(3.0*)

The Night She Went Missing by Kristen Bird is a solid beginner-thriller read.

The story is pretty interesting and intriguing in the beginning. The author’s writing starts off strong — creating lots of suspense, having multiple POVs/narratives (one of which is the girl who was missing, Emily), and characters who are hiding tons of secrets (which we all know will later come out somehow). But, in my opinion, it doesn’t really take a HUGE turn from there.

I always love a strong beginning, who doesn’t? But, when it is not carried out as strongly all the way through, it just sort of feels hard to read. Like you are pushing yourself to read it, instead of just enjoying the story as it flows on by.

I think the main reason why I just felt that it was only “okay” was, due to its way of adding in “drama” instead of “suspense” , as well as, it has some far-fetched twists and turns.

I have been reading quite a bit of thriller/mystery books with outlandish twists and/or endings and it makes me a little sad.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review from me.

In the prologue to Kristen Bird's intense suspense novel The Night She Went Missing, Emily is found face up in the water of the harbor. Who is she and how did she get there?

Emily is the teenage daughter of Carter and Catherine, who recently moved from their home in Oregon to Carter's hometown, the island of Galveston, Texas. The family moved because Catherine did something scandalous and it was thought best to make a fresh start.

Carter's imperious mother Rosalyn is the grand dame of Galveston. She pretty much owns the island, no one, not even the sheriff, does anything without her permission. Rosalyn is thrilled to have her son back home, and she attempts to bring Catherine into Galveston society whether she wants it or not.

Emily is angry she had to leave all her friends and school behind because of her mother. Many of the students at her new school resent her, including Anna, the reigning Queen Bee at school. Anna's former boyfriend Alex, the star athlete, is attracted to Emily and they become friends.

Alex was accused a few years ago of sexually assaulting a female student, something he vehemently denied, and while he was cleared of the charges, there is still a cloud of suspicion surrounding him. When Emily disappears after a gathering where Alex was with her, once again people believe he was involved- even his mother Morgan has her doubts about him.

Much of the book takes place during the ten weeks that Emily was missing. Carter and Catherine are beside themselves, Emily's twin little sisters are distraught, and Rosalyn is determined to turn over every stone to find her granddaughter.

Emily's car was found by the gulf, with her keys and cell phone inside, but no sign of her. After an exhaustive search, the pervailing belief was that Emily drowned, but Catherine will not give up hope that Emily is alive.

We meet the people of this insular community- Anna's mother Leslie, who is Rosalyn's right-hand woman, always there to organize school functions and push her daughter to be number one. Alex's mother Morgan is divorced and her doubts about her son eat away at her. Robert Steele is the handsome, hardworking doctor who supports his widowed sister-in-law Leslie after his brother died, and he dates Morgan.

After Emily is found, the next step is to discover where she was all this time. Anyone who is a careful reader of suspense novels will probably be able to guess who is responsible for Emily's disappearance even though the author throws in some red herrings, but you may have to suspend disbelief for some of the other plot revelations.

I found Catherine's scandal back home an interesting twist, it's unusual to have such a big character flaw in a protagonist. Emily's ability to hold her faith as well as her belief in science shows a mature intellectual capability which is refreshing. The island community of Gavelston was also a unique setting, I can't remember reading a novel set there. Fans of J.T. Ellison will enjoy this one.

Thanks to Harlequin for putting me on Kristen Bird's tour.

Thrillers are not my top genre, but I do enjoy one or two once in a while and I have had the luck to stumble upon really good ones that keep me interested. This one was not as great as I imagined. I thought it would sort of recount everyone's steps from that night, to make me doubt everyone and there was only a glimpse of that and still, it was invested in the worries and the problems each mother had, it was hard for me to grasp the story until I was more than halfway through it. It started great, I was intrigued at the beginning but it just died out. The thing about thrillers is that I still want to know what happened and it kept me from DNFing this. The ending was ok, nothing spectacular or gasp-worthy. I think this could've been stronger if it focused more on the kids than their mothers, I mean I get what the author was trying to convey but it just wasn't the best for me.

The Night She Went Missing is a domestic suspense debut, and between the title and the blurb, I was hooked. The story starts out really well, and it didn't take long before I was completely invested in where things would go. In typical domestic suspense fashion, there are lots of secrets and plenty of finger-pointing as the story unfolds. Things did push the level of suspension of disbelief, but I still wanted to see how it would all play out. All things considered, this is a solid debut if a little bit over the top, and I'll be interested to see what Kristen Bird does next.

In this fantastic debut novel by Kristen Bird three mothers make unlikely allies when one of their teen children goes missing. The missing 17-year-old is named Emily and she never returned home after a night out with friends. Although she left the party with a boy named Alex, he swore she left ahead of him.

