The Day He Never Came Home by Andrew DeYoung starts out with John taking his wife Regan on date to a house by the lake. When he and Regan were dating, they used to go to open houses in rich neighborhoods, knowing they could never afford this type of lifestyle. When they show up at the lake house, Regan is aggravated, thinking not this again. John proceeds to tell her that he has purchased this lake house for her. It will be in her name and everything! Regan is shocked to say the least. Where did her husband get the money for such an extravagant gift? John assures her that they can afford it because he's doing so good at work. Speaking of work, John tells Regan that he has to go into work for a little while that night. On the inside, Regan is furious. She is once again struck with the children (Philip and Etta) by herself. She doesn't say anything cross because after all, her husband has just given her the lake house of her dreams.

When Regan wakes up the next morning, John is nowhere to be found. She messages him and gets no response. Regan figures that he's just busy at work and will respond when he has time. She goes on about her day taking care of the children. All is typical until there is a knock at the door. It's the FBI looking for John. He is wanted for fraud. Regan and the children end up going to her parent's house while the FBI do their search. Regan's mother isn't the least bit surprised by this developing FBI interest in John.

Where is John?
Is John really who he says he is?
Does Regan know more than she lets on?

Lies
Betrayal
Deceit
Murder
Fraud

If you like any of the above in your books, definitely give The Day He Never Came Home by Andrew DeYoung a read. This was a middle of the road book for me. I feel there was unnecessary language within the pages of this one.

Thank you Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review The Day He Never Came Home by Andrew DeYoung.

3.5

The plot was great.
Found a lot of it very wordy. That here was more than there needed to be.
But story is good, kept me guessing and wanting to know where it was going.

Regan misses her husband, John, who works all the time to provide for their family. When he surprised her with a lake house, she starts thinking maybe it’s worth it. John goes into the office to work late that night, but doesn’t return the next morning. Regan is slightly concerned, but it doesn’t become fully realized until the FBI show up at her door, sharing that John is wanted for fraud and nowhere to be found. Regan begins to learn more about John and his business, while trying to figure out where he is and what’s going on. Her priority is to save her family.

This was a fun read. I was instantly hooked and didn’t even get car sick reading this on my road trip - that’s how focused I was haha. I found it hard to predict the twists in advance, only realizing them just as they were happening which I appreciated. The middle got slightly repetitive with the dual POV, but I like how it depicted their different perspectives on the same events. The end rounded out with a good resolution, I was pleased reading this one.

John and Regan have their own issues from their childhoods. Regan, now a stay at home mom and John, a "successful" financial advisor seem to have it all. The next thing Regan knows is the FBI is knocking on her door with an arrest warrant for her missing husband who it seems like she doesn't know at all.

This was a fantastic fast paced read! The timeline and writing style flowed really well and I found myself not wanting to put this one down. I can't wait to see what Andrew DeYoung does next!

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this advanced reader’s copy.

The Day He Never Came Home is a domestic thriller that follows Regan (Ree-gan) and her search for the truth. After an extravagant gift from her husband, John, Regan finds herself rekindling her mundane and repetitive marriage. After two kids and walking away from her own business, Regan has grown resentful as John spends more and more late nights at work. But just hours after receiving the unexpected birthday gift, John walks out the front door and never comes home.

The storyline of part one is very well put together, having me wanting more. The suspense to get to the end and find out what happened was enough that I read this book, start to finish, in less than 24hours. I found part one written so well, in fact, that I tried rushing through part two to resume that side of the story!

One of the aspects of this book I thoroughly enjoyed, was the visual concept of two sides to every story. While reading a key section in part two, I was sure it was a misprint or error. Later, that “error” was addressed and was actually intentionally written that way. It personified the idea that every perspective and memory/recollection of a story or event is different from person to person. The author expertly describes that concept and definitely had me recalling some of my own personal arguments. And that was just one key take away from the entire book!

The story (probably) unintentionally gives a nod to women and their struggle with the juggle of everyday things like kids, work, chores, etc. Don’t read too much into that, this isn’t a book on feminism. The happy/not happy ending was just enough to wrap the storyline together and leave it open for another book to follow, or as is completed.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story and look forward to reading more from this author. I would recommend this to other readers, especially those (like me) who are strong into psychological thrillers- as this is a lighter read, a nice change of pace, and still killing it with the suspense and mystery!

