Brilliant from the opening page to the closing one. A real mystery. A seemingly quiet tranquil island is holding a secret. On the discovery of a woman’s body questions are raised as to who it might be and who who would do such a thing. As the book goes on you slowly learn the secrets that the island is holding. Heidi parks certainly knows how to keep a reader guessing. This is not a book you will want to put down

This is an excellent, page turning. holiday read thriller. Stella grew up on a tiny island, Evergreen, where everyone knew everyone else and their business. But one stormy night, her parents unexpectedly gather her and her siblings and make them leave the island to settle on the mainland. And then her family falls apart.

Years later, Stella’s family is rocked by the discovery of a body at their old island home, and Stella starts to uncover some long-held secrets.

I found I was reading this faster and faster in a bid to see how it wrapped up. The author’s characters are great, as is her use of tension. You really do get a feeling of what it would be like to grow up in such a remote and closed community which is very distrustful of strangers. A good one for a holiday read.

A tiny island community is rocked by the discovery of a long-hidden body in the garden of Stella's childhood home, the home her family had left in a hurry 25 years previously. The story is told over two timelines with a slow reveal. Plenty of twists and turns. A great story that really draws you in.

Having spent a short time living on an island, I still recall the feeling of isolation when the last ferry of the day had gone and the growing nosiness about everyone else’s lives. As I was reminded of that time I had cause to wonder just how easy it would have been to keep secrets on Evergreen which seems to be a smaller island. I can understand Stella returning to the island when human remains are found next to the garden of her childhood home but I do wonder why she had never previously visited as an adult. For whatever reason I just didn’t find this gripped me as much as I hoped.

My thanks to Penguin Random House U.K./Century for an eARC via NetGalley of Heidi Perks’ ‘Come Back For Me’ in exchange for an honest review.

A tiny island community is stunned by the discovery of a long buried body. For Stella Harvey this news is even more upsetting as the body was unearthed in the garden of her childhood home. Twenty-five years ago her family had abruptly left the island without explanation.

Stella has very fond memories of the island and so seeking answers she returns and finds the residents unwelcoming. The narrative is told in two timelines: the present and 1993. This allows for a slow reveal of many secrets.

I have to admit that almost from the start I had issues with this story. The fictional island of Evergreen is located off the coast of Dorset and stated to be a 30 minute ferry ride from Poole. Now if it had been somewhere more remote the idea that Stella was so nostalgic for her time there as a child yet hadn’t returned might have felt more likely. However, she is currently living in Winchester, which is under 50 miles from Poole.

This wasn’t the only credibility issue that I had with the story but I won’t go into them to avoid spoilers.

While it was readable it just left me feeling underwhelmed.

What a brilliant book !Come Back for Me had me hooked right from the first chapter .The story is told between two time lines ,past and present ,Stella and her Family lived on the small Island of Evergreen very happily until one stormy night they left and went to live in Winchester ,Stella was only eleven at the time and always loved living on the island and never knew why they had to leave and now 25 years later a body has been found near her old back garden on the Island .Her close family have now split up and her Mother dead ,Stella decides to return to her beloved Island .She is not made welcome and is in for a shock when she uncovers many secrets .The description of the Island is stunning ,this is a really gripping, full of twists and turns thriller .Heidi Perks has done it again !!! Many thanks to the Publisher ,the Author and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest review .

This was an excellent thriller that kept me guessing for 400 pages.
I was excited by the premise and I am happy to say that my excitement was maintained for the whole of this book.
It had a brilliant mystery of which I could never have guessed the depth; no matter how many guesses I made I was always wrong and by the end, the mystery was tied off nicely giving the reader that sense of resolve they had been looking for in the book so far.
Each character had a lot of depth too ensuring each thread of the story ultimately held some significance. I as the reader felt a lot of conflict throughout this book never sure if our main character was making a smart decision, always concerned with how each small action would affect her relationship with her sister.
The book reached a great climax that made my jaw drop as our main character finds out the secrets hidden many years ago, involving everyone on the island; it is in this climax that history appears to be repeating itself and I was desperately biting my nails, trying not to blink just wishing to finish this mystery. Unfortunately, having been so shocked by the crescendo, I felt everything following that was a little disappointing; I felt the main character's decisions in the end prevented both our mystery from being properly closed and our characters from facing any development at all.
Nevertheless I greatly enjoyed this book, possibly even more so than Heidi Perks' first book; I am excited to read more from this author who expertly crafts such original mysteries.

