I really really wanted to like this book - it had all of the elements of a book that would draw me in and the blurb was very well written - however I just couldn't get into the rhythm of this book. I felt like I slogged through it when I'd expected to fly. There wasn't anything wrong with the writing that I could identify but it just wasn't gripping me. I'm sorry.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for this ARC.

What a gritty thriller. It had a da Vinci Code type feel to it. The description of the catacombs beneath Paris gave me goosebumps. More than once, I paused reading to google about what the author was writing about. It was an added bonus. I got a good thriller, a few twists and turns, and a history lesson. I had no idea about the 6 million Parisians buried beneath the city. How creepy right? This book was creepy awesome, plain and simple. It was beautifully written, with incredible descriptions. A fast read that I would definitely recommend.

#TheMissingSister #NetGalley
An edge of your seat suspense thriller.
Shayna Darby is finally coming to terms with her parents’ deaths when she’s delivered another blow. The body of her estranged twin sister, Angela—the possible victim of a serial killer—has been pulled from the Seine. Putting what’s left of her life on hold, Shayna heads to Paris. But while cleaning out Angela’s apartment, Shayna makes a startling discovery: a coded message meant for her alone… What happened next? Read it to know more.
Characters were awesome. I craved for such characters in thrillers.
Narration is simple and engaging.
Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for giving me an advance copy of this book.
A good read.

Although it started slowly, the author weaves enough suspense into the story to keep you reading on. The characters are believable and likeable for the most part. In the search for her twin Shayna will encounter all kinds of people. None of them are whom they appear to be. The suspense is maintained until the very end where the author inserts a deliciously wicked twist.

Thank you to NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A real page turner. Well written, engrossing, interesting characters, plot twists, so many great highlights on this book.

Grief is already familiar emotion for Shayna when she is notified her sister, her twin sister, is dead. As she tries to find more information, Shayna finds a message that could only have come from her sister, letting her know that she is alive. BUT, with nothing else to go on, how do you search an unfamiliar city without stirring up a hornet's nest of consequences. The bones of this story are good, the story slows a bit when setting up the next chapters but it was still a very good read.

I really enjoyed this story. It kept me interested and on the edge of my seat throughout. I would recommend this book if you are looking for a book you can't put down.

A very unique book with a surprising ending. I guessed the "who did it" pretty early on, and there were a few confusing/unnecessary plot points, but overall, I really enjoyed the book. The catacombs were a wonderful and unexpected setting for an international mystery. I did feel that one of the characters that was "suppose" to be a protagonist was selfish, and I didn't personally enjoy her, so that made it a bit slow going at times. Overall though, a solid read that I would recommend.

This was such a thrilling read! I totally did not see it coming, in the best way! I read this book in one night, looking forward to reading more from this author. Big fan of this book and have already recommended to friends.

3-4 stars. This was a decent read that easily held my attention, while giving me some shocks, thrills, and chills. It wasn’t my very favorite, as I did feel something was lacking, but it was a good read. Characters were done well and the writing was good. Again, it didn’t grab me as much as some do, but did enough to get me through the entire book! Should definitely give it a read!
Will make sure I buzz it up!

A dramatic beginning to captivate the reader.

When I started to read ‘The Missing Sister’ I immediately felt drawn into this promising beginning. It started with a dramatic opener, involving two sisters...Shayna, still living in San Diego, and her twin Angela who lived in Paris, whilst studying at the Sorbonne.

It was evident that the sisters had drifted apart somewhat, especially since the death of their parents three years ago. However, when Shayna received a startling message suggesting that her sister was dead, she felt obliged to fly over to Paris to investigate the truth.

Before their current rift, the twins had invented their own secret writing code from their younger days. Imagine Shayna’s astonishment when she discovered a coded message saying: -

Alive. Trust no one.

Had Angela actually met her demise or was there another explanation? How would Shayna react when she had a corpse to identify? Well, I’m sure that you can guess.

In her quest, Shayna followed a trail from various restaurants to brothels and the catacombs. I enjoyed most of the twists and turns, but I felt that the plot dragged in places. and occasionally drifted and lost precision. However, thank you, Elle Marr, for your debut novel.

Galadriel.

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of this book to review.

After learning that her twin sister is dead, Shayna travels to Paris to identify her body. But once she arrives she sees a message written by Angela,saying that Angela is alive and that Shayna should not trust anyone.
I really liked 2 things about this novel. First, that our main characters were of mix race. They were born in the US,while being half Chinese (and half Irish, if I'm not mistaken). So there were interesting discussions on what that feels like,on the sense of belonging, on how rude people can be. The author made me feel these things, this part was done beautifully.
The second thing I liked was the writing style itself. Like I said,the author can practically make you feel what she is writing about. What it is like to be of mixed heritage, to be a twin,to be a foreigner, to be a child,to be a sibling. Elle Marr goes deep on the theme of the twin bond,all the love and hate in that bond. It was easy to see that Marr is a talented writer.
Now, the things I didn't like are mainly the plot and the pacing. There wasn't much of a plot in this book, that was my biggest problem. I was more than half way through and nothing more that what I told about the synopsis of this book happened. The plot starts to get going and then quickly resolves itself in the last 40 pages and I hate it when books do that.
The pacing was another problem. It jumps from past to present, drowns you in so much unnecessary stuff that it becomes boring. And this book is supposed to be a thriller, boring is the last word that should be used to describe it.
With this beautiful writing style I think Elle Marr could write amazing books in the literary or historical fiction genre, but not thrillers.
Thank you to netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you @netgalley and Thomas and Mercer publishing for providing me with an ARC of this book. The missing sister was an interesting thriller/mystery set in Paris. The book tells the story of the twin sisters Angela and Shayna. Angela goes missing in the midst of a University shooting and later is found to be dead. Shayna travels to Paris to figure out the unusual circumstances of Angela's death. Angela has left clues for Shayna to figure out in their secret language and Shayna now needs to figure out if Angela is really dead or missing. The story is told from Shayna's perspective with some emails from Angela to Shayna mixed into it. The plot was interesting and had a lot of potentials. The setting of Paris was a character of itself in the book. The descriptions, the atmospheric setting will make the readers feel as if they are themselves in Paris. The main characters, the twins had a strange bond. Shayna seemed to be all over the place, Angela was described one way by Shayna and what we get of her personality through her emails are very different. There were some plot elements that were mentioned that didn't have any resolution or contribution to the plot. The book is slow-paced and felt a little like it dragged in some parts of the story. Overall the book was good, I liked it but would have loved to see the characters to be a little bit consistent. I was curious to see how things would align and what happened to Angela. The suspense was there and the mystery element was also well maintained. I gave it 3 stars.

