Thank you for the opportunity to review this title. Unfortunately in this case I found it difficult to connect to the story. As I didn't completely finish this book I will not be publishing a review. We do not review uncompleted books on the blog, and again, thank you for sending through a review copy. Although this title didn't work for me, I do look forward to reading more from this author in the future as I've loved her previous work.

Thank you for allowing me to read this early release so I can review. This book was worth the time and also first read by this author. I Certainly will be reading more. Highly recommend.

The ending was the best part of the novel but it took a bit too long to get there. I wanted Isabelle to grow a backbone a lot quicker than she did. I'm still not sure if Henry's guilty or not, that is left to the reader to decide.

WHAT'S BECOME OF HER by Deb Caletti is the latest (published a little over a month ago) from this award winning author. I have enjoyed her young adult (beginning with Honey, Baby, Sweetheart) and adult stories (like The Secrets She Keeps), however, this new title was darker than I had suspected. The well-written story has a menacing atmosphere right from the beginning where a flock of crows seem to be an omen of danger. Caletti's writing was certainly atmospheric, but not the relaxing and introspective story that I anticipated. I was initially surprised at the relatively low ratings online from other readers for WHAT'S BECOME OF HER, and while it is always interesting to see an author stretch herself in a new direction, I am wondering if those reviewers also found this title a bit too different from Caletti's previous work. That sentiment seems echoed in the starred review from Publishers Weekly which says "Caletti elevates reader discomfort to the maximum." If you are looking for a suspenseful, twisty story with a distant stalker and plenty of references to Poe, this is it. 

Link to previous review for The Secrets She Keeps: http://treviansbookit.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-secrets-she-keeps-by-deb-caletti.html

When I first read the blurb I thought the author was going to surprise readers. But the blurb pretty much tells the whole story --which makes it difficult to get into the book. 

This was a DNF book for me.

What’s Become of Her by Deb Caletti
Sharp, gorgeous writing coupled with an ominous atmosphere and brilliant plot, What’s Become of Her by Deb Caletti is a suspenseful and superbly crafted tale of love and deception. The story follows the recently divorced Isabelle Austen as she returns home to Parrish Island to take over her deceased mother’s tourism business. Within the first sentences, the reader learns that the island is inhabited by hundreds of crows who fly back and forth every morning and every night. I am already thinking in my mind, “quoth the raven, nevermore” and wondering what the birds are foreshadowing. It’s as if Caletti is in my head because the next sentence reads “If they are harbingers of danger, then there is a lot of danger coming. If they are portents of retribution, the guilty better watch out.” And I’m hooked. 


Isabelle is struggling with a devastating divorce and the recent death of her mother. She is vulnerable, emotional and has returned to her island home to heal and start over. The crows fly over as a sea plane docks, and out steps Henry North, a gorgeous professor who we discover is an expert on Poe and seems perfect in every way. Perhaps too perfect. Isabelle and Henry soon find themselves in an intense, passionate relationship and Isabelle falls madly in love. Henry doesn’t judge her, he understands her. He is broken just like she is and Isabelle loves him all the more for it. She wanders the island in a state of bliss, but her happiness is short lived. Henry is hiding secrets – the “accidental death” of his first wife and the unexplained disappearance of his second wife. While she is trying to make sense of this unexpected news, Isabelle begins to receive mysterious packages from a stranger on the other side of the world. Someone is clearly stalking Henry and trying to warn Isabelle. But why? Who are they and what do they know? Isabelle struggles to put the pieces of the puzzle together, caught up between her passion for the man she loves and the paranoia that is starting to overtake her. 


