More of a family drama than a thrilling thriller. Easy read and the story lines wrapped up nicely. I think it was just less thrilling than I expected.

3.5 stars

Laura Dave delivered again. A hunt to solve the mystery that was a supposed accidental death fueled by life long family secrets. It was fun to read through trying to solve the mystery but it wrapped up too quickly leaving the ending feeling flat.

Heartbreak and heartache and family are at the center of this new novel by Laura Dave. It was a good read but I thought it would be more mystery than it was a focus on emotional growth and the impact of loss. Overall, a good read.

Liam Noone, a successful boutique hotel magnate, tragically dies when he falls from the cliff at his seaside home. His daughter, Nora, is left this home in his will, but when her estranged half-brother, Sam, starts asking questions, the two realize their father’s death may not have been an accident after all. Dave’s novel is more about relationships and less mystery/thriller and neither focus has a satisfying end.

Well written, as I expected after reading The Last Thing He Told Me. But, it doesn’t have the same thriller-y suspense vibes. More of a family drama.
ARC provided by NetGalley for honest review.

💭 ⓂⓎ ⓉⒽⓄⓊⒼⒽⓉⓈ
I’m not sure if it’s because I’m out of practice reading mystery thrillers, but I typically feel like I predict a lot of what’s going to happen. In this book, everything that I thought would happen didn’t happen and everything that did happen took me completely by surprise. This book kept me guessing until the end, and the ride was just so fun. It’s really hard for me to give a five star to a mystery thriller, but this one deserves all the stars. Just be aware that It doesn’t read like a typical fast paced thriller book, and was a lot more like family drama, but that’s what made me love it more. It’s about love and loss, complicated family dynamics, acknowledging what you really want, and doing everything in your power to protect the ones that you love. This book was full of heart and full of mystery. It broke my heart and healed it all at the same time. It has all the makings of the perfect book club read!

📚 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
🔎Mystery
🎭Family drama
❌Flawed characters
🩷Love story
😢Dealing with grief
🤐Secrets and lies
🔀Twist and turns
✌🏽Dual timelines
🗣️Dual POV

⚠️ 𝙏𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙜𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨: death, infidelity, grief.

🌊𝕄𝕐 ℝ𝔸𝕋𝕀ℕ𝔾🌊
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

🙏 Thank you NetGalley, Simon Element/ Marysue Rucci, and Laura Dave for this ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts 💕

Before I read this book, I made myself go back and read about what happened in The Last Thing He Told me, to quickly realize that although the covers are similar the stories are not connected at all. I usually go into books blind, but read a description of this book that the dad has many secrets they needed to uncover. At the end of the story I found myself a little underwhelmed by all of their findings. The story was good but not a page turner and I found myself reading things on the side and taking a while to finish.

After the death of her father, Nora is drawn to his beloved property where his death happened with her brother where they face the question of whether the “accident” was truly so.

Nora and her brother both face the complications of their respective romantic relationships along with their familial relationship intertwined with the discoveries of their very private father’s complicated past - wives, children, friends, business - all kept at arms reach and segregated from each other.

This story is well done, with a well orchestrated weaving of multiple timelines and narratives. It was enjoyable, but it never fully grasped my attention. I also feel like Sam’s conclusion was… inconclusive. I’d like to have seen his story wrap up much like Nora’s and their father’s.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon Element for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Do you like family drama and finding out secrets from the past? This is for you! The Night We Lost Him is a leisurely paced tale about a man that marries 3 times and leaves families in his wake. When his son decides he doesn't think his death is accidental, two of the half siblings unite to figure out what really happened.

A decades long love story and questions about what it means to truly love someone leave the reader wondering what will happen at the end.

Thanks to netgalley for an ARC to review.

The Night We Lost Him is an easy-to-read, quick-paced thriller. When Nora's father passes away in an accident, she is unmoored. When her estranged brother Sam shows up in Nora's life, it's because he's convinced the accident was actually murder. Sam drags Nora on a search for answers.

The story is mostly told from Nora's perspective, with a few short flashbacks to her father's youth and first love, Cory. It's clear that this relationship with Cory must have some connection to what happened to Liam, but as with all good thrillers, how the pieces come together doesn't become clear until the very end.

Up until the end, I didn't know who the killer was, which I consider a plus. The only thing that annoyed me was Nora's relationship with Jack - I could have done without the subplot of her pushing him away in her grief, despite how absolutely perfect he is for (which we are reminded of every time he comes up).

