If you are constantly referring to news people are reading or watching on TV in a foreign country, of course I’m going to expect that to be significant in the story! Okay now that is out of the way, we can go back to the review 😊 Two Americans in Lisbon for few days: husband wanted his wife to accompany him to this business trip. This is not something he always requests but this time it could be a good change for both them. They are married for less than a year after all; they could use some extended honeymoon.

But this short trip turned into a nightmare when husband suddenly disappeared. Ariel, the wife, is now stuck in Lisbon trying to make a case to both local police and consulate to start searching for her husband. It turns out this won’t be an easy task since women are irrational, very emotional and exaggerate the severity of the situation (!). (Give me a moment to bring back my eyes from where they went when I rolled them so hard). Ariel, ever not believed by people around her, had a make one call she never ever would like to make to find her husband. But that one call is going to open can of worms that most parties involved didn’t want to be revealed.

In an era where women’s word is still not taken seriously and being gaslighted, this story is a testament to how serious crimes are swept under the rug just because perpetrators were men with means to silence anyone and everyone. But what people forget is there is always strength in numbers and it takes only one person to turn things around

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book, in exchange for a fair and honest review.

If you've ever read one of Pavone's novels, you'll know to expect twists and turns - and things are just not always what they seem!

Ariel and her husband John are in Portugal, for a short business trip/vacation. They've only been married three months, and return to their hotel room one night after a romantic dinner, for a night of wildly passionate love making. When Ariel wakes the next morning, John is missing. She goes to the police and then to the American embassy. He doesn't turn up, but a mysterious motorcyclist stops her on the street, hands her a cell phone, and zooms away. When she picks up the cell phone, she's told that her husband has been kidnapped and that she needs to come up with a 3 million euro ransom.

As her dealings with the police and the embassy progress, and as she starts to try to raise the ransom money, it becomes clear that there's more to the story than we're seeing. Ariel's back story is disclosed in bits and pieces, and it becomes clear that nobody involved, including Ariel, has that much information about John.

I'm not going into any more of the plots - it would really be a spoiler to give away the plot twists. After all, that's what makes this book so fascinating!

SPOILER ALERT: This was my first Chris Pavone book and it was disappointing. The story sounds like it could be really interesting, but it’s poorly executed and the book is too long. The twists are pretty predictable and the main character Ariel Pryce is not likeable. Ariel accompanies her much-younger husband John on a business trip to Portugal. John disappears in Lisbon and we find out that he has been kidnapped. Ariel and John are both hiding secrets. The Lisbon police, American Embassy, and CIA all get involved looking for John. The story goes back and forth in time and we find out that Ariel used to be Laurel Turner with a very different kind of life than the one she now leads. In the flashbacks, she is still referred to as Ariel when she was clearly Laurel at the time. I don’t know why Pavone did this or how editors didn’t catch it. Pavone took what should have been a really good story and made it way too long, included too many characters which became confusing, and the twists were too predictable. Thanks to #netgalley and #mcd for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm still trying to decide how I felt about Two Nights in Lisbon, by Chris Pavone. While there were a few twists and the story was interesting, there is something about it that was off for me. I found my mind wandering and considered not finishing, BUT, I wanted to see how it ended, so I did. I can say I enjoyed it but just enough to give it a 3-star rating. Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for providing me with an ARC ebook in return for my honest review.

How would I have handled this? I woke up in Lisbon, and my husband is already gone. No note was left, and he wasn’t answering his phone. I keep calling, and start asking around the hotel, has anyone seen him? After many hours, I finally decide to contact the police, who think I’m crazy of course, then I go to the US Embassy. I don’t even know what we are doing in Lisbon, I don’t know why I was asked to come with you, and I can’t imagine who might want to hurt my husband. Then the ransom demand comes, an outrageous one I can’t possibly come up with unless I contact the one person in the world that I would NEVER ask for anything!
This story has so many things going on, your head will be spinning – twists and turns lies, and wait for the final page! Thanks to the author, the publisher, and #NetGalley for this fascinating read!

Things I’m done with: political thrillers and books written by men with a female MC.

This book was insufferable and the only reason I toughed it out to the end was because I received it as an ARC from NetGalley.

