I enjoyed the book but wasn't really a fan of the characters and would give it 3.5 stars. The problem being I never felt I really got to know them. Each character had so much more to their story, especially Faye and Clary. Annie ended up being my least favorite and she happened to be the main character. The whole book revolved around her disappearance right before her wedding. Even the book centered around Annie, the story was about all the people in her her life. Annie seemed like an awful friend and used people. Kenny would have done anything for her and was a great friend. I felt like Annie would do anything just to get away from the small town where she lived. I kept wanting to find out what really happened to Annie's mom. It wasn't revealed until the end and felt so rushed. The scenes with the doves were some of my favorite parts.

I absolutely loved the cover of the book. I recommend the book and look forward to reading more by the author.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Lake Union Publishing through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This was an enjoyable story featuring a variety of unique characters. Centered around the disappearance of Annie days before her wedding, we learn about her mother who was murdered when Annie was three, her aunt that raised her, her cousin that grew up with her, and other townspeople.

This was a good beach read for me. There was mystery, small town life, secrets, and enjoyable characters. It was a light read with a slow pace.
Many thanks to Lake Union Publishing and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Only Ever Her by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen was a book that I was hooked on - in the beginning. Unfortunately for me it became a but slow and the story started to drag. The ending was a disappointment for me as well.. The story sounded like one that I was going to really get lost in but it just did not continue. All the characters had their secrets that start to come out and take away from the main story of the missing bride.

Annie Taft is getting married - and it is to be the wedding of the year. Annie is somewhat a celebrity in her hometown - when she was 3 her mother was murdered and her testimony put a man away. But he is getting out - and then Annie goes missing. Has she got cold feet or has something happened to her?

Thanks to Lake Union Publishing and Netgalley for my advanced copy of this book to read. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased.

This book was just absolutely wonderful! The way the author weaved her story was just beautiful she's s storyteller for sure and it made me so exicted to read more works by her! The family saga and the southern setting made this book so special and relatable for me I can imagine my own family reading about the Taft clan. I enjoyed so much reading about every past choice and revelation bought to light for the Taft family and the questions and suspense of Annie's whereabouts the whole family swept me up and made me love these characters so much something about reading about good old southern families just always makes my heart happy

It was to be a perfect wedding.. but where is the bride? Cold feet? An accident? Or something sinister? Days go in and the lists of suspects keep shifting. How well did Annie’s friends and family know her?

Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book. This book is set up a mystery about a woman who goes missing just days before her wedding. The author does a great job of putting all the right elements in, so this becomes a page turner. However, as the story progresses it fell a little flat for me. I was like that was it, really. Great Premise, ok execution.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley!!

I love the cover of this book.
Annie Taft's wedding is in FOUR days.. which is fantastic right? Except she's disappeared. Did she have second thoughts? Did something bad happen?> While everyone is trying to track her down, they're all forced to dela with their own secrets... secrets that make them reframe their current relationshipos and wonder if thye know Annie or themselves!!.

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me the chance to read and review, "Only Ever Her" by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen. This book fell a little short for me. I loved how most of the characters had secrets, both big and small. I was really invested in all the different characters. I am a huge fan of books with multiple points of view! I couldn't put this book down until it got close to the end. The ending didn't truly feel like it had any closure. It felt a little unfinished for me.

I am so grateful to Lake Union Publishing via Netgalley for the eARC of Only Ever Her!
As the weather warms, I tend to turn to more suspenseful stories, and the story of Annie and her family sucked me right in.
Annie has spent her life being a symbol in her tiny town of overcoming tragedy. Now, it’s just a few days before her wedding, the talk of the town, and she’s struggling to come to terms with leaving her old life behind.
I love stories with multiple perspectives, and this cast of characters are really well written, human and flawed, but relatable for that reason.
If you like family drama, especially small town family drama, I think you will really enjoy this book!

Annie’s wedding is only four days away and it’s a big event for the small town. Such a big event that the local reporter Laurel is doing her best to try and get the scoop. The wedding isn’t the only big event that happens. Annie is contacted by a lawyer about the man that went to prison for her mother’s murder, one that after all these years might be innocent and is serving a sentence he wasn’t meant to. Now Annie is missing, and her friends and family are trying to find her. While the search for Annie is moved into actions, the characters must come to terms with their own regrets and what it means to finally let them go.

I enjoyed this story. I thought it was a fast read. I loved the last book by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen. So while I enjoyed it, I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either. I thought it was a good, quick read. That being said. The book is classified as a thriller on goodreads and I don’t believe that this is a thriller but more of a general fiction.

The story mostly follows Clary, Annie’s cousin. Faye her aunt who raised her. Kenney, a kid that admired Annie since school and Laurel a reporter. It follows their lives as this situation unfolds and how they deal with Annie’s disappears as well as some major milestones in their lives.

I really wanted more character development. I think this had a lot more potential that it just did not seem to reach. While I liked the premise and the characters, I just really wanted more.

I was confused about how a town that took the testimony of a three-year-old and jailed an innocent man. She was three… How does that even happen?

Also, the revelation, in the end, felt completely out of the blue and perhaps added for shock value?

But I saw what the author mostly wanted to do with this. I appreciated that. I thought some of it was really sad and emotional and I do enjoy her writing. Overall, I am looking forward to see what she does next.

