In the Forest of the Lost and Found was an interesting book especially if you want to read a survival story where the characters must scavenge for food, suffer injuries, deal with the threat of wildlife and inhospitably weather.

The author has a very easy writing style to read and follow.
The book’s plot keeps the reader engaged throughout the book.

Unfortunately, the things I disliked outweighed the positives.

The main character, Allie, is extremely unlikeable and entitled.
Major plot lines were left unanswered.
The ending was weak and left the reader guessing.


»» If you want a somewhat similar story but a million times better, both in writing, plot and character development, I definitely recommend "Be Not Far from Me" by Mindy McGinnis.

I could have gone without the supernatural element that was thrown in

This was a perfect survival thriller/ horror book until that aspect was added

This book wasn’t intended for me I think, I was drawn by the hinting at a supernatural in the synopsis but there wasn’t any to be found. Survival stories aren’t really my thing, but I read it, but for me I just couldn’t connect with Allie at all, so found that harder, I’m sure plenty of others will enjoy this but it’s not really for me

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I received this book free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love survival novels but unfortunately this was not it. I felt like I kept reading the same thing over and over, the story went in a circle. I was waiting for the ending and having them say there had been filming a movie. I’m pretty sure. A beat wouldn’t stalk you that long. I also was mad because we never got closure as to what really happened with the “resort”. Like why didn’t they come back? I felt very unsatisfied with that ending. I probably won’t pick up more by this author.

In the Forest of the Lost and Found was an interesting book especially if you want to read a survival story where the characters must scavenge for food, suffer injuries, deal with the threat of wildlife and inhospitably weather. The author has a very easy writing style to read and follow. The book’s plot keeps the reader engage throughout the book. Unfortunately, the things I disliked outweighed the positives. The main character, Allie, is extremely unlikeable and entitled. Major plot lines were left unanswered. The ending was weak and left the reader guessing.

i requested this book off netgalley.
we follow allie and her sis grace and brother nick and their grandfather who spend a week in the wilderness cabin in canada. but they get forgotton there somehow and they have to survive. plus dealing with some family issues (allie and her sis grace dont talk well. they fight each other), their brother nick has epilepsy episodes and their grandad is sick. the book is told by allies point of view which i liked reading about and only having her point of view too. we also get some flashbacks of when she and her siblings were younger and played a game (which started nick episodes).
besides the sisters fighting which sucked bc ofc i doNT want them to fight and the big fight between them omfg i thought allie was gonna die or somethin :C xD I liked nick and allies relationship. they are all a bit of spoiled entitled brats bc they rich etc which sometimes was funny and annoying, like when one of them (aka allie) was kinda rude to their maid or step mom.. their time in the cabin in canada while waiting for trevor/plane to come visit them/ bring them home and then when they are stuck there and nobody is comin to save them was interesting to read. they had to try to survive. they kept thinkin help was coming but them days turn into weeks, food is scarse etc. at first there was still bickering between the 2 girls but as the story progresses they work better,and stop fighting.. they all grew/ had character development, but ig being stuck in the wilderness, forest alone trying to survive has that effect on people. allie gets so strong and brave, grace and nick too. they help each other and dont complain etc like before. they start talking too. allie surviving alone in the woods tryin to get help was very intense too. there was a scene in the book allie refers as the" forest of lost and found" which is the title :3 also at first her relationsip was jack was alright but then when he was like his dad and not let her do what she wanted was not good,and i was hopin she would see that and do sometin about it. one thing i wish we got more was the end.. we didnt get an epilogue. i wanted/needed a bit more at the end. overall i liked reading this book and the characters and the survival aspect of it,and how they overcame their battles/fears.

SPOILERS AHEAD:
meeting the lynx their companionship awhile allie is alone int he woods and them helpin each other was so cute. she kept protecting allie from the bear. and then when we thought she died she came back but hurt :C i was hopin she would survive and allie would take her back home and nurture or or somethin. also interesting to really know what happened that day that allies mom died. and that allie blamed grace for what happened bc the truth was that allie is the real one to blame. and how allie realises that life is life and detah is death. not when but how. and that she doesnt blame her sis or herself for her moms death. at the end they get help but we still dont know how they were forgotten, so i wish we had an explanation of what happened etc. im guessing trevor and the plane had an accident so nobody knew where they were bc trevor died or was unconscious or somethin. but even if thats so idk i feel like brooke would have know the location or the dad or there would be records sayin their location. im glad at the end allie decided she didnt want to stay with jack and she wanted to be close to where they found help and work there, close to nature.

