A chilling thriller that hooks you in!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this review copy and the opportunity !

I am admitting defeat with this one. I have tried it multiple times since before it published and I just can’t get into it. The parents read as the same character. I wanted more depth and emotions. I wanted to feel like I had to know what happened to Sophie, and for me, the urgency wasn’t there. I know this has been getting love and shoutouts and I’m so happy it’s found its readers.

"Finding Sophie" is a heartfelt and emotionally resonant novel that explores themes of love, loss, and personal growth. The author crafts a beautiful story about self-discovery, with a protagonist who is both relatable and compelling. The writing is lyrical, and the pacing is steady, allowing readers to become fully immersed in the narrative. The emotional depth and complex relationships make the story truly captivating. While the plot is mostly strong, some moments feel predictable, and a few characters could have been more fully developed. Despite these minor flaws, "Finding Sophie" is a touching and memorable read that will stay with readers long after.

How far would you go to find your missing teen? When 17-year-old Sophie goes missing, her parents do everything you're supposed to do when a child goes missing— then they do some things you're not supposed to do in order to move the case along. The story alternates perspectives, between Sophie's parents, and timelines, from the aftermath of Sophie's disappearance and a murder trial. This one twists and turns and you won't want to miss the surprise ending!

I went back and forth with this book, sometimes I could not put it down and other times I felt a bit lost. There is a lot going on in this book, not just a missing child. We have a marriage on the rocks, the child's parents. How does one deal with a missing loved one? What would you do to get answers? Well- you don't really know that answer unless it happens to you. Other reviews suggest sticking around for the ending, so that is why I stuck around.

On paper this could’ve worked for me but sadly it didn’t and I ended up putting it aside. I found it slow going and convoluted with confusing events and not enough excitement to keep me reading it.

Finding Sophie is a domestic thriller surrounding the disappearance of a teenage girl in a quiet community. Seventeen year old Sophie has disappeared. The police have been involved, but six weeks later the family is no closer to finding out what has happened to their daughter than they were on day one. Zara and Harry, Sophie's parents, are convinced that they know who took their daughter and they're about to do anything they can to prove it. Told in alternating POVs of Zara and Harry and in dual timelines, this thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat until the end.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced ecopy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts.

It's been a little while since a book kept me up past my bedtime reading. Finding Sophie is a slow burn with some family drama elements, a little British court and police procedural, and a lot of suspense. Although a bit repetitive and therefore a little longer than needed, Imran Mahmood has given us a dual timeline that works because each chapter has us questioning ourselves, the characters, and more than once this reader asking "could you please just TALK to one another?!?"
The ending had my head spinning to say the least, and the thriller elements of this novel did not disappoint. Short chapters will please readers of James Patterson and the legal elements will appeal to readers of John Grisham and Stacey Abrams, with an extra gift for Anglophiles.

This was a heavy book because it is a parent's worst nightmare......how the main characters dealt with it was raw and honest and very touching.

✨Book Review✨
Finding Sophie by Imran Mahmood
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I really enjoyed this book. Super solid thriller told from alternating perspectives. I LOVED the author's choices in how this story unfolded and the timing of what the reader was allowed to know and when. Even though the narrators were British, I still really enjoyed the audio and loved having different readers for the two points of view. This was so well executed and is definitely one that I recommend!

To be completely honest, it took me a few months to finish this book, which is longer than I would normally give a book. I would consider it a slow burn but it definitely kept my attention and I was drawn to needing to know more. I needed to know what happened.

I enjoyed the MC’s, as a parent I understood them and sympathized with them 100%! I truly enjoyed the plot, the writing & different perspectives are one of my favorite styles so I am unsure why I couldn’t devour it.

With that being said, I absolutely loved the book. I would hands down recommend it. It was a book that even when I was not reading and though I “struggled” to read more that a few chapters at a time, I was constantly thinking about it & wanting to know what was happening and where it was going. Definitely worth the read!

Thank you NetGalley and Bantam for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

I had a really hard time with this one. I found I didn’t really like any of the characters. I felt bad for the parents but all the things they did after their daughter’s disappearance just didn’t work for me. I finished it and it was just okay.

I really tried to get through this but ended up DNFing at chapter 68. This book felt very disorganized to me, it felt very rambly without really getting anywhere and it was often unclear what was going on which made it difficult to keep reading.

A couple find themselves going to every outrageous and illicit length to Finding Sophie by Imran Mahmood. Harry and Zara cannot fathom where their 17-year-old daughter fled to and if she's even alive. All but one house on their block answered their queries, and now they're sure that number 210 holds the secrets of where Sophie went. This puts them on a crazy odyssey to find out and get their own justice after they feel the police have taken the investigation too lightly.