The three mothers now working together are Catherine, Leslie and Morgan, once close friends but now they barely get along. They begin to wonder what has been going on with their children and if Emily's disappearance means much more than they have imagined. Catherine is Emily's mother and she searches vigorously for her daughter. She is determined that she will find Emily no matter what it would take.

I love how this story developed. In fact, as it opens, Emily is rescued. As the story progresses, it goes to the past to her disappearance and slowly builds tension as to what happened to her that night and why she was found three months later. Full of drama and angst, the story is told with multiple viewpoints and has more than one surprising twist. In fact, as things begin to unfold the fact that secrets and lies have played into Emily's disappearance proves more than troublesome. What an utterly intense story!

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

This was a great thriller! There were a lot of twists and turns to keep you guessing. I was not exactly sure what happened and it was nice to see a surprise ending.

“The Night She Went Missing” was a hard one for me to give up one. It had all the elements of a thriller that usually hook me — a popular missing teen, domestic drama, mommy drama and rich people behaving badly.. Unfortunately, this one just never got there for me; it never got to a point where I wanted to keep reading. Picking up the book felt like a chore, and that’s when I knew I had to call it quits

However, books are very personal and I’m sure this one has an audience. It just wasn’t for me.

Definitely one of my favorite thrillers so far this year. The Night She Went Missing is a fast-paced novel that keeps you guessing and wondering what is going to happen next. The characters are well done and believable and parts of the story made me mad only because it's something believable. No girl should have to go through something like this. For Kristen to evoke emotion out her reader's lets you know that the story is well written!

I felt a range of emotions while reading this one, from despair to elation. I absolutely hated most of the characters but I felt for Emily and ended up reading late into the night to find out what happened to this poor girl.

The story is told in multiple POVs and alternating time lines. You go in knowing what happened but not the how or why. I’ve seen some reviews saying it loses steam but I don’t agree. I was engaged throughout. I didn’t love these flawed rich people but their drama was interesting. We all know I love a book that’s a puzzle and this was one I enjoyed. It’s departure from what I expected was appreciated. It’s a missing person case with several twists and it worked for me!

Thank you @_mira_books_ @netgalley @harlequinbooks for my digital copy to review!! This one is up on the blog too with an excerpt.

"...it was one thing to commit an indiscretion, but another thing entirely to be indiscreet about it."

I don't give five star reviews out willy nilly, but this book was so good!

We know from the title that someone (high school senior Emily Callahan) goes missing, and we know from the very first chapter that she is found, though she can't remember anything from the ten weeks she was gone. The story is told in alternating viewpoints about this time, from four different women--Emily, her mother Catherine, her mother's friend Morgan, and Leslie, the social queen of the island where these women live. There is so much going on here--the mystery of what happened to Emily, the social stigma of being new in a small town, hierarchies within high school and the town itself. I really really enjoyed seeing the mystery here unravel and I didn't guess the ending at all. I also loved seeing all the family dynamics here and how they varied so much though the driving force was always love. Overall this was just a really well-written book, that made me think and I so appreciate that.

I really enjoyed the twists and turns of The Night She Went Missing. This book falls into the category of my favorite genre which I tend to be a harsher review on, but this book did not disappoint. The character development was so well done as you continue to learn more about each person's history (and secrets). I also enjoyed the twists and turns of this novel.

When Caroline Callahan has to move her family to Galveston after a workplace scandal, she's not really prepared for a domineering mother-in-law who practically runs the town, or that her daughter, a high school senior would go missing.

The story begins with setting up the secrets the women in the town are keeping. There's Morgan, who's husband has left her and Alex her son who is accused of rape. There's the widow Leslie, Rosalyn Callahan's right hand helper in all things social in the town, and her two sons who are shrouded in suspicion. And then there's Caroline carrying around a load of guilt, especially after making her daughter leave their Oregon home for a new place in her senior year.

The story is told from all four female points of view. At first I found this a bit confusing, but it worked to give just enough information to make this reader start lining up my own suspects in the disappearance of Emily. While I did think the first half of this book was a bit slow paced for me, things really take off after Emily's disappearance and I couldn't put this book down. There are plenty of suspects to choose from too!

Memory loss is a big theme in this story and Emily must take matters into her own hands to discover just what happened the night she went missing. I did like the inclusion of her point of view in this story.

This worked very nicely as a domestic suspense story for me. It really kept me guessing until the end, although I did suspect the perpetrators early on and I liked that about the story. It gives just enough of a hint of what might have happened and doesn't lay everything out until the end. I was surprised by some of the twists and revelations.

Overall, a very satisfying suspenseful story.

This book was pretty average to me, just because it didn’t have enough suspense in my opinion. However I do the think it’s well written and that the author has great potential!

This is the perfect example of a three star read. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't anything I'll remember for long either.

The story was interesting enough, but the characters were not well developed and I truly didn't care what happened to any of them and didn't have strong feelings about any of them either.

