In Almost Missed You the age old question of…do you really ever know someone is brought to light. We meet Violet and Finn whom we think are soulmates and we see their love story come to life but soon we realize their story doesn’t have a fairytale ending.

Finn kidnaps their son while on vacation and we learn through alternating chapters how this all came about and we meet Caitlin, Finn’s oldest and dearest friend and her secrets and how she is dragged into this saga. You feel for Violet who loves her son more than life itself. However, her life is destroyed more and more each time she realizes that the man she loves isn’t the person she thought he was. Can you imagine finding out your significant other was even possible to do such things?

I fully enjoyed this story it made me weep for Violet and I was angry at Finn for his actions when really he should’ve been a man and just expressed his feelings to his wife. I didn’t think what he was going through was something that he had to drag his son into. It was a quick read with lots of secrets and twist and turns that had me wanting more. This is one read that I wasn’t able to put down!

Wow! 5 stars hands down. I am so impressed by Jessica Strawser's debut novel Almost Missed You. I read this book in less than three days. It's not to often you come across a book you can't put down. The story is about a rare relationship between the main characters Violet and Finn, and the hidden secrets in his past which come back to haunt him in the worst way. You get to walk with Violet's best friend Caitlin as she is trapped between holding on to a vital secret or allowing one of her own to be made aware. This thriller has you guessing until the end. Well Done!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this great book.
Violet and Finn​ meet by chance, or was it fate? With instant chemistry, their initial meeting leaves a lasting impact on them both. ​So eventually, when they find each other again, get married, and start a family, we assume they'll live happily ever, right?

Not so. There are secrets from Finn's past, things Violet only gets fed bit by bit after Finn disappears with their young son. And Finn's not the only one keeping secrets. Their mutual friend has a doozy of her own, which holds her back from helping Violet.

Along with secrets comes guilt. Can Violet and Finn come to terms with the past? And, will they think the struggle to do so is worth it?

A great read, reminding us that everyone has a past. And some ​will go to great lengths to keep it hidden.

So you're on vacation at the beach, your husband offers to take your toddler so you can get a few extra minutes of relaxation, you finally pull yourself back to the hotel room...and your husband and son are gone. No note, no phone message. All their things are gone, too. So begins Strawser's novel -- and for her protagonist, Violet, the nightmare gets worse and worse. She and her husband, Finn, had crossed paths long ago, lost touch, and then eventually reunited and married. But as Violet learns, an awful lot happened between their first meeting and their second. I liked the drama of this story, and I found the unraveling of secrets very compelling. But what I liked best was Strawser's pitch-perfect depiction of new motherhood. Her rendering of the closeness between Mom and Baby was profound -- and made the disappearance of little "Bear" desperately heartbreaking.

Great debut! I could not put this book down. I hated for it to end. I am looking forward to reading more books by this author!

Thank you to St.Martin's Press and Netgalley for a copy of this eARC in exchange for a fair review.


Violet is on vacation with her husband Finn and their son Bear, Finn takes Bear back into the hotel for a nap living Violet to enjoy herself on the beach for a bit on her own. This leads her to reflect how they met all those years ago on this very beach.


However, when she returns to the room it is like she is on the vacation alone. All of her husband's stuff and their son's stuff is gone. He is just gone, and Violet sinks into a bitter depression. Caitlin's has just returned from visiting Violet when Finn shows up on her doorstep. He threatens her into helping him hide with Bear while he figures things out.



As the past unfolds and the present collides will Violet finally figure out what her husband is hiding? Will she be reunited with her son?


I want to rant about a couple of things, well at least one because spoilers. I will say this I am still pondering that ending and how to feel about it. I am going to say this I am not sure I loved how we were supposed to feel about Finn, I really don't. I am not going to spoil this, but I don't find him a sympathetic character at all. I know as we learn everything we are supposed to feel sorry for him. I really didn't at all. I think that contributes to my feelings about the end.



