Argh, I think the problem with this book is me and not necessarily the book.

Molly accidentally hit and killed her nine year old daughter. Five years later she is is still struggling with this and it is causing problems with her marriage and relationships with her children Nic and Evan.

On her way back from trying to visit her son, she runs out of gas and is kidnapped. However, the police have found her abandoned car and there is a note left at the hotel she rented that states she has run away.

Nic is also struggling with her sister's death and her life is in a downward spiral. She doesn't fully believe her mother has run away, so she goes to search for her in the last place she was spotted. She is her mother's last chance at bring found.

This book felt more like a drama/saga about a family struggling with the death of their daughter/sister. It seemed like 85% of the book was geared towards this. That is definitely not my jam. It felt so so so repetitive on this it made me want to stop reading the book so many times, but the amazing reviews kept me going.

I have to say, the last 10% of the book were awesome! I didn't see that coming at all. This book is definitely twisted, but I would probably call this book more of a non-fiction and a drama than a psychological thriller.

If you like dramatic books about a family struggling with the loss of a child, this book is for you.

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

This is the first time that I have read any books by this author but it will definitely not be the last. When Molly Clarke runs out of gas one night after attending her son's college game, she sets out on foot to get help. Later a note is found saying that she just cannot take it anymore after having tragically and accidentally killing her 9 year old daughter 5 years previously. Her family has treated her like it should never have happened and she was at fault for it. Cruel things have been said and the note tells them to not look for her. However, her daughter, Nicole, the last one to speak to her before she left for the game, doesn't think that this is what happened and sets out to find out the truth. After all, a mother would not leave her family, no matter how bad they had treated her. OR WOULD SHE. This book had me on the edge of my seat with anticipation and the unexpected twist at the end was totally unexpected. A great book that will keep you wondering what is happening right up til the end.

Are you in the mood for a page-turning psychological thriller? Well look no further than the latest novel of suspense by Wendy Walker. This is the type of book that begs to be read in one sitting, because you won’t want to lose the momentum as the story pulls you deeper into the despair of Nicole and her missing mother, Molly.

That is, unless the death of a child as a plot point is a deal breaker for you. It’s not a spoiler to warn that a large part of the narrative is about an accident that killed a young girl.

Speaking of little girls, there’s another one that’s featured prominently in every other chapter who was giving me serious BABY TEETH vibes. Is she a victim herself? Or is she just creepy? I stayed up late reading to find out.

DON’T LOOK FOR ME was a 5-star read until it reached its climax, which caused me to simultaneously roll my eyes and scratch my head. The interesting characters and fast-paced storytelling make this thriller one I’d still highly recommend to fans of the genre.

The expected U.S. publication date of DON’T LOOK FOR ME is September 15, 2020. Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is another well-crafted thriller from Wendy Walker. It is also a story of survival, determination and family love.
Molly Clarke is a wife and mother of 3 children, but her family life is in turmoil due to a family tragedy 5 years earlier. While Molly is returning from her son's football game, and contemplating her family's situation, she runs out of gas, and is caught in a storm. As she walks from her car, she considers walking away from it all. She realizes this is foolish, and accepts a ride from a man with a young girl in a truck offering to take her into town.
Molly soon realizes that she has been taken prisoner by this man, and she is to care for the young girl.
Nicole, Molly's daughter, is remorseful over the way she treated her mother, especially on the day of Molly's disappearance. When a new witness comes forward, Nicole is determined to continue searching for her mother. She returns to the town of Hastings, and interviews Roger Booth, the innkeeper, Chief Watkins, chief of police, Jared Reyes, police officer, and Kurt Kent, bartender. All of them have a backstory, and Nicole doesn't know whom to trust. She also makes poor choices regarding men and alcohol. Nicole keeps digging, and when she learns of another woman, Daisy Hollander, who disappeared years earlier, she is even more determined to find her mother.
Wendy Walker has created another thriller which will cause you to question who is the culprit and why. There is an extra surprise twist at the end of the novel. Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC. I really enjoyed this-it kept me guessing!
#DontLookForMe #WendyWalker #StMartinsPress #NetGalley

Nail biting!!!

I love psychological thrillers and "Don't look for me" is undeniably one of my favorites. My first book from Wendy Walker and I think I'll be on the lookout for her books. The suspense kept me on the edge and I had to keep on reading. Definitely it is my kind of book. I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.

::releases a breath:: I swear I did not breathe once reading this book. I was on edge the entire read. My anxiety was skyrocketing. About halfway through, I really thought I had figured it out but then things kept happening that would completely surprise me. This book was a wild ride.