She makes bad choice after bad choice, and I found myself talking to the book and urging her to get the hell out. But Isabelle is blinded by love and damaged from her own insecurities. She tells herself that if she just works just a little bit harder then everything will be ok. I found myself racing through the pages to find out what was going to happen and the twist at the end of the book took me by surprise. I love when that happens!! If you like suspenseful, atmospheric novels with a heavy Poe influence, then this book is a must read for you. I read it in one sitting and I give it 5 stars. Many thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Former editor at a publishing company, Isabelle, has returned to her home and the family airport on a small, tight-knit island after her divorce and mother's death.  While welcoming a client, she meets Henry North, a charismatic professor on sabbatical who is making a go at writing a poetry anthology.  The couple quickly become inseparable even though memories of her ex-husband's infidelity and abusive childhood leave her wounded and slow to warm up.  Professor Weary, an ornithologist, covertly alerts Isabelle through a series of anonymous tips to local police and strange trinkets in the mail that Henry was investigated in relation to, not one, but two deaths of a fiance or spouse.  Unfortunately, Isabelle has already moved in with Henry and Henry has asked Isabelle to marry him.  Will Isabelle be savvy enough, despite Henry's controlling nature and put-downs, to find out what happened to Henry's former wife and fiance before she becomes his third victim?

This story moved very slowly for me.  I kept reading because I thought that the suspense was building and that something amazingly surprising would happen at the end.  Something surprising did happen at the end but I can't say that it was amazing.  I enjoyed the lesson on bird behavior but it did add to the slowness of this book.  The story had real potential but it just fell flat with the lack-luster ending and the building of suspense that ended up going nowhere, leaving one bored.  The characters were rather flat.  I didn't see Henry as the twisted character that he could have been and I also didn't see Isabelle as particularly savvy.  The only character who ended up surprising me was Sarah.  I did like that the themes of the banality of evil and that people can evolve and become someone they didn't know that they could were addressed but the examples of it in the book were not well told.  Rather, the themes were spelled out literally instead of being interwoven into the story.  I didn't really like this book as it just wasn't as exciting or surprising as I would have hoped it would have been.  I think it would be a good book for a reader who enjoys reading mostly romance novels but would like to take a break from them with a mystery or thriller that is not too suspenseful.

What a great twisty, turny, fabulous read this was. I loved every minute I spent on this island and in this world. It was wicked good fun, trying to figure out the mystery of Henry. Should Isabelle give him her heart, and if she does is she going to wind up like the other women in his life, missing or dead? She certainly has a right to be paranoid, I certainly would be, and this leads to all kinds of yummy, delicious, creepy situations and the whole thing just kept me guessing right up until the spectacular unexpected ending. 

I highly recommend this one to anyone who loves a great domestic suspense read, filled with lots of well written characters, a fabulous mystery and some scary, creepy good times. I loved it.

Isabelle Austen feels like she’s lost at sea.  She’s returned to Parrish Island after the death of her mother and finds that the sleepy town hasn’t really changed in all of the years that she has been gone.  

Her desire to recreate herself leads her into a kind of passion that she’s never known before with man that at first glance seems too perfect to be true.  

Henry North is a complete unknown.  New to the island with a mastery of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” and a seemingly vast knowledge of wine – he’s exactly what Isabelle has been longing for.  But what she doesn’t know is that just as she running toward a different future – he is running from a deadly past.

“How is a person supposed to know? Sometimes the wolf looks enough like Granny that you let him in.  You don’t notice the teeth until he’s close enough to bite down on your neck.  You have to trust.  You have to have faith – even if your trust/faith control panel has been known to throw sparks and even catch fire. 
Henry reaches in, squeezes her hand.  Isabelle’s heart thuds. Her stomach flips.  Of course, these are the ways a body shouts about both the best things and the worst ones.”

What’s Become of Her is a nonstop stream-of-conscience thriller that totally threw me off balance!  Up is down, left is right and black is just a lighter shade of grey.  

In the end, some questions are answered and then even more complex riddles are revealed.

And I was left wondering if good is truly good and is evil truly evil? Or is it all just a simple matter of perception?

