I imagine that psychological thrillers are difficult to get right. The author has to write a compelling story while making sure that any twists are realistic. Authenticity is a must.
Although I have read a few that are so outrageously twisted that they’re enjoyable. I think it has to be either one or the other. There’s no middle ground between the two, at least not if the author wants it to be enjoyable.
In Where I Left Her, the author has created a story that is simple on the surface with an underlying current of darkness that sneaks up on the reader, gradually building until it crashes down in the closing pages, leaving the reader thinking “whoa, what just happened.”
At least, that’s what it did for this reader.
I thought the storytelling in this was masterful. That may seem like a strong word, but it truly was. The author balances a run of the mill “teenage daughter didn’t come home” plot with backstory and details that indicate there is much more going on.
The author also varies in the storytelling techniques, as we get Whitney’s memories in “real time” flashbacks as she wonders what happened to her daughter. There are also scattered chapters containing true flashbacks to an earlier time…but I wasn’t quite sure who those belonged to up until the very end. At one point, I suspected a completely different character.
I loved the ambiguity of it.
Most interesting to me, however, were the hints dropped in casual conversations and seemingly throwaway references that cast doubt on Whitney’s reliability. The reader knows something happened, as Whitney refers to it often, but it is like her past and her present are on a collision course. She knows it, but at the same time, she doesn’t.
Once the past and present start to converge and answers start to appear, the book kicks into higher gear and keeps that pace right up to the end.
And I do mean the very, very end. When you think the author has answered everything…you’re wrong. Because the biggest revelation is saved for last. And it’s totally worth it.
I’m not going to say any more about it, because I could spoil it, and I definitely don’t want to do that. Just go get this book; you won’t regret it because it’s a heckuva read. Definitely a top in the genre for this year.

I loved When I Was You by this author and it was crazy but this story takes it to a whole other level!

I do like the way this author writes and I did enjoy this story but it is a doozy! Is it believable? Not really, but I’m ok with that. Did I see all the twists? Nope, not even close. They were so outlandish (and dark). At the end of this story I can say I’m slightly unsettled. It’s very bleak.

This was a page turner for sure. I will definitely look out for the next one by this author. Try this one if it sounds up your alley just brace yourself for a wild ride!! Thanks to NetGalley, the author and HARLEQUIN - Trade Publishing (U.S. & Canada) for a copy in exchange for a review.

Whitney and her sixteen year old daughter Amber have always been close, but lately Amelia has been acting distant and requesting more independence. When Amelia requests to spend the night at her new friends Lauren house , Whitney decides to allow her a little bit of independence. Whitney drops Amelia off and soaks in a quiet night at home. The next morning not hearing from Amelia, Whitney drives to Lauren’s house to pick her up. An elderly couple answers the door and tells her they has no idea who she is and she’s at the wrong house. Frantic Whitney begins to drive around she knows she has the correct house what is going on? . Hours tick by and Whitney begins to uncover that her daughter has been hiding secrets, and soon Whitney realizes this may just be connected to her own past secrets. Facing her past may be the only way she gets her daughter back! Five stars!! I was at the edge of my seat the entire book! I finished this book in one day! This is a parents worst nightmare not knowing where your child is, highly recommend!!

this was a wonderful done mystery, the characters were really well written and I was invested on solving the mystery.

Whitney dropped off her sixteen-year-old daughter, Amelia, at a friend’s house for a sleepover. She didn’t meet the friend’s parents or walk her inside, despite feeling protective of her daughter, because she knew it would humiliate Amelia. When Whitney returned the next morning to pick up her daughter, an elderly couple answered the door. They’d never heard of Amelia and didn’t see her the night before. Whitney has to search for her daughter, which brings back some dark secrets from her past.

This story didn’t waste anytime getting right into the drama. I loved this premise. Even though I new it was coming, I still found it creepy when Whitney went to her daughter’s friend’s house and she wasn’t there. There were twists and cliffhangers at the end of the chapters that kept me turning the pages.

I thought I had the ending all figured out, but I was completely wrong. Twice I was certain I knew what had happened but I was wrong both times. Though my predictions were wrong, the ending made sense.

Where I Left Her is a suspenseful thriller!

Thank you HarperCollins for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Where I Left Her starts with an engaging premise but unfortunately for me it did not really develop and land. I found the flashbacks hard to follow, the plot unbelievable and the pacing off. The story has many of the necessary ingredients of a domestic thriller but lacked cohesion.
This one was a pass for me.

