An informal group of writers who enjoy reading books & sharing feedback |
I became hooked right away. And right away, I suspected Theo (Ellie's boyfriend), but then quickly switched my suspicions toward Ellie's tutor, because the only other option at that point, was she ran away. I didn't want to believe Ellie would run away because she was happy and content and cared about her grades and upcoming exams, and eventually planned to attend a university. Running away just didn't fit her personality. But whatever had happened to fifteen year-old Ellie, the family unit fell apart. Laurel and Paul split up and the other two older siblings kept their distance. Then... Laurel met Floyd and they were immediately attracted to each other. When she met his two daughters, however, the youngest daughter Poppy, reminds her of her missing daughter, Ellie. The author is very good at getting the reader to find suspicion in other characters, for sure! And my brain was tapping into each one, waiting, examining, feeling each character out. And who knew? At some point, I wondered if perhaps Elliie's sister Hannah, or her father had something to do with it. Or perhaps Laurel was just crazy and imagined the whole thing. But then... when Laurel's son Jake's girlfriend (Blue) calls and tells Laurel that she senses things, and that Floyd doesn't have good vibes, it opens up more possibilities. But what really threw me off, was when I read that Noel was Poppy's mother... or was she? Poppy's half-sister Sara-Jade, tells Laurel she had accidently seen Noel naked three weeks before Poppy was born and she had no baby bump whatsoever. But then again, is Sara-Jade involved? And then... Laurel spots Theo and Hannah together! But then... Yes, the author is clever, indeed. At this point, I had made several assumptions but knew they couldn't all be right. As I don't want this to be a complete spoiler, I'll just say towards the end, I really hoped that somehow, Theo had been the father of Poppy, that Ellie had become pregnant by him before the kidnapping. Oh, this was such a page-turning story. Now that it's over, I keep thinking rolling it all through my head. But the real clencher, was the epilogue at the end of the book. I will admit, it's been a long time since I finished a book and... cried. |