This is a great read.
Stella and her family left the island where she grew up twenty five years ago, and she is shocked when she sees on the news that a dead body has been found.
What shocks her more, is that it was on the outskirts of her old house.
She wants to know who it is and heads back there. Her sister, Bonnie, tells her not to go, and says she should leave things in the past. But Stella goes anyway.
She then gets a message about her brother who she’s not seen for many years and has more questions than she began with.
Her mum is no longer alive and her dad has dementia so she can’t go to them for answers, so she starts speaking to people she once knew on the island.
The only problem is she’s an outsider now, and she’s not welcome there.
Stella eventually starts to get to the bottom of things but is shocked by what she finds out.
Bonnie doesn’t like the fact that Stella is digging up the past but Stella needs to know what happened all those years ago.
This is a great read.
Thanks to Randomhouse UK and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Stella Harvey her parents and brother Danny and sister Bonnie lived on the island of Evergreen off the Dorset coast.
Her father was the ferryman, so on an island of only 100 inhabitants they were always the first to know of any visitors or newcomers.
Life in Stellas eyes was perfect until one stormy night, when she was just 11, her parents packed the family up and moved them back to the mainland.
No real explanation just that money was tight and her father had been offered a better job.
Things were never the same for Stella she longed to return to the island more and more. Her family broke apart her parents separating, Danny leaving home whilst Bonnie eventually married though she struggled with alcoholism and depression.
Stella alone following her mothers death and her fathers remarriage and subsequent dementia.
Now working as a family counsellor Stellas memories of the island are brought back with the news that a body has been discovered at the edge of the garden at her old home.
She knows she will have to return to the island to finally discover what had happened all those years ago that drove her parents to uproot them all.
Does she know the person whose body has been discovered, are the two events connected?
Will she even be welcome?
Will the truth she discovers about her family history really be something she wants to know?
This one is a real page turner, well portrayed characters and enough twists to keep the reader guessing.
I would definitely recommend it.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House publishers for the chance to read this as an ARC in exchange for my honest review

Stella left Everdean island when she was 11 years old, she never knew the reason why. On TV she sees a news report that a body has been found buried almost in her old back garden. She feels compelled to return to the island. What will she discover while there? Once the body is identified, Stella's brother confesses to the murder, but did he do it? read to find out.
Great book that I would highly recommend.

The book stopped me in my tracks!! I was walking with kindle in my hand as I couldn't stop reading the story, and the twist hit me with a BAM and I stopped. (I had to be prodded by my neighbor to walk again which was kinda embarrassing)

Stella, Bonnie, and Danny lelived on the island of Evergreen with their parents when suddenly they had to leave their home in the middle of the night with an impending storm. What happened that night which caused them to leave. After 2 decade of life moving on from them, Stella caught the news - a body was found buried in their backyard. She had to go back and get to the truth.

Heidi Perks is absolutely brilliant. I would be her fan forever. She has woven the three twines of mystery, suspense and family secrets, in a thread so strong that none can match up to her. She caused my breath to hitch on a gasp. My heart stopped. I didn't die, but became alive again. The thrill in her book jumpstarted my heart like a shock to my being. The twists spoke to the core of my reader's soul, to say the least.

Stella was a good counselor and a great sister. She had a secret seen which could never be unseen, a secret so dark that she hoped it would be buried with her. Danny had disappeared from their lives long ago, though he did come back with a truth. Bonnie turned alcoholic, went to rehab, started a new life, but would her hidden truth ever remain in the past. All this and more made me never stop reading the book. I went so slow savoring each word, looking at the book with wondrous eyes wondering about the layers it would reveal. What more can one ask from a thriller.

The book simply blew my mind away. I simply loved it, and it loved me back

An enjoyable read with many twists and turns, always something lurking in the background. Some characters likable others quite sinister and have a 'selective' memory. If you are a fan of detective/mystery novels you may get to the end before all is reveled. Is the island real or fictional? Not sure the title is the best for the book but makes you wonder ..............

A real puzzle which takes some time to unravel; a terrific read!

Stella Harvey has fondest memories of her childhood years living on the island of Evergreen, only a short distance from the mainland but a completely different world and somewhat of a magic kingdom to children. But when a body is found practically in the garden of their former home, Stella feels the island pulling her back and she is desperate to find out if the deceased is known to her. But can you really ever go back? And is she prepared for what she may find out?

