**2.5 stars rounded up for Goodreads**

So I love to read for escapist pleasure. This book, though well written, was not escapist pleasure. I appreciate the use of real world issues in fiction especially mysteries but this was too much for me. There was no good guy in this story. Everyone was a bad person in this book, some were really really bad. Bad rich parents who raised rich, entitled, spoiled and clueless kids. The only “nice” character ended up doing something really terrible for someone who could care less about him. This was not a happy story.

I did finish it so I was interested enough to see how it ended which is why I rounded up to 3 stars. Not sure I’ll read another book by this author.

**Thanks to the author and publisher for the e-arc I received from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.**

I enjoyed the first part of the story, feeling bad for what happened to Claudia. She's made mistakes in the past, she made mistakes the night before, but that is no reason for her to be abused in any way. It's her own reputation that hinders her desire to go to the police, it can only work against her, so Claudia's going to fashion her own punishment for her attackers. That is what made me lose interest in the story, as it seems money can buy everything, and even if it can't fix wrongs, it can certainly revenge wrongs.

The story is told from many POVs, those of family members, her two attackers, a new friend who would do anything for Claudia, and the powerful father of one of the attackers. I couldn't feel invested in Claudia's way of dealing with what happened to her, especially when she seems to live behind a protective curtain of wealth so it seems she is in no more danger than what has already happened to her. I had a hard time feeling invested in this story of revenge.

This book started off great and went a bit downhill. A wealthy college student is assaulted at the beginning of the book, but has no idea what has happened to her. She eventually finds out what happened, but the details were weak and the story focused more on other unnecessary interactions with her and someone in her dorm. After reading this in a sampler, I expected much, much more!

This review was also published on Goodreads.

One word: addicting. Where’s Claudia? I great page turner thriller to keep you hooked until the final chapter. There are multiple trigger warnings in this book and sexual assault is right in the beginning.

Claudia Castro is a freshman at NYU, the daughter of a Grammy Award-winning musician and producer and a model.
She has a bit of a reputation as a partier, a drinker, and someone known to hook up with guys from time to time, and a recent appearance on a reality show cemented that reputation among her peers.
While most of her classmates have left for spring break, she wakes up one morning extremely hung over, bruised, bloody, and she's fairly certain she had sex-but she can't remember what happened the night before. Who did this to her? What actually happened? Who was with her, who might have seen it?
Licking her wounds, she cuts herself off from her family, spending time with only one college friend. When a video from that night surfaces, suddenly everyone is looking for Claudia and she's nowhere to be found.
This book hooked me from the start, as I wanted to know what happened to Claudia as much as everyone else. Then the book flipped the script and I had no idea what to expect.
It's definitely a revenge story you'll want to discuss with someone!

This one was not for me.
Thank you NetGalley for providing a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book was readable enough, compelling to hear the sisters sides of the story. However, ultimately forgettable in the great sea of books.

This was a pretty short and sweet suspense novel about a girl who exacts revenge on some boys who sexually assaulted her. The book started out really dark which I was very here for but then it took a turn and the rest of the book focused more on her revenge plan which I didn’t enjoy as much and it wasn’t as thrilling as I wanted it to be.

Ooh time goes by and if i don't write the review right away...sigh. I'm trying to be better. The best i can do right now is give a star count...

Oomph this book was just not for me. It deals with sexual assault and thus very heavy and emotional subject matter, and in that respect it was done very well. But I found the book to be almost juvenile in the way the characters were portrayed and with the storyline itself. I think it had the guts to be great, but it almost felt as if the story was just skimmed over. No real depth.

Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press, and the author for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Sometimes you want to just start over. For Claudia, when she tries to do that, she gets more than she bargained for. She wakes up after a night of partying and she knows something happened to her but she doesn’t remember what. Now she needs to find out what exactly happened. And she is going to make someone pay.

THE MISSING HOURS – by Julia Dahl

Claudia Castro, a freshman at NYU, decides to spend spring break at the dorm and ventures out on her own to a bar one night, using a fake ID, and wakes up the following morning looking beat up with no memory of what happened to her.

When more evidence of that night in question is revealed to her, instead of confiding in her parents, sister, or the police, embarrassed and humiliated, Claudia decides to flee the school, telling no one where’s she going.

As the reader, it’s easy to empathize with Claudia and what she’s going through; however, it's Trevor, a fellow student she befriends, who I ultimately feel bad for, up to a point.

THE MISSING HOURS is, in large part, a vengeance story centered around money, power, privilege, and what one can get away with if the price is right.

Overall, I thought the book was okay, though it didn’t tick off all the boxes for me.

Thank you, NetGalley and Minotaur Books (St. Martin’s Press) for providing me with an eBook of THE MISSING HOURS at the request of an honest review.

I was really looking forward to reading this novel. The description pulled me in and I couldn't wait to get started.

The story was gripping and the characters well developed. I have to say the novel took some turns that I really wasn't expecting but it was nice not be able to guess what was going to happen next

The novel deals with important issues and some may find some parts difficult to read.

Overall this was a good story that I flew through in just a couple of days.

