Review will be posted on 9/25/24

Nora is an architect working in Brooklyn and her life seems to be going well, that is until her half-sibling, Sam, shows up at her work. She doesn't have real relationships with any of her half-siblings, so this is alarming. Recently their father, a hotelier, has died at his California home. It was deemed an accident involving the steep cliffs on the property. Sam has come to tell Nora that the "accident" wasn't an accident at all. He has reasons to believe that Liam, their father, was pushed. So, Sam and Nora try to unravel the mystery independently as the police have already closed the case. Meanwhile, there is a parallel narrative that takes readers back to fifty years ago when Liam was in a relationship with a woman named Cory, who is not one of his three ex-wives. Laura Dave's The Night We Lost Him is part family drama with a mystery mixed in and while it had a lot of potential, ultimately, it fell flat.

Nora's life is turned upside down with Sam's arrival in The Night We Lost Him. At first, I thought there was no way these two could work together as they barely get along, but slowly, they started to figure out the mystery surrounding Liam's death. Readers try to piece together the clues as well and try to figure out who the mysterious Cory featured in the flashbacks to fifty years ago is and how she relates to the bigger story. As more time goes by and Nora and Sam do a little more digging and family secrets are revealed, which is to be expected as Liam had three ex-wives.

I had high hopes for The Night We Lost Him as I really enjoyed The Last Thing He Told Me, but this novel was missing that special something. While it kept me somewhat entertained, I found I didn't care about the characters or their issues. The character development was missing something extra and in turn, it felt like a "meh" read to me. I was also expecting this one to be a bit more thrilling than it was; instead, it read like a soapy family drama.

So, are you a fan of Laura Dave? Have you read The Night We Lost Him? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

I was so excited to get an ARC copy of this book. This one was a fast fun read for me. You are immediately swept up into the story of what happened to Liam Noone the night he fell from his seaside cliff. Was he pushed? Did he jump? Did he just slip? Just like her previous book, Dave draws you into family relationships, romance and a murder mystery all at the same time. She can do it without spicy romance scenes or gruesome crime scenes and still keep you hooked. Her family relationships tend to be about 2nd families - stepmother/ stepdaughter or half brother/half sister. This adds to the relationship story because sometimes those are not so clear on how they should get along. Did I fall for some false leads in the story, yes! Did I have an ah ha moment in the end, yes. I had trouble putting this one down. Thank you NetGalley and Simon Element & Marysue Rucci Books for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn’t sure about this one going into it, I don’t think it should be marketed as a thriller, it was definitely a family drama/mystery. I really enjoyed it and read it one day. It was not formulaic as I expected it to be and I felt satisfied overall.

Her writing gets stronger with every book, and this book is no exception. I really enjoyed the storyline and I did not see the twists coming.

The first thing I have to say about this book is that I don't understand it being classified as a thriller. I've read a lot of psychological thrillers (my favorite genre) and this just wasn't...well...thrilling. I would catergorize The Night We Lost Him as more of a family drama and there was somewhat of a mystery. The story is told from two voices: Nora, a daughter who along with her estranged brother Sam is trying to find out what happened the night of their father's death (did he fall off a cliff, did he jump or was he pushed) and Liam, the father, who tells the story of his long romance with a mystery woman. That's the entire premise. There is somewhat of a twist but nothing that was totally shocking.

I'm sorry to say that although this book was short in length (a plus for me!), it took me forever to read because I was just a little bit bored the entire time. And, although there weren't a ton of characters, it was a chore to figure out who was speaking at times. I felt like I really wasn't invested in the lives of any or the characters. While none of them were horrible, I just didn't find any of their stories that interesting and I was just happy when the book finally ended.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon Element for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. It is available now.

The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave is a gripping blend of family drama and mystery that had me hooked from the start. When hotel mogul Liam Noone dies in an apparent accident, his estranged children, Nora and Sam, begin to suspect foul play. As they dig deeper into their father's past, they uncover long-hidden secrets that completely change their understanding of him and their family.
The book does a great job weaving together present-day investigations with flashbacks that reveal key moments from Liam’s life. I enjoyed how the tension between Nora and Sam slowly evolved into a stronger sibling bond as they unraveled the mystery. While I was able to predict some of the twists, the final revelation still surprised me.
The pacing was steady, and the mix of suspense and emotional depth kept me invested throughout. Overall, a compelling read for fans of family secrets and slow-burn mysteries!

This one fell flat for me. I never really connected with the characters with so many POV changes and the "mystery" romance was pretty obvious early on. The characters and their relationships weren't developed enough to make them convincing.

While this murder mystery/family drama gradually builds to all the reveals, I was hooked from the beginning and couldn't put it down.

