This was a tough one to review - I loved the beginning but then started to lose my umph to keep reading when the POV's started to get repetitive in telling the story. There were some twists that kept my interest however it slowly decreased my love for the story.

Thank you to NetGalley, Wendy Walker and St Martin's Press for providing me with an ecopy of this publication which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review.

To start off the cover art and description drew me in immediately and I couldn't help but want to read the story. I have not read any of Wendy Walker's other stories so I was excited to try a new thriller author. This book with its art and description reminded me of some of the big author's books I'm used to being drawn to such as Ruth Ware or Gillian Flynn.

I was so excited when I first began reading the story as I was immersed in a sense of tension, danger, and hopelessness. I was curious and questioning and motivated to continue on. Almost halfway through however I wasn't as drawn in and didn't feel the character realism or depth I was hoping for. The story was still easy to fly through and the writing felt okay to my reading preference. I didn't get enough difference or depth to the secondary characters throughout the book so much blended together in my mind.

I felt a lot of the book was too much telling and being direct for my preference where I wanted to do a bit more detective work myself or feel like I was reading into showing and figuring it out than the hints it gave. I feel this can be competitive with other thrillers in the category. I know my opinions might be more in the minority for the intended market.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read the book and give an honest opinion.

Thank you to Netgalley for access to this book for my honest review. This is my second Wendy Walker read and I very much enjoyed the ride. Her thrillers are fast-paced and leave you furiously reading the next chapter for more. I appreciated that this book left me guessing who the perp was for a long time and had some beautiful red herrings. Definitely recommend!

I’d like to thank @wendywalkerauthor and @netgalley for the ARC that I received and LOVED. This beautifully crafted story of suspense provided one of the top books of my August #tbr and one hell of a book hangover. Trust me, you’ll never see the twist coming. Dont walk, run to your local book store to get a copy!

As soon as I read the synopsis of this book I knew I had to have it. Personally as someone who thinks, “when the going gets thought, might as well just leave” I’ve always been intrigued by the aspect of a walk away. I feel like this book was written as a cautionary tale for all of us who see running as a viable option

I can’t wait to see what Wendy comes up with next!

Wendy Walker always provides a solid read with a lot of twists and turns. They're never predictable like some thrillers are, and this was no exception!

I absolutely love Wendy Walker's books, and Don't Look For Me was simply crazy! The story starts out when Molly Clark, stranded and walking down an isolated road shortly before a big storm hits waves down an approaching truck which picks her up and takes her in for shelter from the storm. Almost immediately Molly realizes things don't seem right. The driver won't answer questions not even so much as to give her his name, the doors are child proof locked, and there is a small girl in the back of the cab who oddly resembles her daughter who she tragically lost 5 years earlier to the day in an accident in which she was responsible. Molly never makes it home that night and goes missing. This story went places I never would have expected and it kept me on the edge of my seat the entire book. The twists and turns were insane and I could not put it down until I finished the whole thing!

WOW, what a wild ride! This story kept me guessing, and I kept guessing wrong, lol.

Molly's life was a mess, she couldn't' forgive herself for a tragic mistake, and that made the rest of the family also unable to forgive her. When she runs out of gas during a storm, the thought of just walking away from it all is very tempting. But then a kind stranger picks her up, and she realizes that kindness had nothing to do with it, and even if she wanted to, she couldn't return to her previous life.

I loved this story and the fact that Therese Plummer narrated it made it extra special for me.

This was a five star read for me. Edge of your seat unputdownable ! Molly has destroyed her family and that family hates her. She has grief she can’t bear and thinks maybe her family would be better without her.
Then one day she disappears . Her car is found, no gas, phone still in charger. On the fourth day police declare it a walk away.

Only it wasn’t and you would not believe what happened to Molly ! Read it!

This is an absolute roller coaster of a thriller. It kept me up late reading into the wee hours of the morning. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole premise behind this book and all the little twists and turns. If you're looking for a knock your socks off keep you awake at night thriller, this is the book for you. All I can say is after reading this one, I hope to never run out of gas along a small town road again.