This book is hard to rate for me, especially after just finishing a survival-mystery that blew my mind. That was the reason why I picked up “In the Forest of the Lost and Found”, sadly it couldn’t deliver that.

I hated Ally, she was just the WORST and I think it was intentional that the reader wouldn’t like her because she is a Bitch. She is spoiled, bratty, self-centered. I could go on and on. In the first few chapters it’s clear that this is a person I would never want to get to know or be friends with. That made it hard for me with this book because I just did not want to read about her. Even the little development she made during this trip was not enough to make her endurable. Her sister isn’t much better. Even her brother, one of the more likeable characters, was spoiled and entitled.

And don’t get me started about the bad decisions they all are making throughout the book. A lot of things that happened could have been avoided if they used their common sense.

I’m still wondering why the synopsis is hinting at a supernatural influence in this book, because there is none. I’ve read a few reviews and I’m not the only one confused about this, because at first I thought I missed something.

The ending is unsatisfying and in the end couldn't save the book. I finished this with no feeling of accomplishment and a lot of things were just never mentioned or concluded. It sadly just wasn’t for me.

The character growth in this book was well done, but I had to force myself to keep coming back to this book. The only thing that actually kept me coming back was to hopefully find out why no one had come for them but the book doesn't even explain! I was super disappointed with the ending. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really don't know how to rate this one. Because, as a whole, I enjoyed it. But, as soon as I start thinking about it a bit more, I get more and more mad at it.

I think my main problem with this is how unbelievable it is. I know that something had to happen to strand them in the wilderness, but really? The best the author could come up with was their plane not coming back? And the circumstances surrounding this are never explained? I kept expecting to get an explanation, but we got nothing.

This complaint ties directly into the ending. It was one of the worst endings I've ever read. The book just ended. So many plotlines were left unresolved, and I just feel robbed of any real conclusion. 

Like so many other reviewers, I couldn't stand our main character, Alyssa. She was a total brat. Privileged, stuck-up, bitchy, and self-obsessed. And I wouldn't say that she ever changes. She learns what she has to sacrifice to survive, but that was it.

I did enjoy the survival aspects of this one, but even they bothered me. Our main characters act like total idiots, and I have no idea how they survived. Alyssa wanders around drinking unfiltered water from stagnant lakes, yet never gets sick. Not doing this is almost the first survival rule, even I know this.

And don't even get me started on Tychee. I loved her, she saved the book, but it was so unrealistic.

This book was so close to being amazing, bur it fell short in so many ways. I think the one thing that killed this was truly the unrealisticness though. I could've survived unlikable characters, but I couldn't deal with a survival story that was so obviously wrong.

Thanks to Netgalley and K.D. Van Brunt for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

Cover ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters ⭐⭐
Setting ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Story ⭐⭐ 2.5
Mystery ???
Ending ⭐⭐
Overall: 2 stars ⭐⭐

POV: First person (1)
When: Present day with multiple flashbacks
Target Age: ?

Up until about half way, I thought this was going to be a solid 4⭐.. So you can imagine my disappointment. Unfortunately, I ended up having a number of issues with this book.

Firstly, I took great issue with Allie calling herself a vegan. Vegans do not wear leather. If you wear leather you cannot call yourself a vegan, regardless of your choice of diet. You are a vegetarian.

I'm also not entirely sure why this is tagged as a mystery.. I really don't believe it is. It's a ya survival story, with one element that may be a mystery.

Moving on, I thought the book started off really strong. I actually quite enjoyed Allie's narration for the first half. She is insufferable later on, but in the beginning I didn't mind her. Chock full of teen angst and privilege. She was bratty but she was believable and I appreciated that. The book also clearly laid out the family dynamics and what led them to this stage.

I thought the cabin in the woods setting was great as well. Being stranded with no way of contacting the outside world and with limited supplies - terrifying.

