What I Loved
Where I Left Her is a story full of secrets, and I loved how the secrets kept the pages turning and the pace quick. Whitney is a single mom with a teenage daughter and an ex-husband who is more than halfway across the globe, and her secrets have piled up over the years. When her daughter fails to come home from a sleepover and Whitney can’t find her, she must confront many of the secrets she has harbored for most of her life. The story grew more and more fascinating as the truth slowly emerges with the unveiling of each secret.

I figured out the ending pretty early on, but that did not impact my enjoyment of the story at all. Even though I figured out the truth behind the secrets, I still wasn’t sure what that meant for the whereabouts of Amelia. It’s every parents’ nightmare, especially when they have a teenager. Parents have to give teenagers some freedom to begin to figure out the parameters of independence and how to handle it. But as parents provide more space, the more stress and anxiety they feel every time their teen walks out of the door. Whitney agrees with me as she holds tight to Amelia for as long she realistically could. It’s easy to feel the horror along with her when Amelia doesn’t come home.

Whitney narrates the story and proves to be unreliable, which is my favorite kind of narration. At points, though, it comes close to feeling like a stream of consciousness narration, and that is very difficult to follow as the story focuses on three very distinct points in Whitney’s life, and the back and forth becomes confusing at points. Even with this bit of confusion, I still love the unreliable narration and couldn’t imagine being told in any other way.

Characters
Whitney is the epitome of the helicopter mom. It is easy to see why it’s terrible to be a helicopter parent, as the reader sees the story from her perspective with all her insecurities standing out loud and clear. I didn’t really like Whitney or Amelia, but I liked Whitney’s boss and best friend, Natalie. Natalie is the epitome of the authoritative parent, which is an excellent foil for Whitney’s parenting style. Natalie is the only character I could relate to, so I grabbed on tight and was very happy for her presence.

What I Wish
I wish the ending had been a bit more explosive. I found it pretty low-key, considering how much anxiety had led the story to that point. The story follows Whitney’s mental state, but she went to a place of calm at a point where the plot typically explodes, so I missed that, wow the ending I so love.

To Read or Not to Read
An unreliable narrator takes you through 36 hours of a missing child in this riveting story full of secrets just waiting to be revealed. If you find these stories as compelling as I do, then this book is one you will want to take a second look at.

The Review

What a truly gripping and engaging thriller! I was hooked from the book’s first pages, and the pacing and atmosphere that the author created were both entertaining and haunting all at once. Straight out of the gate readers are shown evidence that this young woman was living a very different life than her mother ever knew, and each revelation is like a nail in her coffin as the danger feels closer and closer. Yet in an instant, the author finds ways of taking readers in directions they never saw coming, until the momentous final moments of this book.

The characters themselves were what kept the mystery and narrative so brilliant in their delivery. The changing POVs from chapter to chapter was brilliant, and the revelation of the various characters behind those POVs will turn the novel’s plot on its head. The dynamic and struggles between mother and daughter are the core and heart of this story, highlighting the delicate balance and emotional connection that mothers make with their children and the hardships that arise when children become teenagers.

The Verdict

A brilliantly written, emotional, and shocking summer thriller, author Amber Garza’s “Where I Left Her” is a must-read novel of 2021, and definitely a contender for best thriller of the year! A heartbreaking and heart-pounding journey of a mother who must learn her daughter’s secrets and come to terms with her own past in order to find her child and bring her home, this novel will keep readers on the edge of their seats long past the final pages. If you haven’t yet, be sure to grab your copy today!

Where I Left Her is the latest novel to come from the mind of Amber Garza, though I'll confess that this is the first novel I've read by her. Still, the description alone was more than enough to capture my attention right away.

Whitney is about to face a parent's worst nightmare, and she doesn't even know it yet. All she knows is that she's second-guessing this sleepover her daughter is heading to. She's never met Lauren's parents and knows she should probably do so now.

Not that Amelia would tolerate such a thing. The reason behind her resistance is made clear the following day. Her daughter didn't sleepover in the house she was dropped off at. Worse, she's been lying about everything and is now missing.

Where I Left Her is a spine-tingling psychological thriller that blends elements from typical family dynamics to increase the impact and fear. It easily takes advantage of the reader's emotions to carry this story along, and it does so flawlessly.

Whitney is a stereotypical overprotective mother, while Amelia is clearly the rebellious teenage daughter. Their tropes are extended to the nth degree here, as those dynamics twist into a missing person's case full of deception and concern.

What I like the most about this is that Amber Garza took advantage of Whitney's unreliable position to obfuscate the truth. It's hard to trust anything we're seeing – or getting told. It made the story all the more complex and intriguing.

