My favorite Lisa Jewell book to date. This one really kept me engaged with likeable characters and good suspense.

ARC from Atria Books, via Netgalley.

Lisa Jewell is no doubt one of the most talented authors our there. Sure that's a huge statement but I have no problem arguing it. I Found You is another deliciously suspenseful story that keeps you flipping the pages because I HAVE TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED! Who is "Frank" ? Is he a threat? I'm sure you've read a few reviews explaining the story so I will spare you. I will however tell you to not ruin the experience by reading a ton of story telling reviews. Easy just hit purchase and enjoy the experience yourself.

I really enjoyed I Found You! A mystery that kept me glued to the pages with tension that intensified with each chapter.

You’re basically just thrown into the story when Alice, mother of three discovers a man outside her seaside cottage with no memory. Alice can’t help herself, and offers him a place to stay all the while they try and piece together the mystery of his life. “Frank” as Alice begins to call him starts having flashes of memory, jogged by places in Alice’s town, and soon it becomes apparent that something terrible happened.

We also have alternating chapters of a twenty-one year old new bride, Lily. After three weeks of wedded bliss and passion, her new husband fails to come home and she’s alone in a foreign country. And chapters from the past, 1993, centered on a family vacationing on the beach. At first I was wondering how these three POVs connected, but with every page I got a little more light shed on the situation. I could sense a tragedy coming, impending doom and I wanted to know how it all turned out!

I was pleasantly surprised by how addictive and interesting I Found You was! I think it’s best to say as little as possible with a mystery, but as someone who has read loads of mystery books I was pleased with the reveal, even though I had guessed at a lot of it, it didn’t spoil my enjoyment. I wanted to know the particulars, and how it all turned out in the end. There was some romance, just enough to satisfy this romance junkie here. I’ll be keeping an eye out for any other Lisa Jewell books now.

I Found You by Lisa Jewel is a 2017 Atria Books publication.

Tantalizing, Compelling, and very suspenseful.

Three seemingly unrelated people see their lives converge in the most horrific an unimaginable way.

Alice is a harried single mom in her forties trying to keep her head on straight after committing a few horrendous parenting mistakes.

When she sees a man out on the cold, damp, windy beach, she feels sorry for him and brings him an old coat to wear. In the process, she discovers the man has amnesia, and despite the possible dangers, she is determined to help him.

Lily has only been married a few weeks when her husband simply vanishes into thin air. Being in a new country, having never met her husband’s family face to face, having no friends to call, Lily’s search for the truth is daunting. Finally, able to enlist some help, Lily is baffled by what she discovers about her new husband.


‘I Found You’ is a tense psychological thriller, very cleverly plotted, beginning with a somewhat lighter tone that slowly develops into something truly dark and sinister.

This book played tricks with my head from the beginning and kept me guessing, tense, and on edge all the way to end.

I never knew who to trust, who to believe, who was in danger, or what to make of the situation, especially when ‘Frank’ begins to have a few memory jogs. The twists are deep, well timed, and surprising, the suspense is taut, but there is an emotional element at play, as well. At the end of the day, there is a sense of long overdue justice and I experienced palpable relief when I was finally able to exhale again.

Despite the darker tones and subject matter, the book has a deeply satisfying quality to it, which can be attributed to the characterizations, and the way the author adeptly, and realistically drew the book to a close.

Overall, this is another stellar effort by Lisa Jewell, who is now becoming one of my ‘go to’ authors.

4 stars

Lisa Jewel worked her way onto my radar a couple years ago with The House We Grew Up In and then again last year with The Girls In The Garden, and both books made a different kind of impact to make this author stand out in my mind, so when I saw a new book, I Found You, of course I needed to add it to my collection of Jewel’s.

I Found You had everything I love about a good thriller. A missing person, a mysterious past, the build up of a dark traumatic moment that set everything else in motion, vague clues that make you think you’ve pieced it together and then a twist to show you that you haven’t’.

This is told from different places and different times between different characters, which I actually quite enjoyed. I like building a story from these very different pieces. I like when everything is just dangling in front of me and I’m so close to filling in the gaps, but just not quite there. This book was addicting, I so badly wanted to race to the end to know who this strange memory-less man was.

Jewel crafts such pretty stories, even when they are dark and haunted. The characters are always kind of whimsical without being too quirky, the setting is always somewhere that seems like it’s own unique paradise, even if it’s nothing fancy or special. I love the feelings that her books give me, I always feel so filled with hope and a weird calmness, even though most of the time things are building up to something awful.