Then the plot devolved into a "what am I reading?" type situation, literally. I no longer knew what the book was trying to be, what genre, or who the target audience was meant to be.

Up until this point, although there were a few scenes with drama for drama's sake, most of the story had felt real. I enjoyed the interaction and relationship between Allie and Grace the most. Their shared past trauma.

Enter the second half of the book.

The scenes with Tyche.. Heavens.. All sense of any realism went completely out the window and the book was suddenly a fantasy.. Don't get me wrong, I adore fantasy, but this is not a fantasy book - or is it?

Also, adding drama, upon more drama, upon more drama and more again - does NOT make a book more exciting. This story also had the "convenient" element too. It makes it very hard to believe and our suspension of disbelief can only go so far.

As I mentioned, I'm not sure who the target audience for this book is. It has clear adult themes suitable for a more mature teen, but then you have the scenes with Tyche and especially the scenes about Morgon that are very juvenile. The tone in the narration clearly changes, so, I'm not really sure.

To finish, I think the author's strength is in teen angst. It would be interesting to see them try a hard-hitting ya contemporary.

This books cover is so beautiful! Overall this book was good, some of the stuff that was in it I thought was a bit unnecessary. The main characters best friend was a bit creepy, she literally asks the main character to send nudes of her boyfriend and her. I really loved that the main character changed, she went from rich spoiled brat to an outdoors girl. The ending was a complete surprise.

This is my first book of the author and i really enjoyed it, i cannot wait to see what others come out to read more. The adventure and the story was excellent, i was able to get right into it. I really liked the character development, i have to say i had a few questions in my head a few times but i was easily swept away by the other parts of the story. Overall i really did enjoy this book and would recommend.

Allysa Baylor, the daughter of a world-famous director, wants to go as far away from her family as possible this summer, hopefully to France with her boyfriend. Ever since her mother died in a car accident, she has blamed her troublesome younger sister, Grace, for the accident and has done everything she could to not be around her for longer than necessary. Unfortunately, her famous dad has planned a one week middle of nowhere Canada trip with her, her sister, her brother, and her grandfather. The only thing keeping her on that trip outside of buttering up her dad in order to go across the Atlantic, is her little brother Nick, who she adores. She knows she would be letting him down in a major way if she didn’t go with.

However, when her dad and stepmom aren’t able to make it on the trip, the three siblings are sent with their grandfather to a very remote cabin by float plane, which the siblings are not at all prepared for. When their check-up flight fails to show up halfway through the week, and Alyssa spots a massive almost prehistoric-sized bear on the other side of the lake, they all begin to get concerned. It’s not until their flight back to civilization is a no-show that the family realizes that they may be in far deeper trouble then they ever could have imagined, and when their supplies begin to dwindle, Alyssa realizes that she may be the only one capable of trekking the hundreds of miles of woods in order to find help.

I always enjoy a good survival story. At first, I had no idea where the author was going with this. Alyssa is a mostly cold rich girl with very little in the way of actual character at the beginning—and what character is there is vastly unappealing to me. However, her journey into the wilderness begins to change her and we get a more in-depth view of her past that explains a lot of her aloofness. The survival itself is pretty interesting and intense. There is also the dark, overarching enmity she has with the prehistoric-sized bear tracking her every move that keeps the pace of this one at a good clip.

The ending is very abrupt and super unsatisfying which is why I didn’t give full stars, but the book is still worth it to see the character build-up that Alyssa and her siblings experience during their months of survival in the woods.

Thank you to ARS Fabula and Netgalley for this advanced copy in exchange for a fair review.

I would give the first 1/3 of the book one star - the main character, Allie is not even remotely likeable, and her sister Gracie isn't much better. The rest of the characters (Grandfather, Noah, and the stepmom) are barely even fleshed out enough to matter to the plot. But once the actual survival portion of the book begins, it earns a couple more stars. This is when we see what the characters are made of, and the book really picks up and moves along quickly. It's not a great book, but the survival story was decent and Allie changes and grows along the way, learning more about herself and her strength.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC

Really enjoyed this book! It was the first one for me to read by this author and I can't wait to read more! The characters stick with you long after the book is over.

