Thank you to Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS Fire, Sourcebooks Fire for gifting this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was so intense and kept me on my feet. The climax of the book was so suspenseful and totally shocked me. I didn't see it coming. I loved the dual POV between Mary and Drew. I think seeing Drew's POV made the story and gave us the back story we needed.

Definitely recommended to those who like suspense and thrillers.

I have to say, thrillers are not my go-to when it comes to book. But I was given an opportunity with this acr and so I thought, lets do this!
I COULD NOT PUT THIS BOOK DOWN!! Literally finished it in one sitting, frantically turning each page to see how the story was going to unfold. I felt like I ran a marathon when I finished, runner's high and all.

I absolutely loved this book. It was really well written and it was also surprising. Thank you for the arc. I really appreciate it.

This was a great thriller. Definitely worth the read. Thank you so much for letting me read this. Definitely a 5 star

That's Not My Name REALLY delivered on the tension! I was absolutely pleasantly surprised, going into it knowing nothing about it. The reader quickly figures out the gist, and I was on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what would happen to our main character.

The story alternates between the POV of "Mary", the main character, and Drew. I wasn't as invested in Drew's chapters, but I appreciated the contrast to the tense anticipation of Mary's chapters.

The epilogue packed an unexpected emotional touch that really brought this read home. I don't always love YA thrillers but this one was a great debut! I'm looking forward to more by this author.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

lesson learnt: put all your social medias on private and never do anything alone at night (that’s a given.)

first of all, this has been the only book (to my own recollection) that has made me feel a sense of dread through every chapter and sentence, i knew something was wrong from the start (obviously from the description of the book) but the writing did a really good job in strengthening the sense of foreboding, bonus points for that!

i’ll make my review as short as possible to avoid spoilers but the way more details of the missing person case got revealed the more on edge as i was, same goes to when mary slowly regains her memory and uncovers more of her new life. the last few chapters took a really really different turn, it literally had my jaw dropping, had me dropping my tablet and staring into the void for a few good seconds.

conclusion: read it!! and go into it blind :P

A serial killers obsession with finding his "daughter" leads to a string of missing teenage girls.

Wayne Boone finds his "daughter" at a police station after she is found wondering on a road. Wayne proves that the girl is his "daughter" with documentation since she has no memory of who she is. Wayne's demeanor changes as the girl known as Mary begins to recall her past and discovers he has been lying to her. She discovers that her loving father is not who he claims to be.

Drew is convinced that his ex-girlfriend, Lola, is in danger when she disappears from town without a trace. Drew is blamed for her disappearance by the local police and townspeople. Drew, his cousin, and Autumn find a break in the case which leads to a race against time to find Lola before its' too late.

Megan Lally well written novel is a page turner with its plot and characters. Wayne seems like a caring father who is concerned about his "daughter", Mary, who is found wondering the road. Wayne shows his darker side when Mary begins to disappoint him. Drew's belief that Lola is alive gives readers hope that the will come home. I highly recommend this book. It is a great read for its plot that makes readers wonder if Mary and Lola are the same person.

I just finished That’s not my Name by Megan Lally @Megan_Lally and here are my thoughts.

When a teenager wakes on the side of a dirt road covered in bruises and blood and no memory of how she got there… she is relieved when a police officer finds her and takes her to the police station.

Realizing she has no memory, the police officer asks her question after waiting, frustrating the girl no end then boom… in comes a frantic man. He’s been searching for his teenage daughter for hours.
He has her ID, birth certificate, even photos of them together on his phone. Case closed. He says her name is Mary but it doesn’t sound right to her ears…


Drew is in deep trouble. His girlfriend Lola went missing and is presumed dead. He was the last person to see her and the whole town knows it was him. He doesn’t believe she is dead and he has to prove his innocence. She’s in danger and he has to find her before it’s too late.

This was one twisty turning book. I was gripped from start to finish! The book is written from two POVs, Drew’s and his mission to find Lola and Mary’s trying to regain her memory. It’s a lot. This book has so much going and it’s a real page turner. It’s dark… it’s intense and it delivered everything I was looking for.

I actually loved all the characters. They all meshed well together and I loved the banter between Drew and his friends. Watching Mary’s story unfold was really interesting. She was being told about herself but it really didn’t fit her perception of what she feels about herself, even with no memory.

So well written and I enjoyed everything about it. The ending was totally unexpected and I gasped. A literal gasp came from my mouth. I won’t spoil it for you but dang… this book!

This debut thriller (I still can’t believe it’s a debut!) will have you thirsting for more. This is the thriller to beat all thrillers this year.

5 stars

Thank you @netgalley and @sourcebooks for my gifted copy

#thatsnotmyname #meganlally #thrillerreview #thrillerbook #5starread #bookstagram #bookishcommunity #readersofinstagram #booksofig #bookalorian #bookstagrambaddies #booksbooksbooks #igreads

The pace is active, and I really enjoyed the alternating POVs. There twist was good, as well. I wish the characters had been better developed. For a debut, it was a good effort. There were some inconsistencies, but since this is an advanced copy, that may be fixed in the final version.