This was a great read, something some might compare to Gone Girl, but it doesn’t have that same roughness. Everything Jewel writes makes my heart ache and this was no different. I’m glad this book found me.

Yet another book that I had to read in a day as I couldn’t put it down! I love these suspenseful reads. This was well-plotted with lots of interesting characters and it moves around in time, giving you a piece of the story at a time.
If you like fast, fun, suspense, pick this one up!
Thank you for my e-copy!

I have to admit that I was not familiar with any of Lisa Jewell's earlier books but this looked like something I could handsell as a good beach read for my customers. I liked the flawed nature of the characters and the way the different storylines tied together. Alice Lake's ability to open herself to another person, at risk to her own safety and reputation, reveals both her strength and vulnerability. An entertaining read that holds ones attention.

I fell in love with Lisa Jewell's writing after listening to the audiobook version of her novel The House We Grew Up In. In fact it made my top ten list of 2015. Since then I've been picking up her books whenever I find them and jumped at the chance to read and review this newest novel when the tour was announced. While I can't say that I loved it quite as much as The House We Grew Up In I can say that I Found You was still very good and had the added bonus of a mystery at the heart of its complicated cast of characters.

The big mystery at the heart of the story is who the "mystery man" Alice finds at the beach is and how he is connected to the other storylines that are interspersed with his. Told in alternating chapters we get to hear from Alice, "Frank" (the name Alice gives to the mystery man), Lily (the young wife who's husband has disappeared), and Gray (a teenager on a beach holiday with his family in 1993). I will admit that I had my guess down to two people and I'm pretty sure most people will do the same since there is a small enough group of characters to figure that out. Still, it was interesting to see the whole thing unfold and to discover just how the various pieces would finally fall into place. Not exactly a suspenseful thriller but definitely entertaining and twisty enough to keep me guessing.

My favorite aspect of the story has to be the characters. This only being the second book by Lisa Jewell I've had the pleasure of reading I'm not sure if her unique style of developing quirky and conflicted yet delightful characters is a staple of her writing or just a happy coincidence of the two books I've read, but I absolutely fall head over heals for her characters. In I Found You I particularly adored Alice and her ramshackle assortment of children and dogs. She was so free-spirited, kind, and loving - sometimes it seems to her own detriment - and even with all the mistakes she made during and before this particular story takes place it was hard not to sympathize with her and hope that all the frayed pieces of her life would come together in some semblance of steady happiness. In fact all of the characters, with the exception of the "enigmatic young man" mentioned in the synopsis that Gray and Kirsty meet in 1993 (he's horrid), are complex and troubled yet understandable and relatable. I just loved seeing them all develop as the story progressed, which made the mystery of what was really going on between the characters and their varied connections to each other that much more exciting to follow.

The other aspect of the story I found interesting was the idea of how trauma manifests itself differently in people. There's memory loss, violence and hatred, depression, running away from problems in an attempt to escape them and not deal with the issue, a refusal to look at an issue and just ignore it because it's too painful...the responses run the gamut and could represent the responses any one of us might give given the same situations. There are a lot of emotions in this story and you'll be laughing along with their antics one minute and horrified by actions the next!

I Found You was an emotional and intriguing mystery that I would definitely recommend to those that enjoy the genre. While I wouldn't compare it to Paula Hawkins type story I will say that I enjoyed trying to figure out how everything would resolve itself and actually came to really like some of the characters. This story cemented my enjoyment of Lisa Jewell's writing and she's definitely been put on my list of authors to watch.

This is the first book I've read by Lisa Jewell and I really enjoyed it!! It was so well written, kept me reading and kept me guessing!! I really enjoyed how the three stories were woven together. Because the chapters alternated perspectives, it was hard to put it down because I wanted to know what happened next. I don't normally get into this genre but within the last year I've really enjoyed it! What I loved about this book is that it was NOT predictable--it was full of surprises until the very end. I definitely recommend this book!

3+ out of 5 stars to [book:I Found You|30753651], a 2016 thriller and suspense novel, by [author:Lisa Jewell|93504]. Many thanks to NetGalley, Atria Books and Lisa Jewell for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

<b><i><u>Why This Book</u></i></b>
NetGalley had the book listed as an option in the thriller section. I'd see one or two reviews with positive feedback on Goodreads. After reading the description, I was intrigued by how the plot would come together.