If you're a thriller lover and haven't read Garza's WHEN I WAS YOU last year, I implore you to grab a copy of it along with her latest, WHERE I LEFT HER. I was blown away with the latter so was beyond excited when my eyes and hands landed on this one and lemme tell ya, Garza is talented and can tell one hell of a story.

Now, I'm not a mother but I can only imagine the panic and worry any parent goes through when their teenagers start pulling away and become rebellious. (Sorry mom and dad!) But when they go missing, part of their social media erased and phone turned off... well, what the hell are you gonna do?! What I really loved about this book was that while the focus is on finding Amelia, we also get to know her mom, Whitney, a bit as well. Though, admittedly, it could be exhausting being in her head and I think that's just because when I was thinking one thing, I'd hit another chapter and get a big old NOPE, you are WRONG woman and have to switch my thinking again. (Personally, I LOVE that.)

I think some people will find the ending a little bit over the top but for me, while there were some eye brow raising instances, I did enjoy where the story headed and personally, that last chapter did it for me. (Thank you, Garza!) Listen y'all, people be crazy and I am here for every bit of it!

Twisty ending! Whitney Carter drops her 16 year old daughter Amelia off at Laurens, a friend of hers house for a sleepover. She’s never met Lauren’s parents but is trying not to be so overbearing. But, when she returns the next day to pick her up, the elderly couple that answers the door has never heard of Lauren or her family. Whitney begins her desperate search to find her daughter. As she reaches out to Amelia’s old friends and researches her social media accounts, it becomes clear that Whitney has no clue what her daughter has been involved in for the past few weeks.
Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the advance ecopy.

Amber Garza sure knows how to tell a story that will keep you glued to the page. Sometimes I'll read a story and I'll revisit it every few days. Not this one - I couldn't stop reading. If I had a few free minutes I'd read it because I needed to know what happened next. Interesting storytelling is something Amber Garza is great at, and the twists and turns don't stop. If you love books where you're consistently trying to figure out who you can trust, READ THIS!

Such a riveting and suspensful book! Spent the full time wondering hat was going to happen next. Garza has a knack for mystery and this book really captured a mother's fear as she tried to find her daughter!

At times, Amelia was such a classic bratty teenager that you wanted to shake her and tell her to be nice to her mom who is just trying your best; and at other times you want to tell Whitney to calm down and let her daughter be a. teenager. Garza does a great job capturing that juxtaposition.

This was absolutely a page turner and Garza kept the reader engaged from start to finish.

Where I Left Her by Amber Garza is a psychological thriller about a single mother, Whitney, whose daughter goes missing after dropping her off at a friend's house the evening before. What is even more suspicious is that when Whitney goes to pick up her daughter the next day, an elderly couple lives in the house and has never heard of her daughter or her daughter’s friend. What happened to her daughter? Where is she? Whitney now must piece together what happened to her daughter and she may not like everything that she finds.

The beginning of this book hooked me right away. I was shocked when Whitney dropped her daughter off at a friend's house only for her daughter not to be there the next day. I was very intrigued with what happened to her daughter and found myself wanting to read more. This book's premise was different from other books I’ve read before which made for a fast-paced, entertaining read.

There are a lot of backstories in this book which were at times difficult to follow. It was not always clearly marked when it was going to be a backstory about her friend Millie and it made it hard to piece the story together. There were also pieces of her marriage backstory throughout, which were hard for me to piece together and follow as well.

I enjoyed the explosive, shocking ending of the book. It kept you guessing and wondering who to believe. I love a good unreliable narrator when reading a psychological thriller. Overall, I enjoyed this book and it’s premise.

Thank you NetGalley and Mira Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Where I left her is a wonderful domestic thriller .
The characters are well written and fleshed out .
The plot was surprising and well done .
There were some twists and turns I didn’t see coming .

Whitney Carter drops 16-year old daughter Amelia off at the house of her friend, Lauren, for an overnight. She’s never met Lauren’s parents but is trying to pull back from her intense helicoptering tendencies. But, when she returns the next day to pick her up, the elderly couple that answers the door has never heard of Lauren nor seen either of them. Whitney begins her desperate search to find her daughter.

