First of all… 🤯🤯 Ashley Flowers will always be the Queen of Plot Twists. I could NOT stop reading once I got into the thick of it. This book read exactly how Ashley hosts Crime Junkie and it was such a refreshing take on a mystery/suspense story!

I am only taking off a star because the ‘women drink wine to cope with stress’ stereotype is way overdone and I’m so tired of women being perpetuated as alcoholics when facing stress or trauma.

I was so invested and then I wasn't. It took a turn near the end that I wasn't a big fan of and it lessened my enjoyment of the story as a whole.
I still really liked the writing style and the plot until the first twist is revealed.
I guess I wanted more of the investigation aspect and not what we ended with.
I feel like I'm ragging on this but I'm not I promise. It's a good story and character analysis. Just lost me at the end.

Thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was given the opportunity to listen to the audio version of Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. This audio book included the use of several narrators to lend their voices to multiple characters and the points of view they all share in this novel.
Set on a remote island, this novel explores situations that could possibly occur, at least regarding the potential loss of important data. These elements are quite educational yet the author does a wonderful job balancing this substantial material with the more general elements of suspense and complicated relationships.
I felt empathy for most of the characters and found myself rooting for their success.
At it's base the storyline is unique. At the superficial level the main adult characters struggle with their attraction to one another in their enemies to lovers trope.
Overall, I loved the narration and the story kept my attention by providing tension and suspense from start to finish.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random house for this opportunity.

The Missing Half beautifully combines a tragic mystery with an overwhelming grief and guilt. There are a lot of twists and turns — which I won't spoil here — and while there are certainly aspects to the plot I wish were more believable, overall, I really enjoyed the story. As other reviewers mentioned, the very, very end packs a punch that I didn't expect, but that I really appreciated.

** Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the ARC. **

I read Ashley Flowers first book and really enjoyed it, but this one I loved!!

Two young woman set out to solve the mystery of their sisters’ disappearances. Nic’s older sister disappeared without a trace and since then Nic has been spiraling, resulting in a DWI, probation and AA meetings. Jenna’s younger sister went missing and she has spent the time since trying to solve the mystery of what happened to and how it’s connected to Nic’s sister.

If you love listening to Ashley Flowers tell stories on her podcasts you will love the writing style in “The Missing Half”. The characters are well developed with just the right amount of back story to build a connection to the story. About half-way through I was convinced I had solved the story, but then the plot-twist.

I stayed up way too late finishing the book, but it was worth it. I hope to see more stories by this author.

This was such a good book!!! It is a perfect thriller with so many twists and turns. You never really know where the book is going. I think it was full of emotion and great writing! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

THE ENDING YOU NEVER SEE COMING!!
I loved this one. I read the majority on a flight and it was the perfect companion to the turbulence! A seemingly standard thriller, this one starts with two missing girls and goes OFF THE RAILS in the best way. The writing was great, the characters had enough depth to be forgettable but not so much that it was unrealistic. I liked that Nic really is all of us - a trauma just derails our whole life and sometimes we don’t recover. Nic? Never recovered from her sister’s disappearance and this book reads like a sister that just deeply needs her sibling.

Oh man. Perfect for so many people. A quick read (took a couple hours) and it’ll sink its teeth into you. Yes.

3.5 stars
This was a pleasant read. I enjoyed the mystery and found it captivating. I thought the pacing was great, and it had good flow. I thought the ending was fantastic. However, I wasn't a fan of the writing style and thought the prose could've been better.

This story was a good, fast read. The ending was surprising, which I appreciated. I would read other books written by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for this ARC!!

I read this author’s debut novel when it came out and really liked this writing. I felt this book was even better! The twists were amazing. I absolutely did not see the end coming at all. This was a novel that I could not put down and finished in one day.

Nic and Jenna have one very big thing in common: their sisters (Kasey and Jules) went missing. Their cases are presumed to be connected. In the seven years since they’ve gone missing, Nic and Jenna haven’t crossed paths. Until one day, Jenna shows up at Nic’s work and tells her she has information the police don’t. They start to work together to try to solve the mystery of what happened to their sisters.

Nic’s life has slowly been falling apart in the 7 years since Kasey disappeared, most recently landing her with a DWI, mandatory AA meetings, and community service.

