Thank you so much to @bookmarked & @netgalley for my review copy of this book!

Let me tell you, I finished this book 2 days before I had to take a flight and I looked at everyone on that plane very carefully 🤣😂

This book had a slightly slow start for me. It took a while to really set up the action but once it all falls into place I guarantee you won’t want to put it down.
Can we talk about that ending!! I always get nervous when things looked like they’ve wrapped up but there are still too many pages left in the book.
When I tell you those last couple chapters had my heart pounding and I reread that last page about 3 times!

I will definitely be checking out this authors back list.

Fantastic from start to finish! Clare continues to be one of my favorite authors to recommend and I look forward to reading more from her amazing mind!

Get ready to hold on tight, because Hostage is non-stop, spine-tingling action from start to finish. Mina is a position that no parent ever hopes to find themselves in, choosing between helping to hijack a plane full of strangers and keeping her daughter safe. How do you choose? The dilemma is one that kept me thinking long after I stopped turning pages. I absolutely LOVED Hostage, and I can't wait to see what Claire Mackintosh comes up with next!!

Thank you, NetGalley, for an e-ARC of Hostage by Clare Mackintosh.
Hostage is a face-paced mystery novel filled with drama and suspense, a plane hostage crisis, and a gambling situation. The double timeline switching between Mina and Adam adds to the complexity of the story. As well as their points of view, Mackintosh also adds more minor details from passengers on board the plane. She weaves all of this together seamlessly, making the reader unable to close the book.

As soon as I read the premise of Hostage, I was excited! I’ve enjoyed Mackintosh’s work in the past, and thought the premise of a flight attendant working a hijacked flight and having to choose whether to save the flight or her daughter was super interesting!

The book is told through a few different perspectives. Primarily, we hear from Mina, the flight attendant on the plane, and her husband Adam, who is at home with their daughter. In addition to those POVs, we also have sporadic POVs from some of the passengers on the plane. We get to learn a little bit about why they are traveling and about their lives, which are about to be changed forever!

I thought the Hostage did a great job of building suspense! Once Mina is on the plane, she finds a belonging of her daughters, which lends credibility to her daughter being threatened. From that moment on, it was a tense ride to the end of the book waiting to see how everything played out! Each chapter was short and snappy, so once I got going with my reading, I didn’t want to stop!

In addition to the main plot of the hijacked plane, it’s also made clear that both Mina and Adam have things happening that they haven’t told the other, and I was dying to know what they both were! We knew that Mina’s was related to her past and why she dropped out of flight school, but Adam’s was a current secret that was happening. There was tension from all angles of this book, and I loved it!

I highly recommend this one for fans of fast paced thrillers! This will be a great summer read, and I can’t wait to see what Mackintosh writes next.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

Hostage is a tense psychological thriller set in both London, and the first nonstop London to Sydney flight. A nervous (and nauseous) flyer myself, I couldn’t imagine being in a plane that long. Never mind a hijacked one!

The story plays out in a suspenseful manner that keeps you turning pages, while also guessing the entire time. I am usually pretty good at guessing who the baddies are, and I was thrown at the end. Well done! Definitely recommending to friends and patrons.

Hostage takes place over the course of 20 hours on a plane ride with Mina, a flight attendant who receives an anonymous note after takeoff from someone on the plane. This mystery person wants her help but also threatens to kill her little daughter if she doesn’t comply.... ⁣sorry! I don’t want to give anything away 😂
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Clare MackIntosh, what are you made of and how do you write such juicy thrillers? I personally loved this book from beginning to end partly because of the realistic plot and partly because it’s a very entertaining page turner. I would say this needs to be a movie but I think Liam Neeson beat us to that one 😂 What I’m really saying is that you need to pick this one up and love it for yourself ❤️ You won’t regret it ✌🏽

Another cracking novel from the masterful Clare Mackintosh! "Claustrophobic thriller" was a brilliant way to describe this because it's totally true. A gripping, wild ride that will absolutely set your mind racing. I will always pick up whatever Clare Mackintosh publishes.

4 stars!

Mina is a flight attendant living separated from her police officer husband, Adam. They both have secrets but they have a strong enough relationship that they can amicably share custody of their young daughter in the family home. Mina is part of the flight crew working on a record breaking 20 hour non-stop flight which is the first time for any airline. Soon after the flight takes off, Mina receives an anonymous note from a passenger and it becomes evident there is a scheme on board the flight that Mina is caught in the middle of.

This was an intense storyline that would be a worst nightmare for most - a plane hijacking. The novel unfolds through Mina’s perspective on the plane and Adam’s perspective at home with their daughter. The plane chapters with Mina had an intense, anxiety-filled, gripping feel that kept me engrossed and worried. Adam’s perspective, while equally important to the storyline, didn’t hold as much intrigue or spark.