<b><i><u>Overview of Story</u></i></b>
Lily and Carl have been married for a few weeks and are deeply in love. She's waiting for her husband to come home from work in London, but he's later than usual. He met her on business in Ukraine and married her within a week, bringing her home with him to England, where she knows not a single soul. He's got a mother they spoke with on the phone once, shortly after the wedding, but she's not met any of his family or friends. She's about 20 and he's in his early 40s. When he's late, she gets the cops involved, and after their initial day of research, they tell her the man does not exist and must be using a fake name. They begin to search for him with whatever little information they have available.

<img src = "https://media.giphy.com/media/H7JD0pfyksePe/giphy.gif" />

Alice watches a man sit on the beach in the rain outside her small house. Her friend Derry tells her not to pickup another stranger, given her bad habits in the past. Alice, 42, has 3 different children by 3 different men, and each one ended in some sort of disaster, including kidnapping and violent attack. But Alice doesn't listen and offers the stranger a place to sleep for a few nights when she learns he has no memory of who he is or where he comes from. Slowly, Frank (40), as he calls himself for lack of any other name, begins to remember pieces of his life, believing he may have murdered someone and is looking for a young girl from years ago.

Twenty years ago, the third story takes place. A father, mother, daughter Kirsty who is 15 and son Gray who is 17, are on vacation near the beach. They meet a young man named Mark, who is 19. At first Mark seems like a great young man and is very interested in Kirsty. He introduces them to his aunt Kitty who he is living with. Slowly, we see Mark night be deranged, and when Kirsty tries to end it, a battle between the 3 of them begins. It ends in disaster that night, and as the chapters unfold, we see small pieces of the previous events.



By two thirds into the book, readers are questioning whether the stranger Frank is one of the two men from 20 years ago. We're confident the husband Lily is missing is Frank, who has no memory, but is he the supposedly good guy from 20 years ago, or the bad guy? The stories begin to collide when Alice and Lily meet one another and realize they are each looking for answers. But who is he, what happened to Kirsty, the parents and Aunt Kitty?

<b><i><u>Approach & Style</u></i></b>
The story is told in the present tense and as a 3rd person narrative. There are 3 stories being told for the first two thirds of the book, prior to their intersection. Readers can see how they could be connected, but we don't know which person is which person, as their is memory loss and a possible fake name being used.

<b><i><u>Strengths</u></i></b>
It's a strong psychological drama. And it's one of the better books with alternating chapters between the three stories. Each one stops exactly at the point where you are about to get answers, and then you change characters.

Each character is strong and has distinct elements. You see major flaws in all of the, but somehow still root for things to work out.

The setting and descriptions are quite vivid. The writing is simple and easy. Everything flows and connect with just enough mystery and suspense left all around.

<b><i><u>Open Questions & Concerns</u></i></b>
1. I'm not entirely sure I buy the memory loss story. I can't give too many details, but it seems to occur a bit too conveniently.

2. I wish there was a bit more complexity in trying to figure out who is who. Once you know about 2/3 of the way thru, the last 1/3 is about bringing it all together. I would have liked the open questions to last longer.

<b><i><u>Characters</u></i></b>
Gray is really likable, but the memory loss makes me a little unsure of how stable he is.

Mark is just so intense. He seems to change his views and reacts too quickly.

Alice is strong, but I really question her abilities and judgment as a mother. She seems to let too many strangers around her kids, and it has caused problems in the past.

Why would the parents let their 15 year old daughter go out alone with 19 year old Mark when they barely met? Seems like a bad idea to me and I don't have children.

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Lily just married Carl after a week and moved to another country? I get that she needed to get out of Ukraine, but really... where was the real motivation? I don't buy her as being 20 years old... I think she should have been older.

<b><i><u>Author & Other Similar Books</u></i></b>
It's definitely in the vain of a Liane Moriarty or Kate Morton book. It's set in London and the surround suburbs / coastal towns.

<b><i><u>Final Thoughts</u></i></b>
It's a good read. I enjoyed it. Took 3 days with about 80 minutes each day, so 4 hours in total. It's an all around average good book with a little extra oomph thrown in and about. I'm not sure I liked all the characters and felt some of their past or history was overdone. But I liked the author's writing style and would definitely read another book by her.

<b><i><u>About Me</u></i></b>
For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by.