A gripping read all the way through, I found myself reading faster and faster to find out where things were going. I was completely consumed with this one; the revelations come thick and fast once the story is in place and there is no way I could have guessed the final outcome. I did, however, wonder at the gullibility of the police - they appeared to accept things at face value and did very little digging of their own into the situation. This is very much Stella's tale. Overall, it was a very different and riveting read. Well-structured and quite straightforward to read, I did enjoy it and am happy to give 4.5*.

My thanks to Cornerstone Digital for my copy via NetGalley. As always, all opinions stated here are entirely my own.

I wasn't sure whether Ms Perks could live up the bestseller status that over a year later is still present for Now You See Her, but she has crafted another highly addictive and gripping mystery thriller with elements of psychological thriller about secrets families keep and the family ties that seemingly bind us all. Main character Stella still remembers upping sticks in the middle of the night and leaving her childhood home of Evergreen Island without so much as a goodbye to anyone. She has never been told why. Now a body has been found near to the house and dark, long-buried secrets and skeletons in the closet are about to emerge with devastating consequences.

Told in two timelines and two perspectives — past, told from the point of view of Stella's mother, Maria, and present, told from Stella's perspective — means we get a fully rounded story about the events that led up to the family leaving that night. It makes for an engaging and compulsive read with some wickedly clever plotting and a very readable, easy writing style. The remote setting is both stunningly beautiful and intensely claustrophobic. Heidi Perks keeps you enthralled from the get-go and Come Back For Me has great page turn-ability. It's a well crafted, interesting family drama in which the tension builds beautifully until it reaches the emotionally-charged conclusion. Many thanks to Century for an ARC.

The story opens in 1993, when Stella Harvey is 11 years old and one stormy night is told by her parents that they have to leave her beloved island of Evergreen and everyone she knows behind and move back to the mainland immediately, because her dad has a new job, but since leaving the island she has craved the truth as to why they left in such a hurry in the middle of a storm, what were her parents keeping from her? Twenty five years later, a news report reveals that a body has been found in the forest at the back of the house she used to live in. Stella knows that something isn't right and decides to return to the island and try and meet up with her old friend Jill, but also to uncover the truth of what happened all those years ago, but is she prepared for what she may find and how will it affect her and the lives of the ones she loves?

This book is split between two timelines; 1993 and the present day, and it is evident when Stella returns to the island that the people she thought she knew and trusted are hiding something and she is not welcome. It's a tale of secrets and lies with a couple of well timed twists for good measure. The author certainly knows how to reel the reader in and keep them hooked till the end with, very complex but believable, characters that I could see living in a tight knit community like theirs and keeping things very close to their chests. It's a great plot, which kept me guessing right to the end, I would definitely recommend this.

I'd like to thank Random House UK Cornerstone and Netgalley for the approval, I will post my review on Goodreads now and Amazon on publication day.

'Come Back For Me' is a good, solid mystery. The backstories are nicely detailed, and I really liked the chapters from the past on the island. There are a number of overlapping mysteries to be solved by the end, which makes for interesting reading. I did enjoy the book, though I wasn't really keen on the characters, I didn't like or dislike any of them enough to be rooting for them to succeed or fail. However this is an entertaining story that will keep you reading until you've uncovered all the secrets.

A very enjoyable book, well written, never slips or drops into tedium. Takes a fairly usual approach of alternate chapters between present day and what happened 25 years before (gradually building to final explanation). As usual I think I know what happened and who is the culprit but as usual I get it wrong. I didn't think the book merited 5 stars as I did not get any really tense twists or one of those 'well I never saw that coming end' but on the whole it is well worth a read

This was an exciting read, full of secrets and family tensions, set mainly on an island in Poole Harbour. The author writes well about this beautiful island and it’s easy to understand how sad the main character, Stella, felt when her seemingly idyllic childhood there suddenly came to an end. There are interesting characters, lots of good twists and I couldn’t see the ending coming! Just when I thought I had worked things out, I was proved wrong. I have enjoyed Heidi Perks’ other books but this one is my favourite.

I was 100% taken in by this book, Heidi Perks delivers yet another cracking read.

A body discovered on an island at an old family home, that Stella fled with her family when she was a child 20+ years before. Having never known the reason for them suddenly leaving, Stella decides to return to the island to uncover the truth.

A story of deceit, secrets and estranged family members, a book that keeps you hooked from beginning to end.

5/5 well earned stars ⭐️

Young Stella and her family leave their home on Evergreen Island late one night during a terrible storm under a cloud of mystery and lies. Years later a body is discovered buried near the family home on the island and many secrets start to emerge making Stella question the family’s abrupt departure.

A thoroughly enjoyable read.