RATING 3 Thriller
-dual timelines
-coming back to summer town
-best friends coming of age
-no romance

After inheriting her grandmother’s lake house, Willow returns to the town she used to spend her summers for the first time since her best friend went missing. Soon after, she starts getting harassed and old secrets come to the surface.

This was a quick thriller that jumps back and forth in time, slowly revealing what actually happened in a fateful summer. While the mystery was interesting, and most thriller fans will enjoy this, it didn’t quite measure up to my expectations. I didn’t always connect to Willow, even when I really wanted to.

An absolutely riveting thriller with great momentum! I just couldn’t read fast enough! Willow returns to her family holiday home, inherited from her parents, but circumstances result in her having to relive incidents from her past.

In THE SUMMER SHE DISAPPEARED Carissa Ann Lynch delivers a pulse-pounding,fast paced thriller that switches between past and present, blurring the lines of a decades old missing person case.

Willow Roberts has returned to the town where she spent all of her childhood summers to fix up the lakeside cabin she inherited after her parents death. The place that had once been her escape, her safe place, changed twenty years ago when her best friend, Kathi Jo, disappeared without a trace. Willow’s return kicks off a series of unsettling events that have her questioning everything she thought she knew about that tragic time in her life. She can trust no one, not even her own memories.

With her trademark twists and turns, Lynch keeps you on edge all the way until the final chapter. I have yet to guess the ending of one of Lynch’s books and THE SUMMER SHE DISAPPEARED delivered another holy crap moment at the end.

Also, I love dual timeline stories that create a sense of nostalgia within me and the 90s references were so perfectly on point in this book. Like reading about my own teenage years.

Thanks to the publisher for the advance reading copy.

A great read which is what I expected from one of my favourite authors. I had to keep reading to resolve what had happened to Kathi-Jo 20 years ago. The characters and scenarios are really well described and easy to feel that they are true situations. I liked Willow but found her slightly naive at times. The book is set in the two periods of Willows life before the disappearance of her best friend and then 20 years later when she returns to the scene of the disappearance and strange things start to happen.

A dual timeline. A great read. But all books by this author are fantastic. Those are my thoughts. I love all her books... Perfectly written books. to that very last page... Absolutely edge of your seat.. Kind of story.. We'll get you... each book..does.


A story about 2 girls, They became best friends. And time moves on.. Parties. And so so much more. Boys jobs malls.. And then the unthinkable happens... No one knew what happened..
No one knows the truth.. That faithful night..



Years go by.


Then Willow Inherit her folks place.. She's also
Looking for the truth.. Sometimes the truth is more than one can handle.. Finding body parts. Wasn't what she was looking for, But she found so much more... The end of this book will have you thinking twice about, Everyone in this small town.
What a Great story. I personally loved it to the end.
Another great one thank you Carissa.

The Summer She Disappeared is a thrilling read that oscillates between the past and present of Willow Roberts. After her divorce, she finds herself back in the lake house she inherited from her parents, which was a nucleus of memories of multiple summer holidays until it became painful with the disappearance of her best friend, Kathi Jo.

The Yaays: Carissa Ann Lynch has seamlessly navigated multiple traits and characters into this simple plot. Each character is presented well; early on, readers will get an idea of their intentions and behaviours. Willow Roberts has her head on her shoulders, and reading how she navigates her teenage years was immersive. The rollercoaster of emotions, the addictiveness of rebelling, growing up and dealing with changes was well done. The pacing is another yaay, and it is effortless to understand even though we travel through time.

The Nays: Some additional facts seemed unnecessary for the characters. The culprit wasn't too thinly veiled, and it was easy to suspect who it was.

Final Verdict: If you're a fan of a quick, straightforward thriller with various characters, do not skip this one. I will keep an eye out for this author's work in the future.

Thank you, NetGalley & HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter, for giving me an ARC. This honest review is left voluntarily.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book.

Thai was short but sweet and a really enjoyable read.

It switches between the past and present as it builds to the stories climax.

Willow Roberts is renovating the lake house she inherited from her parents. 20 years ago the family spent all their summers there before returning to normal life through the rest of the year. When one of the contractors phones her, after discovering a dead body her memories of those summers come back.

Switching to the past we learn about Willow and her best friend Kathi Jo. Kathy Jo lives by the lake all year round. As they summers go by we see them progress from acting out crime scenes, to drinking and flirting with boys. It all culminates in Kathy Jo running away. Or did she.

Back to the present Willow is trying to find out, but she’s not very welcome as a summer kid in this town.

I loved this. I had no idea what had happened but I really enjoyed the format of continual flipping between times, giving us small glimpses as the story built.

100% read it!