Two of the estranged siblings of an American hotel magnate unite in their shared grief to determine whether his death was truly accidental or something criminal. In the process, they encounter secrets he concealed over a lifetime, which were likely the epicenter of him living such a fragmented and compartmentalized life-- from which the ripples touched and impacted his closest relationships as well as the sibling relationships among his children.

I couldn't fully understand decisions made by the primary characters involved in the flashbacks spanning a 30+ year time span (even after after a re-read of those chapters after finishing the book). I wished I'd also been able to learn about these moments from the perspective of the other significant person in this portion of the timeline. Even having this additional perspective, I'm still not sure I would understand, though. Toward the end of the story, Nora is given the means to learn more about her father's secrets, but I think wisely decides to respect his privacy--even in the midst of her grief and with so many of her own questions remaining unanswered.

I really liked Nora's character arc, and I especially loved watching Nora and her brother's relationship evolve from acquaintances who share DNA to nascent familial bonds.

Thanks to #netgalley and to Simon Element | S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books for the ARC e-book.

Liam Noone was many things to many people. He was the head of a large hotel empire, a husband to his three ex-wives, and a father to his three children. However, all of those aspects of her personna were kept carefuly and distinctly separated. When tragedy strikes and Liam is found dead after a fall from the ledge by his cliffside home, estranged siblings Sam and Nora look into what happened and whether there was more to the story of an "accidental" fall than they're being told.

Full of family secrets and focusing on all the kinds of relationships that one might have, The NIght We Lost Him was a quick read that held my attention well. I was invested in the storyline right away, and although I was able to deduce the "twists" before we got to them, it was still interesting enough to keep me involved in the book. Another great read by Laura Dave!

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon Element for the Advanced Reader Copy, in exchange for an honest review.

Well-paced and intriguing, if a bit of a letdown in the end.

It’s hard to class this book, because it sets up like a thriller, but there’s no real action here, even at the end of the book. This is fine and makes the book feel more like a standard mystery, though it’s a bit frustrating because the story leads you along a path that has you waiting for a big reveal or at least some modest excitement that just never comes.

I also didn’t think the solve was great, which is disappointing because the intricacy of the mystery up to that point was pretty good. I did like the characters, and they’re refreshingly nothing like the people you typically find in this sort of book. But in the end, the way the story fizzles out leaves you feeling more disappointed than satisfied.

Still, it moves well and keeps your attention enough to make it worth a read as long as you temper your expectations.

This is the second book that I’ve read by Laura Dave and I’ve really liked both of them and I will read more from her. I don’t read a lot of domestic dramas; I simply don’t like the genre that much. Reading stories about a bunch of screwed up families is not my idea of an enjoyable read. However, every now and then, I come across one where the premise and storyline seem interesting enough or maybe I’m a fan of the author’s other work. That was definitely the case here.

The book summary basically just introduces the two MC’s, Nora and Sam, half-siblings (same father) who suspect that their father’s fall off the deck of his cliffside home was not an accident. They have to deal with a lazy, local police detective, who did a lousy job investigating the case Nora and Sam blatantly point out to him. Nora is a self-made architect, who had no help at all from her renowned developer father, Liam Noone (pronounced noon not no one). Sam is a former promising baseball player who had a career ending injury early in his career and has been working for his father for years after he left his high school coaching job.

In looking into their father’s last days as well as his personal and professional documentation, they discovered that he seriously considered selling his vast holdings and company to an old friend, Cece. They also soon begin to suspect that their “Uncle Joe” (who was really Liam’s cousin but was considered a “brother” because they grew up together when a young Joe came to live with Liam’s family) seems to know more than he’s saying. Joe is definitely hiding something!

The story flips back and forth between the present, Nora and Sam looking into Liam’s death and the days leading up to it, and the past, Liam’s and Joe’s teen years with a childhood friend, Cordelia, aka Cory. The past chapters start back 51yrs and conclude at one year ago. Somewhere around year 48, I began to suspect Cory’s role in Liam’s life and this story. I ended up being sort of right.

The character development of Nora and Sam was very well done, as well as Liam and Cory’s relationship, which is why the revelation at the end was kind of a shocker. Wow! Did I ever miss the mark on that one. The pacing was really slow at times, but not enough to lose interest in the storyline. The storyline was intriguing enough, which says a lot coming from me, who doesn’t typically enjoy domestic dramas, which is what this is as well as a murder mystery, at least for Nora and Sam. The reader knows from the get-go that Liam was pushed/murdered. It was the writing though that was a big part of what kept me interested too. Too many domestic dramas about messed up families are just plain annoying as crap. This one was a little intriguing because I really wanted to know how Liam and Cory’s relationship played into the story. Even though the kids are grown in this story, I still felt sorry for them for having kind of crappy parents, which is kind of a cheap shot coming from someone who has never been a parent. You don’t need to be a parent to know that parenting is REALLY hard. Having spent a lifetime watching friends and relatives raise kids, I see how hard it is.