That being said I loved Violet and Caitlin, they struggled to do the right thing and to come clean and I wish the state of their friendship had been resolved a bit better in the book. This fell a little flat on the thriller aspect, possibly even the mystery. It was a darn good story, I could not stop reading it, even when I felt a little angry or frustrated I could not stop reading. A fantastic job on a debut novel! Bear broke my heart and I really just wanted to shot Finn, sigh I am sure others will feel differently than I do, but as a mother who loves her kids, I couldn't muster anything beyond disgust and contempt for him.

Traveling With T’s Thoughts:

This book just showed up randomly in my mailbox one day ( I love when one of my fave publicists just sends me a book that she knows I’ll love!) and after reading the note from her, I looked at the other books on my shelf and said “Sorry peeps, this book is getting read now!”

I loved this domestic drama. I could not read fast enough to find out what happened to Violet and Finn, how they could go from happy to him kidnapping their child and blackmailing his best friend.

This book really brought home the point of sometimes those connections you make with someone, the ones that you think are life-changing, are sometimes the ones you should throw back.

What I liked:

The Cover. It hinted at secrets. At a torn life. It had darkness and light. It’s a good cover.

The missed connections angle. I am fascinated by that, by people who write in about people they saw. It’s like fate is saying “here’s a second chance” (possibly!)

The characters. They were fleshed out. Interesting. Understandable.

The secrets. Everyone keeps secrets and this book did not disappoint on that note.



Bottom line: Book clubs- you have met your book to discuss for 2017. Make the t-shirts up, wave your foam fingers, and get ready to discuss the heck outta this book!



*This book was sent to Traveling With T for review consideration. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone.*



Happy Reading and Bookishly Yours,

T @ Traveling With T

I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This is a well written story about relationships and secrets. Violet and Finn seem so perfect. Then Finn disappears with their son. The explosion of secrets and lies begin. I loved Violet. She just grabbed my heart. I had some issues with Caitlin and George. They drove me nuts. I was so intrigued by the twists in the story. I didn't realize how emotional this would be. Very impressive book!

Almost Missed You is the kind of book that has a great intriguing start and then when the answers start to come slowly loses some of its appeals. I loved the mystery of why Finn kidnapped his own son when he is apparently in a happy marriage to Bear's mother Violet. It was such a great start, wondering why Finn would do a thing like that. However, the answer to that question made me dislike Finn quite badly. To be totally honest did I want to bitch slap him a couple of times through the book. His decision, his secrets, well it annoyed the crap out of me. Thankfully Violet and Caitlin made the book bearable. Both women are in my opinion victims in this story. Violet who is left with no explanations to why her husband has left her and taken their son with them and Caitlin who is being blackmailed into helping Finn.

Almost Missed You did not turn out to be as good as I thought it would be when I started reading it. I liked the writing, but I did not like Finn's actions and that made the book a bit hard to read. For one thing, I just couldn't understand why Finn never told Violet about certain aspects of his past? Come clean about what happened those two years that it took for them to meet again after the first meeting. That Caitlin and her husband George didn't insist that Finn should tell Violet felt also a bit weird. There are a lot of other things that bothered me, but I don't want to spoil the story, but there are a lot of secrets in this book and those secrets are dragged into the light.

Almost Missed You may not have made my day. However, it was not all bad, I did like the writing and I wouldn't mind reading more from Jessica Strawser. I also have to admit, despite my dislike of Finn did when I read the ending hope that there would be a bright future for the characters.

With a unique and compelling premise, “Almost Missed You” is an addictive blend of suspense and intrigue. But at its very core, it’s an emotionally-charged contemporary novel that tests your belief in love, fate, and missed opportunities. It puts into question one’s moral compass and brings into focus relationship ideals such as honesty and trust. Showcasing complex, multi-faceted characters, “Almost Missed You” is sure to leave you contemplating some of life’s most basic perceptions.