It was my first read by Julia Dahl but I highly doubt it will be my last.

i adored this book!

the story revolves around claudia- a rich, 19 year old girl in college who has a bad reputation for partying and guys.

this is just a GLIMPSE of what females go through and deal with when it comes to sexual assault with drinking involved. the author hit it right on the head on how i expected a sexual assault outcome to turn out in a richer, famous world.

the chapters were unique & we got a little touch of each character’s side. claudia was so strong in all her situations, she’s what made me adore this story so much more.

DNF - Did not finish. I did not connect with the writing style or plot and will not be finishing this title. Thank you, NetGalley and Publisher for the early copy!

So, I thought The Missing Hours was going to be more of a thriller than a contemporary novel. There are some thriller aspects but not really enough to consider the book a thriller. At least not to me. So, after getting into the book a little bit I was kind of surprised because most of what I have been picking up lately are thrillers.

Despite getting thrown off some about the genre of the book I still ended up really enjoying the book. I felt so bad for the main character. This is something that no one should have to go through and I'm glad she had a really good support system!

This is one of the hardest types of reviews to write because while there was absolutely nothing wrong with this book, it didn't really wow me.

The Missing Hours follows Claudia Castro, a member of the super elite, famous Castro family who is attending NYU and seems to have everything she could ever want. However, after waking up one morning to realize she doesn't remember a good chunk of the night before she starts to unravel and it's revealed that things weren't as great as they seemed. Then she goes missing and it's up to her sister and some other key players to figure out what happened to her.

I'm not going to lie, I went in to this book with pretty high expectations; I'd preciously read a sample of the book and had been really impressed with the opening few chapters so I was very excited to read the whole thing. And the beginning of the book was still very good but as the story continued and we started to get more POVs for different chapters I felt as though the story lost some of it's magic. As a reader, I felt like I actually knew too much about what was going on and that left very little mystery for me. I love reading thriller and mystery novels but because of how this one was set up the stakes felt a little low for me and I just wasn't super invested in the book. For a good portion of the time I was reading it seemed like I knew where the story was going and I wasn't really surprised by the twists. Really interesting concept, I just wasn't wowed by it in the end.

Overall, it was still a fine read, and I'd definitely check out other books by this author because I feel like it had a lot of potential, this one just fell a little flat. I'd give it a 2.75, rounded up here.

This thriller is set in NYC and mostly on the campus of NYU. Claudia is a wealthy social media influencer who overshares her life in NYC. She is from a wealthy Northeastern family and is a trust fund baby who is attending NYU. She stays on campus during spring break and is seen partying and living the high life. Her sister is about to give birth to her first child and Claudia is expected to attend the birth to help out. On the day that her sister goes into labor, Claudia disappears. She is not answering her phone or texts, disappears from social media, and then fails to attend classes. There is a window of time that Claudia cannot fully recall and she assumes that she blacked out, something that has only occurred once before. She awakens with injuries that she does not recall getting and she begins to try to put the pieces back into place.
This is told from the family and friends perspective and from Claudia’s perspective and this back and forth propelled the story forward well.
This is a quick and page turning book that I tore through.
#TheMissingHours #NetGalley #StMartinsPress #Minotaur

In this thriller about revenge and justice, Claudia Castro wakes up one night with no memory of the hours before and cuts and bruises all over. She soon begins to suspect that she was assaulted, and when a video gets sent out of her being raped by two guys, Claudia decides to take matters into her own hands and deal with the problem herself. But when two weeks pass without contact with her family, friends, or any posts on social media, people begin to fear that Claudia is in danger and fight to find her before people with bad motives do.

This book is not at all what I was expecting it to be, but overall, this was an interesting one to work my way through. I liked that we got to see a couple of different POVs from vital characters, and I feel like Trevor was my favorite to read about; he was definitely a bit odd to me, and his thoughts made me feel uncomfortable at times. But, I like seeing that in thrillers, so I had a good time with it. There is just something about this one that didn't completely click with me, so it's not a new favorite. This book is certainly not for everyone, and some of the characters are absolutely awful to read about (for a reason), but I thought it was intriguing and would be interested to pick up other books by the author.

TW for rape, assault, violence, abortion in the past, revenge porn.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Minotaur Books/St. Martin's Press for the ARC of The Missing Hours by Julia Dahl.

When Claudia Castro awakens in her dorm, she quickly realizes something is very wrong. She looks at herself in the bathroom mirror and sees the evidence of a night gone wrong. She has a split lip, a black eye. Undoubtedly something drastic happened last night…but what?! There are missing hours in her mind that she has no memory of!

As things become clearer, Claudia immediately goes off the radar. No sightings or social media. Nobody knows what happened. Is her disappearance by choice or has something happened to her?

In the next chapter, we’re introduced to Edie, Claudia’s sister who gives birth to her child, suffering from tremendous panic, keeps asking her sister who has vanished without a trace.

This is a fast-paced, impactful, engaging story of a young woman and her dysfunctional relationships with her family. It's a short novel written very well considering it's about a very difficult topic and some parts are not easy to read and nor are they meant to be.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.