I have reviewed "Bring Her Home" by David Bell for ReaderToReade.com where it will remain on site indefinitely. If there are any questions or concerns, please contact Vickie Denney at: Vickie@ReaderToReader.com. 
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Bring Her Home"
By David Bell
Penguin Group


Thriller/Suspense - Release Date: July 11, 2017


ReaderToReader.com review for Net Galley 


Every parent's worst nightmare is that something horrendous will happen to their child. Such is the case with Bill Price. He and his fifteen-year-old daughter, Summer are still grieving over the loss of Summer's mom eighteen months ago. Now, Summer and her best friend Haley are missing, and Bill doesn't know if he can handle the strain.

Bill discerned something was wrong for Summer had not been acting her usual sunny self before she disappeared. Did she run away? This happened right after what would have been her mother's birthday, and from her recent actions, it was evident Summer was unhappy as well as belligerent toward her dad. 

After a few days, two girls are found severely beaten in the park. One, determined to be Haley is dead, and the other, presumed Summer, endured such horrific wounds that she is unrecognizable. Bill is beside himself with grief and refuses to leave his daughter's hospital bed.

Before long, Bill learns the teen is not Summer after all, but Haley. Where is Summer and is she hurt? Dental records prove Summer is not the dead girl, and the whole situation stymies the police. Two young classmates, one known to be abusive, are suspect and called in for questioning, yet there is nothing valid to hold them. 

Bill's sister, Paige stands by him, offering support as they face the terror of trying to find his daughter. With unexpected discoveries, Bill gets some shocking news which ends up tying pieces together, not only about Summer but also his dead wife. "Bring Her Home" is a mesmerizing page-turner sure to keep the reader on the edge of their seat up till the climatic conclusion.

Posted on: https://readingbetweenthepagesblog.wordpress.com/
Date Posted: 5/24/2017

The book opens with Bill arriving at the hospital. He has gotten word that his daughter, Summer, has been found and is in critical condition. He also finds out her best friend Haley, who Summer was with the day she went missing, did not survive her injuries. The two girls, one beaten to death, the other beaten beyond recognition!

From the first chapter this book grabbed my attention and didn’t let go. Bill is a man on the edge. He has a very bad temper, is high strung, and is an extremely intense person. I could literally feel his tension, anger, and urgency to find out who did this to his daughter. He’s a single dad raising a teenage daughter. He’s doing the best he can, but realizes he doesn’t really know what’s going on with his daughter as much as he thought he did.

This story goes much deeper than “what happened to Summer.” Bill’s sister, Paige, comes to town as soon as she learns Summer has been found. We learn that Bill had a very bad temper even as a kid, and his relationship with Paige, on some level, is strained. Bill’s wife Julia passed away just a year-and-a-half earlier and when Summer turns up so badly injured those emotional wounds are reopened. There is lots of healing to do, but nothing can be fixed until the person, or persons, who hurt his daughter are found.

This was a fun story with a couple of unexpected twists. This is my first book by David Bell and I was impressed how he was able keep his cards hidden as well as he did for most of the book. I couldn’t truly piece it all together until the end.

Thank you NetGalley, Berkley, and David Bell for an opportunity to read and give my honest opinion about this book.

I received this book "Bring Her Home" from Netgalley for my honest review. 

Summer and her friend Hailey go out for a walk and they don't come back. Two days later one girl is dead and one girl has been beaten badly enough that you really can't tell who it is. This book has twists and turns and kept me guessing. You think you know what is going to happen next but then... it takes a turn in a different direction. I liked the style of the book and will  check out other books by this author, David Bell.

I loved this book from beginning to end, would have never guessed the outcome had you until the last page. Thank you Net galley for letting me read this great book.!!

This book is very good! The story is good, the characters are strong. I give it 5 stars and a strong recommendation.