After years of searching—and with the guiding hands of fate--Violet finally found her “happily ever after.” Now married to the man of her dreams, Violet and her husband Finn, are enjoying a blissful beach vacation with their 3-year old son, Bear. What had started out as a dream vacation, however, suddenly turns into Violet’s worst nightmare, when she discovers Finn and Bear have gone missing from their hotel. Devastated over the loss of her son and confused over Finn’s apparent betrayal, Violet now questions their relationship and the seemingly perfect life she believed they had shared.

As the story unfolds, Finn’s closest friend, Caitlin, gets drawn into the drama. Using information that could destroy Caitlin’s marriage, Finn (who’s on the run) blackmails his friend as a means to enlist her help. Torn between saving her marriage and doing what she knows to be right, Caitlin struggles to find a way out. But when her poorly executed plan goes awry, Caitlin unwittingly places her own family in dire jeopardy.

At the onset of this book, I thought I had a pretty good handle on what this story would entail. I couldn’t have been more wrong. What initially appeared to be the start of Violet’s nightmare, was in fact, the culmination of Finn’s. Secrets and lies, suppressed for far too long, finally rise to the surface. Friendships are tested; relationships are shattered. And in its wake, a tragic story remains. Powerful in a subtle, understated way, “Almost Missed You” is a thought-provoking story you won’t soon forget.

You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. This old expression applies to books, as well as many other things. A great start is key to pulling the reader into the story. If the first chapter doesn’t captivate me, I am easily distracted and it’s damn near impossible to make up for that shortcoming. Almost Missed You had no such issue. Jessica Strawser lulled me into the comfort of “vacationland”, not Maine, but the Atlantic coast of Southern Florida. I was there, picturing the waves crashing on the beach, breathing in the salty sea air with a rum drink in my hand…then suddenly, I got cracked up the side of the head and brought back to reality. Strawser had my full attention, she was not going to do that to me again. This is a straight tequila book, no icy beverages with umbrellas.

Sometimes I find it peculiar how a story can remind me of another piece of work. In a strange sort of way, Almost Missed You made me think of The Comedy of Errors – the lack of communication and misunderstandings made the story a tragedy of errors. Bouncing back and forth between the characters, I wished and hoped that they could/would just say it, come clean, all of this not saying it is bad. This all speaks to how well Strawser developed her characters. For the time that I was reading this book, Finn, Violet and Caitlin were an intrinsic part of my life. I liked them, I hated their decisions.

Almost Missed You was a great change of pace for me; often, it’s fun to sink into a book that’s set in the here and now, one where the monster might be your next door neighbor or even closer.

*4.5 Stars

"Whatever you've been writing down for yourself in the captain's log, make sure it's honest."


What a fantastic debut novel! It had me hooked from the first chapter. It gave my suspense and romance lover heart a jolt of emotion.

The story centers around three characters: Violet, Finn and Caitlin.

Finn and Caitlin have been friends since college. Caitlin was "one of the guys" and she became a good support for Finn when he loses his parents. When Caitlin falls in love and later on becomes engaged, Finn is invited to the beach for the bachelor party. During this vacation, he meets Violet and they feel a connection. Sadly, their conversation is cut short without either learning the name of the other. Fin decides to place an add on Craigslist Missed Connections in hope of finding Violet. Fast forward a few years and now Finn is married to Violet. During a vacation with their son Bear, Finn disappears taking Bear with him.

Let me tell you, this novel had a great plot with very interesting characters. There is romance but there is also a great deal of heartbreak. I love how the author provided us with the voices of all three characters. The alternating POVs and the chapters from the past all helped give depth to each of them.

Violet was a strong woman who was happy being alone but she felt a connection with Flinn which was hard to dismiss. She was truly brokenhearted when he leaves her and takes Bear with him. Thankfully, her grandmother helped her put things into perspective.

Despite Finn doing the unthinkable, I was sad for him. He was in pain and he was punishing himself. I almost felt like he didn't want to acknowledge how much pain he was causing Violet. My heart ached for the pain he was provoking in her.

