A psychological thriller by author Miranda Smith.

Single mother Emma is a school teacher and on a school trip to the local farm along with her daughter when one of the children goes missing. Emma leaves her daughter Claire with another teacher so that she can join the search for the missing child.

Emma searches the fields and playgrounds and is relieved when Katy, the missing child is located in the corn maze. She returns to the rest of the group but her relief is suddenly turned to fear when she realises her own daughter Claire is now missing. Fearing someone has taken her another search begins without success. The police are called and the inquest begins. Who has taken her and is it someone Emma knows?

This is a fast paced novel, full of suspense and a definite page turner. Lots of suspects and twists that will keep you guessing throughout.

I would like to thank both Netgalley and Bookouture for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

When Emma’s daughter, Claire, goes missing on a school trip, it becomes a race against time to get her back. Who could have taken her, and why? Will Emma ever see Claire again?
This brilliantly written thriller had me gripped from page one. I read it in one sitting - just couldn’t put it down! Great suspense with fast paced action - a very compelling read.

Title: The School Trip
Author: Miranda Smith
Publisher: Bookouture
Pub Date: 4.13.23
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

📚Synopsis:
✨Emma is a kindergarten teacher who became a single mother and widower two years ago when her husband died in a car crash. It was a rainy night when the police officer arrived at the home of Emma and her then four year old daughter Claire to tell them of the collision on a backroad near their home. With the help of Emma’s coworkers, she has tried picking up the pieces of her life but constantly feels she’s shortchanging her daughter as her attention is divided between Claire and her students.
✨An upcoming kindergarten field trip seems like the perfect time for Emma and Claire to bond and spend time together; Claire is now 6 and Emma will be in attendance as one of the teachers. Once Emma, Claire, and her coworkers arrive at the pumpkin patch, it quickly becomes obvious Emma’s attention will be pulled in dozens of directions as she gives parents directions, organizes students into groups, assigns the other teachers to those groups, and communicates the lunch plans to the new classroom assistants. Next thing Emma knows, a student has gone missing.
✨Suddenly, Emma questions the coworkers who helped get her through her tragedy. Does she really know them as well as she thought she did? Lost in her own grief, has she taken the time to know who they associate with outside of work? Someone else has experienced grief and believes Emma deserves a lesson in gratitude.

✨Thoughts/recommendations:
As a teacher, I hugely appreciated how accurately the stress and anxiety of a field trip was portrayed. That pulled me in immediately due to the realness and relatability factor. After being pulled in, the action and suspense was nonstop and I stayed up past my bedtime to keep reading! If you enjoy quick domestic thrillers, I would definitely recommend this book! This is the first book I’ve read by Miranda Smith but it won’t be my last!

📚I would like to thank NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read this ahead of its publication date in return for my honest review.

This book had me absolutely HOOKED from the start! The writing style of Miranda Smith is nothing short of entertaining with a talent for story-telling and great use of dialogue.

This book revolved around a missing child on a school field trip to a local farm. The main character, Emma, is a teacher on the trip along with her daughter, Claire, who is in one of the other classes also on the trip. On the trip, a child goes missing and with teachers, staff, and police searching the grounds, all parent chaperones were not able to leave the premises until the girl was found. After a period of time, the girl is found and Emma is relieved. In the meantime, she had trusted her friend and fellow teacher to keep an eye on her daughter. Upon returning to the rest of the group, Emma soon realizes Claire is missing. The story only intensifies as it goes on.

I thought I had the ending figured out early on, turned out I was wrong! This was my first book from this author and certainly will not be my last. This book took me on a wild ride through loss, grief, betrayal and mystery. One of the best books of 2023!

WOW!, just wow! This had so many twists and turns. People not who you think they are!
This was really good. I highly recommend it.
Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced copy, these are my own opinions.

As usual, thankyou to netgalley for letting me read this book before release.

I will be honest, I felt the beginning dragged a bit too much. I love when a story doesn't dilly dally and just jumps right in, unfortunately that wasn't the case with this one.

Once the story kicks in it is actually quite gripping and you want to find out what's happening. It seems such bad luck for 2 girls to go missing the same day!

Overall, this wasn't quite the book for me, but I enjoyed reading it as a one off. For anyone who likes these kind of books then it's defo one for you. The author has a great writing style and can draw you in to the story

The School Trip was my first book by Miranda Smith and it won’t be my last! While it wasn’t quite something I could sink my teeth into, it was a quick, entertaining, enjoyable read. Most of the book took place in one setting, so there weren’t many facets to the story, but it wasn’t overly predictable and it kept me guessing. Overall, I did enjoy this book. I just wish there was little more going on, as I think it was almost too quick of a read. Thank you so much to Bookouture and NetGalley for providing me with an Advanced Copy in exchange for my honest review!