What a great, engaging thriller! Took me a while to dive into this one but once I did, no regrets. I read a ton of thrillers and so many can be predictable but I can truly say this one had me guessing from beginning to end. There was great development of the characters and I enjoyed reading from the different perspectives of Molly and Nicole. Will definitely read this author again!

This book was a phenomenal thriller! I was anxious to turn the pages to see what happens next!! Character development was outstanding and the descriptive words used had me pulled in from page one. I can’t wait for more by this author!

DON’T LOOK FOR ME is a suspenseful read. I liked having both Molly and Nicole’s perspectives. I felt as if I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see what would happen next. I couldn’t believe the twist at the end which made this book’s ending dramatic and chilling.

In this twisty missing woman mystery, Nicole, the missing woman's daughter, looks for her years after she goes missing. She knows her mother would not just walk away from her. Can she find her mom, or will the secrets kill her?

I could not put this one down! Every twist and turn kept me on the edge of my seat! The character development was thorough and the plot was a roller coaster ride.

Unfortunately I was way too late and did not read this book. Apologizes for the inconvenience this may have caused.

I absolutely loved this book! At first when I picked it up I couldn't really get into it. Wrong timing I guess, but after a few weeks I gave it another try and I couldn't put it down. So many twists and turns, trying to figure out what happened, who did it. I was not able to guess the ending, I was totally surprised and loved it.

I will definitely recommend this book and look for more from this author.

I'm still not sure exactly what I think about this book. After having read it for only a short period of time, I found it hard to get into. I almost put it down a couple of different times. I thought that the story itself was too slow for me. I like a story with a lot of action and fast movement.

I also wasn't fond of the change of narrator. I understand that it adds a different perspective to the story but for me it just didn't do it. The story changes perspective between the main character, the daughter, and the killer.

Rating: 2 out of 5 because although I did finish this book, it just wasn't for me. I fond that it moved to slowly for me. I was disappointed because I heard lots of great things about this book. But not every book is going to meet everyone's needs, right?

I love thrillers and this book delivered. Reading a lot of thrillers it is hard to find a new that will captivate you. This is my first Wendy walker and I will be getting more of her books.

Welcome to another buddy review! This time we’re once again tackling another thriller. We have found that it’s nice to be able to discuss the suspense and our theorycrafting as we read through the book simultaneously. Below we have outlined the main elements of our discussion, enjoy!

Pacing and Suspense Build Up
Fives: The initial suspense is really good, we are dropped right at the scene of the crime, a classic start. We are introduced to our victim, Molly, and are given vague details on the events of that night as she is whisked away, and seemingly disappears off the face of the planet. This leaves her daughter Nicole to come back to the scene in light of new evidence surfacing, once again in search of her mother. However, the suspense after this initial drop really slows down and mellows out. It was kind of disappointing in the contrast, since there isn’t as much suspense that follows.

That being said, I definitely was very into it at the beginning, and thought that it got off to a great start. In fact, I was feeling the suspense so much I had to put the book down a few times at first! So that’s where a huge portion of my liking (and rating) for this book comes from. As for the pacing, it was perhaps a bit slow for my liking, and there may have been too early of a reveal for the antagonist? With any mystery or thriller, as soon as the culprit is revealed, the suspense often peaks, but I didn’t really feel that here in this book.

Andge: We talked a lot about this, Fives and me. The beginning hooked me in right away as we’re grappling to understand what had happened to Molly and whether her strained relationships with her family would prevent them from trying to learn the truth. I actually couldn’t put it down at first until the pacing slowed down with one POV. I feel the alignment/parallelism of POVs was not the best as it hindered suspense building when one was intense and the other was not. The reveal was also maybe sooner than I anticipated so that could be a hit or miss for people because, what the heck is supposed to happen for several more chapters when the bad guy IS RIGHT THERE?