3.5⭐ Thank you to Harper Collins Harlequin for sending me this book in exchange for a review.

Parents get tired. Even the most helicopter of helicopter parents have lapses in judgement. Especially when you are dealing with an angsty teenager. This happens to Whitney when she drops her daughter Amelia at a new friends house for a sleepover without going in to meet the parents. The next morning it's as if she never dropped her off and she is nowhere to be found.

Pros: the first 10% was ⏩ as in it was fast paced and I was enjoying my time. Where is she? Who are the elderly couple who answered the door? Was she kidnapped? Did she run away? Sex trafficking? Homicide? I need to know!

Last 20% also fast paced! Omg plot twist! Omg plot twist again! 😳 I had to shut the book twice to work out how I felt about the twists which is usually a good sign. 👍

Cons: The other 70% was a bit too slow for me. Important? Yes. Repetitive? Maybe. This book could have been 30 pages shorter and it would have been sweeter.

This book flips back and forth between present and past, as in weeks leading up to the sleepover and years before. We learn a lot about Whitney's failed marriage and how this factored into her helicopter mom-ness.

Full of unreliable characters, it's easy to feel for Whitney as she attempts to hold herself together while in search for her daughter. I enjoyed that this book took place over a short amount of time in the present time line (just over 24 hours). This helped to keep the pace when we were brought back into the main story. I do think the switches could have been a bit smoother and the added pov for a short portion later in the book didn't sit right. I think we got enough information to understand what that character was thinking.

Over all a good time 😋

TRIGGER WARNINGS⚠️

please keep in mind that these may be seen as spoilers so I will include a scroll down but if you have clear triggers please beware :
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Sexual assault, drug abuse, suicide, child abuse, domestic abuse, death of a child.

Additionally 3.5 starts is my objective review. 3 stars is my subjective review. It was a decent read but did not give me the longer lasting feelings of a 4 star. I still recommend for thriller readers!

On a Friday evening, Whitney Carter drops off her sixteen-year-old daughter at a friend’s house, but then the next day, Amelia isn’t there. The elderly couple that answers the door tells Whitney she has the wrong house. Whitney is worried, especially since the relationship with her daughter has been strained recently. Police think she may have run away, but Whitney is afraid old secrets are coming back to haunt her.

This book has multiple timelines that hint at a few different incidents in Whitney’s past. The book is really good and suspenseful for the majority of the story, and I didn’t want to put it down. Things start getting confusing and a little strange when a few different bombshells are dropped. I was able to guess some of the twists because of the red flags that came up about a few different people and situations but there were still some surprises. I like the fast pace of the story and the way most of the plot threads come together by the end. However, some things are left unsaid, and I prefer things to be a little more wrapped up. Overall, I liked this combination thriller/domestic drama and would rate it 3.5 stars.

I received this ebook from NetGalley through the courtesy of Mira. An advance copy was provided to me at no cost, but my review is voluntary and unbiased.

Where I Left Her by Amber Garza is thriller that tackles a mother’s worst nightmare of a missing daughter. The story is told in the present time as the mother searches for her daughter and also has flashbacks to the past before that day.

Whitney had always, always done everything she can to keep her daughter, Amelia, safe. Whitney has been struggling with Amelia lately with almost every decision being questioned but that’s teenagers, right?

Whitney decided not to push when Amelia quit seeing her old friends and started hanging out with Lauren. Lauren seemed like a good kid so when Amelia asked to stay the night at Lauren’s house Whitney reluctantly agreed and dropped the girls off. The next day when Amelia doesn’t respond Whitney goes looking for her daughter but finds herself at an older couple’s home instead so she knows something must be wrong.

Where I Left Her was the type of novel that definitely starts off strong and grabbed my attention right away. I found though that to me the middle of the book slowed down a bit in the pacing, not necessarily with the flashbacks but something made the intensity slow down. However, the end of this one was one that had that devious twist to it that I couldn’t help but enjoy although I did think there were a couple of unanswered things too. Overall, though this one was compelling to read despite my few nitpicky complaints.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Where I left her a mother’s terrifying days of trying to find her daughter. It is a psychological thriller but a hidden one. I can’t give away the story but you will need to read the ending!

The story is told from the central point where Whitney drops her daughter, Amelia, off for a sleepover. The chapters change from 6 weeks before the drop off to the hours after. I enjoyed reading the book but felt there was a little too much background into Whitney’s teenage years that didn’t add to the story.

Implausible

2.5 stars

Where I Left Her is a psychological thriller about an overprotective mother looking for her teenage daughter who has disappeared without a trace.