Thanks Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this one. It's out now!

The Night She Went Missing opens with the missing girl, Emily, being found and in a coma. She had been missing for a couple of months. How she went missing and where she had been all that time is at the heart of the mystery. It is told through several perspectives including Emily as she lays in her coma.

I ultimately ended up loving this book. However. I found the first probably 20% of the book s little slow. Initially, I was having a hard time distinguishing between the mothers. They were kind of the typical small town awful people. I am happy that I stuck with the story because it ended up being a great mystery. There were a couple of twists that took me by surprise. The ending was very satisfying and hopeful. I even ended up liking a couple of the mothers by the end of the book. This was a great debut novel. I look forward to reading more from this author. I definitely recommend giving this one a try.

On the night she went missing, Emily had attended a small party with friends. Some even saw her leave, but no one knew what happened to her. Did her friends know more than they were saying?

After a scandalous error in judgement, Catherine and her family decided it was better to move from their Oregon home to Galveston. Her husband, Carter, comes from a prestigious family that helped settle Galveston. His mother still runs Callahan Preparatory Academy along with owning the paper and basically owns the island.

When Emily enters Callahan Prep as a senior, their are those that are unkind to her, meeting Alex, a popular football jock, turns her friendlessness around and they are soon spending most of their free time together. Alex has a history although he claims to be innocent, but when Emily goes missing it comes back to haunt him.

The families at Callahan prep have secrets of their own and some are rather sordid. Willing to protect their own families, no one is very forthcoming with information.

When Emily is found ten weeks later, floating in the water, she is in a coma and later awakes in a fugue state, remembering nothing. What really happened the night she went missing?

I find that writing reviews for thrillers can, at times, be most difficult. I always fear saying too much; I don’t want to spoil the suspense or the twists. But I can tell you that 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐒𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 is an intriguing, debut thriller.

This is a mix of academia and domestic drama. And it begins with Emily, granddaughter of the prestigious Callahan Preparatory Academy’s founder, being pulled from the shore of the gulf coast.

The story backtracks to what happened during Emily’s disappearance - she’s alive but can’t remember details. But someone knows something - the boy she was with that night, her rival at school, or maybe a jealous academy parent?

I loved that this is set on atmospheric Galveston Island, Texas. I could picture it with the windswept gulf coast and the gorgeous 19th-century homes. It was the perfect place for this privileged academy. So if you love parents (and grandparents) behaving badly and lots of drama, and maybe having to suspend your belief a bit, this is one you’ll enjoy.

Thank you to @_mira_books_ @harpercollins and @kristenbirdwrites for a spot on tour and a gifted ebook.

This was a solid debut! I will be interested to see what Bird does next! The first half was a very slow burn for me (which is not my favorite) but then the story really picks up! I wasn’t sure if there would be twists and turns but there sure was! This also includes a trope I really enjoy but won’t share to avoid giving anything away.

Rating: 3.75; rounded up to 4!

This was slow-burn suspense that started really strong. One of my complaints is that halfway through, I really wanted it to pick up speed. With horribly flawed characters (who needs enemies with such cut-throat so-called friends?) and alternating viewpoints, this delved into the lengths a mother goes to in protecting her children and how truth can become a fluid concept in such a close-knit, insular community. As a woman, I very much wanted to see justice done. As a mother, I could relate somewhat to the struggle between trusting your child and questioning their choices. As a fairly decent human, I was appalled at how twisted this story unfolded and the diabolical elements that led to not only Emily’s disappearance but the obstructions of justice that hindered the investigation. While it was dark – most suspense has that aspect – I didn’t find it disturbingly unsettling although there is definitely content that may bother some readers. It was, for me, middling entertainment that will be enjoyable for some but might not quite meet the mark for others expecting a high stakes domestic suspense.

The Review

What an adrenaline-fueled thriller! The pulse-pounding narrative really infuses a sense of mystery and suspense into the character arcs and dialogue as each chapter peels back the layers of the story and the character’s pasts as well. The author found amazing notes of dread and spine-chilling terror as the actions of the mothers, their children, and their community begin to unfold.

What really stood out to me was the character arc. A great way of differentiating a domestic suspense thriller from your average murder mystery type of thriller is the intimate community setting and character development that can be found within. The author really captured that voice and tone in the novel, and these protagonists were crucial to that vibe, as these mothers balanced the struggles of parenting and their own identities with the actions of their children and other members of the community.

The Verdict

A striking, engaging, and haunting read, author Kristen Bird’s debut novel “The Night She Went Missing” is a must-read domestic suspense thriller and a brilliant first novel in the author’s career. With a shocking series of twists and turns, the narrative will keep readers invested in diving down the rabbit hole that is this small-town mystery and the final revelation will have readers spinning as one of the protagonists has their world turned upside down.