Anyway, I’m looking at an overall rating of 3.9 that I will be rounding up to a 4star review. I want to thank NetGalley, Simon Element sending me this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

#NetGalley #SimonElement #TheNightWeLostHim

Thank you to the publisher, author and NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.


Laura Dave has done it again! This was a great book to read. I was so insistent with figuring out what was going on with the father. I love a book that has a dual timeline as well. Learning about the Cory and Liam's relationship, throughout the entire book really put some things in place for me. This is a great story. I know the previous book was made into a show. This also gives show quality story telling!

This was simply put - - an absolutely wonderful read!

This book was a mystery about the death of the patriarch of the family. But it was so much more. It was a in depth analysis of life, missed opportunities and how it impacts you and the ones you love. The main character of this story is Nora. Her father recently died and she and her half brothers are left behind. When her brother, Sam comes to her with a theory that their father didn't accidentally die, Nora is begrudgingly pulled into his theory and they start "investigation" their father's last days.

The story in told in multiple time lines with the majority of the story taking place in the present day and then using flashbacks to previous years to fill in the gaps for the reader to better help us understand who Liam (the father) really was - - what his hopes and dreams were and more. I think that what really stuck with me from this story was the message about trying to not leave regrets behind in your life. I think no matter how hard he tried, Liam always had regrets and things he wanted to change. Nora is on the road to winding up that way too unless she can pull herself together and see what is right in front of her as being important.

This was definitely the perfect balance of family drama combined with an easy mystery. Who killed Liam? And also who was the mystery woman? I love to finish a book and feel completely satisfied with the resolution and this book gave me that.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to read and review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

This was a bit slow paced for my liking. The plot moved slowly for the first 75% and the characters weren't compelling enough to keep it interesting. The end redeemed it for me but this was a bit of a disappointment. As with the author's last book, I really liked the descriptions of the California coast to set the scene.

I have a vivid memory of reading Laura Dave's The Last Thing He Told Me, sitting on a lounge chair by the pool on Spring Break in Key West, over the course of one morning. It was one of the first ARCs I read where I didn't even come up for air - reading with reckless abandon and ignoring everything besides the story. So I jumped with glee to read an early copy of The Night We Lost Him - many thanks to Simon Element for a #gifted copy as well as NetGalley access. While I had to break this book up over several days (teacher tired at the start of the school year is no joke!), I really enjoyed reading this book, too.
I thought I had something figured out while reading this mystery, but I was completely wrong - which was a welcome surprise! I hate to give too much away, but the story revolves around Nora and Sam, step-siblings who share the same father. Sadly their father recently passed away after a fall, and Sam thinks the fall may not have been accidental, as the police, etc. reported. Since the body was cremated, there is no chance of examining the body, but Sam and Nora crisscross the US to try to figure out what actually happened. I think mystery lovers will enjoy this one a lot - I definitely recommend checking it out. Plus, if you're an audiobook fan, Julia Whelan narrates the audiobook - I may have to reread via audiobook to hear her take!

It’s hard to believe Laura Dave could write a more compelling book that The Last Thing He Told Me, but The Night We Lost Him is just that. It is an emotional thriller wrapped up in a love story, with the perfect ending. I loved this book, and am already gifting it to friends and recommending it on social media.

Shout outs on Facebook and Instagram, and 5-star Amazon review posted. Thanks for the early read!

I was hoping for a thriller but this was more of a family drama/mystery with a little bit of romance. It was still readable, but nothing special. Probably my last from this author.

I really loved this book! I loved the character development with Nora, Sam and even Liam. I had multiple different leads forming in my head that weee all wrong, which is the sign of a well-written mystery novel. I really want to read this one again to pick up on all the clues I was missing.

I’m a big fan of the author, this book was good, but didn’t pull me in like her others. It is a fast read and a good story but I would say more of a slow burn family drama in a way over a "thriller". I appreciated the family connections and the way everyone interacted - just wasn't as "intense' as I thought maybe it would/could be. Like I said before - would say it's more of a slow burn family drama, so if you are looking for that, or if that's your kind of story - this is definitely for you!
Thank you Netgalley for my copy of this book! I will post more on my social media coming up.

The Night We Lost Him felt long and plodding. It wasn't a twisty mystery as much as it was a family saga. No big reveals or surprise for me, just a bunch of sad decisions and missed chances. It took me a long time to get through and because I was reading it so slowly, I guess I just kept loosing interets.
thanks for the ARC