I enjoy survival stories and this definitely hit the mark. There are plenty of scenes where the characters scavenge for food, struggle with injuries, and fight off wild animals. I enjoyed these parts of the book and seeing all the characters rise up to the challenge to make it out of the forest.

What made me give this three stars were the unlikeable characters (except grandpa) and the unsatisfying end. Allie is the worst, she's spoiled, selfish, and purposely lashes out at others in an attempt to hurt them. Grace wasn't any better and the little brother is okay but still very entitled. They all had some positive development because of the trauma they go through, but I didn't love them.

The ending is the hardest part. It felt like the author didn't want to come up with an ending so he just left it. After all that Allie and her family go through and we just get left in the cold with no answers. That really ruined the story for me and was so disappointing.

If you're looking to read a tough survival story where the characters learn a lot about themselves and grow, this is good. Just don't put too much hope into finding out what happened in the outside world.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. Thank you to IBPA and NetGalley for the copy

DNF - Thank you to Netgalley and IBPA but this wasn’t for me. I really wanted to love this but Alyssa was too bratty and brash. It was too hard to continue on with the story. I would consider reading this author in the future if her characters were written a little stronger.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

In the Forest of the Lost and Found was an interesting book that ended up being okay. At first, I honestly hated a lot of people in this book. Starting with Allie and Grace. These two snowflakes needed a good dose of karma and a nice bitch slap. They do not get along and blame one another for basically anything. If fighting with a family member was an Olympic sport these two would go for gold quite easily.

As for the actual camping trip, eh, it was okay. I feel like out of everyone - I liked Nick and Grandpa the most. They just seemed like genuinely good people. Unlike the rest of the assholes in this book. So when things go from bad to worst on this family camping trip.. I just sat back and watched all the bad decisions being made.

By bad decision I mean.. it's like camping 101 to NEVER attack a bear. So what do these people do? The exact opposite. They rightfully get their asses kicked because what idiot would attack a big ass bear in the wild? No normal person. Heck even if you are an avid camper and know what to do with a bear situation.. you might live to see your next meal. These people? Not campers at all.

I was also hoping that this would go into more of a fantasy or sci-fi route because certain things were mentioned about a certain character. Yet, nothing really happened with that. It was mentioned a couple of times but that's about it.

Other than that, it was just an okay book with a sad ending. It honestly did nothing for me but just end it on a weird note. I am happy that I got the chance to dive into this though.

So this one was pretty good but I have to say that I did not like the main character. She was so whinny and entitled that it was hard to really care about her issues. The story itself was very easy to read in its writing which was great. It was well paced and the setting was great. The story/plot seemed like this was an intro to a series and not a stand alone as the story left some things open. If this does end up being a series I don't think I would read book two.

Let me begin by saying this is not the worst book I have ever read, however, it is also far from the best. Luckily it was a short read so I didn't feel too badly for sticking through it rather than a DNF.

My biggest gripe seems to be the common understanding amongst the other reviewers as well: the main character is awful. I have read plenty of books whose main character is flawed; that in itself is expected, and also encouraged. Nobody is perfect. But man, Allie really didn't have a single redeeming quality, in my opinion. She does experience a character transformation, however, it ends up feeling extremely hollow by the end of the book.

I have an opinion about any book that attempts suspense. There has to be a back-and-forth/give-and-take rhythm to the action taking place. If bad fortune continues to befall the characters, over and over, without any reprieve, the suspense doesn't have as much effect and the tale becomes stale. There were some instances of luck or fortune, but they just didn't have a big impact in relieving stress.

The author's writing definitely needs work. It was quite stilted, and the inclusion of French language every other page did nothing for me. Some sentences did not make sense or seemed to use incorrect vocabulary.

I think the use of LoTR references was supposed to be cute and relatable as pop culture, but I ultimately found it annoying and cringed every time Grandfather spoke up.

My favorite character was Tychee and she was about the only aspect of the story worth reading about.

What pissed me off to no end is that the mystery driving the narrative was NOT ADDRESSED at the end of the book. I was so livid. I can't get more specific without revealing spoilers, but damn am I furious that the author didn't care to explain this.