Synopsis: The police are here. The feeling of pure dread swirls in my stomach as a million scenarios start playing out in my head. My whole life I’ve expected something bad to happen to my daughter. It is as if part of me has been expecting it. As if I deserve it.
Fifteen-year-old Kayla is the apple of her parents’ eyes, their beautiful only daughter. They tried for so long to have her that she was even more precious when she arrived. But deep down, her mother Sherrie has always been terrified that their worst fear would come true: that Kayla would be taken from them.
Then one day – just as Sherrie had dreaded – Kayla fails to return home after a sleepover. In desperation, Sherrie and her husband Richard call Kayla’s friends. They scour the streets, their search becoming more and more frantic. Until the police arrive and deliver the shocking news, when their worst nightmare comes true: someone has their daughter.
As Sherrie and Richard grill friends, family, and even each other, Sherrie starts to wonder, has the secret they’ve been hiding all these years finally caught up with them?
Because Sherrie and Richard are living a lie. A lie so huge, so shocking, that it could destroy the one thing they hold most dear – their daughter.
And if the truth comes out, their family will never be the same. But if it doesn’t, they will never see their precious girl again…
Kat’s Rating: 4/5
Kat’s Review: Having finished this book I felt a little undecided about my rating for it. Ultimately it was a great read so I can still give it a 4/5…but…yes there is a but. If I had read this book not knowing the author I would have thought it was a very decent read. However, this book strangely felt very different from previous Kelleher books and I think that is what has thrown me. The main characters are a fifteen year old Kayla and her mother and father Sherrie and Richard on one side. On the other side we have Tessa a woman that seems like her world is ready to collapse at any moment and as the reader you aren’t quite sure why.
I liked the pace of this book and it kept me reasonably intrigued but I could see where it was going very early on and it turned out I was right (which I am sometimes but not often). Not only that, I guess I had a set idea of this kind of books I am using to seeing from this author and I devour each and every one. I think because this was huge departure in terms of style and characters I felt a little bit dis-jointed with it. That may seem like an incredibly negative thing to say but truly it isn’t. It was still a great read and one that I have no doubt her fans and readers will thoroughly enjoy. For me, as much as this was a great read it felt like it was by an entirely different author and for some reason I just felt a little set apart from it.
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