Swift, well-crafted YA mystery novel about a girl gone missing - and everyone suspect the boyfriend, while not really investigating the disappearance. Also, there is a girl with amnesia who had been returned to her caring father. Ummm...and yes, these cases are connected, somehow.
I find this an intelligently written sleuth novel, where young Drew with two friends form a formidable troup to follow a clue - with believable logic, condident built-up and well-thought plot. This really could happen the way it is written - which is, in a way, a scary knowledge.
I enjoyed this novel very much, it is refreshing to see such a good plotting!

Small minus - the fact that Drew is from same-sex parent family (two fathers) seems to be added just for the sake of diversity, as it adds nothing to the plot.

This was a great YA thriller. Very quick read and it kept me engaged right from the start. I understand why it has so many glowing reviews!

While this book was twisty and genuinely chilling, there were also light hearted moments. It was a pleasure to read. I look forward to reading Megan Lally's next works. A big thanks to Sourcebooks Fire for the ARC.

★ ★ ★ ★ .5

check TWs

Note: I try my hardest to not include spoilers in my reviews. However, spoilers and how you define a spoiler is subjective. Proceed with caution.

*A special thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for early access to this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.*

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If you’re looking for a quick thriller or aren’t used to reading thrillers, this is a great option for you. You’re constantly immersed in the story, so much so, you don’t realize how fast the book is going. Before I knew it, I was finished. And I had a great time.

I believe this is this author’s debut, and if that’s the case, I’m so impressed. It was an interesting story, but not so complicated that the plot got lost. I thought I knew how the story was going to go, so I didn’t see the plot twist coming— which has all the markings of a good thriller.

I really look forward to reading future works from this author.

This is a fast-paced thriller. The title fits with the ending. It’s very creepy all the way through and the ending is a horror nightmare!

A teen girl awakes, cold and shivering in a ditch at the side of the road. She has no memory of how she got there, no memory of her name, or who she is. After a police officer finds her and takes her back to the station, her father arrives, so glad to have found his daughter safe. At least, she thinks it's her father, he has pictures of her, he has her old school ID and her birth certificate, he says her name is Mary. She wouldn't know if he wasn't her father...she can't remember anything.
Meanwhile, Drew has become prime suspect number one in his hometown. After Lola left his car in anger five weeks prior, she disappeared, and now the town would rather believe that Drew murdered her than keep looking for her. Drew needs to find her, not just to prove to the people who have watched him grow up, and that he's grown up with, that he's not a cold-blooded killer, but because the longer Lola is missing, the less likely they are to find her at all. The longer it takes to find her, the more danger they both face.

This story is told through alternating POVs between Drew and Mary. It opens with and unknown teenage girl waking up in a ditch, that's when we first meet Mary. The feeling of suffocation and isolation was so prevalent with Mary's character, throughout the entire story to be honest. The thought of waking up not knowing who you are, where you are, what's happened or where you've come from instils a different sense of fear and dread than one I've previously experienced before in other books. The not knowing anything about yourself, and how dangerous that can actually be is, quite frankly, terrifying. This point is illustrated on a couple of different occasions that Mary herself even mentions being terrifying, in the simpleness of an allergic reaction to a food she's eaten, purely because she does not remember that she has an allergy to it. Something so simple, that is just base knowledge about yourself, gone, now given the ability to potentially cause dire consequences, even as dire as death - if that's not a fear inducing thought, I don't know what is. Not knowing if you're safe, what you like, what you don't like, not recognising your own face in the mirror. Essentially being a stranger in your own body *shudders*. Lally did an absolutely amazing job of portraying the confusion and the emotional turmoil that this would cause. Creating a stifling atmosphere filled with anxiety and a growing sense of dread about what is going to happen, will Mary eat something she's allergic too and die? Or is her father a crazed kidnapper with the potential to murder her in her sleep? You just never know.

Drew's portion of the story was filled with a blooming feeling of immense anxiety and hopelessness, the town thinks he's a pariah, that he's a cold blooded murdered who murdered his girlfriend and is trying to cover it up and pretend she's missing. The only people willing to still love and care for him being his family. Even the people that watched him grow up and the people that he grew up with, that he's known his whole life, think that he's a killer. The isolation and hopelessness were palpable. A rich atmosphere that, paired with Mary's chapters, had me feeling like I was gasping for air, slowly suffocating while no one could hear me screaming for help. Initially I preferred Mary's chapters, as the mystery that rode her side of the story was beyond intriguing, as the book progressed, Drew's chapters became just as enthralling as we get a glimpse into the boy he really is, the boy who is just trying to find out the truth, who just wants to bring his girlfriend home. You never knew what he was going to uncover or find out next, and while the pacing overall was initially a bit slower, I feel that it worked for the story as it really helped to build that slow sense of dread that permeated the story. It felt like a slow slug through thigh high mud, each step sucking at your legs until you're so tired you feel like it'd be better to just give up and let the quagmire pull you down and steal your breath, allowing you to finally sleep in peace. After finishing the book, I could see that the pacing helped the story, it helped build that atmosphere, even if it wasn't a deliberate choice on Lally's part, it worked.