We get Whitney’s point of view for most of the book so it’s impossible not to be emotionally connected to her anxiety. It’s a parent’s worst nightmare to have a child go missing, no matter the age. As she reaches out to Amelia’s old friends and researches her social media accounts, it becomes increasingly clear that Whitney hasn’t a true clue of what her daughter has been involved in for the past few weeks. Her ex-husband is remarried and living out of the country so she’s on her own. Interspersed with what she’s doing in the present is Whitney’s recollections from her past, when she was involved in risky behaviors herself as a teen. You have to pay careful attention because as I learned more about Whitney, I felt unease about her reliability, whether she deserved the early impressions I had formed. I’m not sure when I started to feel off balance but it never really went away.

By the time the story reached its shocking conclusion, I was kind of ready for it. Some have questioned it’s plausibility, feeling it came from left field. That wasn’t my experience because the author laid the foundation for it but it was so, so subtle. If you blinked you could miss it. I also listened to this story and the narrator contributed to these feelings with her tiny voice inflections that made me question if what I was hearing was intentional. Leheny understood the author’s nuances and added to the mystery. There’s a point in the middle when so much information was being given it felt like overload but once I processed it, the emerging picture became abundantly clearer. This was a true psychological thriller as I believed I was losing it myself at times. It’s an incredible story that took quite a turn and has lots of misdirection. When I was done, all I could think was, “What did I just read???” This far surpassed my expectations.

It was supposed to be a simple sleepover with a new friend. And now she's gone.

Whitney has always been a little overprotective of her daughter, for good reason. She has to keep her safe. But Amelia is becoming increasingly rebellious and difficult to manage, and she's got to let her live her life. So, in a show of trust for her daughter, she drops her off at a friend's house for a sleepover.

When she returns the next morning to pick her up, Amelia is nowhere to be found, and the only way to get her daughter back is to face a past she's desperately tried to leave behind.

The premise of Where I Left Her was excellent. A total thrill. The execution, however, left me wanting more. I was interested in the story enough to keep reading until the end, but more because I wanted an explanation for what was going on rather than because I truly cared about what happened in the story. The writing itself was great—I was fully engaged with the story while I was reading, but would I call it unputdownable? Probably not.

I really wanted to love this book, but it fell just a bit short of great for me. Not bad at all, just not... WOW.
Thanks so much to Harlequin Trade Publishing for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Amber Garza is becoming someone to watch, I really enjoyed When I Was You and this one may actually be better. Whitney is an overprotective Mom. She drops her daughter, Amelia off at a friends house. She does not know the friend or the parents?? I really had an issue with this at first, as the two things did not go together, but the more I read and learned, it did end up fitting. What follows is an "how well do you know your child" and Mom with secrets" story, but very well done. Lots of red herrings and surprises. This one does take a dark turn, but that does not bother me. All in all, a really good, twisty read! Look forward to more from Ms. Garza!

Thank you to #NetGalley, Amber Garza and Harlequin Books for this ARC!

This is a psychological thriller dealing with a mother trying to find her teenage daughter. She dropped her off for a sleepover at a friend's house and she did not come home the next day. She is unable to contact her and as she goes over the last few months, realizes that she has been lying to her and keeping secrets. Has she left of her own accord, or is something sinister going on.

I enjoyed Amber Garza's last book, When I Was You, so was anticipating another thrilling ride with Where I Left Her. Although, I enjoyed this story, it didn't measure up to the last one. The story starts off well and hooked me in, but then it drags a bit in the middle. There are two timelines, the first as Whitney begins looking for Amelia. I got the impression that something accidental may have happened to her and was waiting to see if she was alive or dead. Whitney had always been an overprotective mom, so was shocked at all the secrets Amelia had been keeping, but they were close and that closeness will come into play. The second is Whitney's past story, and I was quite intrigued with it. I thought I had it all figured out, but boy was I wrong. The two ran parallel through the book and only came together near the end. Once again, Amber Garza has surprised me with her cunning mind. Yes, you will have to suspend belief, because what happened would not be possible in today's times, but it was a fun and chilling twist. Overall, I enjoyed this story, but be prepared for a bit of a slowdown in the middle.

3.5 stars
Where I Left Her is a psychological thriller about an overprotective mom who is searching desperately for her teenage daughter. The term helicopter mom fits Whitney perfectly. And disrespectful, teenage daughter fits Amelia, the missing daughter.

