I received a copy of "Lost You" in exchange for an honest and original review through NetGalley and the publisher.

It wasn't what I expected and although the first third was good, the rest of the story quickly made me uncomfortable and the ending was not what such a deeply personal story deserved.

Great read! Looking forward to reading more from this author! I highly recommend this book and its author to all!

Lost You is the first book I've read by this author. It was a great story with well-developed characters.

Synopsis:
Libby needs a break. Three years ago her husband split, leaving her to raise their infant son Ethan alone as she struggled to launch her writing career. Now for the first time in years, things are looking up. She's just sold her first novel, and she and Ethan are going on a much-needed vacation. Everything seems to be going their way, so why can't she stop looking over her shoulder or panicking every time Ethan wanders out of view? Is it because of what happened when Ethan was born? Except Libby's never told anyone the full story of what happened, and there's no way anyone could find her and Ethan at a faraway resort . . . right?

But three days into their vacation, Libby's fears prove justified. In a moment of inattention, Ethan wanders into an elevator before Libby can reach him. When the elevator stops and the doors open, Ethan is gone. Hotel security scours the building and finds no trace of him, but when CCTV footage is found of an adult finding the child wandering alone and leading him away by the hand, the police are called in. The search intensifies, a lost child case turning into a possible abduction. Hours later, a child is seen with a woman stepping through an emergency exit. Libby and the police track the woman down and corner her, but she refuses to release Ethan. Asked who she is, the woman replies:

This is not your typical suspense thriller. In order to preserve the integrity of the plot, I will not give away any details as it’s best going in blind on this one. The first third of the book was absolutely riveting and tense. The second third was interesting as it delved into an ethical situation that I have yet to come across in a book. The last third was twisty but lacked the punch needed for a finale. It had a hard time keeping up with the first half of the story.

Overall, this book was just okay for me. I didn’t like and couldn’t relate to any of the characters, which resulted in some detachment from the plot. I also thought parts of the story lacked credibility and found myself having to stretch my boundaries of believability to remain invested. With a little more consistency and emotional depth, this could have been a five star read for me.

I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lost You was an unexpected and enjoyable surprise of a book. I was never sure where the book was going and the author kept me guessing until the very end. Some of the plot was very over the top, but I just decided to sit back and go for the ride. Characters were complex and I actually felt like there was no true villains in the novel, just those making some misguided choices. Overall, 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Good book - kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. Very enjoyable. Good. character development.

Libby is vacationing with her son, Ethan, in Florida. She’s a single mom, enjoying the resort, when her son goes missing. Ethan has been kidnapped and Libby’s past has come back to haunt her.

I was quickly pulled into the first few chapters of this domestic thriller. Libby and her young son are vacationing alone at a huge resort. Despite her concerns about travelling along with a preschooler it's all going great until the little boy darts into an elevator ahead of his mother and manages to hit the buttons before she can reach the closing doors. The search for Evan is a tense one....and then the plot shifts to a completely different set of characters and a completely different situation. Of course they eventually tie together, but it felt like I'd been pulled out of a book I was really enjoying into a second book that wasn't quite as good.

The beginning of the book really got me but it lost me after that. None of the characters were likable and the psychotic thought processes of both Libby and Anna were just so over the top to me. I couldn't get connected. The one plus is that the author really showed and not told the book and I could see what she was writing which I enjoyed a lot.

Such a great book. Makes for a wonderful read. I can not wait to read more from this author. I love books like this.

Thanks to Netgalley for this book and so sorry I only now got to it.

When I finished this book I had the same feeling I have when I finish an over large dessert. It was an indulgence and it left me feeling a little sick. I don’t read a lot of thrillers and once again I know why. This book was very much in the thriller category, heavy on plot and action with cardboard characters who make decisions that often seem ridiculous at worse and naive at best. In this story the action begins with a scene of a woman on a roof with a child threatening to jump. There are a few chapters around this present timeline that raise multiple questions the reader assumes answers too based on incomplete information and then the story jumps back in time to revel how the characters got to the opening scene situation.
What I liked: intriguing story that kept me reading. Interesting premise with a medical slant. Good pacing. Tight plotting—few unanswered questions of dangling plotlines. Good twist I did not see coming. Good use of peripheral situations to present red herrings.
What I didn’t like: Writing was all tell and very little show. The characters rarely felt real to me and very difficult to picture in my mind. The two most central characters are women. Their actions in this story made both seem cruel, unthinking, often hysterical and without any self knowledge. Especially at the end I felt sad at how these characters and their situations had been exploited.
The character’s actions felt cliché, even with an interesting twist (all decent thrillers need this) yet the character’s decisions and actions were quite “thriller” predicable.
So my stars are: 1 for plotting
1 for story premise
½ pacing
And ½ for twist
3 total making it an Ok read but personally I ultimately hated how it framed women, pregnancy and motherhood. All the women came out looking bad and the only strong male character was less than despicable and the ultimate good guy. But actually there were not any likeable characters, no one to root for--so I subtracted a star for the sick feeling and was left with 2. Not recommending it.