Caitlin had her own drama. She tried to do the right thing while still protecting her own family. Of course, things didn't turn out the way she intended them to be. Despite her obsession with keeping her kids safe, she was very likable and a great friend to Flinn.

I strongly recommend Almost Missed You to any fan of the women's fiction genre with a touch of suspense.

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Almost Missed You by Jessica Strawer was a story that brought the reader on a journey of self discovery. I felt compelled to keep on reading and found myself emotionally attached to the main characters for various reasons. The book is written in the three viewpoints of Violet, Finn and Caitlin going back and forth in time drawing us a picture of the events that led up the the first scene and then the end.

Violet and Finn are married with a young child. They were on vacation at the ocean when Finn and the baby disappear. Caitlin and Finn have been friends for a long, long time. They know so much about each other, enough that Finn blackmaled Caitlin to help him hide. Violet and Caitlin are friends and had their babies together, but Caitlin doesn’t share everything - and then there is her husband in the mix. The story of couples and marriages with secrets that some know and others do not, but they know others and no one seems to know them all.

Jessica Strawer’s first book, Almost Missed You was a great read. I enjoyed the story, the characters, the secrets and the writing. I am looking forward to her next book!!!!

Mind-Expanding! Jessica Strawser delivers a thought-provoking, creative, gripping, page-turning mystery and suspenseful debut, ALMOST MISSED YOU.

The what ifs . . . Meant to be. Almost. Destiny. A Chance Meeting. Imagine if . . . ?

Marriage, friendship, motherhood, romance, trust, and betrayal. Pushing life's boundaries. Life is complex yet intriguing. Providence, the stars, chance, luck, serendipity, fortune, kismet, karma.

"What has fate in store for me?" FATE: The development of events beyond a person's control, regarded as determined by a supernatural power.

2016: Violet and Finn are married with a son named Bear. They are on vacation in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida (North Miami). Life was good. Violet was a great mother. They had met six years ago, on this very beach on the other side of the pier. It was an instant electric connection. However, they were interrupted before they had the chance of exchanging information.

Dominoes. How did they end up together? Were they positioned perfectly? Why were they interrupted?

However, now, years later their well-planned getaway, turns tragic. Had her husband planned this all along?

Violet comes in from the beach to her ninth-floor hotel room to check on her son. Horrified, her son is gone. Her husband is not there. All their belongings are gone. Nothing left but her things. How could this have happened? Every trace of her husband and son were done. As if they had been figments of her imagination.

The author takes us back to 2010, a T-shirt, a camp from Pennsylvania, where the couple met in Sunny Isles Beach, FL. An odd coincidence? Their interruption. An emergency on the beach separated them. Was it meant to be, after all?

Finn comes back from meeting this woman whom he thinks he will never see again. Someone from Cincinnati area. How was it possible they had managed to have a real connection and yet find out so little about each other?

Enter: Craigslist’s Missed Connections. Finn drafted his post. “Care to pick up where fate left off?”

However, the person who replied was not Violet. It was Maribel. A stranger. What if he had not placed the ad? Maribel would not be dead. He would not be self-destructing. A life imploding.

Flashing back and forth from the past to the present, Violet is frantic. The police are involved. The FBI. An investigation. No one has found her husband and child.

Their best friends: Caitlin and her husband, George. They had twin boys close to the same age as Bear. Caitlin and Finn were friends since college. Why on earth would Finn do such a thing? How could any wife be as truly blindsided as Violet had been?

Finn’s parents were dead. He had a secret past. Perhaps, PTSD? Things Violet did not know. The investigation brings things to light, about her husband and friend. What would make him do such a drastic thing? She must get her son back. Could Missed Connections be the answer once again?

From Finn, Caitlin, to Violet, the suspense and emotions are high. Violet soon learns Finn was not the husband and man she thought he was at all. He was a kidnapper.

Finn soon blackmails Caitlin. George is a powerful man and comes from prestigious political family. Caitlin knows his reputation is at stake. Finn wants to hide out in their Kentucky remote cabin until he gets his head on straight.

