Wow. This book kept me on my toes. I kept wondering what was happening. In psychological thrillers I'm one of those that skips to the end to know what's happened. But with an audiobook I couldn't. I had to keep listening and stressing about it all. It's definitely slow building. But I had to know what was going on. The ending was surprising. Definitely worth the listen.

Two Nights in Lisbon is the newest political thriller, of sorts, by Chris Pavone. This novel is complex, layered and intricate, but also really quite gripping.

Ariel Price travels with her new husband on his business trip to the beautiful city of Lisbon. When she awakes on their first morning there, he is unexpectedly gone. Due to a series of clues, she suspects that he has been kidnapped for ransom and her theories prove true. As she seeks help from hotel security, then local authorities and eventually escalates matters to the embassy, she finds little assistance, or truly anyone who will take her concerns seriously. A resourceful woman, she is forced to take matters into her own hands by diving into a past she’d rather forget.

Two Nights in Lisbon is the story of secrets, lies, cover-ups and scandal. It delves into some deeper, darker, but relevant topics with clarity and a wealth of knowledge. Though I guessed part of the reveal, I found the unraveling of the mystery quite satisfying. Chris Pavone is truly a skilled writer who creates intelligent plots. This story admittedly was quite long, and that will deter some from picking it up, but it was an engaging story and I found it thoroughly enjoyable.

January LaVoy narrated the audio-version of Two Nights In Lisbon, and she did a spectacular job! Her voice is clear, articulate and embodies the nuances of the character perfectly. She’s truly one of my favorite audiobook narrators.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to listen to the audio-version of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed Pavone's first 2 books, this one was a struggle, I could not connect with the characters, and was not drawn into the story as I was with his first book. Thriller readers will enjoy and will recommend to them. I appreciate the opportunity to listen to the ARC.

Excellent and well-written mystery! The ending wasn't completely predictable either. Definitely recommend.

** spoiler alert ** While the basic premise of this book was interesting, there were a couple things that kept this book from getting a better rating from me.

First, I didn't like the main character, Ariel. She was so convinced that her good looks have been so detrimental to her in her life. Oh, poor Ariel. I could just imagine her saying, "Please, no one look at me." And then in the next breath, "Why is no one looking at me?"

Second, there were parts of the story that really dragged for me and were repetitive. It took a long time to have the Lisbon police talk to Ariel and look into her case. And I thought there were too many flashbacks to her old life.

Thank you to Netgalley and MacMillan Audio for this advanced copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this book, having traveled to Lisbon before and I love the city. But there is very little description of the actual city, and instead the author uses the 440+ pages to pontificate on why pretty much anyone with money is a terrible person. Everyone in this book who is a smidge above middle class are money obsessed, plastic surgery obsessed rapists.

The main character is pretty much insufferable - the author portraying her as so beautiful that everyone is constantly staring at her and every red blooded male wants to sexually assault her. She gets a “commando” haircut just to keep the men away.

The book is slow and drags on way too long. I really couldn’t stand the social and societal observations that are constant in this book. Literally this author must hate everyone because no one gets a free pass except for the main character, Saint Ariel.

I will say that the end twist was good, and one that I didnt see completely coming. So 1 bonus star for that.

Special thank you to the Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! This book keep me guessing. I was so impressed with the fine details of this book and the story telling. It was fast paced and such an interesting story that I flew through it. I don't know if this author has other novels, but I will be finding out. The audio version was very well done, and I do feel it helped me enjoy the story even more. I could feel the emotion through the narrator and that makes a huge impact on me. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a fascinating story.

Starts fast, lulls a little, winds up tight, springs to a sharp, smart, and cunning finish.
She wakes in a foreign country, realizes her husband is missing, and the race begins. There’s a deep seated motive underlying Ariel’s actions that she is carefully constructing a new life to put an old life behind her.
There is a plot hidden in here, only revealed later by layer to get to the truth, to the socially relevant core.
This is the first novel I’ve read by Chris Pavone, but won’t be the last.
Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillian Audio, and the author for an advanced listening copy. This review is my own opinion. Audio version narrated by January Lavoie was well performed.