I was intrigued by this upcoming thriller and debut novel by author Elle Marr. Unfortunately for me, it didn’t measure up to my expectations. Here’s why:
First of the characters fell flat for me: I did not manage to connect with any of them. Shayna, the narrator and main protagonist, annoyed me most of the times and I thought that she often acted all over the place much like her thoughts. She acted rather carelessly and there was one point where I was fed up with her as the main narrator.
I wasn’t feeling any empathy for Angela, Shayna’s missing sister: there was a huge contrast between the description that was given from Shayna’s insights and the feelings we got from Angela’s emails. It was almost like her character was two completely different people.
There was no really growth from any of the characters; even the relationship between the sisters was not quite believable to me.

I did not feel any type of thrill throughout the entire book; the pacing was off and the suspense wasn’t really there. I did not feel tension whatsoever; it was simply boring and a struggle to go through.
There’s nothing much to say about the writing style, neither good nor bad but the narration sometimes went on tangents and as a result some passages dragged on. From the middle onwards I had to push through my reading.

There were some plot holes and derivations from the main story that were not necessary. We sometimes lost the purpose of the plot.
The subplot based around the catacombs was pretty boring. Some aspects of the story were mentioned but quickly dropped and not fully addressed (in particular the Nazi aspect that didn’t serve the story at all in the end).

The mystery was not well-managed and nothing did really make sense: from the cause of Angela’s disappearance to its resolution. The clues were far-fetched and illogical. Most characters’ behaviors were predictable; nothing shook me to my core.

To sum up, I didn’t really enjoy this thriller unfortunately. It wasn’t that entertaining and a struggle to get through. I would not really recommend for fans of thrillers as nothing new was brought to the genre.

I didn't really review this one because I didn't enjoy it very much. Interesting setting, though. Thanks for the opportunity.

This one started out strong, but devolved in the final third into a series of eye-rolling coincidences, implausible choices, and tropes that left me unsatisfied... The setup was intriguing. I wasn't expecting a life-changing experience, but things were engaging and suspenseful and I was curious where the author was going. Then the revelations started and it felt like a series of unbelievables thrown against the page to see what stuck. I can't exactly pinpoint when it started to fall apart, but it was well past the point where I felt like I *had* to see it through, so kept reading just to see what the author was doing. It felt rushed and thrown together in a way that belied the more careful crafting of the mystery of Angela, and ultimately lost me (and stars) as a result... Still, I can't say it was "bad" - I really did enjoy most of it, just found the answers unsatisfying in the final wrap up. If you don't mind a little schlock (and honestly, in a book about twins, you almost have to expect SOME), and can suspend disbelief mightily, it's not a bad read - just not the more engaging one it started out as...

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas Mercer for the ARC of the missing sister. This is my first book by Elle Marr and the plot really had me interested. The talk of Paris and the underbelly of it had me thinking it might be similar to the Taken movies. I really enjoyed this twisty ride. It kept you guessing and was full of mystery and twists.

The missing sister was a bit difficult to get into. It took me awhile to read and I wasn’t that impressed. It seemed to be all over the place
and hard to follow.
Shayna is summoned to Paris to identify the body of a girl who has been pulled from the
river and believed to be her twin sister Angela. Shayna has not spoken to her sister Angela in since their parents sudden fatal accident three years ago. While going through Angela’s things, she finds a message written in their childhood secret language “Alive, Trust No One”. Shayna does not know much French and enlists help to navigate the city. When her sister said trust
no one, surely that couldn’t mean her neighbor from the embassy, her boyfriend or the police,
could it? Is it possible that one of these people or someone else close to Angela could be involved in her disappearance?

Extremely well written, with more depth than most psychological thrillers/mysteries, the story focuses on two twin sisters who have been out of touch for years. When Angela seems to be missing, Shayna flies to Europe to track her down, while everyone else seems to assume she was murdered. Shayna is determined to discover the truth. . The bond and connection between twins and the mystery is at the heart of this book. While the plot has a few holes, the writing elevated the rating.

3.5 stars

Shayna's twin sister, Angela, has supposedly been murdered. Shayna travels to Paris to pack her up her sisters home when she finds a clue left in their secret code that only Shayna will understand: "Alive. Trust no one."

I really enjoyed the descriptive writing style. I've never been to Paris, but I felt as if I could really imagine everywhere Shayna was going. There was great detail but I felt myself getting lost a few times and not understanding how Shayna ended up where she was. Some parts drug on a little bit to me so I would skim ahead until I was more interested again. The ending wasn't what I expected, which I suppose is a good thing it was different from other suspense novels. I had a suspect in mind pretty quickly and it turned out to be correct, but Marr did a good job of throwing in other potential suspects. It was a good read and I would most likely read another by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this advanced copy.