Now Caitlin is caught between her best friend, Violet and sympathizes with her being a mother— to being fearful that Finn could ruin her own marriage and family with a secret. Guilt and fear. The consequences were terrifying.

Dark secrets from the past.

Lined up perfectly, yet so many things crossed their path. The first time they met. Years later. The reconnection. What had happened during all those years in between?

Finn knew he needed to give back Bear to Violet; however, could not stand to let him go. He could no longer see a way for them both to have him together. He could not see a way for Violet to remain in his life at all. Not after everything that had happened.

The metaphor. The dominoes.

“There had been 1,001 chances and reason for them not to end up together. And there was really only one chance, and really only one reason, for it to go the other way.”

Finn’s survivor guilt (Maribel), is at the heart of the story. Caitlin and Violet are secondary.

Wow! Strawser delivers an intriguing debut. Complex, well-written, and unputdownable. Readers will be frustrated, nerve-wracked, and engaged all at the same time. The showdown at the cabin will have you on pins and needles. For fans of mystery, domestic suspense, psychological, and contemporary.

So many questions . . . False or real? Trust. Life, marriage, friendships, love? Do you really know the people you are friends with and the person you are married to? Why do people choose to ignore all the signs? Do we settle?

However, as they say, “Life is like an elevator. On your way up, sometimes you have to stop and let some people off.”

We all have looked back at a job offer in California, New York, Arizona, or a life choice? The what ifs? How would my life be different if I had made a different choice? Taken an alternate path. Two roads. Which one? Will the outcome be the same, or dramatically different?

Whether you have or have not had a chance encounter in your lifetime, a special person, time or place, ALMOST MISSED YOU will make you contemplate. The what if? An ideal choice for book clubs and further discussions.

In a recent online interview with the author:
. . . “The idea for ‘Almost Missed You’ comes from my own fascination with the idea of fate and the importance people put on meeting ‘the one,’ and on what’s supposedly meant to be,” Jessica explains. “We place such cultural importance on how couples meet, how paths cross and fates intertwine. I wanted to explore if that’s always for the best.”


She indeed accomplishes her goal.

From Cincinnati, OH, a remote cabin in Kentucky to some of my familiar places I have lived and worked: Asheville, NC, Sunny Isles (North Miami), and St. Augustine, FL . . . the author takes us on a journey. How these places, people, things . . . connect and bring together the story of memories, what happened and what did not.

Cannot wait to see what comes next!

For fans of Kimberly S. Belle, Paula Treick DeBoard, Renee Carlino, Colleen Hoover, Kate Moretti, Laura McNeill, and Emilie Richards. Some of my favorites.

A special thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an early reading copy.

JDCMustReadBooks

There was a lot about this book I enjoyed and I was always keen to pick up my ereader and find out what happened next. I loved the was the chapters swapped between characters and times too and I did like a lot of the characters or at least how I thought the characters seemed at first.. For all these reasons I would recommend it as one to read but I felt the conclusion let it down and without giving any of the plot away I will only say that it felt like I had stumbled into a West End farce towards the end.

I love the idea of fate playing a huge role in someone’s life, remember the movie Serendipity? When I read the blurb for this that’s the first thing that popped into my head, but this isn’t as light and cutesy, it’s much darker and way more emotional. I’m also a huge fan of domestic suspense books like Behind Closed Doors, The Marriage Lie and Say Nothing, so when an author can take the concept of not really knowing who you’re married to and put a unique spin on it, I’m all in!

This is told from three perspectives and also in flashbacks from Violet, Finn and Caitlin. Violet and Finn are married and the way they meet and end up together is fascinating. This is where the whole concept of kismet comes into play, but I don’t want to say more because half of the fun of reading this one was watching it unfold myself. Caitlin is Finn’s best friend from college and her and Violet also become close, especially after they’re pregnant at the same time. When Finn and their son, Bear vanish while on vacation, both women are utterly blindsided and struggle to fathom what drove Finn to such extreme measures.