Initially, I wasn't sure if I would enjoy this book, but I found it intriguing in the first half. You really cannot imagine what happened to Sophie yourself and what fractured this family if she truly ran away. If she didn't run away, did someone kidnap or murder her? Nothing is clear, and these two mild-mannered teachers are determined to find out without considering to cost.

Although they keep talking about the challenges they had in raising Sophie after she became a pre-teen, it seemed a little blurry to me. Once they reconcile that she must be gone and possibly died, the grief is sincerely palpable. I think the author did a great job in demonstrating how both parents encounter their own grieving moments and how it affects others in their circle. It also shows how their own relationship could fall apart because they simply cannot lean on each other, at least, in talking about their feelings.

Some of the chapters come from the perspective of Harry, others from Zara, and still others from the courtroom case where you're not exactly sure, at first, who is on trial and for what. That was somewhat interesting, but as the case dragged on, I felt less enamored with reading it. I would have loved reading a chapter from Sophie's perspective but that never came, and I think that was a missed opportunity.

I'm not sure about the laws in England, but my eyes glazed over at times when legal speak was brought into the case. I used to write for a legal marketing firm, but those passages could not hold my interest. They were way too dry except in the beginning where you were trying to decipher who was being tried and for what.

The ending was pretty out of left field although it was somewhat interesting. I felt it was rendered as fully as it could be, so it wasn't necessarily a shock but a confusing misdirection. It was an easy enough read but dull in some places. It had potential, and I was hoping it was more of a thriller or suspense novel, but it leaned more on the courtroom drama side, which I didn't love.

Thank you to the publisher for an advanced copy of this book! It was a really propulsive read and I did not expect the ending. After she's begun to act out, Sophie disappears, and her parents are distraught. Both parents must wonder if they actually knew their only child. The different ways they handle her disappearance pushes them apart. Grief flows through every page of this exploration of what happens when parents are pushed to their breaking point. This story is half set during a trial, and half during the parents' hunt for Sophie. We also get to see the perspectives of both parents. I enjoyed how the different components were woven together!

The cover intrigued me the most with this book. I had heard good things about this one and was thankful to read it! I'm now interested in Imran's other novels.

When their seventeen year old daughter disappears, her parents Harry and Zaraare distraught. This book takes us through all the risks they will take to find her. They don't know if she is dead or alive. The detective assigned is not listening to them. What are these parents to do?

This book held my interest most of the time. It was easy to figure out for me which is why i gave it four stars. I would read another book by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
I’m not always a big fan of missing child books but this one was very good. Well written and held my interest. It also didn’t seem to be the typical missing child thriller since it involved a teenager and not a young child or baby.
Held my interest and I liked the characters.

This is a terrific can't stop page turning,,can't wait to see how it comes out kind of novel.
Couple with a single child discover that their child, Sophie is gone. They do all the things a parent would do. Talk to friends, neighbors. Constantly ask the police about progress., knock on doors, hang fliers with offers of rewards.
This isn't enough, it is not helping . So they dig in deeper. Unfortunately they each do this on their own in an effort to protect the other one.
then, each of them, unbeknownst to the other, proceed to execute a plan that should solve the crime and find Sophie.....which leads to a trial.

who did what, when and why? Was it thee thing that solved it?

great read, keeps you on your toes.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me this ARC. I recommend .

How far would you go to find your missing teenage daughter? In Finding Sophie by Imran Mahmood, Harry and Zara King are pushed to and over the brink as they become increasingly frustrated by the lack of official progress in the case of their 17-year-old daughter's mysterious disappearance. As they investigate for themselves, they become increasingly desperate and their marriage shows signs of the strain. Told in a dual timeline from the perspectives of Harry and Zara in alternating chapters, this book put me on edge from the very beginning, as I questioned how far I would go if my daughter was missing and I felt like the police weren't looking very hard to find her.

I found the most disconcerting aspect of the book to be the courtroom scenes that were included in the present timeline. It was clear that someone was on trial for murder, assumed to be Harry, yet not clear who the victim was or if Harry was guilty. All of it was revealed before the end of the book, and I thought the resolution was quite a surprise albeit not shocking. This is a very well plotted, suspenseful mystery/thriller, and a very enjoyable read.

Perhaps the best aspect of the novel is the look at how the marriage relationship of Harry and Zara changed while under the stress of looking for and worrying about their daughter. It made me question how far I would go in similar circumstances, and whether my own relationships could survive the strain.

I listened to the audio version of the book, with the narration by Lydia Bakelmun and Oliver Hembrough. It as an excellent narration, with the actors creating the right amount of stress and tension for their characters. Highly recommend!

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Ballantine for the digital copy of Finding Sophie by Imran Mahmood. The opinions in this review are my own.