I am a huge fan of this author, as I’ve read most of her backlist. I love her writing and this was no exception. My one issue is that I felt the last quarter of the book lost some of its intensity. The claustrophobic, suspenseful feel wasn’t as captivating for me in the end. I remained invested and curious, but it wasn’t pulling me as strongly as the start.

Overall, this was another unique, entertaining, thought-provoking read by this author and I am already looking forward to what she comes out with next! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy!

Another excellent read by Clare Mackintosh. Loved that the storyline primarily took place on a airplane.
Lots going on and many characters to follow kept me hooked till the very last page. Loved the ending as I always do with Clare's books.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Fast-paced, high tensions. Kept me interested and read in one sitting.

Hostage by Clare Mackintosh is a thriller about an airplane flight and a terrible choice. "You can save hundreds of lives. Or the one that matters most." Mina is a flight attendant for a flight from London to Sydney. She receives a note from a passenger that starts of series of events that could take down the plane. This story was over-the-top and rather unbelievable, and the ending left me unimpressed. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

Sacrifice your child to save hundreds or sacrifice hundreds to save one? Which would you choose?

That’s the choice before Mina, a flight attendant. In an attempt to avoid marital conflict and get a break from domestic troubles, Mina volunteers to work the inaugural twenty-hour long-haul flight from London to Sydney.

But Mina receives a note from a passenger on the plane instructing her to follow instructions, or her daughter Sophia will be killed. Told from the POV of Mina, in the air, and her husband Adam on the ground, who has been taken hostage with their daughter Sophia, the tension is thick.

In the beginning, I was totally invested in the characters and plot, along with several subplots woven throughout. How would the author weave these disparate threads together? And therein lies the problem. When the motive for the hijacking was revealed, I wondered. Not that the issue isn’t a real threat, but I struggled with believing this group would take it THIS far. To take a plane down, murdering all on board? But after thinking about it and googling (yep, I’m that person), I decided it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. The world is full of crazies. Probably they would. Sociopaths are capable of manipulating others into following their twisted thinking.

Secondly, I found it exhausting to live inside Mina’s head with the same thoughts/fears/resolve. Honestly, there were times I wanted to kill her myself just to shut her up. But then I considered how I would feel if I were her, and decided I’d be even more annoying so I forgave her.

The epilogue was perfection and so I’m rounding up. If you can buy into the motives, and tolerate Mina’s thoughts, this was a solid thriller with a couple of terrific unexpected twists.

This book isn’t for everyone, but if diabolical thrillers are your cup of tea this is a must read. I couldn't put it down.

Loved this fast paced, edge of your seat thriller. A plane full of travelers who are taken hostage on board the inaugural flight from London to Sydney. Grab hold of your seat, it’s a bumpy ride.

After a wander into semi-autobiographical catharsis with After the End, Ms Mackintosh is back with a riveting thriller that I finished in a day-long whirl of just-one-more-chapter-then-I’ll-do-something-useful.

Mina is a flight attendant on the first direct flight from London to Sydney. Her estranged husband Adam, a police officer, is staying at home with their adopted daughter, Sophia. But someone on board has decided to use this flight to make their political point and will use the best lever to get Mina to cooperate. Honestly, I don’t want to say anything more about the plot because that’s a lot of the fun of a thriller like this.

Switching between the nightmares of Mina’s flight and Adam and Sophia’s situation, and short biographical interludes from some of the passengers on Flight 79, the novel twists and flips, ratcheting up the tension, and leading us by the nose.

While it’s the author’s deft plotting that provides the thrill, it is the characters and their secrets that kept me there. Mina knows Adam has had an affair with their au pair after she left abruptly, but Sophia’s nightmare started before then. Adam is also clearly in trouble at work but we don’t know what. Sophia is the thread that pulls it all together - she was adopted when she was still a baby from a neglectful parent, and while she is clearly superbright, her first year has left her with significant traumas and challenges. She is both the catalyst and the resolution as the novel loops back, unexpectedly, to the prologue.

Thanks to Sourcebooks and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

4.25/5 — Thank you Sourcebooks Landmark via Netgalley for the arc.

I devoured Hostage in two days! Its was fast paced and thrilling that kept me reading for hours continuously! Don’t want to spoil anything in the name of review, but I liked how the story develops slowly to a spinning conclusion. That afterword by Clare is a must read, I myself have felt in concord with such extreme thoughts.

I always pick up Clare Mackintosh's books, and I'm not totally sure why. I am usually underwhelmed. This wasn't an exception. Not bad, not great.

Enjoyed all of Clare's books, (I have missed 1, but I am struggling to track it down so I can read it)

Suspense builds immediately!
Descriptions had me on plane with the flight
then had me on land with Father and daughter - "Safe at Home"!!

Twists and suspense had me holding my breath!
I had to read surprise ending twice, I was shocked! WOW!

Exciting read but a bit contrived plot that relies on coincidence. Fun summer reading although I am glad I'm not taking a flight anywhere.