This was a highly addictive, page turning read. It starts off really strong and sucks you right into Violet and Finn’s marriage and their friendship with Caitlin. It’s pretty clear right away that Finn has some huge secrets, but it was twisty in many other surprising ways as well. In the middle of the book the pace slows down quite a bit and there is a lot of soul searching amongst all of the characters. Then in the last quarter of the book things really get cranked up again and the tension mounts as it all comes to a head.

Strawser is an extremely talented writer and she wrote an engaging story that kept me engrossed for the vast majority of the book. This would be a really good pick for a book club, there is plenty to discuss about the choices the characters made and the secrets that were kept and if the reasoning behind said secrets was justified or not. My only slight complaint was that the ending was a bit too neat and tidy for me, but I always do appreciate a good epilogue and I definitely had that here. I can wholeheartedly say that I would pick up another one of the authors books anytime.

A wonderful debut novel by Jessica Strawser. It's a unique type storyline about a couple named Finn and Violet who meet by chance during a tragedy one day. Years later they are married and Finn abandons Violet and takes their young son, Bear with him. What has led him to this? The storyline takes off from there. I had to keep reading and find out. It kept me guessing. His reasonings show a man struggling with pain. Secrets, heartache, and a tad bit of suspense (as his past unravels) all in one. Love the title and the cover. Very appealing. 3.5 *

I'm not quite sure how to feel about this book, I didn't love it but i didn't hate it either.
The story was ok, but i was always hoping for that big twist in the plot that never came.
Overall is a good story, but I don't think is a memorable one.

“It was never all that hard to rationalize your way through doing something wrong when it was a way to get what you wanted.”


Strawser's debut has it all: an interesting plot, plenty of twists and turns, characters that I came to care for, as well some I didn’t like and secrets that are slowly revealed. The book delves deeply into what happens when carefully guarded secrets, haunt the person keeping them and the measures they are willing to take to make sure no one ever finds out what they’ve done.

The author did an outstanding job of peeling back the layers of the characters and letting us take a peek at what they were really made of. She is also very gifted in the ability to twist what you think you feel. She can a take character, make you feel that they are one of the worst people in the book, or one of the best, and then slowly change your feelings as she reveals more about them. Bravo!

There were suspenseful moments that kept me reading as fast as I could—unwilling to put the book until I came to a place where it looked like things might be ok—for now. WHEW!

With this much talent in a new author, I can’t wait to see what’s next!

Almost Missed You was not as exciting as the official blurb for the book made it seem. If anything, it was a bit lacklustre. I spent most of the book wanting to give various characters a shake to bring them back to reality.
I think my main problem is everything could have been solved by a little bit of communication. There was no need for things to have escalated as much as they did. It all seemed a little bit ridiculous frankly.
I thought Jessica Strawser’s writing was good, it was just the story I didn’t enjoy.
It begins with Violet sitting on a beach with a cocktail. She is relaxing and thinking that although it has been a long time since she has had so much alone time she really just wants to be with her son, Bear.
She is thinking about the romantic story off how she and Finn met and thinking that he life has never been so full and that Bear and her husband Finn are her life now.
However, when she gets back to the hotel she is stunned to realise that Finn and Bear aren’t there and all of their things have gone. After phoning Finn’s phone and finding it has been disconnected she eventually realises that her husband has abducted her son.
As the FBI gets involved Violet increasingly leans on those around her, including her formed neighbour Caitlin and her husband George. Caitlin has been friends with Finn for years and she is just as stunned as Violet.
However, when Caitlin returns home from work one day to find Finn and Bear stood in her kitchen her loyalties are tested. When Finn threatens her family Caitlin finds herself torn between what she knows is right and what she hopes will stop her life imploding like Violet’s.
This book deals with a lot of secrets and lies, most of which are completely avoidable.
In fairness, I guess the fact that the characters annoyed me is a good thing because at least I felt something towards them.
The main message of this book is that nothing is as it seems and that even seemingly perfect couples can have massive cracks beneath the surface.