Bring Her Home

A novel by David Bell

Shiva must be smiling, Bill Price’s world has been destroyed twice over. Eighteen months ago his wife died from a fall in his kitchen. Today his daughter, Summer, has been found, after being missing for two days, severely beaten in a local park. Unconscious. with her head and hands completely covered in bandages, but alive. That is infinitely better than her friend Haley, who was lying dead beside her in the park. Strangely though, in the course of  ’round the clock hospital vigils, questions emerge. The girl on the bed shrinks away from the familiar; her father, a much-loved stuffed Winnie the Pooh bear. Is the comatose body that of Summer? Who assaulted this girl and murdered Haley? Why are those boys hanging around? With each question answered others arise, and a confused and angry Bill Price is driven further afield to find answers.

“Bring Her Home,” has more twists and turns than a Kentucky back road, but in the main is not much of a mystery. If you don’t know who did it, and why, after reading the first ten chapters you are not sufficiently suspicious. It moves along quite fast and has some interesting twists to it. But the main character, Bill Price, comes off as unsympathetic despite his woes; he is a bit of a jerk. The writing is okay but is a bit preachy on the subject of religion and child abuse. 

Note to author: Avoid topics like religion, politics and child raising. People read books like this “mystery” for pleasure, not for indoctrination in Politically Correct attitudes. 

"Bring Her Home" is one of those books that don’t deserve a recommendation or condemnation. I rate it at 2.5 stars. Read it if you can't find better.
 
I received an advance galley of “Bring Her Home” from Berkley, Penguin Random House, and NetGalley in exchange for this review.  Who do you think got the better deal?

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGallet in exchange for an honest review              
  This is another one of David ell's thrilling books. 
The story tells of two girls, one is named Summer and the other is Hailey; they are two teenagers who are best friends.  There is just one problem after they both went out together they never returned home.  After two days of missing the police find both girls who have been beaten savagely, one of the girls is alive and the other is dead.  Mr Prince who is the father of one of the girls does everything he can and leaving no stone un-turned to get t the bottom of this ugly assault and murder. This is a very good book if you like a story that is fast paced and keeps you on your toes.
I gave this book 5 stars

Although a bit predictable, was still a good read that I'm glad I got to enjoy!

Bring Her Home is the latest suspenseful story from David Bell. It really should come with a warning, only read when you have a block of time to stay with it! Bring Her Home is a page turner with twists and surprises. I was given an early copy to review.

This book just doesn't suit my personal reading preferences. I find it overlay dramatic in many areas and not realitistic as to true life. It's well written, an excellent storyline and interesting characters - but it just doesn't feel real to me or believable in how the characters interact with each other or act.

Gets you from page one,couldn't put it down characters are well developed and the plot moves along nicely

Great novel by a favourite author. Full of suspense and many twists and turns, I couldn't put this fast paced book down.

There were many twists and turns in this story and the majority were welcomed and enjoyable to read.   As for Summer and her friends predicament in the hospital...I've seen it before.

Wow! This was a great read. I couldn't put it down. I've neglected housework and laundry to read this book. The twist and turns. Just when you thought you had it all figured out, Wham, a new twist. I've never read any other books by this author but I will definitely look up another one to read. Looking forward to reading his next book. I highly recommend!!!

A very interesting novel. Enough twists to make it a good read. Bill is a little bit of a dork but a good father.

I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. At first, I was totally invested in this story. Very compelling and a great topic for a thriller. What I didn't get was Bill. Is he supposed to be likeable?  I only got a half view of him. By the end I was dying to know what happened.  How did these girls managed to disappear? It is a good, quick read, but with some flaws in my personal opinion.

This chilling and thrilling page turner kept me captivated and teetering on the edge of my seat from start to finish!! This was my introduction to Mr. Bell's work, and I have to say it made one heck of a first impression, I will definitely be back for more in the very near future!! 

Highly recommend you get your hands on this book, Mr. Bell's twists and turns will have you holding on for dear life, and take you one thrilling literary ride!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this title.