Loved this book! The suspense throughout the whole book, the slow build-up of event tying together, second guessing myself about who the mystery man was, it was all very well thought-out and written.

*Thank you to NetGalley for a free digital copy of this book!*

The book did suck me in and I read it quickly, in one sitting on a day off. Overall it was enjoyable to just read as is, entertainment for a few hours. Jewell does a good job of describing setting. But several times I found myself thinking, come on - he/she would never really do that. I had to suspend belief too much for my liking.
Alice seems just a little too desperate. And I have a difficult time believing that she would take a stranger into her home with her children, although she repeatedly made poor life decisions, and she did think about the potential for issues. Lily seems just a little too stupid. He almost strangles her in her sleep, but she sees him as a fairy tale husband, even when the building evidence shows otherwise. But then she just decides in a moment that it's all true and she's done. Frank was just a little too much of an emotional mess. I'm not one to think that men shouldn't be emotional, but he is always, constantly, shaking uncontrollably and having panic attacks and crying. There wasn't much of a twist for me because I had already figured out who was who, but I did need the details filled in, which Jewell did well and clearly. The ending was also very blah.

I was given an ARC of this book from Netgalley for an honest opinion of the work.

Alice Lake spots a man sitting on her beach, staring off into the ocean. Hours later, he’s still there. When she approaches him asking if he needs help, he simply doesn’t know. He can’t remember who he is, how he got to the beach, or why he is there. So, Alice takes him in.

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, newlywed and foreigner Lily’s new husband – the one she’s been married to for all of 3 weeks – doesn’t come home after work one night.

Without knowing it these three people – Alice, Lily, and the man Alice’s daughter dubs “Frank” are all embroiled in a plot two decades in the making.

During flashbacks to 1993, the author sets the stage for who the mysterious man really is, and what happened to him and his family during this time to cause the events of today.

This story was well plotted, well told, and even though I figured out who the mysterious amnesic man was very early in the story, it held my interest to the end. This was story about family loyalty and love, damaging secrets, and lies too terrifying to be believed.

I highly recommend this book.

This is the third book I have read by Lisa Jewell and it’s my favorite.

Imagine waking up sitting on a beach in a torrential rain not knowing where you are, who you are or where to go from there?

Alice, single mother of three, finds Frank sitting on the beach located in front of her home. She welcomes this stranger into her home. Frank has no memory of who he is or how he got here. His name is Frank only because Alice had to name him something! I really liked Frank, he was my favorite character and seemed to be the perfect 10 kind of guy. One figures out early however that he is a tortured soul. I often got a niggling suspicion that he could just as likely be a bad guy as this current ‘good guy’ persona as he gets flashbacks and memories slowly return.

This imaginative ‘guessing game’ story plays out from different perspectives of imperfect yet convincing characters and in past and present. I love this kind of tale and it didn’t disappoint.

"I Found You" is an entertaining thriller that keeps you guessing. The characters are all very intriguing and unique. I finished this book in two days because I was so enthralled by the story.

I enjoyed reading this story by Lisa Jewell. She has a writing style that combines several story lines into one seamless novel. One rainy evening Alice takes a break from her three children and walks the Yorkshire beach where she finds a man with no memory of who he is or how he got there. In London a woman reports to the police her husband is missing and they inform her he has never existed. As the two stories interweave you also take a trip into the past that can explain why a man would want to forget his memories. Beautifully written, Ms Jewell can take a delicate story line and have you tearing up and smiling withing one page. I've read a good number of books by this author and when I'm looking at the shelves in the bookstore or library she is one of my go to writers.

Thoroughly enjoyable book with multi layered endearing characters. My favourite book so far by Lisa.

This ia such a whirlwind once it gets going!! It starts off a bit slow and feels a bit disjointed (which is actually the perfect tone). Then, Jewell's rich and curious characters develop and these three worlds come to life and you cannot put the book down. Alice, single mom in a sleepy beach town, finds a man on the beach who apparently remembers nothing. Lily, young Ukranian newlywed immigrant, has no idea where her husbnd has disappeared to.

Then, Gray and Kirsty Ross are teenage siblings staying in Alice's town on holiday 22 years before and meet another teenager, Mark, who has his eye on Kirsty.

Who is the man with no memory? Where is Lily's husband? How is 1993 connected? It is seriously a fantastically unveiled mystery that doesn't have the ending you expect and keeps you guessing as every knew bit of information unfolds!

4.5 Stars