Plot Elements
Andge: I like that there were really short chapters which makes the time fly by a little bit faster. We have 2 POVs that we constantly switch between which has its pros and cons. While I understand it helps build suspense when POV #1 ends on some cliffhanger, honestly I just sometimes skip past POV #2 and read the next chapter with POV #1 because that’s just mean! You can decide if that is something you like or not. The other issue is the build-up of suspense. If both POVs were synchronized in their build-up as we move through the book, then sure, I’d be on high levels of suspense the whole time. But when POV #1 is suspenseful but POV #2 is just kind of meh, it really kills the mood that was just built, you know? I can’t see any pro for this particular element.

Fives: I totally agree with Andge here, the short chapters makes the reading pace fly by. I tend to like this kind of writing, as it helps me naturally keep some more suspense as the author strategically switches back and forth. The swaps in this novel are fairly well done, and I had no qualms with this. I have to further agree with Andge about the difference between the two POVs. Throughout the book, there is almost always quite a large disparity between the tension in both POVs. This inherently makes one plot more exciting than the other, which weakens the utility of the dual POVs.

Characters
Fives: The characters were generally well hashed out and realistic. In fact, personally it was probably my favourite part of the book. We really got to see the nature of the relationships of Molly’s family and how their family tragedy altered the nature of their relationships. Slowly we come to understand how the circumstances behind Molly’s disappearance could have been construed in the way that it was. Why people were willing to write it off as something that happens all the time. This portion really added to the whole psychological thriller aspect of the novel which I enjoyed. As for the rest of the supporting cast, they were ok. Nothing too special, just your typical suspicious characters with a complicated and tangled-up past. The highlight for me was definitely the Clarke family relationship, and in particular Nicole and Molly’s.

Andge: I hadn’t anticipated the can of worms that was the Clarke family dynamic. Having lost a child in their family, there was a lot of guilt and shame and anger still floating around even years after the tragedy. But in this manner, the events in this book allow for different Clarke members to confront their demons that still held onto them, especially Nicole as she faced potentially losing another family member. The growth was explored in a way that intertwined seamlessly with the mystery and ensuing investigation.

While I applaud this character development, Fives was right to say everyone else felt rather generic. Sketchy people in a small town and everyone is a suspect with something they’re hiding. I couldn’t tell which was more guilty at first. I did, however, feel the pool of townspeople and suspects felt rather small so it made predicting the culprit(s) a tad easier.

Ending
Andge: As always, we won’t give away any spoilers, so no worries. I just wanted to say that endings always mean a lot to me in mysteries/thrillers. And while we theorized a lot of things while we were reading the book together, I will give a clap to the author for throwing in a twist I had not outlandishly threw out at one point.

I’m not 100% sure I loved the overall ending, though. I feel it made sense, but at the same time, wasn’t the punch in the gut, omg-why-didn’t-I-think-of-that kinda feeling. I particularly love this feeling when I read an incredible book. So it really started off strong, but I can’t say it ended at the same level or higher than where it began.

Fives: Just wanted to put it out there that Andge has a surprising knack for guessing these kinds of things in the plot. Her “outlandish” theories often hit true, and every time we read on from our agreed stopping point, I quickly find myself checking off the list of predictions she has made. Although of course, we both make many theories so some are bound to ring true, right?

I definitely agree with her here that the ending was a twist neither of us were expecting, so kudos for coming up with something that was definitely surprising. However, like Andge mentions, I don’t think either of us particularly enjoyed this twist. There is that balance between surprising and impactful, and I don’t think this ending quite reached that point for me. For me, this book started off super strong (and I was very hyped) but by the end I wasn’t quite satisfied.

I feel bad for being behind on reviews, so since I missed the release date, I picked this one up on audio and it was great. This is a thriller told in two POVs, one the woman who goes missing and the second, her daughter who is searching for her. The book had me on the edge of my seat, anxious, terrified, nauseated, and angry at various times. I appreciated the many twists, some of which were telegraphed and others that felt like they came out of nowhere, but were nonetheless riveting. I liked the fact that it isn't the overdone domestic suspense with an unreliable obsessive female narrator. Walker's prose felt fresh, even as she pulled in common tropes. It never felt trite or gimmicky. Definitely a book I'd recommend for fans of the psychological suspense/thriller genre.