Isabelle is vulnerable, she just divorced and lost her mother. For this reason she returns home to take over the mother business.
Upon meeting Henry, she soon feels attracted to him and decides to escape her  behavioral pattern and do something different. What she did not expected was that Henry had a dark  past that could threaten her life.
Deb Caletti uses the darkness of Edgar Allan Poe to create a  suspense Worthy of her inspiration, filled with doubts and anguish, from the mysterious arrival of Henry, the meteoric involvement of the couple til the amazing ending.
Already from the cover I imagined something related to suspense but never imagined something so strong and well built with an unexpected turnaround back culminating with an great ending.
I liked every detail used by the writer to present the story and to make me live the conflict of Isabelle and her anguish in believing or not in what she ends up discovering about the guy she felt in love with.


Highly recommended

I received a copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine in exchange for an honest review. 

Recently divorced, Isabella returns home to take over the family business after her mother dies.  She is quickly swept off her feet by  Henry.  It doesn’t take long and she realizes Henry has a past he is trying to hide.

I had a hard time relating to some of the quick decisions Isabella made that got her into trouble.  I liked this book but it had the potential to be much better if Isabella's decisions were more believable and the author didn’t hint of Henry’s devious intent so quickly.  Which is why I gave it four stars instead of five.

If you liked “You Should Have Known” you will like this book.

With her most recent book, Deb Caletti solidifies that she can write just as compelling stories for adults as she can for for teens. What's Become of Her is a well-plotted suspense, carefully and slowly revealing the story. It's a little light on character development, though as Isabelle somewhat loses herself and questions her identity through her relationship with Henry, perhaps it's appropriate that it's a little hard to get a read on who she really is. While the book is suspenseful, it's not a book where you can expect twists and turns every page- like Isabelle and Henry's relationship, it's more about the unexpected, unannounced surprises that reach boiling points through the story, leaving tension to simmer through its wake.

I suppose this book was just not my cup of tea. The 'self talk' writing style was jarring and too self depreciating. It did not engage me with the main characters. I felt that it was predictable and frustrating in equal measure. I decided not to write up a blog post, since I only read the first 100 or so pages and skimmed the rest.
As always, I'm grateful for the opportunity to review galleys!

WOW!  What a book!!  What's Become of Her had my attention from the very first page all the way through to the very last.  Very curious, I stayed with the story and watched the suspense build through the eyes of Isabelle.  The ending was something I never saw coming.  I absolutely loved this book and would highly recommend it.                  
This was the first book I've read by Deb Caletti and now knowing what she can do, I'll keep my eyes open for other books from her.
Thank you to Ballantine - Bantam and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

What’s Become of Her by Deb Coletti is a Psychological thriller. I enjoyed the story line, but I also had mixed feelings about this book, which I will go more into later in this review.

Isabelle Austen has recently returned home to Parrish Island after the death of her mother.  She takes over the family seaplane travel business; and seems content being back and spending time with her friends including Jane, Joe, Eddie. One day, a tourist arrives on the island and almost immediately, both Isabelle and Henry, the tourist have a strong attraction.  Isabelle is a divorcee, and finds Henry, charming, handsome and extremely easy going.  They both are falling love with each other, and Isabelle moves in with Henry, but soon her world is about to change.  

In a short time, the local police warn her of his past, two deceased or missing wife/fiancée.  Isabelle knows Henry, and refuses to believe those lies.  Her friends strongly advise her not to become serious. Henry tells Isabelle about the first wife, who died in a fall and the missing fiancée.  He swears that he is innocent of any wrongdoing, and professes his love to her, which she accepts. Soon Isabelle starts receiving packages from an unknown source, forcing her to begin her own research into the women in Henry’s lives, the investigations.
Throughout the story, we also get the pov of another character named M. Weary, who was a friend to the missing fiancée, and who privately keeps an eye on Henry, on the internet and other means to watch for him to find another woman. Weary is obsessed with Henry and concern for his new lady, Isabelle.  
What follows is an exciting tense adventure where Isabelle, despite warnings from her friends, continues to believe in Henry.  The packages she receives makes her take further steps to find out the truth, which will put her life in danger. What will Isabelle do?   Who does she believe?

