Winter doesn’t have an easy life in Reeve’s End. Everyone leaves the town eventually, including Winter’s sister. But does everyone leave… or do they go missing? When Winter encounters a strange boy stuck up in a tree after escaping some feral dogs, she gets wrapped up in more than just a missing person’s case. So much happened in this book, yet nothing happened at the same time. The mystery was all over the place, even inserting subplots to divert from solving the mystery too quickly. This was a quick read, but it could’ve gone without the animal cruelty and the brotherly love triangle. Also, there were too many convenient mine shafts; the setting was detailed yet too obviously ominous. This book could have been better by either being much shorter or more fleshed out into a longer novel, but as it stands, it’s just a disappointing read.

I'm normally a fan of Kelley Armstrong but Missing just didn't do it for me. It was really long and the pacing was all over the place. I didn't really enjoy the main characters and there is some pretty graphic depictions of killing dogs which is majorly icky for me.

Really enjoyed this standalone from Kelley Armstrong. I wanted a quick read and not to get sucked into another long drawn-out series, so Missing was the perfect fit. I like the author's adult reads, but I actually prefer her YA books like this one. Her Summoning series is one of my favorite YA paranormal reads of all time. Missing keeps the reader guessing and definitely has a creepy feel from start to finish. Really felt for Winter and her troubled backstory. Ideal for older teens and adults.

Love this author!! Her YA books are always on point . If you love fast pacing from start to finish and we'll developed characters you'll love this book and her otherd

Kelly Armstrong never fails her readers. Her characters are believable and grow throughout the stories. She has wonderful pacing and fleshes the story out with background and details.

DNF. I found that I couldn't really engage with this story as much as I tried. Not my cup of tea. I found this to be a disappointing YA novel.

Thrillers and mysteries are in high demand in my school this year, so was happy to have the budget to purchase this book. It's a great addition to the collection and one a book I am happy to pass along and say...trust me....read this, you'll love it!

Unfortunately, once picking this book up I realized that, it wasn't for me. Although, I do hope to give it another try in the future.

Winter is just trying to make it through her last year of high school in small town Kentucky with her drunk and abusive father and snobby schoolmates. Then she comes across a guy treed by feral dogs and a mystery about missing people. ARC from NetGalley.

Missing is a slow rolling yet satisfying read. In the beginning I didn't know what to expect or where the story was going. Which was a good thing because I wasn't able to guess anything that happened until the very end when the mystery is finally revealed. Even then, I didn't see it coming. Armstrong's novels are full of good writing, great characters, and a plot that will keep you reading until the very end.

The main character, Winter, lives in a beat up old town that has nothing to offer. All she wants to do is get through her senior year of high school so that she can get out of town when she goes to college. Then eventually make her way to med school to become a doctor. Her solace is the forest. Away from her alcoholic father and the place that's full of emptiness since her sister left town and never look backed.

When she's in the woods she finds a boy, Lennon, whose halfway to dead and is able to take him to her shack in the forest and fix him up. That's when all the creepiness sets in. There's someone out there playing a game of cat and mouse with them and Lennon feels that since he put her in danger, it's up him to stop everything. He disappears.

Then Jude enters the picture. Jude is the brother of Lennon and he'll stop at nothing to find him. He and Winter team up to do the impossible. Look into the mystery as to why local teens have gone missing.

I really did enjoy the book. In the beginning it was a little slow but it quickly gains momentum. Enough to have me wanting more. There is very little romance in the book but I felt like it was perfect. The real story and more interesting one is in fact the missing teens. As I stated before, I wasn't able to guess about anything that even remotely came close to as what happened.

Readers, if you're looking for a creepy thriller that'll keep you on your toes, don't miss out.


*Review copy given by publisher for honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Missing by Kelley Armstrong is a young adult thriller. The only thing Winter Crane likes about Reeve’s End is that soon she’ll leave it. Like her best friend did. Like her sister did. Like most of the teens born in town have done. There’s nothing for them there but abandoned mines and empty futures. They’re better off taking a chance elsewhere. The only thing Winter will miss is the woods. Her only refuge. At least it was. Until the day she found Lennon left for dead, bleeding in a tree. But now Lennon is gone too. And he has Winter questioning what she once thought was true. What if nobody left at all? What if they’re all missing?