Review: Thank you to @netgalley and @poisonedpenpress for my advanced copy of this book. I will admit, I picked this book up at a bad time as I had a bunch of things going on in my life and it took me almost a month to read it. But I did have a hard time getting into it. I REALLY didn’t like John and Regan seemed like a liar from the get go, so I don’t know if her story is true or not. I did want to know what happened next which is why I kept reading. But this book was definitely just meh for me. I think if it focused more on the Ponzi scheme and the money laundering, I would have enjoyed it more, but there were some parts of the book that I just didn’t understand why they were added, like the love scene between the wife and the FBI agent. Just didn’t care for it as much as I thought I would.

“The Day He Never Came Home” is a crime mystery, that kept me turning page after page until I had devoured it in a mere number of hours.

Regan- a loving mother to two, caring wife and partner, and daughter to a wealthy family- finds herself in what most would think as their worst situation imaginable: her husband never comes home from work one night. Throughout the novel, we as the reader are left to put the pieces back together and figure out what happened.

Overall Thoughts:
Rating 4/5

I like to go into books blind- I don’t want to know what they’re about before I start to read them, and in most cases I find this to be exhilarating. In this case, I felt a little blindsided- to no fault of the author. When I cracked open the first page of this book, I was expecting a thriller due to the cover and the title. In a way, this book had “thriller” aspects, but rather I felt that I was never guessing the end, just being led to it. Plot points along the way kept me JUST hooked enough to keep going, though I will say I think it could have been a little shorter.

All this being said, I loved the writing style of the book because it had me feeling like I was crawling into the skin of these characters. A mother- a caring person who has lost everything- like Regan, was one of the easiest characters to root for and relate to. She’s exhausted from everything expected of her- start a business, make money, take care of the kids, do all the cooking, cleaning. It reminded me of myself and feeling little support when the list is never-ending. The author did a beautiful job sucking us in through her relatable point of view.

What I was not expecting was to be then led through the second half o the book getting the SAME story from her husband, John’s, point of view. For someone that had committed so many fraudulent crimes, according the the police, I could not BELIEVE how effective DeYoung was in getting me to feel like rooting for this character. Even though the book is entirely written from the third person (an effective choice to create a narration that the reader can follow from a bird’s eye view) it felt as if I was inside the thoughts of the protagonists.

All this to say, this is not a book I typically would have picked up from the shelf as money crimes aren’t really my things- but boy am I glad I did. I look forward to the release of this book, and to see others’ thoughts on this lovely novel. I would absolutely LOVE to own a copy of this book to promote it on my social medias.

I was really excited to get a digital ARC of this book from Sourcebooks. This book was a suspenseful story of a husband, his indiscretions and a lifetime of secrets kept from an unsuspecting wife, who one day, when he has no alternative, disappears. But it goes even further. The unsuspecting wife, Regan, is not as innocent and helpless as we would think. The minute she finds she had been betrayed, she stops being the victim and gets involved in both solving the mystery of where her husband is and why he disappeared, she also promises to care for herself and her family in a way she had not before her husband's disappearance.

What interested me was that this book was written from a number of different perspectives and voices. I often like this style, because it gives the reader a multi-dimensional depth. But this is not always well done if the author does not immerse themselves in the character. In this book, it was extremely well done - so much so, that I had to remind myself that the author is a man. Some of Regan's reflections come from the perspective of a woman that were so spot on. Well done.

A fast moving story that I found quite compelling.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Press for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book started off at a good pace for me, but then when it got to another point of view, the book became repetitive and I just found myself really bored with it because I felt like I was reading the same story again. I wouldn't necessarily count this book as a thriller but more of a domestic read.

3.5 stars

Domestic thrillers are fun. Perhaps not for the characters, but for me it is. While this book was enjoyable I can't say it was gripping me...until the POV switch. That definitely upped it for me.
I'm all for a woman doing whatever she has to do to protect herself and/or her children....but what if she's not as innocent as it seems? Heavier on the domestic than the thriller, I'd say this is a good, easy summer read.

I found this a very engaging page turner. It tells the story from the perspective of John and his wife Regan in two different parts. I thought this was a great way to tell the story. I was compelled to keep reading to find out how it would evolve and resolve. John was a quiet kid who loved to read at the libraries but an event sent his life on a different trajectory. He did not make great life choices but he often felt he had no other choice. I would recommend this book to everyone.

A very entertaining, fun, and mysterious popcorn thriller! A book you can easily read in one sitting! This book was broken into different parts with different POVs, which I thought was nicely done because I got to experience what the main characters went though as the lies and cover ups began to stack up. The characters were complex and unique and as the story progressed I couldn’t help but wonder how in the world this situation would resolve..because what started out as a book with a very predictable ending…ended with some juicy twists that caught me by surprise!

Overall, I really liked this one! Be sure to add it to your TBR, especially if you are new to thrillers, are fans of Laura Dave or B.A Paris, or need a quick easy popcorn thriller to escape in!