Carissa Ann Lynch captures the coming of age of two girls. Willow has been coming to her grandparents (now her parents) summer home on the lake. Kathy Jo lives in the house next door with her single mom. Willow loves Kathy Jo's sense of adventure, their imagination fueled adventures, and their shared love of The Titanic. But in their final summer together, the introduction of boys, booze, and cars changes things. It's the summer that Mary Jo ran away, never to be heard from again.

Lynch tells the story from two timelines, with each chapter flipping from the current day to that last summer. The summer when it all changed. And someone knows what Willow did,

Lynch holds out for the big reveal and while there are breadcrumbs along the way, the ending might still surprise you.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for an advance reader's copy.

Ooo you could tell by the title this was going to be a thriller and it definitely was! I was surprised by the ending, which I always love. The characters were excellent and the book was well written!

It’s never good returning to one’s home town years after something happens cause it will always haunt you …. Gripping read ..

I will leave a review on Amazon and B&N on February 28th

Overall I found this to be an interesting read, it did take me a little while to get drawn into the storyline. The characters in this book weren't very likeable in my opinion. I would recommend this book to others.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher for providing me this book, I am leaving my review voluntarily.

There’s so much going on in this story! A missing girl, a creepy older man, the death of a teenager, a dead corpse in a closet…it sounds so bizarre! If you can follow these storylines, this book will keep you turning the pages. It was an interesting read.

Thanks to HarperCollins and NetGalley for the ARC. My first from this author and it was a fun quick read.The writing was straight forward with little fluff and filler, which is good. I would read more by her.

Loved this book! It was face paced and very catchy you couldn’t put it down at all! I didn’t know what was going to happen until the last page and I love books like that!

There’s a heck of a lot going on. Lots of threads and timelines. Lots of mayhem. I really enjoyed it. Hadn’t been excited about reading the book but once I was into it time and pages melted away.

Enjoyed it, but I thought there would be a little more to the ending. From the start I couldn't wait to find out the truth about Kathi Jo's disappearance. I knew she didn't just runaway. There were so many twists and turns. The body in the closet!! The person who put it there wasn't who I suspected. These kids had no parental supervision. Did Willow's parents even care about her? They wouldn't pick her up from work and she walked around town at night alone until her ride was ready. During the summer, Kathi Jo and Willow did whatever they wanted. Willow didn't always make the best decisions- being alone in an apartment with a very creepy older man. So much could have happened and no one knew she was even with him. Kathi Jo and Willow were more like summer friends than all year friends. They led different lives while they were in school and only got together during the summer. It seemed like Willow held onto the Kathi Jo she met the first summer. They never had the same relationship, not after Kathi Jo met Blake. Side note: Do people really name children Cinderella??? So strange. I didn't love any of the characters, except Smokey. I found myself enjoying the story set in the past. When it's finally revealed what happened to Kathi Jo and who was involved, it wasn't the shocking moment I thought it would be. Stupid pink coat caused everything. I really enjoyed the lead up to everything and trying to figure out what happened.

I recommend giving the book a try. It's a quick read. I like how the book alternated between the present and the past. Look forward to reading more books by the author. Loved the cover of the book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own

“There’s a body in the bedroom closet.”

When Willow inherits her family lake house on Daisy Lane, she leaves her husband and moves to Hillendale, Kentucky to oversee the renovations prior to moving in. The construction crew dubbed it a ‘dead zone’ due to the lack of cell service….little did they know that they’d soon discover a body at #1 Daisy Lane. A dead zone, for sure!

The cover and title grabbed my attention, the first line confirmed that I’d made a great choice, the atmosphere was well crafted, and I was engaged with the developing mystery. Despite all those positives, I think it was Kathi Jo that kept me reading. She was such an enigma…such a unique and different character. I can see why Willow loved her summers at the lake. She was entranced by Kathi Jo.

I definitely enjoyed the past timeline more than the present timeline. I was disappointed with the ‘filler’ facts that didn’t propel or add to the plot and was creeped out by one of the adults in Willow’s sphere of influence. Regardless, this is a quick read and the author withholds the mystery until the end. While it was a satisfying read, I wouldn’t say that I could eagerly recommend it.

I was gifted this copy by Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

The Summer She Disappeared was such a fun read! The book moved fast, was intense at moments, and had characters that were so interesting. I highly recommend this book and will be telling everyone about it!!

Complex mystery spanning two parts of the main characters life. Well written,very descriptive with a fairly obvious ending.

This book grabbed my attention right away and I raced to the end. There was lots of twists and turns the ended was one I was not expecting fantastic.

The story’s is told in past and present tense which will keep you hooked till the end will definitely be recommending this book to all thriller book lovers.

This was my first read from this author and definitely won’t be the last.