Ok MAJOR trigger warning for rape/sexual assault that I didn't know about before listening to this.

Wow. Where to even begin with this one. I don't enjoy giving negative reviews because obviously someone worked really hard to put a piece of fiction out into the world. But this one just really was...not good. The main character was insufferable, always going on long, rambling judgey observations about everything from social media to politics any beyond. So much so that I very quickly decided I did not care to know what happened to her or her husband for that matter. But as I continued listening, the direction of the story felt super predictable and there wasn't too much that shocked me.

Beyond that, my main issue with this book is that a major plot point is rape/sexual assault and the author does not handle those subjects with the care they deserve. As I listened to a few of the situations described in this book, something felt SO off to me. And it's my own fault for not looking into the author before starting this, but when I found out this book was written by a white man in his mid-50s, it all made sense. No offense to white men in their mid-50s...just...if you're gonna write something like this maybe spend some extra time asking a few women around you if the female characters you're writing seem real? Or if the scenarios you're conjuring up make sense?

Spoilers ahead, but for example, Ariel recounts a bad experience with a repairman who comes to her house and makes her feel unsafe, and it's just absolutely wild to me how this situation goes down. Every woman I know has a plan for what to do when someone shows up when you're home alone. We're pretty prepared for moments like this. Or, let's talk about the part where she's so wrapped up in how attractive she is that she's constantly mindful of how her attractiveness somehow makes every man around her want to assault her? So she goes out and intentionally makes herself "less attractive"? It is a classic case of a man writing a woman so so SO poorly. Which is a shame, because the concept of this book had promise.


One positive note, the narrator is amazing and I'd listen to her read anything!
Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

I am glad that I started listening to this audible version while sick. There was nothing to pull me away from listening to it. Great plot and pacing. This book relies on the reader not guessing what is going to happen next so I will not give away any details. There are several twists involved. I did guess most of them in advance but that DOESNT mean this book is boringly predictable. This is not the authors first book. I am now going to seek out his others. Thanks to NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

This one kept me intrigued and with an audiobook this long that is something. When I thought I had it figured out it twisted around on me at the end! Ariel and her husband John are in Lisbon for her husband's work when she wakes up in the morning and her husband is missing. She is immediately concerned and first goes to security at the hotel and then the police and then the Embassy. No one will take her seriously. Soon she is being followed by the local police and the CIA from the Embassy and when a motorcyclist hands her a phone and she receives a ransom demand for 3 million euros now they have to take her serious. Right? Well, you would think. She contacts her ex-husband but it is a holiday weekend, the 4th of July, and he cannot get that kind of money but they both know who can. She goes to the one person who she never wanted to talk to again. The man who raped and assaulted her 14 years ago and has everything to lose now if that story comes out. She signed an NDA at that time and she has not talked since but she will blackmail him now for help. What would you do for revenge? That is the question...

How well do you really know your spouse? This compelling, entertaining mystery thriller spins a tale centered around secrets held, dangerous deceptions, and covered up key life events, all circling around a disappeared or potentially kidnapped traveler.

Ariel, a newlywed, accompanies her new, younger husband John to Lisbon on his work trip, and one morning he totally disappears. No note, and cell phone and other key docs left in the hotel room. No witnesses to what happened as John left the hotel. But local Portugal police view as well as the CIA view Ariel’s concerns as premature and unfounded.

Turns out that both Ariel and John have past life events that they’re not revealed to each other.
Next up: a $2 million ransom demand ultimately leads investigators to the bank account of the U.S. treasury secretary, whose past makes himself vulnerable to blackmail.

All this leads up to a surprising, totally worthy final reveal.

January LaVoy, as the audio narrator, delivers a compelling read that draws and keeps you in!