I may end up being an outlier in my opinion on this one, but I could not get into this book. It could just be that it was not my “type” of book genre or story. It states it’s a thriller, but honestly it did not come across as a thriller to me.
Regan is happy in her life with her husband, John … and then the FBI shows up for John saying he was involved in Ponzi schemes and cons. This is the point where Regan starts with one lie …two.. multiple… and so many that there is no turning back for her to protect her family. Now.. this becomes confusing to me as I slowly very slowly made my way through this book. It was an extremely slowwwwww burn and even then the twists, if that’s what you want to call them, weren’t spectacular.

I will say the book is told through in three different POV’s which did provide insight from both sides. 1. Regan’s perspective 2. John’s perspective 3. How everything comes together.

Like I said this just wasn’t the book for me, but some might enjoy these types of reads!

Thank you to Netgalley, the Author, and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC!

This was a good read, great pacing right from the beginning. I really liked the structure of current events and then back to the past to learn details of where the husband came from. The one thing I was hoping for was to see Regan turn into a bigger villain. I also didn’t think that the final reveal was very exciting but overall, it was an engaging and good story.
Thank you NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press and the author for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book had me in a chokehold.
Great pacing. It goes soooo fast!
Unreliable Characters.
The story unfurls between 2 very different versions of the same time line (his and her perspectives).
I enjoyed this wild ride so much! Couldn't put it down.
Many thanks to #netgalley for the arc.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
👏🏼👏🏼

This is sort of a tough one to rate! Here are my thoughts in no cohesive way.

1. Great pacing, never found my mind wandering or thinking the story should hurry along.

2. I was interested in finding out more, even when I had a hunch something would happen and it did.

3. The most interesting part was Regan and how she ended up being and how we watched the transformation.

4. The big reveal honestly wasn’t the reveal, I suspected it (or something like it right away). However, I still enjoyed the story surrounding the big surprise and how it played out.

Overall, very enjoyable semi-mystery book. Perfect for reading by the pool or beach.

Advance reader copy provided by Poisoned Pen Press + NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I truly loved this one. It was SO Juicy! The characters all played their roles perfectly. I love the points of view, and I love the different angles of the story, I loved hearing how the wife viewed the situation, as well as the husband and the mother. It kept me on my toes, and I could not put this down, I had to finish the book until the end! I loved it and will be recommending it.

This one started off strong and gets you right into the domestic life with the main character before her husband goes missing and fishy details about his past start to arise. I liked the intrigue of trying to figure out what was going on and normally I like dual perspectives but in this book, it kind of got to me. We see the same narrative being told twice and it got repetitive since I already knew a lot of what was coming. I was expecting a bigger twist at the end too. It still kept me interested enough to see where it went but I was hoping for some darker elements or a bigger mystery/plot twist. If you like domestic thrillers or true crime, this one would be up your alley.

👀 M A N H U N T M O N D A Y 👀 featuring “The Day He Never Came Home” by Andrew DeYoung!

BOOK REVIEW: 🖤🖤🖤🖤/5

John Peters works hard as a financial advisor to give his family a good life. His wife Reagan however is getting fed up with his long hours at the office and minimal effort to make family time.

On Reagan’s birthday John surprises her with a beautiful lake house that he has purchased in her name in cash. The next day he disappears and the FBI show up on Reagan’s door step. John has been living under a false identity for years and running a ponzi scheme through his business. Reagan begins to receive threats from a dangerous criminal and she goes into survival mode to protect her kids! Who is this man she married?? And what other secrets and lies does John have that could jeopardize her family’s future??

WOW, what a page turner! The short chapters and dual POVs make this a very easy book to binge! The reader gets drawn into the tangled web of secrets, lies, cons and deceit! If you enjoyed reading “The Last Thing He Told Me” by Laura Dave then you will love this one!

Thank you kindly to Andrew DeYoung, Poisoned Pen Press and Netgalley for my advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review! This book releases on July 9, 2024!

When I read the description of this book it was described as a mystery/thriller. Although there was a mystery element it didn’t seem much like a thriller to me. A good portion of the book seemed to be about the relationship of the characters. In my opinion there was not a real mystery.

There are two parts and are from differing POVs which I enjoyed. I also liked seeing the back story of each of the characters. I did feel that Regan’s story was incomplete and I have many more questions about her background.

Although I did enjoy the writing style of the author I felt that some parts were pretty hard to believe and some of the actions of the characters didnt really make sense. Towards the end I don’t know if I had a real sense of who the characters were

This book was still an enjoyable read and I would give it 3.5 stars.

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.