This was one of the most twisted fantasies that I have ever read. Whaaaat… where… how… do I say it is fantasy when the cover looks like the psychological thriller?

Yes, it was a thriller, but it was the most fantastical one that I have ever read, and believe me, I’ve read many. And not in a good way at all!! The book had so many twists that I could just read wide-eyed and open-mouthed, worried where the story was going because it made so many in-roads into so many unnecessary details that I was afraid the plot got lost half the way. You have to read it to believe it!! Oh my!!

The concept was very exciting, it did tell us about a 3-year-old child abandoned then adopted by the family who found her. And fifteen years later, she received a letter from the real dad asking her to meet him. She did and she disappeared!!

But the delivery failed for me as the author Erik Hermes took the plot all over the place, with exaggerated sub-plots and unnecessary details and characters. None of that added much to the story anything, just to my slack-jawed incredulous-ness !! (If there is such a word, if not, there should be. I am totally owning it up ™️. Nicole, please note!!)

The characters were unlikable, most were not so intelligent (I want to call them dumb), the story got skewered by the dialogues, sub-plots went on a jaunt all on their own, the ending was fantastically unbelievable!! This book was a total merry-go-round, and I freaking hate them!! I get motion sickness!

Why did I read the book, you wonder?!! I couldn’t stop, how does one stop a merry-go-round? My mind was churning after the read!! Whew.

Keep Her Close is a quick read, full of suspense. Dan and Holly, and their adopted daughter Ally make a wonderful family, even if they are divorced now. They all care for each other.
The story starts out with Ally wanting to find out her birth parents and things go downhill from there. The actual plot seems a bit too much, but it was what it was. For me, the story fell flat despite the brisk pace.

I have to say I enjoyed this book, it was a quick easy read with a few twists & turns thrown in... alright so maybe you have to extend your imagination to believe but that's what fiction is right!!!

Ally is found by Holly & Dan when she is three years old all alone, after discovering the body of a woman, presumably her mother, they fought tooth and nail to adopt Ally.

Roll on 15 years later, Ally receives a letter from Frank, purporting to be her biological father and his failing health due to cancer has pushed him to get in touch. Ally has always wondered about herself, her history etc and she is quite gullible and arranges to meet him. Things don't go quite to plan and Ally finds herself in a situation far beyond her wildest nightmares.

Thoroughly enjoyed, will be recommending.

Many thanks to Netgalley & Bookouture for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I loved the idea of this book, however it just never came together for me in a way that made for a great suspenseful story.
I wasn’t able to get a real feel for any of the characters...unfortunately this book just fell a little flat...great concept but it just didn’t come together....for me.

Ally is a typical eighteen year old who has just recently left home and is doing her best to make it in the world. Even though her adoptive parents, Holly and Dan are no longer together, you can still feel the tight family unit that they have. All they want is the best for their little girl and I could totally get why alarm bells would be ringing when a letter turns up out of the blue from her real father. 

Dan is the type of person who acts first and thinks later. Whilst he may not be the most rationalist of people, there is no doubting his love for his daughter and that he will do anything to find her when she goes missing. As a parent myself, I couldn't imagine anything worse than a child going missing, even if they are eighteen.

The author had me totally engrossed in what I was reading. I was desperate to find out more about where Ally had gone and to finding out more about her real parents. There are so many twists and turns throughout that had me totally glued to what was happening within the pages. It will have you changing your mind about certain characters as the author very cleverly messes with your head.

Keep Her Close is without a doubt my favourite novel by this author. There were tons of suspense that builds up to a more than satisfying climax. An absolute page turner of a read!

This was a quick easy read and it started out being so good. By the half-way mark, it just seemed to jump around way too much with unlikable characters and went downhill from there for me. If felt really awkward trying to read about the main character Ally and her roommate Ellie especially with the two names used in the same sentence. I was disappointed in this book and I was glad when I finished it. Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Overall a good read but didn't keep me on the edge of my seat, loved the first half of the book then felt the second half wasn't as good as the synopsis led me to believe.

I will probably read more from this author in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

I am admittedly down a rabbit hole of true crime / police stories. So this was a nice departure for me while not going too far out of my comfort zone.

It’s been awhile since a book was able to hook me as quickly as this one did. Two pages in and I knew I needed to keep going. I had so many questions - that were ultimately answered through out the story along with the other questions I had along the way.

You feel for every member of this family from one chapter to the next. I would highly recommend this story to someone who is looking for an easy but intriguing read.

A most unusual scenario, a gripping thriller with an unexpected twist. Keeps one interested until the very end. A great read, recommended.

When I read the synopsis of this book I was really looking forward to it. Sadly however it just did not deliver for me.
I was really cross as I wanted to like this book, it’s started out really well but then just petered out and the ending was flat.
Thank you to both NetGalley and Bookouture for my eARC in exchange for my honest unbiased review

Keep Her Close is like two books that are only slightly connected. The first part is interesting and addictive, as Dan and Holly search for their daughter Ally. They found her when she was a kid, abandoned after her mother jumped to her death. They adopted her and loved her unconditionally and they are prepared to do anything for her. Dan can be a little violent and losing his daughter is making him come unhinged. Then, there is Cal, Ally's boyfriend who may know more than he's saying. Ally's roommate seems to have disappeared and Dan is out of options. I read that part very quickly and kept guessing as to what had happened. Then (minor spoiler), the story switches to a flashback about Ally and there is where the novel lost me. The characters involved are one-dimensional and their motivations are not clearly explained. And Ally... her actions are stupid and it's hard to reconcile with the bright girl that Dan has been searching for. Some situations and characters that are brought on briefly suddenly disappear and go nowhere. I liked the ending but by then it was too late.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Bookouture!