When Whitney drops her daughter off at her friend Lauren’s house for a sleepover, of course, Mom worries. But when her daughter doesn’t call to be picked up the next morning worry really begins to niggle at her, and it leaves me circling the bait.

In time Whitney heads over to the house to see what's going on and if her daughter's not ready to be picked up. But she is completely unprepared to be met at the door by two elderly people.. They have no idea what Whitney is talking about. No idea who Amelia is. No young people live there.

And now I am not circling, I took the bait. I’m hooked!

The story unfolds as chapters go from present to past. Though I was definitely curious, I began having trouble with the way the story was advancing. At times it felt repetitive, and I was having trouble feeling an attachment to Whitney, or for that matter, her daughter.

It did pick up some as I continued reading, but then I came to an abrupt stop. The ending. For me, it fell flat. While I love a big, surprise twist at the end, this was too implausible. It demanded too much suspension of disbelief.

My Concerns
While I did hurry to the end and it did hook me, I found a little too much repetition, characters that didn’t really click for me, and an ending that felt too unbelievable.

Final Thoughts
In many ways, this book is exciting and keeps the pages flying. In my case, it didn’t quite work, but I think this is one of those books that you give a thumbs up or a thumbs down, or, I guess in my case half and half. But you won’t know how you rate it until you read it. There definitely were exciting, suspenseful moments.

I do recommend it since I feel it will work for lots of readers.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher. However, I was free to post my personal opinion of this book.

This is an intriguing, well-told story but none of the characters drew me in - the character of Whitney is bizarre and the Natalie character seemed a little creepy for some reason. Still the storyline is strong enough that it keeps you turning pages to see what happens next. The end has a twist that is not really a surprise but more of an ah-ha moment.

When strict and overly-protective Whitney picks up her daughter Amelia from her friend Lauren's house after a sleepover, she's confused when the elderly couple who answer the door have no idea what she's talking about. She knows it was this particular house because of the roses she was admiring when she dropped off Amelia the day before. Her confusion turns to a nightmare when she can't get a hold of Amelia and she has not returned home. Knowing she's running out of time, Whitney digs deeper into Amelia's life, and discovers her past may have something to do with Amelia's disappearance and that she may not know her daughter at all.

I thought this was an interesting read, with shady characters and an unlikeable teenage daughter. Whitney's past plays a significant role with her being a mother and why she is particularly overbearing with Amelia. The plot line was intriguing with unsavory characters. I was guessing my way through the end. Looking forward to reading more of this author's books.

Thank you Netgalley and Harlequin / MIRA Books for the opportunity to read this book.

This book starts off with our main character, Whitney, dropping her 16 year old daughter, Amelia, off at her friends house where things start to quickly unravel. The next day Amelia’s phone is off and the place where Whitney dropped her off at doesn’t know who she is talking about. As Whitney is trying to figure out where Amelia is, she not only realizes that she doesn’t know her daughter as well as she thought she did, but also her past might be coming back to haunt her.

I was hooked instantly when I started reading this book because Garza did such a great job of reeling me in with her great pacing and storytelling. Whitney’s urgency in finding her daughter really shone through and rubbed off on me and I felt like I was right there with her. That being said, Whitney is a character I didn’t particularly like and definitely didn’t identify with in any way. She is also somehow overbearing but also clueless which was an odd juxtaposition. Garza sprinkles lots of reveals into the story that are both surprising but also help set up the end of the story in a masterful way. Things were constantly building and I was enjoying the ride and then things quickly derailed for me at the end.

First, I wasn’t expecting where this book was going to go and while I’m not particularly sensitive to most topics I do find a couple to be hard to read and one was a big part of the ending. I have linked a Trigger Warning above that will link to a specific Goodreads review if you want to check them out. I don’t want to explicitly say them because it would spoil the whole ending but I do think it is important to include them. Secondly, the ending was so unbelievable that it completely took me out of the story. I feel like Garza could have spent some time and developed it more and it would have been a much stronger ending.

While I did have some issues with this book I still enjoyed it overall. If you are looking for a book that you will fly through during a weekend that will completely capture your attention and you think you can handle the trigger warnings and a possible disappointing ending then I do recommend you should check it out. I am a big fan of Garza’s writing and I recently saw that she has written romance in the past so I plan to dive into her backlist sometime soon.