This book was told in alternating viewpoints which really works well for the style of writing. It was hard for me to become invested in the characters and I really needed to see more darkness from the villain role. There were a few things that really did not work for me. There is no relationship or interaction really with the parents, however the father believed that his child would be taken and kept from him if they ended their relationship., The father had to have been drugged when he was seeing the other woman because the book really alludes to a type of madness in the other woman, however does not really define what is happening between the two. I think that there were just too many loose pieces and the i's were not dotted. The overall premise was nothing new, so I wanted to see this one set itself apart. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley,

This was a very entertaining book. I was definitely surprised by the turn of events. Once the story got moving I was hooked. I didn't predict the "villain" which made this much more exciting for me to read. I loved the relationship between the mother and child. This was a heart stopping thriller for as a mother.

Fast paced and well written, this is a good thriller! The characters are flawed but that just draws you in more!

Karen will do anything for her eight year old daughter, Scarlett. Even holding on to a marriage that is way past broken. So when Scarlett disappears from their rural home, Karen is one hundred percent focused on a single goal - finding her little girl as soon as possible. And time is of the essence. Because Scarlett is profoundly deaf and would live in utter silence if it wasn't for her high tech hearing aids. Karen knows that within hours their batteries will run out, leaving her daughter even more isolated and vulnerable.

This is a tense read where the parents of a profoundly deaf little girl search for their daughter. Scarlett had went missing from her home. With secrets and a cracked marriage, this is a gripping read. The characters are all flawed. I didn't see some of the twist and turns coming, and I was never sure what direction it would take next. The pace is fast from the beginning. I was pulled in after reading the prologue. I quite liked it's dramatic ending.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #InkubatorBooks and the author #LorraineMurphy for my ARC of #IntoTheWoods in exchange for an honest review.

Into the Woods a well told story about the disappearance of a little girl and her family's fight to save her. The author covered everything - the dangers of social media, loss of a child, mental illness, marital issues, parent alienation - with compassion and authenticity.

I love how Murphy created characters that are all flawed, but kept us invested in them. I found this book well written and so fast paced I finished it in a day (if you count staying up past midnight as one day ;-)

I can't wait for Murphy to write a new book - I'll be the first in line to buy it!

Thanks to NetGalley, Inkubator Books, and Booksprout for an advance reader's copy.

Title: Into the Woods
Author: Lorraine Murphy
Publisher: Inkubator Books
Genre: Thriller
Pub Date: 08.21.2022

BRIEF SYNOPSIS:

Their world is flipped upside down when Karen and Paddy O'Hara's deaf 8 year-old daughter, Scarlett, goes missing from their home in rural Ireland.

As the frantic search for Scarlett intensifies, it becomes increasingly clear that Scarlett is in serious danger.

The big question: Will they find Scarlett before her cochlear implants lose their charge and she's plunged into complete silence and isolation?

MY THOUGHTS:

This was definitely a compelling and engaging read. Each adult character is highly-flawed but I was totally invested in finding out what happened to Scarlett from the very beginning.

The relationship dynamics were interesting and I appreciated the subtle commentary on the expectations of motherhood, mother and child bonds, and the role social media plays in modern society.

Having lived in the United States my entire life, there were some Irish cultural references and vernacular that I didn't grasp right away, but I don't mind looking things up and expanding my world view via books.

MY RATING:

4/5 Stars

I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy domestic and/or psychological thrillers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Inkubator Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review

MY REVIEW…. 3.5 ⭐️
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PUB DATE: AUG 21, 2022
Title: INTO THE WOODS
Author: LORRAINE MURPHY
Genre: PSYCHOLOGICAL FICTION
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My review: First things first a huge thank you to NetGalley and Inkubator Books for the ADVANCED READER COPY in exchange for an honest review.
Lorraine Murphy can write a story! I’ve never read this author before but I will definitely read another of hers!!
This gripping psychological thriller starts off with a semi neglected child being kidnapped from her home. You are given the points of view of three different people, which I think helps the story evolve and grow legs. To make matters worse, the kidnapped child is also deaf. So, her cochlear implants are about to run out of juice. The whole first half of the book was a little bit slow, and didn’t have much character building, but there was a lot of setting and plot building. In the first half of the book, you really get to see the parents and the mistakes they’ve made prior to the child being kidnapped.
Where the twist was extremely predictable, it was a great twist anyway. And I sorta liked the dramatic ending.
Only rates 3.5 and not 4, because it didn’t pull me in completely and I didn’t fall in love with the characters.
Great read!

Karen is your typical media obsessed women, who thinks she can multitask with a special needs child. Her intentions were to relieve some of the pressure moms face after baby(ies) are born. Little did she know a mentally challenged woman had been making plans of her own. When the unthinkable happens, the tragedy is about to upset more than just Karen. The world dips out from under her husband also. This is a great read for those who like a good psychological thriller.

