3.5

OBSESSION DESPERATION DECEPTION
Words that could describe “getting lost in love”…and do so in this story, where the truth is as ELUSIVE as our main characters as they travel through Europe on a belated honeymoon.

It’s 1996- a time before cell phones, and, Gina Reinhold has fallen and sustained a head injury while in Berlin.

Her memories are hazy, but she starts to realize that a few things that her husband, Duncan Lowy has told her, don’t “feel right”.

Has she really had a row with both her Dad and her best friend, Violet and that is why she doesn’t want to communicate with them while they are traveling? Does the man in a cafe staring at her so intently have a reason to be doing so? And, why does she almost call her own husband, Graham instead of Duncan?

Because of the omniscient third person narration, it took awhile to feel apprehension for Gina, and just when I did, what is happening in the PRESENT is interrupted by too much backstory, of how the couple and their friends met at Yale, years ago, slowing down the pace.

I also found it hard to believe that all of their AMERICAN friends from Yale, were now living in Europe-Vienna, Prague and London. to be specific.

It was difficult to like either one of the characters as each leaves friends and family members back in America, worried about their whereabouts and their well-being, amongst other things.

Still, the story is ORIGINAL and when the TRUTH catches up with our couple, I was reminded of how the lines of truth are often blurred.

I liked the story-but I didn’t love it.

Thank You to Simon & Schuster for a gifted copy. It was my pleasure to offer a candid review!
Available February 15, 2022.

This book mostly took place in Europe and I was fascinated by the places the main characters visited and how well the author wove her story into the locations. The story was told from a dual-perspective of husband and wife. We quickly learn both have issues with deception making them both unreliable narrators. What is real? What is fabricated? The book kept me captivated searching for these answers until the end. Would recommend.

The End of Getting Lost was WAY different than I expected. I almost DNF'd but stuck with it and I'm glad I did

Just be forewarned that this is not a thriller! It feels more like something written in the first half of the twentieth century, like a gently suspenseful domestic mystery a la Daphne DuMaurier or Victoria Holt. The story, which is set in the 1990s, needed to take place before modern technology. Cellphones or smartphones would have completely ruined the plot, which basically consists of a couple traveling in Europe, each keeping secrets from the other. Misdelivered letters and missed phone calls that keep these two from knowing what the other is up to. A few texts would have sorted everything right out!

It has an omniscient/distant third person point of view that could feel very old-fashioned to a modern reader. There's a lot of internal rumination and not much happening besides the travel and the couple thinking about what they were up to and trying to figure out what the other person was doing. I found it soothing in a strange sort of way. The stakes are low - it's just a relationship story - and the travelogue was fun.

Still, I think that a lot of people who pick this up will be like ?!?!?!?!? and I get that.

3.5 stars rounded up.
This mystery is set in 1996, shortly before cell phones and social media were ubiquitous. Gina Reinhold is a dancer who had an accident and can’t clearly remember the last year of her life. She has to trust her husband when he fills in the blanks and discourages her from calling her father or her best friend. He’s not being completely truthful, but what is Duncan hiding?

I thought this was original and the writing is good, but I didn’t love it.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this novel, which RELEASES February 15, 2022.

While I found the underlying mystery and characters interesting, the plotting and structure of this story made me knock down a star and half from what would have been a 4.5 star read.

On a sentence level, I enjoyed the writing. The author did a good job describing the many European settings and the New York City chapters. And the main characters, Duncan and Gina, had a complex relationship. I never quite knew who to trust or believe, so I give the author credit for creating a compelling mystery and engaging relationship dynamics.

My main issue was with the long, drawn out flashback chapters that completely took me out of the immediate story. We weren’t connected to the characters yet, so it was hard to care about what had happened to them in the past. There was A LOT of info dumping. A ton of telling instead of showing. For example, I wish the book would have opened showing Gina falling down and hitting her head instead of telling us it happened. At least half of the story was written in the passive instead of active voice. Lots of reflecting on the past instead of on the present action.

It honestly felt like this was a first or second draft of a manuscript instead of a polished novel. There was a lot of potential for this to be a great book, which was a shame because this book felt much different than the typical domestic thrillers that are published.

I would still be open to reading something else from the author in the future.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Simon & Schuster for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. What a wonderfully surprising read. I was expecting a "Before I Go to Sleep" type of story with tenseness and thriller-vibes. However, this book and this story ended up being so much deeper. I think it's best to go into this story totally blind and without expectations. There is mystery and intrigue in the beginning, but eventually you just get so invested in the characters. The last 75% or so was just beautiful, and the ending really got me in the feels. I will be thinking about this book for a long time!


SPOILER THOUGHT:
Somewhat of a spoiler, but the only thing I wish we got is scenes with each character actually confronting/standing up to their parents.

3.75 stars rounded to 4. Less a psychological thriller and more a desperate love story, this book definitely kept me turning pages. Gina wants to have a magical, artistic life, and she wants Duncan along for the ride. But we quickly learn that each is keeping secrets from the other. Grand, ridiculous gestures of love keep the pair together and on the move. I don't want to say more for fear of ruining the story, but Kirman gets the longing, desperation, and crazy love exactly right.