Missing is a bit of a mystery and very much a thriller. I liked the characters and the mystery surrounding Winter's search for Lennon and the missing teens from Reeve's End. I thought the reality of the hard lives people in Reeve's End face is engaging and makes the larger story and mystery much deeper. Winter's struggle to get a better life, and her willingness to risk it all to do the right thing draws the reader and makes them care so much about her as a character and a person. I found Lennon and Jude, and the personalities and mystery surround them, to be extremely well done. I will admit to being surprised several times with the elements intrinsic to the thriller aspect of the story. I like that the physiological component was high, and that while there was some gore, it was not overwhelming. The balance of character and setting development was pretty much perfect, making the town and characters all very real and multi dimensional rather than flat and boring bits in the background. While I am not a big fan of thrillers, I found myself rather hoping for even more about Winter what might happen next to most of the characters.

Missing is a young adult thriller, a new direction for Armstrong. I have been a fan of her other works, but I am not usually a big thriller fan, but I recognized the writing style and enjoyed the read very much. I might even continue reading her thrillers because of her character and setting work, despite my general avoidance of the genre.

I am always really excited about a new Kelley Armstrong book so I am not sure how I ended up with 4 in my TBR pile but it was time to remedy that, starting with her young adult thriller, Missing. Missing by Kelley Armstrong is a story about Winter Crane, a teenage girl who lives in Reeve’s End in the middle of nowhere Kentucky where the best thing people can do for their future is to leave. That’s what Winter’s sister did, what her best friend did, and it’s exactly what Winter plans to do too. Then she finds a boy, Lennon, left for dead in the woods where she lives, but before she can figure out what he was doing there, Lennon goes missing.

As always, Armstrong does a great job with the atmosphere and tension of Missing. The setting–a small town, a forest, a mansion–are all great creepy locales. The story also flows really well. Worth noting is that there is some graphic violence to animals. My main issue with the book is the fact that there is just not enough warning about the big reveal, the mystery was solved in a way which was sudden and not very satisfying to me. Winter is a mix of smart and fool-hardy, and she did some things I found really frustrating, but I still enjoyed her perspective and Armstrong’s writing. There’s a bit of romance in the book, and it was excellent. While it did have some issues, I definitely enjoyed Missing and I am excited to get to the remaining Armstrong books on my TBR soon.

I wish this had a better title, because it may be overlooked as just another derivative thriller. I loved Winter, she was a compelling and strong protagonist and the setup in the book was powerful and effective. Great execution from start to finish.

Omg, as always, the author strikes gold! Ms Armstrong is one of my fav authors and she didn't disappoint ! I loved the characters and the original premise. Just spooky enough to keep those pages turning long into the night. Thanks!

I'm not quite sure what I think about this one. I love everything that Kelley Armstrong does, or at least I have in the past. This was her first Ya and her first thriller for me so I wasn't sure what to expect. I think it surprised me in that I enjoyed it, but it wasn't what I was used to from her and that put me off a bit. That being said, story was interesting, if not a bit weird and very unexpected. Not my favorite, nor the first thing I would recommend of hers, but overall an interesting read.

I've been a huge fan of Kelley Armstrong ever since I read The Darkest Powers series back in high school, and loved her YA thrilled The Masked Truth (seriously, if you want an INTENSE YA thriller I implore you to go read it immediately). When I saw Missing on NetGalley, I had to snatch it up because I know that if anyone can write a thrilled that's going to keep my on the edge of my seat and actually raise the stakes (AKA not everything is going to wrap up neatly into a nice, happy, YA ending for everyone) it's Kelley Armstrong.

Missing starts off in a very small, rural town in Kentucky called Reeve's end- perfectly atmospheric for a thriller where teens are disappearing and the woods serve as both a refuge and a danger. Winter Crane starts to notice the string of teens that leave Reeve's End never to return (including her own sister) and once she meets a boy in the woods who is clearly running from someone, she finds herself unable to ignore the two situations and determines they somehow must be linked. When Lennon disappears after clearly being stalked by a psycho, Winter teams up with his brother Jude to find him, her sister, and answers to what happened to the other missing teens.