Emma is a experiencing every parents worst nightmare. She is a teacher on a school field trip when her daughter, Claire, gets kidnapped. The pain that Emma experiences is so well written and grips you as you long for her to find her child.

Emma trusted the people that she worked with. Unfortunately, one of them is a liar and has changed his name to get close to Emma and has had a plan in place to take Claire away.

It is really creepy to think that someone can get that close to you and plot and plan to destroy your life. I liked how all the pieces are slowly revealed one at a time until you can put the whole puzzle together and figure out the who and the why. It is crazy to think that no one from the past came forward to warn of what a control freak this person was and how he pushed and controlled Christine.

This is one of those books you will read and it will make you watch your child more closely to ensure this never happens to you.

This is one fast paced, engaging thriller you don't want to miss.

Thank you Net Galley and Bookouture for this e-book. I really enjoyed it and will be looking for more by this author.

In summary: I started this book late last night and before I knew it, I was 200 pages in well past midnight and had to FORCE myself to go to bed when all I wanted to do was finish it.

If you're in search of an absolutely unputdownable thriller, pick this one up.

The book starts from the POV of "someone". We don't know name, age, gender, anything, but we know they're troubled and they have a plan to take "the girl". So basically, by page one, you're sucked in.

We go on to meet Emma, a school teacher and single mother, taking her students (including her daughter) on a field trip. Within those first few chapters, you really grow to like Emma & her coworkers. There's not an overbearing amount of detail about them, but it's enough to want to see where the day takes them.

The day takes a turn when one child goes missing, and as a the reader, you are immediately put in panic mode. Unfortunately, that is only the start of the horrible day to come.

This novel was incredible, and not just in terms of suspense (where it was INSANE). But there's so much to be said in here about grief and the domino effect loss can create.

Make sure you have a few hours in your schedule clear before you start this one. Can't remember the last time I binged a book like this one. I will absolutely be reading more from Miranda Smith!

Thank you to NetGalley & Bookouture for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This 8s just the perfect quick wee thriller/ mystery! Its not too deep and its one of those books you need to just take it for what it is and not ask too many questions or dig too deep lol. The main character wasn't my favourite, the attitude and ego were a bit much. The story certainly had plenty twists and turns in a high stakes story filled with secrets and lies. It no the most realistic, I feel the police investigation wouldn't have gone quite the way its portrayed in the book but hey, its fiction so it doesn't have to be realistic. As I said, it is a really good book as long as you just take it for what it is and don't question it lol

Emma is an elementary school teacher. She and her daughter are on a field trip to a local pumpkin patch with the rest of her students. One of them goes missing and the search is on. Thankfully that student is recovered safely on the property. In the chaos that ensues, another child goes missing. Emma's daughter, Claire.

This was a gripping, captivating thriller that had no shortage of high-stakes suspense. There were so many shocking revelations and twists that turned this case on its head.

Emma slowly became a woman I didn't much like. At first, she was a respectable mother and teacher who'd suffered heartache. But her backward choices altered my view of her. Who worries more about money than their kid? Who puts old family drama before their missing child? Who watches a talk show while their child's life is ticking by? It drove me absolutely bonkers! The detective in charge of the case was almost as frustrating.

There were some great red herrings at play with the rest of the cast. I kept guessing and second guessing. I couldn't bout this down. I had to know what had happened.

I enjoyed this book , connected well with the characters, I have to give my truthful opinion.I thought this book was going to be a book I say wow but something was just missing ,great start and middle just flopped a bit for me and I felt the ending was very rushed.
I did not hate it I enjoyed but just never loved it .

The School Trip was so good. It’s a page turner for sure. I was drawn to the characters and what they did when a child goes missing on a school trip.

well this book has me hooked from start to finish, i binge read it in just over a day it was that good!
so many twists and turns, i has theories as soon as i started it but didn’t see what was coming! a must read and i will be looking for other books now by this author

A teachers worst fear, a missing child. To make matters even worse the missing child is the teachers! Emma’s world is turned upside down when her daughter goes missing on the school field trip she is currently working.

A riveting thriller that navigates the fear of a parent with a missing child. This book had many twists and turns. Just when I thought I had the plot twist figured out something else would happen, this book made me audibly say “WHAT” while I was alone reading it.