I really enjoyed this! It’s super fast paced and the last 20% is twist after twist after twist. I liked the twists and didn’t guess any of them, but didn’t think they came out of left field (which I don’t like). The ending made sense with the progression of the story and it had a satisfying conclusion.

**ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ashley Flowers does it again, The Missing Half is such a fun ride! I was so excited to read this book and it did not disappoint.
This book tells the story of 2 missing girls from the same town and how far sisters will go for each other.

Nic is working a dead end job in her hometown, going to AA meetings and surviving the loss of her missing sister Kasey. Nic is approached by Jenna who happens to be the sister of another missing girl from their town. Jenna convinces Nic to look into their sister’s cold cases to try to solve them.
As the story unfolds Nic learns that she didn’t know her sister as well as she thought she did. The two follow leads into the local restaurant owner and creep of the town. They confront the detective who was on the case looking anything that could’ve been overlooked. Nic searches her own car and family for answers while Jenna seems to be withdrawing herself dealing with her sick mother.

The missing half is a quick read that had me staying up all night to finish. The last two big reveals had my jaw on the floor. However I don’t feel like everything was tied up at the end but I still enjoyed it.
Thank you so much to NetGalley for the digital ARC, I was so happy to receive this book!
Look for the missing half out May 6th, 2025!!

It takes a lot to keep me guessing as a reader of this genre. I love nothing more than not seeing events coming. This book did that and more! Tension builds throughout the book and leaves you so unprepared for the ending. You feel for these characters so much and can't help but wonder what the end game is. Highly recommend to anyone that wants to not guess what's coming in this psychological thriller.

OK ASHLEY FLOWERS GO AHEAD. I love thrillers and mysteries but never give them 5 stars because ya know, endings are predictable, same storylines, etc. This was not like that, this was perfect. I was gripped from the beginning and read it in 2 days. It was giving AGGGTM but for adults, in the best way.

Ashley really laid out the story with breadcrumbs to follow to solve the murders and every time I thought I had it figured out, it was different. But it worked. It wasn’t a super unrealistic plot twist (ok kinda but it’s fiction lol) and as the ending approached, I was wary of the turns it was taking but it came together perfectly. Even after all that happened, I find myself still rooting for Nic to get her shit together.

I also enjoyed that it wasn’t a neatly wrapped up ending with bad guys locked away and everything squared up. It made it feel less cookie cutter thriller. Anyways - love! Everyone read this.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of The Missing Half.

I was pleased my request was approved since I read the author's first book and the premise of her second book made me interested to read it.

Eight years ago, Nic Monroe's older sister, Kasey, went missing. Since then, her life has never been the same. Her personal and professional life is a mess, and she can't do anything right.

Until the older sister of another missing woman, Jules, comes to her for help in her personal investigation, certain Jules' and Kasey's cases are connected.

But is Nic ready to face the truth of what happened to her sister, and the consequences of her own actions?

First, I really liked Nic and Kasey's relationship; they were very close and Kasey looked out for Nic because that's what an older sister does.

Second, Nic was harder to like; I didn't dislike her but I didn't like her.

I know her life is a mess and she's young and keeps making bad decisions but it feels like she's never learned from her mistakes. Again, she's young and her parents aren't exactly supportive and there for her.

Third, I liked how Nic and Jules' sister team up to find out what happened to their missing sisters; their rapport and energy worked off each other despite, or because of, how different they are.

The pacing of the narrative is good, there's some suspense and a bit of urgency, especially as we see Nic make one poor decision after another.

But then we get to the end, the hook, the reason readers are reading The Missing Half.

If the author had given us one twist, such as where Kasey was all this time and why, I could have accepted the ending.

But there's a twist upon a twist that really made me strain to suspend disbelief. It was just too much.

I've noticed many suspense authors doing this; throwing twist after twist and the kitchen sink at readers to shock and amaze us but it doesn't hit its mark for some of us (definitely not me).

This wasn't bad and I liked the writing, if not Nic.

If you can suspend disbelief easily, unlike me, you'll really enjoy this.

The Missing Half is a mystery suspense that centers on Nic and Jenna, both of whom are struggling with the fact that their sisters disappeared in seemingly-related events seven years earlier. The police have drawn a blank and the case has long since grown cold when the book begins with Jenna seeking Nic out and convincing her that they should investigate on their own.