Thanks for Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an advanced listen.

the synopsis was far more exciting than the execution. the mystery dragged throughout the book and i was frustrated with what felt like a forced politicization of the plot.

Two Nights in Lisbon primarily tells the story of Ariel, a woman visiting Lisbon, Portugal, who wakes up on her first morning in the city to discover that her husband is missing. He has disappeared before she woke up, and is no where to be found. She immediately contacts the police, who really do almost nothing to address her fears, since he has really only been missing a few hours. Despite it being unusual for him, they don't have the same alarmist attitude that she does. She also goes to the US Embassy, and also gets the runaround. As this story evolves, it becomes something much bigger than Ariel (or her husband) expected, and it turns into something much different than the reader also expects.

As stated above, this book was incredibly different than what I thought it was going to be. This story is told from mostly Ariel's point of view, with some sections or chapters told from the POV of law enforcement. This story is told in a series of flashbacks (as well as present day) that go back and forth very quickly. At times, I found this very difficult to follow. The actual story of John's kidnapping appears to be the least of the story, as the layers of Ariel's life peel back and her past is exposed. The story turned out to be a very different one than I expected, and I didn't enjoy this "back and forth" of the dialogue and the time line as much as I could have. The jumps were so sudden, that at times it was difficult to follow who the story was talking about in that moment. While this story had a lot of potential, I thought there was just too much complicated back story and and extremely complicated revenge plot that was difficult to follow. Also, HUGE trigger warnings should be put on this book due to multiple scenes and discussions of sexual assault. I'm not a big "trigger warning" kind of person, but I definitely think that this book would warrant that for continual mention of it throughout the book.

I enjoyed the narration and could easily listen to the narrator's voice. My issue was with how the book was written and how it translated into the audiobook. There was a lot of back and forth in the time lines, like I mentioned above. I felt like this became very confusing when I was listening to it. It would jump from one time line to another without warning. This may have been more obvious in the print book, but the audiobook made it impossible to tell when dialogue was being shifted back and forth. I always felt like I was playing "catch up" and trying to figure out who was doing the talking or who the book was talking about at any given moment.

Thank you to the Author, Narrator, publisher and Net Galley for an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This title and cover called my name!! A missing husband in a foreign country, what would you do?

Ariel wakes up one morning to find her husband gone from the hotel room and he's not answering his phone. We then follow her as she goes about the process of asking the hotel desk, alerting the authorities, and goes to the U.S. embassy etc to figure out what to do! Meanwhile, those she has asked for help start asking personal questions and details about her and her new husbands lives, making Ariel hesitant in their interest.

The book is told in a time form with each chapter alerting us to the day and time as we follow the procession of Ariel and others. It's quick and slow in the sense that a lot happens yet it's slow in solving the mystery amongst the many secrets of our players.

This will be a fun one to read this summer on vacation!

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advance audiobook.

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

I really liked this one! It has so many of the things I like in a book: mystery, constant unanswered questions, characters I am not sure if I trust, the ticking down of limited time, and a European setting. I also liked the addition of the other perspectives and getting to see how the federal agencies and local police were thinking and what they were doing behind the scenes. It also touched on some important issues and dealt with it well. I think there were enough hints as to what framework was being laid throughout the story, but that didn't make that piece of the puzzle less satisfying. It made it feel genuine and not like it came out of nowhere. My only critique is that I am not crazy about the cover. I feel like it makes the book look dated. It doesn't look like it fits on the shelf with the modern mystery/thrillers gracing the best seller lists. It is also a long book, which might discourage some, but it didn't ever feel long or make me feel like I wanted it to hurry up and end. I feel like it all came together satisfactorily at the end and was a really enjoyable read. I recommend this one, especially if you know your reading taste is similar to mine and you enjoy the mystery/suspense genre.

Thank you to MacMillan audio and Netgalley for providing me with this title!

Thank you Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy of this audiobook!