Setting wise, Armstrong crafted a perfect narrative- there are wild dogs, abandoned mine shafts, long-forgotten roads, and woods that serve as both sanctuary and prison. I felt an undercurrent of unease my entire experience reading the book, which is exactly what I hope to feel when reading a thriller. However, though I liked Winter as a protagonist well enough (she's smart, resourceful, and an aspiring doctor) I sometime felt that she was too clever and too analytical, putting together pieces of the mystery too clearly and neatly to be believable. Couple her with Jude, the extremely honest, logical, and rational thinker, and it took some of the excitement away from reading the story because they were often able to figure out what was going on ten steps ahead of everyone else which lessened the excitement and anxiety of the reading experience a bit.

That issue aside, I was super intrigued by Jude and Lennon's family and their ties to old Kentucky money and politics through their parents, and the comparison between their upbringing and Winter's upbringing in Reeve's end serves as an important social commentary regarding class and socioeconomic divisions that can exist mere hours away from each other. Just like Armstrong addressed the stigmas and social reactions to mental illness in The Masked Truth, I felt that she did a good job addressing social attitudes toward wealth and poverty without making her story feel like an issue book.

Overall: Missing is a thriller that sets the stage perfectly for its genre, with an atmospheric setting, a chilling antagonist, and plot points that don't hold back. However, sometimes the main characters almost proved too competent to be realistic teenagers and it took some of the suspense from the story. Yet I know I'll continue to pick up Armstrong's thrillers because they provide an atmospheric reading experience that stands out among most YA books in the thriller genre.

Honestly, thrillers aren’t REALLY my thing. I used to be into them, at least in adult fiction, not so much YA. But I wanted to give this one a chance, because it sounded good and I’d heard great things about her previous thriller, The Masked Truth. And I’m glad I did because I was SO into this. It was fast-paced and intriguing, and I had to find out all the answers. I loved the main character, Winter. She was strong-willed and curious, a fighter. A little reckless at times, but she was not afraid to face down danger to find out what happened to her best friend. And she had the help of Jude, Lennon’s brother, and someone who is more connected to all of this than either of them know. I so shipped the two of them together, honestly. Jude is intense, and quiet, and full of pain from his past. He could be rude and a little cold, but he was 100% with her, and the two of them found comfort and companionship that they’d been sorely missing in their lives. I also appreciated that through him the author tackled some damaging attitudes about gender. I was very invested in their relationship, and it was a big reason why I loved this book. But the mystery was also compelling, and I ended up finishing this faster than I thought I would. Just. Missing was SUPER good, guys!

Rating: 4 Paw Prints!

Winter Crane can't wait to leave Reeve's End, Kentucky. There's no future there. Classmates graduate or drop out, and leave. She misses her sister Cadence and best friend, Edie, but she understands why they both took off as soon as they could. She plans to do the same. For now, she's saving every cent she makes by working for the town doctor and tutoring fellow students.

She lives in an abandoned shack in the woods to avoid spending time in the rundown trailer she shares with her alcoholic and abusive dad. She spends as little money as possible, even for meals. She saves by foraging, hunting and trapping her food.

Although the woods offer Winter and many gentle creatures a safe place, they can be dangerous, too. It's habitat to native wild animals such as bears, coyotes and wildcats and even feral dogs who've been abandoned by their masters. Avoiding those animals and the legal hunters or poachers who stalk them is a way of life for Winter. There are also abandoned coal mines that once provided jobs for the old-timers still living in Reeve's End. That was long before Winter, her sister Cadence, and her dad ended up there.

One day, on the way home from school, Winter finds an injured boy huddled in a tree where he sought safety from a pack of wild dogs. The boy tells her a story about a missing girl. Shocked, Winter realizes the girl is Edie. She begins to wonder if her friends and sister never really left at all. What if instead of pursuing their dreams, they are all missing? Now she has something else to fear in the woods. Stalked by a psychopath, Winter sets out to find Edie.

There's a little romance, a lot of mystery, and some very creepy things happening to keep the reader turning pages in Missing. Kelley Armstrong has written a satisfyingly chilling stand-alone.

The pacing of the book was excellent and the dialogue flowed. After the culminating action near the end, the wrap-up felt a bit rushed and I found myself wondering what happened between the last of the action to the scene in the tower/turret.