When Whitney, an overbearing single mother, drops off her 15-year-old daughter, Amelia, for a sleepover at a new friend’s house, she is distracted and not paying close attention to where she is leaving her daughter. Since Whitney is described as being overprotective of Amelia, this part of the plot does not make sense. The next day when she doesn’t hear from Amelia, Whitney returns to the sleepover house to discover her daughter was never there. Now searching for Amelia, Whitney is forced to face her past and confront why her daughter vanished.

Narrated solely by Whitney, she is a decent unreliable narrator who is torn between finding her daughter and protecting herself from her past misdeeds. The narrative is split between the present with flashbacks to the days and hours before drop off. There are also flashbacks of Whitney’s childhood and diary excerpts.

This book was rough in the beginning. The premise was fine, but the way the events unfolded was strange, as there are weird flashbacks--some were full-on pages, others were little snippets here and there, just a sentence or two. They seemed oddly placed and often times did not make much sense. The writing was choppy, with basic sentences and lots of word-for-word repetition. On top of that, Whitney’s character annoyed me. She is a big bucket of contradictions.

At a certain point, things click together, especially with the writing and Whitney's character, but it took time to get there.

In the end, Whitney was a more interesting character than I initially realized. However, her character doesn’t fully work (I can’t say why without getting into spoiler territory). The revelation and why things happened the way they did was completely implausible. I found the plot lacking, partially due to the writing, the other part due to stupidity.

I can't recommend this one.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

There were parts of this book that I really liked. There were sections of this book that kept me guessing and made me want to keep reading. But overall the ending was meh. The twists became a bit unbelievable even for a thriller book. I wanted to like this book more. There was so much about the first half of the book that I loved, but when the ending lets you down, it lets you down.

I love the premise for this story, the writing itself is fine, but absolutely nothing else worked for me.

The story alternates between before the disappearance and after, which is fine. But then we also have long sections of flashbacks to Whitney's teen years, which are tedious and take forever to get to the point. Also, within the two main timelines, we have a ton of reminiscing back to happier times, which pointlessly drag the story backward so it never feels like we go anywhere at all.

I didn't like one single character. I didn't find the story believable. I started skimming. At the 60% mark on my Kindle, I gave up because I just didn't care.

But all this is just my opinion. It's quite possible you'll love this story, so give it a try if the premise intrigues you.

This book was like a classic detective’s novel, where Whitney had to piece together clues from the past several months to see what could have happened to her daughter and little by little a picture emerges that leads her to the truth. It really kept me hooked from the start.

The premise was really clever as well - since not only did the daughter disappear without a trace but there is a high chance she’s doing something shady based on her recent behavior, so your suspicions are up and anything is a possibility. The story alternates between the present, when Amelia is missing, and flashbacks of the past couple of months as Whitney remembers significant events as Amelia changed and gained her new friend Lauren.

The ending was quite intense as well. This is a story where you can’t blink or you’ll miss something! There’s a lot going on and the revelations come one after another as each of the characters tell their perspectives and some hard truths are revealed.

The characters also make this a great story. I don’t want to say too much, but Whitney is….a character. She’s definitely relatable as a worried mom, but she can be intense sometimes. And she’s hiding some things in there. I’ll just say that.

Overall, this is a really suspenseful thriller that I highly recommend. It was a great read that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop as I read this book, and when it did, I never expected how this would end.
I can’t even imagine dropping my child off, and seeing her enter a home, and then, well, the unthinkable.
We are given an in-depth look at Mom Whitney’s life, growing up and then being married and having Amelia. Her life growing up was hard, but contract it to the life of her friend, well, maybe things weren’t so bad.
When Amelia doesn’t come home, well maybe she is just being rebellious, but keep reading.
At times you will be holding your breath, and just when you think you have it all figured out, well, keep page turning! You will need answers, and they do come!

I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Harlequin, and was not required to give a positive review.

The book's topic scared the heck out of me so I was reading in a negative head space. I've read other books by this author but this one I had a hard time with.

Ignoring her doubts, Whitney drops her daughter Amelia at a friend's house without meeting the girl or her parents. Amelia was at an age where image is everything so Whitney did not want to embarass her. The next day when Whitney goes to pick up her daughter, she is met by an older couple that state that the girls are not there. What is more is that they were never there. It was the wrong house. Whitney immediately begins to panic.

