall plot of the book. The action scenes were very thrilling.

This book is really good. I knew who did it, but only because of the good writing, if that makes any sense? There was enough suspense and insinuation that I doubted if I was right in who I had pegged as the killer. This book is good. Really good. My only complaint is that you can tell if was written by a Brit not an American and that’s fine, except it’s taking place in Wisconsin where things like windscreen and car park and some of the sentence structures and wording just wouldn’t be used. Those details count to readers like me with a voracious appetite for good books, which this is, but with an unyielding standard for grammar and all the small details that can keep a good book from being a great book. I had an advanced copy of this book so hopefully good editors will comb over the stylistic variances from Brit speak to American lingo by the time this book is polished off and published officially.

Within the explosion of psychological thrillers there are some that stand out for me as a reader and Forget Me Not was one of those. I sank into it and read it over two involved sittings.

The mystery elements are strong, it is not immediately obvious which keeps things beautifully unexpected so that was great but not entirely what drew me to this one.

A M Taylor writes about a town in turmoil and a girl who can’t move on. Maddie is a brilliantly drawn and highly sympathetic character, showing us throughout the narrative just how much the loss of her closest friend has changed her and affected her future. When another member of the same family is murdered the intricacies of that are thrown into the mix, the “whodunit ” fades more as we are given a stunning portrayal of grief and loss.

It was descriptively emotive, digging into the issues and exploring how knowledge or lack thereof can alter us. That plus a very real need to know what happened to Nora, ignited in the reader by Maddie’s trauma makes this a real page turner and a highly addictive read.

When psychological thrillers properly explore the psychology as this one does, it really adds an edge to proceedings and makes the story stand above the rest. I loved Forget Me Not because it worked on many levels above and beyond the natural central theme so therefore it comes highly recommended from me.

Terrific writing, intelligent plotting and memorable characters. All you need.

Forget Me Not is an exciting, fast-paced psychological thriller. It's a strong debut for A.M. Taylor and set to be published next month.

What happened to Nora?
17-year-old Nora Altman disappeared seemingly without a trace, leaving her family and friends wondering about her fate. Ten years later, they're still searching. On the anniversary of her disappearance, tragedy rocks the Altman family again: their youngest daughter, Noelle, is found murdered just yards away from the spot where Nora was last seen.

The story is told through the eyes of Maddie Fielder, Nora's best friend. She's struggled with the sudden loss of Nora, her own guilt, and the lack of answers for a decade. When Noelle's body is discovered, Maddie needs to know if the sisters fates are related. She starts her own investigation into just what happened to the Altman sisters.

Taylor does a great job showing how loss and disappearances shape the people left behind. Nora's family and friends feel their loss two-fold - they mourn for their missing daughter and friend while holding out hope that she survived whatever took her from them. As a result, they're unable to lay her memory to rest and stuck in an emotional limbo.

Forget Me Not is a fast-paced page turner. There's a whole sub-plot involving a third possibly-missing girl that I think could be eliminated entirely without the plot suffering. My biggest gripe is that for a book with several red herrings, I thought the murderer's identity was fairly obvious. Part of what works with Forget Me Not is that there are multiple characters with motive for killing Nora. That should make for a compelling mystery. I'm not sure if it's an easy guess for fans used to the thriller genre or I just was really in tune with the book. Still, it's a satisfying ending for this solid debut novel.

Maddie is heartbroken and mystified when her best friend, Nora disappears. The car Nora was driving was found, locked on the side of the road and there were no signs of a struggle. Ten years later, Maddie is still looking for her friend when Nora’s little sister is found murdered in the same location Nora was last seen. Afraid to learn the truth, but even more afraid not to, Maddie works to uncover the truth. I like the first person narrative in this book, it puts readers right inside Maddie’s head and creates an atmosphere as thick as pea soup

January 2008 - Seventeen year old Nora Altman drives off into the night in her father's car and disappears. The car is found in the early hours of the morning by the side of the highway, not far from her home in the small,isolated community of Forest view. The car is locked,the tank is empty and there are no signs of a struggle. The teenager has just disappeared.

January 2018 - Every year Nora`s family,friends and the community hold a memorial service in her honour. The day after the 10th anniversary of her disappearance,the body of Nora`s younger sister Noelle is discovered in the trees not far from the exact location where Nora`s car was discovered. The police and many others in the town refuse to accept that the two cases are connected but Nora`s best friend Maddie Fielder has spent ten years living with her guilt about her best friend's disappearance and is determined to uncover what really happened on that cold winters morning so many years ago.

Noelle`s killer is hiding in plain sight but is Nora dead or has she simply ran away and will Maddie be able to cope when she learns what really happened to Nora?

This gripping,character driven thriller is voiced entirely by Maddie from the first person perspective. The story is set mainly in the present day but inserted into some of the chapters are italicised segments that are set in the past that cover interactions between Maggie and Nora before she disappeared and the affects her disappearance had on Maggie,their families,friends and the community.There was extracts from articles in the papers that were written by a unscrupulous journalist who had made her name out of Nora`s disappearance and was now back stirring up trouble and causing the community to turn on each other. There was also comments,discussions and speculation about both cases that had been posted on a blog about Nora`s disappearance. Although I admired Maddie`s determination to uncover what had happened to her friend,I also struggled to like her at times especially in the sections set in the past where she came across as self centred,selfish and thoughtless. She seemed to have really loved her friend but was she more than she seemed. Why was she so desperate to uncover the truth? Did she know more about Nora`s disappearance that she was revealing and was just doing everything in her power to keep her own secrets from being uncovered? In Forest View,as in any small community everyone knew everyone else's business,you couldn't blow your nose without the news spreading like wildfire.The secondary characters who lived there were a mixed bag of vivid,realistic individuals, many of whom seemed a bit too eager to accept that Nora had simply just left of her own accord.

It's not a fast paced story but it does have some unexpected twists and turns,keeps you guessing and turning the pages desperately wanting to know what happened to Nora and who killed Noelle but at the same time not wanting the story to end. I really enjoyed this well written debut thriller and look forward to reading more books by this author in the future.

Maddie’s best friend Nora disappeared when she was 17 years old. Maddie’s life fell apart afterwards. Now on the 10 year anniversary of her disappearance friends and family get together to remember her. Noelle, Nora’s sister was 7 at the time of her disappearance. Noelles body is found at the same spot where Nora’s car was found, out of gas, 10 years ago. The town is filled with gossip and innuendos. The press is there looking for a story. Are the two cases connected?

This book is written in the first person, not my favorite, but I still enjoyed it. There are flashbacks to the past from Maddie’s perspective. There are also all sorts of secrets around Noras life that are just now coming to light. This book had plenty of twists to keep you interested. This was a good effort for a new writer. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.