This story was one that was so shrouded in mystery, even as I thought I had it all worked out, I didn't. It kept surprising me, and I was so surprised to find out that this is Lally's debut novel. I would love to pick her brain and find out her process for building such a twisty turny story, one that left me turning in circles not knowing I was lost until it told me. I think I instantly clicked with Mary, I'm not sure why, I just did. I don't know if it was in a sympathetic way, or if I just really liked her character. The inner turmoil she had as she tried so hard to remember who she was, and what was right and real and true. I didn't like Drew initially, but he did grow on me, and by the end I was really rooting for him and the couple of people who ended up sticking by him and being his biggest allies. His cousin really bugged me, but I get the feeling that he was supposed to. So even that worked.

All in all, I don't want to say too much about this one as I don't want to risk giving anything away. If you feel like it's a bit of a slow mover, stick with it because its pacing has a purpose. If you think you have it figured out, I look forward to hearing if you're right. And let me tell you, those last few chapters had me furiously flipping pages because the build to the climax was happening so fast, I couldn't put it down if I wanted to. And that epilogue. Originally, I had this pegged at a 4-star read, I actually put it as a 4.5, halfway through typing this review up, I realised that no, it's a 5. The emotions that it drew out of me, the way that Lally weaved this story, it's honestly brilliant. I am still gobsmacked that this is her debut novel, but I'm looking forward to following her on her journey as an author and seeing what she does next! Definitely an author to watch.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing to read this ARC. This story was intriguing and a very fast read….and it gave me allllll the feels! Definitely worth a read - give it a try!

I enjoyed this book!
Lola and Drew are high school seniors doing what most teenagers do at some time. They are driving around and talking. Lola envisions their life together with getting married and the whole American Dream deal. However, Drew freaks out at this revelation because he is a senior in high school and wants to keep his options open because everything that Lola is imagining is final and he still wants to live. This led to an argument between the two and Lola got out of Drew's car and slammed the door, while Drew thought she just needed time to cool off. He was proved wrong when Lola didn't return home and Drew realized he made a huge mistake when she didn't turn on her phone. No one knows what happened to Lola and the sheriff thinks he murdered her.
Then, you have this teen that wakes up in the ditch and she is hurting everywhere. Although she does not know her name and cannot remember anything. So after refusing to go get checked out with EMS, she is taken to the Sheriff's station then soon a frantic man arrives with pictures, a birth certificate, and things like that for a girl named Mary. This girl looked like the girl in the pictures, so who was the Sheriff's officer to not allow the girl to go with this man? But, who is he really?
I loved this book, a fast-paced read that kept you on your toes and that twist at the ending was really the salvation of this book making it a 5-star read for me!
Thank you Netgalley and Sourcefirebooks for the extraordinary opportunity to read and review this one!

I anxiously swarmed NetGalley in search of this book.

I found it
I requested
I prayed
I received….

it was fate
the book fairies are finally falling in love with me

I finally had my most sought after book and I was so ready to dive in.

What a naive little soul I was. I actually thought I’d be getting some sleep.

That’s Not My Name

This book right here is one you need to push all plans aside for. Once you start you will not be able to stop. The flipping of the page became a compulsion.

That’s Not My Name, exceeds all expectations and then some. I knew I would love it but this surpasses love, I’m obsessed and I know you will be too. You MUST check this one out.

Teaser :

She thought she had her life back. She was wrong. A gripping debut thriller perfect for fans of Natalie D. Richards and Vincent Ralph.

It was a mistake to trust him.

Shivering and bruised, a teen wakes up on the side of a dirt road with no memory of how she got there―or who she is. A passing officer takes her to the police station, and not long after, a frantic man arrives. He's been searching for her for hours. He has her school ID, her birth certificate, and even family photos.

He is her father. Her name is Mary. Or so he says.

When Lola slammed the car door and stormed off into the night, Drew thought they just needed some time to cool off. Except Lola disappeared, and the sheriff, his friends, and the whole town are convinced Drew murdered his girlfriend. Forget proving his innocence, he needs to find her before it's too late. The longer Lola is missing, the fewer leads there are to follow…and the more danger they both are in.

Overall, I liked That's Not My Name. The mystery was well done and I felt for the characters. The only major issues I had was the first third was a little rough in Drew's point of view because of how helpless he was feeling and how the town and sheriff treated him.

The ending felt really well down and I stayed up too late finishing it because I had to know what happened next. I would recommend it.

Wow. Just wow. This book kept me up way too late, wanting to call out of work the next day to finish and leaving me with a reading hangover.

The story left me holding my breath and wanting to cry at the same time. I feel emotionally exhausted. So pretty much, I loved it.

The story is told from two different perspectives- “Mary” a teenage girl who comes to on the side of the road with no memory of who she is or how she got there; and Drew, a teenage boy who’s girlfriend, Lola vanished with out a trace 5 week ago. The story progresses with Mary learning more about her past, and Drew doing everything in his power to find the girl he loves.

The problem is, Drew is the main suspect in Lola’s disappearance and has become a pariah in their home town. Mary has been found at a police station and returned to the man claiming to be her father.

There were so many twists and turns and ups and downs. This is a book that will stick with me for a while.

Thank you to NerGalley for an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.