My Rating: 3⭐️⭐️⭐️ good but not great… also had to know how it ended!!!

She wonders if the have discovered her missing yet.
Has it broken in the news?
Who has been assigned to cover her story?
Have they started spooling through her social media and pulling out photographs? Constructing a narrative about who she is and what possible reason any person has to kidnap or (lets be frank) kill her?

Kate Delaney has made a huge mistake… one that may just cost her, her life.

Thank you to Allen & Unwin AU, NetGalley and Louise Milligan for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I requested this one ages ago and was shocked when I got approved so I started it straight away. I really liked the synopsis and couldn’t wait to dive in…. I did not realise this was set in Australia. Don’t ask me why but as an Australian you would think I would like to support Australian authors but usually no… I do not… not that I don’t like to I just usually dont vibe with their thrillers.

So I was a little dubious going in considering some of the places and are familiar to me … but I liked the way the chapters were set up each one had a title and it was relevant to the storyline and some of the references were so Aussie or super familiar to me and things that I enjoyed as a kid… made it more enjoyable.

The thought of the Famous Five makes her start thinking about Enid Blyton foods and how it was another thing she and Liam had bonded over, as they had both devoured the now comically politically incorrect books as children.

They both agreed that no one described food like Enid Blyton, from mouth-watering to the comically retro. Baked potatoes simply dripping with butter. Cold tongue and tomato sandwiches. Potted meats. Blancmange. New scones. Strawberries and cream. Treacle.

Her stomach starts rumbling again. She could murder a baked potato simply dripping in butter right now.

FAMOUS FIVE WAS MY FAVOURITE as a kid…. Also honourable mention to the Faraway Tree what a trip.

Having said that… I still landed on a 3. I will say that I think a lot of people will love this… perhaps some of the overseas audience will struggle with some of the Australian references but I think you will cope - google will help you.

Honestly this was mostly enjoyable but I found it lacked some depth… there was a lot of story but it wasn’t thrilling I didn’t feel like I was stressed and this actually should have been a stressful tale. A woman is assaulted, kidnapped and kept… but… it was too flippant. It was supposed to be at times but I think it managed to be so flippant that it was too much so… there wasn’t enough tension and to be quite frank there was just too much storyline about Liam.

Kate’s boyfriend who to me was sweet and all but such a massive pussy. I just couldn’t deal with the amount this guy cried… sure… call me a bitch and thats ok.. and I know i know his gf is missing but I needed more action. For the amount of dialogue this guy took up I wanted an action man not a cry baby who couldn’t handle being called chicken by Kate’s best friend… come on pal you have bigger things to worry about other than some endearing nickname cause she is stressed. Liam bugged me… I wanted them to break up at the end… I wanted him to bugger off or also get kidnapped and not brought back. Kate’s character was so strong and independent and this guy was the super nice guy that cried and loved hipster things… ugh it just icked me out.

Also for a story about Kate we didn’t get to know her that well… we didn’t really get much dialogue from when she was kidnapped and how she was feeling… I dunno I just felt like there were a lot of useless backstories when the stuff happening was rather supposed to be more stressful.

I only felt really stressed right at the very very end… and then it abruptly ended… it was a let down. Did I hate it absolutely not… I liked it.. but I didn’t love it.

Overall - if you like the sound of it give it a go but if you are expecting a wild ride… then you might only get halfway there… there are some really harrowing things that happen in this one but are kind of glossed over… I get that we are Australian but even some of the stuff that happened in this book Aussies aren’t going to gloss over…