None of the characters are likable. Nic is a train wreck, and though you try to dredge up sympathy for her by reminding yourself that she’s been through a lot, the fact that she seems determined to repeatedly take a wrecking ball to her own life gets tiresome quickly. Jenna is far more put together than Nic, but she too is self-centered and immature, and when it’s revealed that she is 34 years old you’re likely to do a double take. The secondary cast of characters is, if anything, worse, and everything you find out about them simply reinforces that point of view.

The story has a lot of potential. It’s a bit of a different twist on a relatively common premise, as it turns out, but the problem is that there are so many holes and inconsistencies in the story that in the end you’re left more annoyed than anything else.

Take, for example, Nic and Jenna’s relationship. At a certain point in the book, the reader is expected to believe that her “friendship” with Jenna has become the best part of Nic’s life. Presumably to set up events that are shortly to come. And yet, that deep relationship has been in no way established. The two of them have nothing to do with each other aside from their investigation; they don’t chat, they don’t hang out, hell they don’t even trauma bond. In fact, one gets the sense that half the time they don’t even trust one another, so to somehow suppose that they are suddenly BFFs is quite a stretch.

The path that leads to the climax of the story has enormous gaps in it. The reader is expected after the fact to follow the logical progression, as most of the action that leads our protagonists here, we are expected to accept, happened off-page. Behind the scenes, as it were, and explained after the fact in a villainesque monologue. Frankly, I find that to be a cop out.

And, finally, when events are fully explained they are distinctly lacking. Scene details the author wrote in to fit the previous narrative simply do not work when they attempt to make them fit the twist they want the ending to be, and it’s disappointing and irksome to read the whole book only to have it crumble over silly things.

Attention to detail matters, most especially in genres like this one. I’ve tried hard to avoid spoilers in this review and have not supplied specifics, so I will close simply by saying that The Missing Half missed the mark on too many of the details.

Disclosure: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley and am leaving a voluntary review.

Thank you to the author, publishers and NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC copy of this book. #TheMissingHalf #NetGalley

How would suddenly losing your sister affect the course of your life? For our main character, Nic, her life has been off-course since her older sister, Kasey, disappeared seven years prior. When she is approached by Jenna, whose sister, Jules, disappeared in a similar fashion a couple weeks before Kasey disappeared, Nic is reluctant to get involved. But Jenna wants to reinvestigate the girls' disappearance, and convinces Nic to join in. As they work together, they discover long-hidden secrets, and form a bond. But their investigation leads to an unexpected conclusion. A solid read.

I really enjoyed this one. It was well paced and thought out. The characters, the plot and the twists were great. This is the second book by the author and I definitely think this one was better. This one didn’t feel like a copy of an already true crime story. The main character goes through a lot of emotions throughout but the growth is a good addition to the story. Without giving anything away a second book to this would be great to see where the main characters and others end up.

It's the second book I read by Ashley Flowers, and though it is better than the first one, I still think she tried too hard with the plot twists. Some of them were predictable, and the end of the book felt kind of rushed and not thought through, especially coming from someone who "deals" with crime as her main job. Overall, the book was entertaining, and it kept me hooked because I wanted to see where it was going, but it wasn't a favorite.

Nic’s life went off the rails the night her sister Kasey disappeared. Kasey’s car was found abandoned along the side of the road miles from home. Shortly before Kasey went missing, Jenna’s sister also disappeared. Her car was also left at the side of the road. The police think the cases might be related, but their investigations went nowhere. Seven years after the disappearances, Jenna convinces Nic to team up to try to find out what happened to their sisters and who was responsible.

Nic’s struggle to move on from Kasey’s disappearance is heartbreaking, but understandable. Her life seems frozen in place in the same job she had in high school, still drinking too much, and making poor decisions.

Dang! This one really blew my mind. I was not prepared for the ending. 🤯 it’s best to go into this one with as little knowledge as possible so you don’t see the twists and turns coming. The plot is tight and well executed and the pace is steady. There were numerous red herrings that kept me guessing. This is a fantastic thriller that will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the very end.

Thank you Penguin Random House and NetGalley for the e-arc. The Missing Half publishes May 6.