This book kept my interest but the ending left me flat. The story is improbable. Myles caused so much angst and terrible problems for his family which led me to totally dislike him. Many successful fathers spend a lot of time away from home and their kids do not turn to drugs. Let’s blame the fathers who work long and hard hours, why don’t we? Enter Sonia, out of the blue, and a relationship ensues between she and Myles in a second? The FBI members were disconcerting in their handling of the situation albeit, perhaps not so far fetched. Thank you NetGalley and Oceanview Publishing for sending this book for review consideration,. All opinions are my own. #Saving Myles, #NetGalley.

Saving Myles is an enjoyable tale about marriage, drugs, corruption, and crime. Fiona and Wade have a son,Myles, who is recalcitrant and smokes weed. Rather oddly, they send him off for 13 months to a home where he is to get therapy. yet he comes home after completing the program and goes right back to drugs. Thus he gets kidnapped in Tijuana and his now separated parents must rescue him at great cost. All of the bad guys in this story, primarily Mexicans, are portrayed narrowly as blatant criminals- which, in fairness, the ones in the novel are. But the portrayals are wooden, lacking depth. I would like to have seen that cleaned up.
Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I received an advanced copy of Saving Myles and I am grateful for the chance to read it before it was published. Myles was hooked on drugs so his parents sent him to a rehab in Utah. After his rehab, he ends up in Tijuana and gets kidnapped. The poor parents are frantic and have a plan to get him back. I enjoyed the story and look forward to more books by this author.

This is a unique book as it initially deals with a "camp" to which Myles is sent due to his drug use. Of course parents, Wade and Fiona are devastated but know this may be the only way to save his life. But when he returns a year later and is kidnapped after a foolish trip to Tijuana with a girl, things get dicier than anyone could have imagined! Now we're dealing with a drug cartel, hit men, suspicious deaths, the FBI, and confidential informants.This will never be a normal family again! But the action is enough to keep your head spinning so it's a fast-paced thriller that may keep you up to all hours!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book for my honest review.
Excellent thriller/mystery that kept me interested from beginning to end. Fast paced with a variety of interesting and sometimes frightening characters. Highly recommend.

This was a gut wrenching story! How far would you go to save your child. Wade and Fiona, make the impossible decision to send their only child Myles to rehab in Utah. Their marriage, already verging on collapse, takes another hit. A compelling narrative of the very real struggle of addiction, willful, rebellious teenagers, and who you can trust when your world is on the precipice. Excellent plot and well written.

This is a a great read. The story is plausible and kept me reading right to the end. The book is well edited. The characters are well defined. I cannot say enough about this book. I look, forward to reading more from Carl Vonderau.

This book threw me for quite a few loops. In the beginning Fiona and Wade are struggling with their teenage son's behavior. Myles was caught with drugs and Fiona and Wade felt like they had no other choice but to send him away to help adjust his attitude and recalibrate his behavior. Initially, I thought this was the direction of the book, but shortly after starting, there is a time hop and we learn that Myles is back home. I think the author dropped a few hints about one of the plot twists, which is always nice to start to put together the pieces of a puzzle as a book progresses. I was not a huge fan of Fiona and found myself rooting more for Wade. I personally felt like the relationship between Myles and Sophia seemed forced, I had a really hard time believing it. I also felt like Sophia's entire personality changed in the epilogue, granted she did go through a huge change, I just feel like the anger and lack of love came out of left field. The author did a great job of working the reader up into a frenzy. Wade and Fiona were making a plan to save their family and Myles was just running around (as only an 18 year old could) thinking he knows everything and ruining the entire plan. I found myself huffing and puffing at how dumb he could be in such a serious situation.

Be sure to grab this one, available 8/15/2023!

Myles is a troubled young teenager who gets kidnapped in Mexico when he goes there to buy drugs. He is held hostage for a large ransom that the kidnappers expect his parents to pay.

This book is full of mystery and suapense and many twists and turns.

Here is a story where parents who have money and want to help their son send him away to a camp in Utah only for him to be kidnapped by the cartel. Now the story has the D.E.A. F.B.I. and a ransom that is more than the money that they have. What will happen? Makes you think as a parent, a fascinating read from beginning to end.

A parent's love can be overwhelming and at times overbearing as well. In this story a 16-year old is doing drugs, being disrespectful, and in general a total pain. His parents are at wits end and they are also having some marital issues only some of which are related to their son.