Karen knots that, within hours, her missing daughter's hearing aids will lose their charge and the eight-year-old will be plunged into terrifying silence. Almost before calling the police, she's streaming live on Facebook, hoping her army of follows can help find Scarlett. This domestic thriller plunged right into the action, making me care about the characters and their fates. Karen's life isn't as perfect as the image she shows to the outside world and as the search progresses, questions arise. I read the book almost straight through and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I will leave a review on Amazon and B&N on Aug 21st

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Karen O'Hara is a blogger and social influencer, whose husband Paddy works a lot. One day while Karen is involved in her blog and setting up things for an upcoming event, their daughter Scarlett goes missing from their home. What follows is an all-out search for the child, and lots of issues that come out into the open. Overall, for me this was an enjoyable read but not a great read. Having said that I would suggest this book to others.

Fast paced. High suspense. A little girl is missing, lost. They're counting seconds on the clock to catch her because soon her cochlea implant batteries will die and she won't be able to hear them searching for her. This is filled with twists. So sinister. Great read.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, from Inkubator Books and #NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to preview and review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

A good read if you like a thriller. Fast-paced, well written and the perfect formula for a thriller.

not my favourite thriller but it was interesting enough for me to finish and I found the story unique and unpredictable

I read this cover to cover in one go.
The twist and turns I didn’t see coming. There were multiple suspects running through my head until the culprit started speaking.
This was so well written. The characters are interesting and deeply flawed. The ending was good. Each main player ended up exactly where they were supposed to be. Im glad Karen didn’t acquiesce to Paddy.
I received a copy via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Brilliant from start to finish. Karen is trying hard to be a good mother to Scarlett and a good wife to her husband Paddy. She thinks Paddy is having an affair which he denies. Someone is watching them and wants their daughter and will stop at nothing to get what she wants.
This will keep you wanting to read on. I highly recommend it.

A very fast paced psychological thriller that gets you enthralled from the beginning and keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout, very well written.

Couldn't find this one on Goodreads, sooo. Yeah. At first I found this book unlikable but only kept reading for the little girl. I needed to know her fate. Once I realized what was wrong with the motber, Karen of all people ...not did this hit home.

Excellent book. Well written. Terribly traumatic but worth the read.

Triggers: abuse, neglect, pregnancy loss, loss of baby, kidnapping, blood, gore, post partum psychosis. Mental health of all sorts & suicide.

Into the Woods by Lorraine Murphy drops readers into the frantic search for Paddy and Karen O’Hara’s eight-year-old deaf daughter Scarlett who disappears from the family home while her father is away on a trip for work and her mother is organizing a conference on a zoom call. Told through alternating first-person perspectives that share the personal feelings and motivations of key characters, this novel is a tense, addictive mystery that unfolds quickly on the page. I couldn’t stop reading!

Beneath the plot is a meaningful exploration of the complexities of marriage and motherhood along with a searing commentary on the dangers and benefits of social media. Paddy and Karen’s relationship has always been fraught with difficulties, and both Paddy’s extramarital affairs and Karen’s struggles with postpartum depression and the demands of raising a special needs child come under scrutiny during the police investigation. Secondary characters round out the novel’s contemplation of adultery, mental illness, and motherhood as readers’ wait with bated breath for a resolution to the tragedy.

The contemporary story is artfully framed by fairy tale references; Karen must learn to read hidden clues dropped like breadcrumbs and Scarlett must learn to play the role of the trickster to escape. Into the Woods is about all the things we fail to see and hear until we risk losing everything we love. You won’t be able to put it down!

Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

A different outlook on the story of a little girl goes missing. This time the girl is deaf. Scarlett her mother has one goal and that is to get her daughter back safe and time is running out. This book has everything a broken marriage, secrets, adultery and so much more. As Scarlett learns more she realises that she needs to start looking closer to home. This is a belter of a thriller which I devoured in one sitting and finally turned the last page in the wee hours. Clever,original and so much more. A very entertaining and heart pounding read.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for giving an honest review.

Karen and Paddy seem to be a typical family with a daughter they named Scarlett.
Karen was pregnant with twins, and only Scarlett survived. Karen went into early labor due to being in a car accident. Only one twin survived and Scarlett is deaf as a result of her premature birth. She has cochlear implants that enable her to hear as long as they stay charged.

Karen was a very successful businesswoman, but due to postpartum depression and a huge mistake, she gave up her job and became a stay at home Mother. There is a lot of tension between Paddy and Karen, and she is sure her husband is having an affair.

Now working from home, one afternoon, she sets Scarlett up to play while she is on a conference call, an hour and a half later Paddy returns home and finds that Scarlett has disappeared.

The race is on to find her as the batteries in Scarlett’s implants only last a few hours, and she is terrified of the silence. As the search for Scarlett intensifies, shocking secrets are revealed and Karen realizes she may have to look for answers closer to home. When the reason for Scarlett’s abduction finally becomes clear, Karen finds she is living her own worst nightmare… her daughter is in deadly danger and time is running out.

This story is fast moving, engaging and thrilling. There are elements of suspense, intrigue, action, and a few crazy twists. The storyline is quite compelling and kept me turning pages long into the evening.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.