"The year is 1996—a time before cell phones, status updates, and location tags—when you could still travel to a remote corner of the world and disappear, if you chose to do so. This is where we meet Gina Reinhold and Duncan Lowy, a young artistic couple madly in love, traveling around Europe on a romantic adventure. It’s a time both thrilling and dizzying for Gina, whose memories are hazy following a head injury—and the growing sense that the man at her side, her one companion on this strange continent, is keeping secrets from her.

Just what is Duncan hiding and how far will he go to keep their pasts at bay? As the pair hop borders across Europe, their former lives threatening to catch up with them while the truth grows more elusive, we witness how love can lead us astray, and what it means to lose oneself in love..."

Thanks to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The story is well written and has enough detail to get lost in. Unfortunately, it is about a soon-to-be ex-husband stalking and then abducting his wife. I found him to be a very unlikable character. Oh, the country-hopping sounds fun for the most part, as he tries to evade family and friends by whisking her away before they can be found. The story does have the requisite twist, and it is well done. Unfortunately, it left me hating all the characters! Except for Dad (poor old Dad). Not a bad read, but definitely not the ending I would have preferred!

This story was just okay for me. It just wasn't very believable to me and i was very underwhelmed by the ending. None of the characters were likable either. Overall I was just kinda meh.

It's a shorter story and therefore a quick read but it's not very exciting,

I thought the writing in this novel was dry and uninteresting, and the characters felt very flat. I do not recommend.

Didn't finish this mystery/thriller. The pacing was off here for me, with things drawn out a bit and the characters were not compelling. Left this one to try another.

This was such a quick read! I had to keep reading to know what was going to happen! This was a powerful story and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I hate giving negative reviews but I have to be honest. First, most of the reviews for this book are either four or five stars so maybe the book just wasn’t for me. I found it quite tedious and long winded. It felt like it when on and on. If you have read the blurb, then you know the book is about Gina and Duncan who are on their honeymoon when Gina sustains a head injury in Europe and they are both keeping secrets from one another. I stuck with the book because the writing was beautiful but way to long winded for me. Since most of the reviews are very positive I will tell you to give this book a chance but for me it was really not enjoyable. I want to thank net galley and the publisher for the ARC I received for a honest review.

The End of Getting Lost had promise but I could not get behind either character. Gina was too self-centered and Duncan too weak. The alternating story lines kept leaving me wanting more and the surrounding characters did not add enough. At times I loved the writing and other times I could not wait for a chapter to end.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

This book proved to me just how judgmental and quick I can be to jump to conclusions. I went from hate to love, sympathy to indifference and back through the cycle again and again for Duncan. I’m laughing to myself about it now that all is said and done.

Robin Kirman did a wonderful job writing this book and I really enjoyed bouncing between Duncan and Gina’s perspectives. If you enjoy reads with a more in depth look into the inner workings of artistic, quirky minds and mental health, this is a good book for you to pick up next.

I found this book both intriguing and disappointing. The weaving plot is what kept me hanging on to the end. I knew that there would be a twist or two coming before the end, which there were, but I was still left disappointed and unsatisfied with the ending.

3.5 stars, quick read, excellent ending.

Told from the alternating points of view of married couple Duncan and Gina, this book takes place in 1996 and centers on an accident involving Gina which causes her to have amnesia about the past year of her life. They are traveling around Europe and while in Germany, Gina is hit on the head and loses her memory. As the story progresses forward, we see things at different times through both of their eyes and readers will discover that nothing is as it seems on the surface.

It's apparent from the beginning that both Duncan and Gina are hiding things from each other, but this is a supreme case of not believing everything that you think on the surface. As the storyline shifts from one perspective to the other, it creatively shows that neither Duncan nor Gina has the full story about different events. When I got to the ending I was pleasantly surprised with the way the author concluded the book and it was totally not what I was expecting. The more I think about it, the more I appreciate and liked the way the book slowly exposed the truth about things.

A very quick read, I totally enjoyed it.

I love a heavily plotted mystery, but a really good, slowly unspooling psychological thriller can be incredibly satisfying-- and that's what this novel is. The characters feel real (I went to a liberal arts school and work in the arts in NYC) and the story is beautifully paced. It's hard to do a good dual-narration mystery-- either too much is spoiled or the characters seem dumb-- but this one is incredibly well done.

Thank you to @simonandschuster and #NetGalley for the digital arc of this book. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

The promo copy for this book prompted me to request it from NetGalley. I enjoyed the plot - a 20-something dancer has an accident and has lingering memory loss. Her husband is taking care of her, but it's clear he's hiding something. Told from alternating points of view, you quickly realize there's more to this story than you realize. And while the story kept me engaged, I really just didn't like the characters at all - they deserve each other and whatever trouble they face, it was self-created. It reminded me a little of "Gone Girl" - unreliable narrators and a very unsatisfying ending.

I quite liked this, even though it didn't have quite enough tension to fit squarely into the "thriller" category for me. I found it to be a ruminative, character-driven novel with nice prose and a surprising twist. The nice thing, for me, is that the twist plays an important role in experimenting with the thin line between love and obsession - it's not just there for the drama.