My mixed feelings:  I thought the beginning was nice, with a slow build romance. Then for a period I thought the story was slow & a bit redundant with switching focus on Isabelle and Weary.  Once we enter the halfway point or beyond, the story picks up drastically and it becomes an exciting thriller. I loved the intense last ¼ of the book, which had major surprises that I did not expect.  Overall, this was a very good psychological thriller.

This was a great story about a woman (Isabelle) who falls fast and deeply for a tourist (Henry) who newly arrives to the island that she grew up on. She has just recently returned to the island after her mother's death to take over the family's tourism business. Her life having suddenly changed due to a recent divorce that she is struggling with getting over.

The man arrives via seaplane and as Isabelle reaches out to help Henry off the plane, she immediately is attracted to his looks. Henry also feels the electricity. It's not long before he's hanging around her and asking her out.

A concerned friend looks into Henry's past and discovers that Henry has a deceased fiancee as well as a deceased wife. Both of whom have died under suspicious circumstances. Should Isabelle be afraid?

This story that had me definitely turning those pages pretty fast. Especially when someone far away is concerned for Isabelle and starts sending her packages to warn her. Is Henry guilty? 

A great read that kept me perplexed and I thoroughly enjoyed.

Thanks Random House/Ballantine for approving my request and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

Because I had read HE'S GONE, and really enjoyed it, I looked forward to reading WHAT'S BECOME OF HER.  While I wasn't crazy about the title, the book was truly excellent.  Isabelle, the protagonist, is recovering from her mother's death and her recent divorce. In this emotionally vulnerable state, she falls for Henry, a former college professor and an aficionado of Edgar Allen Poe.  Henry seems almost perfect until Isabelle learns that Henry's two prior wives died or disappeared under troubling circumstances.  Then Isabelle begins to question whether Henry is truly innocent and the suspense begins to build.  Simultaneously, the reader follows the life of Dr. Weary, friend and mentor to one of Henry's former wives.  Weary is obsessed Henry and convinced of his guilt.  Weary watches Henry's courtship of Isabelle from his research station in New Caledonia through the pictures Henry posts on the internet and grows more and more concerned for Isabelle and finally decides to intercede. While the plot is marvelous, the true joy in reading this book comes from Caletti's smart and stimulating writing.  She uses language beautifully and creates mood and character in an innovative manner.  She also uses information about Edgar Allen Poe and his life and works to good effect and provides us with great insight into the secret lives of crows.  Just a delight!

5 Crazy Ass Must Read Stars!!!!!

My heart is still pounding and it's been a couple days since I finished reading this.  I can't even seem to get into another book after finishing this.  Talk about massive book hangover here! It was a mind-trip and more.  Just when I thought I had it figured out, things veered off in a total unexpected direction.  
This is my first book by Deb Caletti.  Before I started reading, I went through reviews of some of Ms. Caletti's previous books.  This usually helps me to get a feel for an author.  I stayed away from reading the reviews on this book because I didn't want to be influenced in anyway by other reviews. I was immediately impressed how quickly I was drawn into the story.  I was 85% the way through it when I got a hand cramp from clutching my reading pillow so tightly.  I may or may not have been a tad neglectful to housework but I'm not complaining at all about that. I love when a book draws me like this one did and makes the outside disappear. It was like I fell into my kindle and got lost in Isabella's world.  
This has been a damn good read and I look forward to reading more from Deb Caletti in the future.

What a thrilling ride of a book! Just when I thought I had it figured out, another twist! Isabelle moves back home to take over the family business after her mom dies. There she meets Henry. Henry has a horribly disturbing past that Isabelle finds out about. I couldn't read fast enough and had to find out what was going to happen next! A thrilling exciting mystery! Thanks to NetGalley and Batam for an ARC for an honest review.