This book starts off feeling like the very real Maura Murray disappearance. There are reasons to suspect the missing person has run away. The reasons are hard to read to be honest. This book delves deeply into guilt and dark subjects. However, balanced with this is a plot that runs at a quick pace that keeps the reader hooked throughout.

I was creeped out. I was confused. I was rooting for the main characters. I was flying through the pages to find out what happened. It is just so well-written. Honestly, you will not be able to put this one down.

I really enjoyed this book! I've read a lot of books in this genre (psychological thriller) and have noticed a certain predictability, but Don't Look For Me moved quickly and kept me guessing up until the very end. Aside from a great story of suspense, there is an added layer of family drama that is very compelling and makes you feel much more invested in the characters than is usually the case. HIghly recommend!

Clear your socially-distanced calendar! Switch your phone to “vibrate.” Don’t even think about getting any sleep. Once you begin “Don’t Look for Me” you will not want to stop.

I desperately needed something to help me escape. I needed a good thriller, something I could disappear into and forget for a while about the outrage and fear that has enveloped the real world this summer. I nibbled at several promising reads, but nothing did the trick. Until Net Galley allowed me to read the galleys of Don’t Look for Me. It hooked me in right from the beginning, and not to sound cliche, but I could not put it down. The story of a woman, a mother, who just disappears, a “walk-away,” whose husband was losing interest in her, who had a dreadful secret guilt in the closet of her soul and a daughter who would not give up on finding her. We travel along with the daughter as she revisits the creepy town in New Hampshire where her mother was last seen, juxtaposed with the mother’s experience as a prisoner, held captive by a stranger who picked her up by the side of the road when her car ran out of gas during a storm. It’s chilling. I found myself following the clues strewn throughout the narrative, feeling for sure that I had the thing solved, until the end of chapter 33, exclaiming aloud, “Oh my god!” and laughing like a maniac at the masterful plot twist I didn’t see coming.

Seriously. “Don’t Look for Me” is just what you want when you want to escape.

It’s a common theme in most thrillers for a child to go missing while the searches for that child. How often do we see the roles reversed? A parent goes missing, and the child must do all that they can to find their parent? Well, that’s the premise for Wendy Walker’s heart-pounding thriller, Don’t Look for Me. Told in alternating viewpoints, Walker weaves an intricate web of lies and mystery. If you are on the hunt for a thriller that you can’t put down, this may be the one for you!

The Plot:
The story begins as Molly Clarke is feeling a rush of emotions about her life. Stranded in the middle of a storm, she catches a ride from someone she hopes will help get her home, but Molly Clarke was dead wrong. We switch to the perspective of her daughter, Nic, days later, as she tries to piece together where her mother went. The police rule her disappearance as a “walk away,” but Nic is full of questions. Did she run away from her family? Or did something darker happen to her? Nic gets a mysterious phone call from a woman claiming to have seen her mother the night that she went missing. With this small piece of information she is given, Nic heads back to the town where Molly disappeared and hopes to discover where her mother went. Soon clues begin to pour in, but something about the information isn’t quite right. Will Nic piece everything together in time to save her mother?

My Thoughts:
I was hooked by this story from the opening sentence. Something about Wendy Walker’s writers pulled me into the story and kept me there until the end. I tried to put the book down and focus on my life, but I just couldn’t stop thinking about Molly and Nic. Needless to say, I finished the majority of this book in one sitting. One of my favorite parts of thrillers is when the author tells the story from multiple perspectives. I am so glad that this story was told that way. Not only do we get to see what Nic is going through while searching for her mother, but we also learn about Molly’s captivity. This book had so many twists and turns that I could not stop reading.
When the reveal of who Molly’s kidnapper truly was came to light, I was shocked. I truly was surprised by the bad guy in this story. Looking back now, it probably should’ve been obvious to me, but the shock factor made the reveal moment that much more exciting for me. I really loved how this story was different than many of the thrillers that I read. Most of the time we see the parents searching for a child, but I enjoyed how Walker put a twist on that and this time it was the child searching for the parent. Another aspect that added a lot to the plot was the fact that Molly wasn’t just stuck alone in captivity, but that there was a little girl there with her. Along with Molly I felt angry at the girl, but I also felt awful for her at the same time. Her character added a lot to the plot development. Overall, I found this to be a FIVE STAR thriller, and I will highly recommend it to my friends. This book will be released on September 15, 2020!

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Wendy Walker, and St. Martin’s Press for my copy of this story.