In concert they decide to send him to a re-education facility in Utah but this requires almost kidnapping him to take him there. It is very expensive and they hock everything to make it work. This created additional issues for their marriage and they separate.

Both parents are professionals - one a high-powered banker and the other a respected nonprofit executive. Then enters the terrible issue as soon as the son, Myles, is released. He immediately falls back into his old ways and with his new girlfriend, he goes to Tijuana and is making a drug buy!! Now the trouble really starts as he is kidnapped. and deals need to be made to free him in whole!

What will the parents do to get him back and who can be their helper in this situation. They make some questionable decisions but what parent would not do this to save their only child (even if they are no living together)?

Cartels, DEA, FBI, Mexican Policia, and others all come into play as attempts are made to get everyone s=to safety -- not always possible and the cartels are vicious and vindictive. Parental love is strong but what has to be sacrificed?

Exciting read and a cautionary tale for anyone thinking of getting involved in illegal acts like this!! Most enjoyable read.

Thank you Net Galley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.
The parents of Myles try to do everything they can to help him stay out of trouble. He just keeps pushing them to the limit that they end up separated. He gets in real trouble when he is kidnapped by the drug cartel and the ransom they have to pay for his release is more than they can afford. This is such a gripping story it has you on the edge of your seat. It gets a little cheesy towards the end or it would have been a 5star. I highly recommend this book.

Saving Myles

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

When Myles, a problematic teen is sent to a "tough love" camp, he runs off to Tijuana to purchase drugs and he is kidnapped by a crime cartel.

Wait until you find out WHY he is kidnapped, and the steps his parents take in an attempt to secure his freedom.

There is a reason for everything in this exciting psychological thriller.

Until next time, your mission, if you chose to accept it, is to read this novel and witness the unpeeling of the layers of deceit as we find out if Myles makes it home alive.

Well developed characters and great descriptions. I could see the places vividly. Informative and frightening. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

The premise of the story was good, but the follow-through just wasn’t there. The character were rather two dimensional, and the plot seemed contrived.

I will be honest, I did not finish the book, I tried several times to get into it, but, it really did not grab me.

Thank you NetGalley and Oceanview Publishing for the copy of Saving Miles. I wanted to like this book, but the writing never engaged me and the story, while improbable, was still predictable in parts. Near the end there were some really good, engaging parts, but not enough for me to love this book.
If there had been more background about the characters and their relationships it would have made more sense why Fiona was living with another man so soon after Myles was sent to rehab, and why she was able to kick that boyfriend to the curb so quickly with no discussion. What was Wade and Fiona’s relationship before the rehab incident? What was Myles’s childhood like and what led up to everything changing? It was hard to care about the characters when I didn't really know anything about them.

Saving Myles was a great crime thriller that kept me engaged and entertained. This story has just the right amount of little details that paint a wonderful scene in the reader's mind. I found myself hooked to the flow of the story and the pace felt right for this one! If you're in the mood for a thrilling ride, I highly recommend Saving Myles.

How far will parents go to save a belligerent, drug-addicted teenager from himself? As far as it takes, according to Wade and Fiona, parents of Myles, their uncontrollable son. When the decision is made to send Myles away to an expensive rehab facility in Utah, Wade and Fiona lose everything. Their child now hates them, the solid financial base Wade built for his family is gone, and their marriage is over.

Wade and Fiona believed they were doing the right thing by sending Myles to rehab, no matter the cost to them, as long as Myles recovered.

Sixteen months later, Myles—now eighteen and living with Fiona in La Jolla—has fallen back into his old ways. After lying to his mother that he’s going camping with friends, Myles takes her car, picks up his wild-child girlfriend and heads across the border into Mexico, where he’s kidnapped while making a drug deal.

Once again, Wade and Fiona are at a loss as to how they can save Myles. With no personal financial resources to negotiate any sort of ransom, Wade’s only recourse is to rely solely on his excellent financial skills to obtain the release of his son.

“Saving Myles” is a well-crafted novel about every parent’s nightmare and the consequences of living with a drug-addicted child. This intense, page-turner mystery is more frightening than any horror story, as it will cut through the heart of any parent living with a teenager. “Saving Myles” will leave every reader wondering exactly how far they would go to save their own child.

Thank you to Oceanview Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of “Saving Myles.”

Carl Bond era's second novel shows a promising career ahead for him. Though I didn't really connect with the characters, the overlying premise --- the lengths parents will go through to save their children --- was unique and kept me interested to the end. Looking forward to his next novel.