Ariel is the dumbest, most annoying character in a book I’ve ever read. She was flat, lifeless, boring, and simple. There were also way too many characters in this book: Ariel, the husband, the consulate, the local police agents, CIA agents, the reporter, people from the past. Just, too much. And yet not enough.

If I had known this was going to be a political thriller I wouldn’t have read it. The number of times the 4th of July was mentioned was laughable and weird. There were no real twists, no thrills, and the plot was incredibly predictable.

This book was not for me in any way, shape, or form.

"Two Nights in Lisbon" is highly touted as a "riveting thriller about a woman under pressure, and how far she will go when everything is on the line." While that is true, it doesn't mention how long it takes to get through it. At more than 400 pages, your eyes tired from reading or you zone out while listening to its 15 hours of narration.

As the audiobook plays, it jumps from Ariel Price and her now missing husband John Wright traveling to Lisbon, Portugal, to a story about a New York socialite who escapes to a farm with her son. When it turns out her husband has been kidnapped, the story jumps back to her past, her first husband and a mysterious man who could afford to pay the ransom.

Is John's abduction connected to Ariel's past when she went by a different name? Is there more to John than meets the eye? There's corruption, frustration and more than a few questions left unanswered. The backstory includes sexual assaults, a broken neck and being too pretty for her own good.

If you have the patience to follow the novel to its ending, its twists and turns will be revealed. It's a worthy conclusion to a complex story.

Unfortunately, the pace slows down considerably after an amazing start and my interest started lagging long before the story finally picks up again. It's an interesting story, but if it was shorter and less repetitive, it would be the fast-paced and tightly woven thriller as it was intended to be.

TWO NIGHTS IN LISBON, by Chris Pavone, begins with Ariel waking up in Lisbon to her husband not beside her. He is nowhere to be found or be contacted and Ariel becomes increasingly alarmed as the day progresses. She involves the hotel staff, the local police, even the American embassy, but no one seems quite as concerned as Ariel is because it's just been a few hours. When the ransom call happens from the kidnappers, the entire situation becomes more dire and everyone who Ariel has looked to for help are now taking her requests more seriously. Will Ariel be able to rescue her husband, and at what cost?
Pavone hits the ground running with the missing person dilemma on page one of the book. As the hours move forward, layers of back story, true intentions and intriguing characters are revealed until the book is full of political intrigue, international espionage, and ultimately revenge. There are a lot of interesting characters that surround Ariel, some good and some bad, while all of them clearly have their own agenda and Pavone balances following all parties by touching in often with all of them so the reader can see how each character's story unfolds. There are some psychological and/or sociological insights that Pavone shares with the reader that I felt took away from the escalating plot. The ending of the book is exciting and rewarding and leaves the reader satisfied with how everything turned out with Ariel.
Pavone crafts a sensational story in TWO NIGHTS IN LISBON that any reader of action thrillers will enjoy. He really grounds the story in reality, from how law enforcement deals with kidnapping, to how social media ties into everything and there is no escaping it, to how perception can often carry more weight than reality.

This book was good, not my favorite but not bad at all. There were some twists and secrets that kept me reading however I was able to put the book down and not pick it back up for a day or two, I wanted to know the ending but not to the point where I couldn't stop reading.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an early read of Two Nights in Lisbon. Ariel Price has traveled to Lisbon with her husband John on one of his business trips. She wakes up on their first morning there and John is not in the hotel room. There is no note, and she gets increasingly worried as the morning goes on. She goes to the police and to the embassy to report John missing, though no one is taking her too seriously – John is an adult and hasn’t been gone for very long. Then she receives a ransom demand for $3 million euros and everything changes. She and John are not the kind of people that have money like that and the police wonder how they came to be targeted. Ariel calls her ex-husband, hoping he can help, and they refer to a mysterious third party that would have the money but neither of them want to ask. To me, this is when the book gets really interesting, because we start to learn more about Ariel’s story – her life, her son, how she came to meet and marry John. Not everything is as it seems, and now she has the police, the embassy, and the CIA very interested in exactly who this third person is and why he would give Ariel that kind of money. I always like a good spy thriller, and I especially like them when they involve ordinary people. This had lots of twists which really pulls you through the narrative. The story takes place over just two days, and the pace of the book matches that sense of urgency. It all leads to some surprising revelations, and to me at least, an ending that feels satisfying. If you like his other books, if you like Christopher Reich or Karen Cleveland; if you like strong women characters, then give this one a try.