While I did enjoy this fast paced and disturbing thriller, it was difficult for me to get past Anna and Libby's lack of self-esteem and obsession with being mothers. It felt as though their entire life was defined by motherhood, but I understood both of their perspectives and how difficult of a situation it would prove to be for both of them. Overall, I did enjoy the story and would recommend this to thriller fans.

If you are looking for a wild ride, Lost You by Haylen Beck will give you that and more. This was a crazy story, and after a bit of a slow start, had me on the edge of my seat for the remainder of the book. This is also so much more than the story of a missing boy, there was a lot of depth that I wasn't expecting, plus some violence you might have to prepare yourself for. It wasn't like a Karin Slaughter novel though, so the squeamish can probably still read this just fine. My mouth dropped open a couple of times, and this is one of those twisty books that keeps you in suspense the entire time. I didn't know that Haylen Beck was the pseudonym of writer Stuart Neville, but this is a first for me reading him and I was not disappointed. I loved his writing style and the way this book kept me engrossed.

The audiobook is narrated by Abby Craden and I thought they chose really well with her. I somehow managed to listen to her at almost a 3x speed as well so if you are a fast listener like me, you will love the audio. Even without the speed being what it was, this book flies by, and I think she is a very talented voice artist and the perfect choice to narrate this novel. I ended up listening to another book narrated by her right after this one (Recursion), and I highly recommend any book she narrates, and you won't be disappointed with the audio of Lost You. I had no idea what was going to happen and was perfectly shocked by the end. It is along the lines of what did I just read? and that is one of my favorite types of novels. I will definitely be reading more from this author!

Thank you to NetGalley for my advance review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

A mystery that leads to one bad event to the next. I felt like it as a little more dramatic than I expected it to be. As I saw the cover, I expected it to be a little more about love and loss. It ended up being more drama but that's what kept it engaging.

This was a great book and I loved it from beginning to end, thank you so much for providing me a copy of this book to read. I post all of my reviews on my Goodreads profile.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This is one that sat on NG shelve for over a year. So many times I try to start it and fail and then I struggled through it by reading some while my mind wondered, skimmed some and slept read through some.

I don't have much to say except just never the right time for me and not the right reader for this one to hold my attention.

This want-to-be fast-paced psychological-thriller had me feeling a range of negative emotions while suffering through it. I found myself really annoyed at the characters and disappointed with where the book went. The premise was good but the execution not so much. I really wanted to enjoy reading this novel by Haylen Beck but it was just was not up to par. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishing company for my e-copy.

I received an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review

Very well crafted plot. This book I find very well written, from the first page you can dive deep into the storyline. The writing style is very good and very pleasant and fluently to read. The book has been very clearly structured and the plot is traceable and very interesting. The characters  are very authentic. The author succeeds in writing very detailing about the scenery, characters, surroundings and emotions. This story is fascinating and consistent at the same time and keeps the tension until the end. I love it when I learn something new from my pleasure reading. Would love to see more from this author.

To be honest, when I started reading this, I didn’t really know where this story was going. The story opens up with Libby and her son Ethan taking a trip to a Florida resort. Circumstances spin out of control when Ethan enters an open elevator and disappears in the resort. Security footage reveals he was taken and the hunt is on to find Ethan and his abductor before it is too late. On face value that by itself could have been a really interesting story just on that alone. That is where the story takes a different turn, and we flash back in time to meet Anna. A young woman, recently unemployed, who with few job opportunities accepts an opportunity to earn 75,000 dollars. The catch...she has to become a surrogate... and give her baby away to the adoptive family when the pregnancy is over. Not having many choices, she jumps in. As her pregnancy progresses, she finds the idea of turning her baby over a lot harder to swallow. Her decision to keep her baby sets off a firestorm that ultimately causes Libby and Anna’s paths to cross with deadly consequences. This is a really engaging story, I zipped right through it. There is a consuming sadness to this story as most of the characters are very negatively impacted, with few winners. Review posted to Goodreads, Facebook, LibraryThing, and Amazon.