*Review will be posted on blog and Instagram tomorrow. (Links to sites listed below)

Five years ago nine year old, Annie, died. Her mother, Molly, is consumed by the loss. Her remaining children, Nicole and Evan, and her husband John, want nothing to do with her. The whole family is grieving the loss, but non more so then Molly.
When is it time to give up? How much pain can a person take?
Stranded, on the side of a road, in the middle of a storm, Molly wonders what would happen if she just walks away from it all?
Now, 2 weeks since her mother's disappearance, Nicole is still searching. Regret and guilt fuel her frantic search in a dying town that won't give her answers. Nicole is forced to trust people she doesn't know, and put herself in sketchy situtations. Did her mom really abandon her family, or is she dead? Can you find someone that doesn't want to be found?

loved this book! I think this may be my favorite book by Wendy Walker. I stayed up all night reading, insisting just one more chapter and I'm going to bed! This story is twisty, gripping, emotional and shocking. Did not see it ending the way it did, and was completely shocked! Wendy unleashed the plot twist right when my anxiety level was at its peak!

What a great read,!!!!! This book has all the elements of a great thriller, Creepy, spine tingling true suspense. After driving the car that accidentally kills her young daughter, Molly is ready to disappear from her life. Her family has fallen apart. No one can recover. So on a dark rainy night Molly walks away never to be seen again. OR DID SHE? That is the start of a creepy twisted tale that makes this book impossible to put down, No one is who they seem. Where is Molly? Is she alive or dead? The best part of this book is it keeps you on the edge of your seat until the end. Impossible to figure out. Love love love this book and author

I really enjoyed this thriller which had interesting, though flawed, characters and a few twists toward the end. There was just the right amount of background and dialogue to keep me on my toes. Thank you NetGalley, Goodreads and Amazon for this pre-publication novel.

Don't Look for Me by Wendy Walker, however, definitely look for this book, it is a roller-coaster of suspense thriller. Truly a just can't stop reading story. Twisty, chilling ending,

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

Oh, to read a good suspense novel!

Did she run? Was she kidnapped? Did she die? These questions we answered remarkably quickly, and that in itself was intriguing. Add in the split perspective, the one who is gone as it takes place and the daughter who is searching in the 'present' and you have yourself a page turner.

For me there was a bit of confusion in some of the last chapters with whose head I was in, but that wasn't enough to put a damper on the book.

Overall I enjoyed that it was the daughter looking for the mother. I liked that the characters had realistic flaws and emotions. The plot lines were not obvious even if the scope of possibilities in this were narrow, it is a small town after all.

If you're looking for a book that will raise your eyebrows, maybe make your stomach do a flip or two, and keep you flipping through suspects this isn't a bad option.

I was provided an E-ARC by Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

If you’re a fan of thrillers, this one doesn’t disappoint with lots of twists and turns along the way. I look forward to checking out other books by this author!

Excellent mystery/suspense novel! I read this book in a day because it totally sucked me in. I enjoyed the characters, the storyline, and I did not know what was going to happen! Some mystery novels have a letdown ending but not this one!

Don’t Look for Me - I read this book in one day, I could not put it down. Very suspenseful, would definitely recommend!

5 Stars!
WOW! Molly Clark, a mother of three who is utterly racked by guilt over the horrific death of her nine year old daughter, disappears while driving home from her son's game at a school a few hours away from home. What happened to Molly? Did she "walk away" from her difficult life or did something more sinister occur? Molly's 21 year old daughter Nic intends to find out!
In [book:Don't Look for Me|49127515] by [author:Wendy Walker|3111135] the reader is taken on a suspenseful, absolutely gripping journey, with each chapter's point of view alternating between Molly and Nic. I couldn't put this one down, seriously. Many themes are touched on in this thriller, like guilt, survivor's guilt, difficult teens, child abuse and behavior, child psychology, con artists and scammers, love and hate, family dysfunction when a tragedy occurs, acceptance and redemption. People are not black and white and Wendy Walker really displays this with her characters and the story line. I loved this one! Don't miss it and buy a hard copy for the person in your life who also loves psychological thrillers!
Publish date: 09/15/2020.
Thank you so much to Netgalley, Wendy Walker and St. Martin's Press for the much coveted opportunity to read and review this ARC.

This book is a roller coaster of suspense that doesn't let up. It is so terrifying because the manner in which the author writes makes it very believable and (scariest of all) possible or even probable.
Ultimately the denouement brings a happy ending and a sigh of relief.

It has been a long time since a thriller kept my attention from page one and blown me away. Don’t Look For Me is twisted, creepy, and chilling.
I really enjoying reading from the perspective of both Nic and Molly.
Guessing who done was so much fun but I was still wrong. Omg it shocked me to the core.

Thank you St Martin Press and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Warning: talk of suicide, alcoholism, Child loss