Overall, recommended. If you like Laura Dave, you'll like this one too. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. I was eagerly anticipating this book after enjoying Laura Dave’s last story “The Last Thing He Told Me,” but “ The Night We Lost Him” didn’t meet my expectations.

The Night We Lost Him is a family drama spanning half a century as two somewhat estranged siblings piece together the loss of their father. The novel is centered upon a complicated family and their changing dynamics and relationships, all with a backdrop of love, loss, and grief. The story and question of what happened to the father were interesting and engaging, but the writing often felt trite. There were also so many characters whose storylines ended up being trivial, making the overall story more complicated than it needed to be. Even reading just over the course of a few days I found myself forgetting or wondering which characters were important vs. secondary to the story, and even confusing the characters at times (Cory and CeCe, the importance of twin brother Tommy and his rude wife).

Overall this was a quick and mostly enjoyable read; I liked the idea, but I found the storyline to be unnecessarily complicated at times, with the writing falling a little flat. That said, I will still look forward to Dave’s next work.

I loved The Last Thing He Told Me and couldn’t wait to read The Night We Lost Him. I was not disappointed. As all the family secrets begin to be uncovered I was hooked. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Where to begin? I did not enjoy this book AT ALL, which is a shame because I loved The Last Thing He Told Me. This one, however, was dull and lacking tension. There were too many tangents, too many characters to keep track of, and the main characters were uninteresting. The dad, Liam, about whom the mystery surrounds, is unlikable and passive aggressive in the flashbacks, never happy or satisfied with all he has. Basically, there is no one to root for. Lastly, and extremely irritating, anytime someone asked a question, the person answering would answer with another question or refuse to answer at all, making the mystery (if you could call it that) just stretch out longer than necessary. It happened again and again, making story lifeless and slow-paced from start to finish. I'm so glad to be done with this book.

I love Laura Dave's books and all the hallmarks of her writing are here: very detailed research, a strong sense of place, relationships in flux, and a protagonist with a niche job (it was fun to learn about neuroarchitecture).

I missed the propulsion of the plot in The Last Thing He Told Me, though. The mystery in need of solving in this book is a less pressing, more uncertain thing. It came together beautifully in the end, so I'm not mad about it, but I could have used more urgency.

This one is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better than the previous book I read by Laura Cave "The last thing he told me". Granted I hated the first book because the tone of the book changed halfway through and I felt like it was reaching.

This one keeps on theme throughout the whole book and is easy to follow without too many unnamed characters and ulterior motives. This has redeemed my faith in Laura Dave.

Wow, just wow! The Night We Lost Him is a perfect mystery. Laura Dave’s words flow off the page while you eagerly turn the pages. You’ll want to visit every place that Sam and Nora go while figuring out what happened to their dad. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Laura Dave’s THE NIGHT WE LOST HIM has a little bit of everything: romance, secrets, mystery, but first things first and that’s family. The somewhat uneven story unfolds along two timelines. The first one concerns Liam, the three-time married, boutique hotel chain owner and his forever paramour, with their story told from the past up until right before his problematic death. The second part, and the bulk of the story, is told in present time, as half-siblings Sam and Nora join forces to find out how their father died, be it accident, suicide or murder. In the process, they get to know each other better and come to greater self-understanding. The book is easy to read and had interesting bits on “neuroarchitecture,” an emphasis on designing spaces with the primary goal of finding the perfect vantage point from which to facilitate joy and wellbeing. This talent, along with the ability to keep secrets, seems a shared family trait.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Simon Element for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I very much enjoyed this mystery/family drama. The character and relationship development was excellent and the mystery kept me guessing. I anticipate this will appeal to a wide range of readers including book clubs that the like mysteries with depth. Thank you NetGalley and Simon Element for the egalley.

i ended up really liking this book, though the first half I wasn't sure about it. It felt overly descriptive in a way that didn't add to the story for me. and made it feel too detached to me. It ended up being a moving story about a pair of half siblings trying to understand their father and how/why he died. It was a story of both his life, his great love and the two siblings coming to terms with themselves and what was important to them. There was a bit of a mystery but that wasn't the main focus

This novel surprised me! I don’t know what exactly
I was expecting but it wasn’t the way this one went.

This story has 2 POV’s. Liam and his daughter Nora. Liam’s storyline starts 50 years back while you work your way to present time. You also follow Nora’s current search to find out more about her father with the help of her brother, Sam. There is something very poignant and touching about Liam’s story, especially as the full story begins to unravel.

This was a quick, easy read that will keep you guessing. It will also pull you in and have you feeling alllllll of the emotions.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Simon Element for the opportunity to read this ARC before its publication date of September 17, 2024.