Keep Her Close, a suspense crime novel, is about a family whose lives are turned upside down again when a horror from the past revisits. The primary protagonist, Ally, who was abandoned at 3, takes us on a twisted adventure to find her father who has contacted her after 15 years. Keep Her Close of Erik Therme’s fourth novel.

On their way into a midnight movie, Dan and Holly stumble upon an abandoned 3-year-old girl bearing a hand painted sign “FREE TO A GOOD HOME”. Fifteen years later Ally receives a letter from a man claiming to be the father who abandoned her. Dan, now Ally’s adoptive father, refuses to go with her to meet this man and expects that she will not go without him. Dan is wrong, Ally goes missing, and the frantic search begins.

The book has a great premise and an interesting start. It then moves into a fast almost frenetic pace where everyone is running somewhere. I generally like fast paced books but this pace leaves room for little else. Without story development and background, I almost feel too hurried to get drawn into the drama.

With a few exceptions the characters are too shallow. I love Judy. Her character unfolds with the story and I understand her motivation. Under different circumstances she could have been a genius. Dan is a well-developed character but he spends more time angry and looking for a fight than he does trying to find Ally. But, why is Ally in such a hurry? Why does Ellie the roommate even make an appearance? Holly the mother doesn’t seem to play a significant role either even though you would expect a mother with a missing daughter would be central. There are many other “cameo” players. As a final and probably least important note, every female in the book has a name that ends in an “e” sound (Holly, Ally, Ellie Judy, Maddie etc. etc.). Diversity and variety are good things.

I give this book a 3 on 5 because at its heart it is a good story. However, I would only recommend it to people who like a quick, fast paced read. I want to thank NetGalley and Bookouture for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The start of the book was good and kept me gripped until the end where it went off in a completely different direction and is why I only gave this 3 stars. I noticed that there is a follow on to this which is not necessary as the plot could have been wrapped up in one book. I would like to thank the publishers and netgalley for letting me have the book to review.

The blurb made me really excited to read this but sadly it didn’t deliver. It started off well but then descended into disbelief for the sake of a storyline. Not for me.

Ally sets out to meet her birth father, while keeping this a secret from her adopted mother and father, who are now divorced. Interesting premise and full of potential, I was initially drawn right into this story.

For me, however, it all fell apart rather quickly as the author introduced us to the other characters. It was rather cringeworthy in parts, reading some of the dialogue spoken by these characters that I actually wondered if this was a first novel by the author but it’s actually his fourth.

I’m grateful to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC but am sorry to say that it wasn’t for me.

I really enjoyed this read. It's a fabulous page turner about a child, Ally, who is discovered in a parking lot and adopted by the couple who find her; Holly and Dan. The story takes place when Ally is an adult and receives a letter from someone purporting to be her birth father. He wants to meet her as he's dying of cancer.

What follows is a fast moving tale of relationships and secrets. It's well written and the style reminded me of early Harlan Coben / Linwood Barclay. I do have some niggles and I found the first half better than the latter, mainly due to the need to seriously suspend disbelief. However, if you can just 'go with the flow' it's a fun, well told drama and I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.

3.5* from me.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookoutre for the opportunity to preview in exchange for this honest review.

Dan and Holly find a little girl in a parking garage left all alone, standing on a piece of cardboard that says ‘Free to a Good Home.’ So they did just that, gave her a good home. Fast forward 15 years and Dan and Holly now have to face the fact that Ally (their daughter) has more questions than they thought about her biological parents and is willing to do anything to find out more. After graduation from high school, Ally receives a letter from her biological father and then goes missing a few days later. Dan and Holly will stop at nothing to find their daughter.

Honestly I wanted more of an ending to wrap up the story. I feel like the ending was either up to the reader to decide or maybe there will be a sequel. Either way, Keep Her Close was a good book, a quick read with multiple twists and unexpected turns. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC of Keep Her Close and opportunity to read and provide and honest review for this book.

Keep Her Close is a quick suspenful thriller. The ending is not quite what I expected. The book will draw you in about a missing daughter and keep you interested.

A psychological thriller that had my heart pounding with anticipation! Erik Therme’s latest novel Keep Her Close, is a fast-paced action-packed journey that homes in on parental love and the depths you’d resort to finding your daughter. Regardless of age and a lack of biological ties – the only father figure, Ally Nebel knew in her life is Dan; and the majority of the viewpoint is told through his eyes while revealing the sinister intentions of others around her.

This is an intense story that has the missing daughter and her parents as the main plot while slowly revealing other side-line characters who each have their own secrets that are unearthed as the plot continues. Revealing that nothing was ever really as it seemed from the on-set. Without giving away any spoilers, this is one of those novels that by the time you get to the end, it really makes you think about what you thought you knew about the beginning. It’s very clever and certainly ends with a satisfactory bang!

Three year old Ally is found a short distance from a woman who had apparently jumped to her death. She is found and adopted by Holly and Dan. Eighteen year old Ally is a sweet but somewhat naive woman who really wants to find out something about her past, hopefully who her parents were, or are.

Problem is, there are people who want to take advantage of this desire for their own benefit.

This is a story of deception, naivety, criminality, stupidity, and insanity. It is often helpful to speak of the intensity of action within a story. The pace of action within this story is nothing short of frenetic, the reader is buffeted about from one chapter to the next as each of the main and supporting characters reveals their ‘eccentricities’ and foibles and moves the story along a very jagged and rutted track.

The author, Eric Therme, certainly has a facility and talent for language which provides the reader with a colorful narrative. On the other hand, I felt jerked around as a reader, as though the author just wanted to shock and confound me with actions that just didn’t seem to make much sense. The characters are one dimensional, without real depth, almost caricatures. To top it all off it appears that the whole book was just a teaser to entice the reader into purchasing the next installment.

This was enough for me.