Thanks to Lake Union and Net Galley for the
ARC of Only Ever Her by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen in exchange for an honest review. I had not read a book by this author before I had not read a book by this author before, so I was excited to receive this ARC. The story is told in multiple viewpoints. At first I was a little confused and it took me awhile to nail all the characters down. Once I did though, I found the story to be very enjoyable. I will definitely read this author again. I enjoy books with multiple
viewpoints where the story is revealed little by little. Make sure to check this one out!

Annie Taft is about to be married. As the final few days count down, she receives a letter that the man in prison for killing her mother is about to be released. As a child, her testimony helped put him there. But were the words of a young toddler to be believed?
Then Annie disappears, leaving her Aunt Faye and cousin Clary to find out what happened to her. Did she vanish due to cold feet, or is it related to her mother's death?
Women's fiction with a mystery. I enjoyed the strong female characters, and the uncertainty behind Annie's disappearance. I loved the small town stories and secrets being revealed.
An engaging, endearing read.
Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for the free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Annie is preparing for her wedding which. will be the biggest social event of the year in her small town. On top of her wedding, her mother’s murderer is being released from prison, possibly wrongly accused by Annie herself. Annie was four when her mother was murdered and her testimony put this man in prison. Then four days before her wedding, Annie does not come home. As the town and her family and friends search for her secrets and past history come into play. It seems nothing is ever secret in a small town.

This was my first book by this author and while I enjoyed it, the book was a little slow. I was very excited to read it and absolutely love the cover! Each chapter is told from a different characters view. I really enjoy books written this way as it helps me understand the characters more. Overall this is a good read but the story is a little slow.

In Only Ever Her, a small South Carolina town is in despair as a young bride, Annie, disappears just days before her wedding. Where did she go? Why is she gone? Was this intentional or is foul play involved? Lots of unanswered questions loom as her family (Aunt Faye and cousin Clary), friends (Tracey and Kenny), fiancé (Scott), and local community (Sheriff Hal York and reporter, Laurel) try to figure out what happened. Interestingly enough, the man who served more than 20 years in prison for allegedly murdering Annie’s mother is also released during the time of Annie’s sudden disappearance.

This story is a mystery but far from a thriller. Most of the main characters are hiding at least one secret but the book is, for the most part, fairly predictable. There was one twist revealed near the end of the story that I did not see coming. The overall pace bordered on slow, and the character development could have been a little better.

Only Ever Her is the second book I’ve read by Whalen. I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as When We Were Worthy. I have one other book by Whalen currently on my TBR list and while I didn’t love this one, I would still read more from her.

This was my first book by this author and it felt quite hard to get through despite being not very long. I think it just wasn't quite what I was expecting. The mystery aspect definitely kept me entertained but I couldn't find myself caring as much about the characters as I usually do when reading these types of books.

I kept waiting for the juice! The thrill! The moment I was going to turn the page and the excitement was going to begin, but it never came! I’m not even sure what genre this book would fit into nicely.

I was expecting a suspense, thriller novel and what I got was a story about a town and all the happenings going on within its society. Sure, there was an old crime. Now there is a missing girl that was about to be married. The whole town is upset. They are all looking for her, but there are 500 things going on in the background. There is not much going on about the supposed crime. Old or new.
It all boiled down to reading a bunch of pages about people I never quite cared much about.
I cared most about Annie; the missing girl. Her character was super interesting! I spent the entire book waiting to find out what happened to her. Suspecting every single character in the book of foul play; and there are many that we meet!
It was always about “Only Ever Her” for me, the rest was just noise.
I would like to thank the publishers for send me an ARC of this novel via NetGalley.

I feel terrible for not enjoying this book as much as I wish I could have since the publisher had granted my wish to send me a free ARC through NetGalley. However, I simply couldn't get engaged and I usually love multiple narratives and points of views but for some reason it didn't seem to work for this novel. Or maybe simply, the characters weren't to my liking.

Only Ever Her was a book that drew me in with the description. Annie Taft goes missing four days before her wedding. Is it a case of cold feet? Or has something scarier happened?

When Annie was 3, she was the only witness to her mother’s murder and her testimony helped convict the man who has been in prison for the last 23 years. New evidence has come out and was just released. Did he have something to do with her disappearance?

After reading that description - I was looking forward to a fast paced read with twists and turns that kept me guessing. Unfortunately - for me this book didn’t deliver on that promise. I didn’t feel a connection to any of the characters. The plot felt oddly paced and there were some key characters that are introduced and then basically never come back. In general, this book was a miss for me.

Thank you very much to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy in exchange for my honest review.

Annie Taft is a bride-to-be and just a few days shy of her wedding she turns up missing and everyone is searching for her. Almost every character in this book had a secret or issue that this wedding would either solve or disrupt and even a few had questionable motives.

I loved this suspense story, but my timing of reading this story maybe was a little off. In this story Annie Taft's mother was murdered many years ago and the killer is just about to get out of jail and many of the characters wonder if her disappearance have to do with him getting out of jail. In the book, The Shadow Writer which I read just before this book the mother is also murdered in that one, so I read two books in a row with dead moms, so that aspect of this story felt repetitive, but also had to do with my reading schedule.

I liked the writing in this story and I love the multiple perspectives. It was a large cast of characters, but it wasn't too hard to keep them straight. I always rate this by if I had to get a piece of paper and start writing out names and descriptors and relationships - I didn't have to do that in this one!

I read some reviews after finishing the book and can agree that the plot itself could have felt slow because there wasn't as much action as in other books, but her writing more than surpassed any slowness in the plot's pacing.

I have read a few of Marybeth Mayhew Whalen's backlist, but I have nowhere completed it. I hope to read more of them in the future.