Whitney starts to trace Amelia's activities, including a Finsta account that indicate that Amelia had more than one secret. Not only does she have secrets, but they go back quite a while. This shouldn't shock Whitney really, as she has secrets of her own. '

One thing really stands out in this book. And that is unlikable characters. Secrets and lies prove true to the fact that there is always more than one side to a story, and the truth is not always the path some choose. However, the drama between Whitney and Amelia, as well as the pasts and the twists and turns in the story made this quite a riveting read.

Many thanks to Mira Books and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

When Whitney drops her teenage daughter off for a sleepover with a new friend, she's ready for the night off. But when she returns the next day and the couple that answers the door says that there's no teenage girl living there, and her daughter hadn't been there, she has to try to find her. Throughout the narrative, Whitney remembers her own teenage/young adult years and we learn through flashbacks that she has a secret and complicated past, and that her daughter has been acting strangely lately. Why is she not seeing her old friend group? Who is this new friend that no one seems to know? It is a sign of a really masterful author when the many layers of a character's secrets can be slowly revealed, and that the surprise ending is actually a surprise. I will admit that I thought I knew what was coming several times, was consistently wrong, and was left open-mouthed at the conclusion.
I will recommend to fans of the teenager/mother dynamics and teen friendships in Megan Abbott's books, and fans of books with unreliable female narrators, like Paula Hawkins.
Thank you to MIRA and Netgalley for a digital copy in exchange for review.

While the concept of the novel was intriguing, I thought it was very predictable. I'd say this was a quick, basic domestic thriller. Not necessarily bad, but not memorable either. Also, the formatting issues made this extremely difficult and frustrating to read - random page numbers included in the middle of pages, page breaks that didn't make any sense, spaces between words, some pages where each word had its own line. While that has nothing to do with the book, it definitely left me annoyed and not wanting to continue.

This book is about every mother's nightmare come true. If you have kids - and especially daughters - you've probably had at least one thought in this direction: what happens if my child goes missing?

The reader is privy to Whitney's thoughts, feelings, and actions as she copes with her missing daughter. She doesn't know if Amelia left on her own, or was forced to. Rather than wait for the police give her updates, Whitney takes matters into her own hands and plays detective herself.

I loved how Whitney took matters into her own hands to track down her daughter using her own amateur sleuthing skills. As the plot progresses, Whitney realizes that her daughter Amelia is not what she seems, and is a completely different person than she portrays to her mother. It made me reflect on my own relationship with my teen daughters.

This book started and ended strongly for me, but slowed down a bit in the middle. There were alternating voices between Whitney's past and present, but it was a bit confusing for me and I didn't realize that it was the same person until much later in the book.

One of the nice surprises of this book is that it takes place in Sacramento, California, where I live now. There are definitely not that many books that take place in Sacramento. It made references to local malls, streets, and restaurants, and I love the shout-out the California state capitol.

The ending had a shocking, unexpected twist that I did not think would happen. The book ended very darkly, and the surprise ending redeemed itself for me.

This book is about secrets, motherhood, relationships, family, marriage, and betrayal. It will make you think of your kids (if you have them) and your mother (everyone has a least one of these) and remind you to look beyond what you see.

Enjoyable read, with turns that left me wondering, guessing, and anticipating.
Having read both "When I Was You" and now "Where I Left Her," I won't miss a book by this author.

Ready for one of those books that leaves you dropping it by the side of the bed going, "what the hell did I just read?" Welcome to the world of Amber Garza's Where I Left Her. The mother of a teenage daughter is sent into a tailspin after she drops her daughter off at a sleepover and her daughter vanishes. We quickly discover that not only is the daughter's best friend not who she seems, neither is her mother. The last ten pages of the book will leave you with your jaw slack. This is a quick read for the beach or with a flash light under the covers (even if that flashlight comes from your phone).

First off like always I want to say a huge thank you to the publisher MIRA- HARLEQUIN – Trade Publishing (U.S. & Canada) the author Amber Garza
, and to NetGalley for the invite to join this blog tour as well as letting me read and review it.As soon as I saw that Amber Garza had a new book coming out , I was like yes please because I read her book When I Was You and loved it .And just like that one this one didn't let me down ,it was everything I was hoping it would be which was that it was just a twist and even a bit darker then When I was you, and every time I thought that I had something figured out ,I found out how wrong I was . As for the characters there was times I just didn't like Whitney at all, and the more I read the more I found out why I just couldn't stand her. But over all what made me love this without having to like the main character was the story line itself , and why would that matter you might be asking yourself , will here is the answer to that :the plot was one of those that would keep you wanting more, it kept me guessing on what was going to happen next, the pacing of the story wasn't too fast or slow it was just right , and the back stories for the characters also helped in many ways because in some ways their stories that could actually happen in this day of age that we live in .