A newly wed couple go to Lisbon for a business trip. The wife wakes up to find her husband missing. She enlists the help of the Portuguese policy and the American Embassy to find him. But not all is as it seems. The story flips back and forth to 14 years ago when a woman was raped at a party by a very influential person. Good page turner.

I'm so thankful to have had the chance to read this book before release. I really liked the storyline and enjoyed parts of the book. I felt like portions of the story dragged and gave me more information than I needed. I found myself skimming over parts and that is not typical of me. I wasn't really invested in the characters. I honestly didn't care about any of them. I would like more connection to my characters when reading. I was actually relieved when this book ended. I want to read a story that I miss when it ends.

The first time I picked up this story I put it down after feels by too much the very the top drama. A couple are in Lisbon for his business meeting when he goes missing. She immediately contacts the police who are doubtful that anything is wrong. She contacts the embassy, which makes the police curious enough to follow her. I was exhausted following the storyline and put it down. I read a couple of reviews which called it great so I went back to it and finished it. So glad I did.
I appreciated the twists it took and admired the accomplishment. If I say more I would be afraid to give it away. Thank you herbal let for an advance copy in exchange for an honest opinion. 3.5 stars.

After a slower beginning, this story really picked up the pace by the middle. Every time I thought I had the story figured out another twist came along! Very entertaining with a satisfying conclusion. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Thanks to MacMillan and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this title prior to publication. Chris Pavone is one of my favorite authors, and I was thrilled to see this new one by him. Once I started, I could not stop reading. Ariel and John, newly married, are in Portugal for John's business trip when John goes missing. Alone in a foreign country, a distraught Ariel must involve the local police and the embassy to help return her husband. This is an international thriller with heft, and the many plot twists make this a super propulsive read. Trigger warnings for sexual assault. This book touches on #MeToo, gaslighting, patriarchy, the hysterical woman trope, expectations of women, and parenting. I will be thinking about this one for a while!

Always glad to read the international intrigue of a new Chris Pavone book. Two Nights in Lisbon is his newest book.

"Ariel Price wakes up alone in her hotel room. Her husband is gone - no note, no message. The police don't believe her when she reports him missing. The embassy is unwilling to help. When the ransom call comes in she turns to the one place she knows for the money - a man she hoped never to speak to again. A secret from her past she hoped never to think of again. But this man is now immensely more powerful now...and the CIA takes an interest."

There are always layers to a Pavone novel. And he peels them back a little at a time. It's a bit of a slow build but there's always something happening. What looks like a simple kidnapping is not - but you don't know what's really going on. And it's happening in Lisbon, Portugal - a great city for international intrigue

The story goes from the kidnapping to the back story. There is an event at a party that is very tough to read. There are hints about who's involved. and just how powerful he is politically. You'll like how it ends.

Another great story from Pavone.

Definitely the style of book I would expect from this author- international intrigue, plot misdirection, unreliable characters. The only thing I noticed different was a slower pace. Hooked me at the beginning and sufficiently concluded but the middle was a little too slow and long.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review and opinion. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this book! Pulls you in from page one and keeps you holding your breath till the very end. Just when I thought I knew what was going to happen, I was wrong! Read this ASAP so you will be able to talk to all of your friends about it as it's sure to be a huge hit!

After a slower beginning,this story really picked up the pace by the middle. Every time I thought I had the story resolved, another twist came along! Very entertaining with a satisfying conclusion.

**Trigger warning for sexual violence.

Thanks to Netgalley and publishers for the advanced reader's copy in exchange for my honest review.

Solid thriller that had me hooked from pretty much the start. I liked how slowly more of the characters’ backstory was revealed and how bigger the mystery became. The Lisbon setting was great but the writing style didn’t allow for an easy connection with the characters. However, I was very invested in how everything would be resolved. I also noticed some inconsistencies and things that didn’t make 100% but not enough to spoil the book for me.