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

CW: sexual assault

TWO NIGHTS IN LISBON tells the story of Ariel Price's attempts to find her missing husband, after she wakes up to find him gone from their hotel room. Between hotel security, the Lisbon police, US Embassy and the CIA, no one can seem to figure out just how, and WHY, John Wright disappeared. Ariel, however, is not so quick to give up and finds herself on a twisting, disconcerting journey to figure out what truly happened to her husband. When the kidnappers call demanding ransom, another dangerous player is added to the mix, leaving Ariel to decide just how far she's willing to go under pressure to get her husband back.

This was truly a wild ride. There are so many characters in this book that, on audio, it felt confusing to keep track of who was talking and what their background was. The timeline jumped around from past to present without much indication which was, again, confusing on audio. Ariel's story was a very tangled web-- there was a lot of information and a lot of detail included (maybe too much), which made for a very chaotic story. Overall, this was riveting thriller with a creative plot, I just felt it could have been condensed and made a little bit more clear. Maybe try this one as a physical or e-book instead of the audio, to better follow along the journey.

I want to thank Netgalley for this audiobook to review but I have to say I hated it so much about this book. Why does everyone want to rape and abuse this lady? Does this mail author think that is the only plot device he can use with a woman? Does she have “rape me” written on her forehead?

Also, it is either a huge editing error or unclear writing that “Ariel” isn’t reliable because in the past memories she dives to over and over again ppl are calling her Ariel when she hasn’t changed her name yet.

From the beginning none of these characters were enjoyable and by the end, I still didn’t care what happened to them. Not a single one. Not even the son George. This book should have been fast-paced I mean it’s two days, right? It takes forever and I can’t tell one character from another nor one agency from another.

This is a huge mess and not worthy of January’s narration.

Whew. This was an excellent thriller/mystery that I really enjoyed trying to solve along the way. I also really liked the descriptions of Lisbon and the adventures of the protagonist throughout the city. I felt Ariel/Laurel was such an interesting, smart and unafraid female protagonist, I was actually quite shocked she was so well written by a male author. I definitely appreciated the contemporary discussions and unrelenting descriptions of the violence and abuse men wreak on women all the time--it was refreshing to find such intense allyship in a female protagonist written by a man. That said, there were times when I felt the raw and unflinching, highly detailed descriptions of sexual assault and its aftermath were traumatizing or a female listener/reader and may have been written more sensitively by a woman? At the same time, sexual assault and it's aftermath is a horrifying, nauseating act that SHOULD be documented this way and understood by men who claim to be allies so in that sense, I am glad it's out there. Just putting an extreme trigger warning on this book is a good idea. Really enjoyed the well written, fully formed characters and would definitely read more from this author.

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

READ IF YOU LIKE:
▫️ Fast-paced political thrillers
▫️ Dual timelines
▫️ International settings

INITIAL THOUGHTS:
This one immediately hooked me from the beginning. 👀 Your spouse vanishes in a foreign country without a trace?! Yep, I’m in for this ride!! ✈️ It really was impossible to put this one down once I started! This story will take you on an adventure that I’m pretty sure you don’t want to be on 😦

MY MINI SYNOPSIS:
After recently getting married, Ariel and her husband, John, go to Lisbon together on one of his business trips. Their pretend vaca is quickly destroyed after Ariel wakes up the next day and her husband is gone. There are absolutely zero clues that point to where he is. Ariel is willing to go to ALL lengths to find him… yet, she soon realizes that she may not have truly known her husband at all.

RATING EXPLAINED:
This book was GREAT but I was able to guess the ending… I look for unpredictable twists and gasp-worthy endings in thrillers, that’s what kept it from 5 stars. Also, this book is lengthy at 448 pages so keep that in mind 😊 Overall, it hooked me from start to finish!!

🚨Heavy trigger warning in this book! Message me if needed🚨

Thank you @fsgbooks, @netgalley, and @macmillanaudio for the #gifted ARCs!