This was my first time reading a book by Miranda Smith but it will not be my last!

I mostly enjoyed The School Trip, a new psych thriller by Miranda Smith. It was well-plotted and had just enough to keep the “mystery” going through the entire story.

It’s interesting, however, that the title is more referring to the catalyst for the story rather than the action throughout. That’s not a complaint, just an observation.

The title event is the perfect foil for all kinds of things to go wrong. Anyone who has ever been on a school trip as a parent or chaperone knows that kids must be watched at all times. As a former elementary school teacher, I can confirm that the other fears teachers have are accurately portrayed in this book.

Emma is an interesting character. I get why she is written the way she is, and how that affected her perspective when her world went sideways. But sometimes it didn’t exactly jibe with her attitude toward teaching.

It felt like that got preachy a few times. I mean, yes, teachers care about their kids and live in fear that something will happen to a student while under their watch. But there were times in the book when Emma got more preachy about how wonderful teachers are while seemingly ignoring her own situation.

Maybe it was her way of trying to cope? I don’t know.

I suppose it was consistent with her “going it alone” after her husband’s death.

I think that twist came almost too late in the book. I was taken down another path and then the revelations were thrown in. It took me in a completely different direction. I guess that is where the psych in psych thriller comes from?

And once that revelation happens, everything seems to come together very quickly. Emma is on the case and figures everything out. Which leads me to why I said I “mostly enjoyed” the book.

I felt like the author had a low opinion of the police. They were portrayed as inept and unwilling to listen to an emotional mother. But instead of elaborating on why the police couldn’t, the author made Emma the super-detective, putting all the pieces together and going rogue.

Kind of unfair to blame the police for not putting things together when they didn’t have the same information that Emma did. Maybe that’s being personally nitpicky.

At any rate, The School Trip did have me turning pages to see how everything worked out. And I will certainly look for the next psych thriller from Miranda Smith.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read "The School Trip" in exchange for my honest review.

Once again Miranda Smith has written a fantastic book that was impossible to put down and I read it in one sitting because I just had to know the ending. The story is told in two perspectives - Emma Howard (a kindergarten teacher at North Ridge Elementary) and an unknown narrator who adds the suspense to the story.

The story is started by the unknown narrator who "talks" about wanting to take a child. At several points in the story the narrator continues to tell the reader his/her plans. The reader is also privy to what the unknown narrator is doing while other events are going on in the story. The kindergarten classes from the school go on a field trip to McCallister's Pumpkin Patch. Emma's 6 year old daughter Claire is on the trip as well as she is in kindergarten but in a different class than the one her mother teaches. On this trip however Emma has promised to spend a lot of time with Claire but she also has her duties as a teacher to consider. So when a child goes missing, Emma leaves Claire with a colleague and goes to help in the search.

Emma is dealing with the grief of losing her husband in a car accident and she has pretty much been using her grief as a shield to keep everyone - friends and family away from her and Claire. She has totally distanced herself from her brother-in-law and his wife and refuses to ask anyone for help. This lone wolf attitude of hers puts Claire at even greater danger when she is snatched on the field trip. She can't follow instructions, she tips off possible suspects, her constant "telling" the police how to do their jobs and impeding their investigation with her "help".

The reader will find Emma to be an irritated person most of the time. She didn't like to listen to her husband speaking because she was always impatient and rushed. She makes a huge fuss over the hair ribbon that Claire wants to wear on the field trip. At times she seems selfish and did that cost her, her husband?

There are many twists and turns in the story as we learn who took Claire and more importantly why. Many of the twists occur because of Emma's "help". This is an absolutely fantastic book that I have been highly recommending to my reader friends.

I really enjoyed this domestic thriller by Miranda Smith. So many secrets, lies and obsessions. Tension, twists and great reveals. I loved the characters too. So easy to get hooked at the beginning and not released until the final page.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book

I really enjoyed The School Trip and found I couldn’t put it down. It’s every parents worst nightmare when a child goes missing but for it to happen on a school trip is even worse especially when one child is found, it appears another one is now missing. I felt the plot flowed at a good pace and kept me riveted throughout. Although I did predict the outcome fairly early on, this did not detract from my enjoyment of the book. Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and the author for the chance to review.

What a terrifying concept but makes for a great story! I don't have kids but I imagine if you do, this may be triggering and a true nightmare come to life. This was a shorter read and I was able to fly through this in one sitting. It was suspenseful and thrilling!