There was much I liked about this book and it kept my interest to the end. I particularly liked the twists, which I didn't anticipate. However, it seemed to me that the pacing was a bit off in some parts. There were sections where the same concepts were repeated over and over, so much that I had to check that the sentence that seemed so familiar to me had in fact appeared in almost the same words just a page or so before. On the other hand, it seemed to me that there were also great leaps at times, where it seemed to me that a character was coming to a conclusion based on scant information. All in all, though, an interesting read.

This book was tough to finish. It took me a long time because it was slow to read and I found myself putting it down to read something else. I only finished because I wanted to be able to leave an honest review. I found the plot to be quite predictable and the pacing of the book plodded and the characters were unlikable.

I love a great mystery. Three dimensional characters who I either identify with or who are so well-fleshed out that even if I don’t, I find them compelling and am invested in their outcome. I envy an intricate plot with a hint of foreshadowing (not too much because the surprise is the payoff) but just enough that I think, “Oh, why didn’t I see that coming?” I pride myself on solving these things early. Unfortunately, David Bell’s Bring Her Home is none of these things.

And I hate to be this negative, but reading this felt like an enormous waste of time. I requested this book from Netgalley in large part because I’ve seen David Bell’s name pop up often on Goodreads. His blurbs are compelling. His covers are eye-catching. His credentials are enviable, but I have to wonder how someone with so much education, someone working at the MFA level in English, can have gone so far off-track. Sentence structure, character, dialogue, and plot are all in need of some heavy redlining.

Let’s start with the set-up: two girls go missing, one of which is dead. The other is in ICU having barely survived a brutal beating. Enter her father, Bill, a man who by all rights should be thanking God it isn’t his daughter residing in the morgue, but who can’t seem to feel blessed about anything. He reacts to almost every situation with anger, at one point punching a glass window (injuring his hand) in front of a police officer (or security guard?) who doesn’t bat an eye at his attempted destruction of private property. I don’t like this character nor do I feel his plight. His reactions are disingenuine, and for lack of a better thing to call him, Bill is obsessed with pinning his daughter’s injuries on any and everyone, starting with a few fellow male classmates. Still, it isn’t his least redeeming quality in this troubled, formulaic plot.

Let me explain:

We’re dealing with a touch-and-go (life-and-death) medical situation and what could (should) be an emotionally impactful scenario. After all, Bill did only lose his wife a year ago. His daughter is all he has left, yet, I can’t help feeling Bill doesn’t deserve her. Early on the author gives away the first twist.

*spoiler alert.* 

The girls are said to be twin-like, similar in hair coloring and build. They even wear each other’s clothes. From the outset I suspected the girl in the bed isn’t Bill’s daughter. Why Bill doesn’t know this is beyond me. I’m a parent of a young adult. I could find at least one childhood scar to pin his identity on in the event that he was otherwise unrecognizable. Even Bill’s sister recognizes that this isn’t who they think it is. She’s actually the one to pose the theory that the survivor is not Summer, but her friend Haley.

Bill is an emotional void.

Unfortunately for David Bell, I have a healthy amount of medical experience, to which I can say if you’re not savvy with the details, leave it to the pros or seek out the right information. The chest tube scene was iffy. The doctor wouldn’t have sterilized with alcohol. There’s undue attention given to a procedure the author doesn’t fully understand (or hasn’t seen from a clinical perspective). Later when “Summer” is transferred from ICU to rehab (unlikely since in a hospital there’s typically a step down from ICU to a regular hospital room and rehab as a final phase of recovery) in an unresponsive state! I’m sure I grunted. If this girl was beaten nearly to death, no hospital in its right mind is going to move her to rehab. Sometime later, when Summer’s mother’s death is discussed, the author claims an autopsy wasn’t performed because her death was so obviously an accident. I can’t believe for a second a healthy, middle age woman died in her home and an autopsy wouldn’t be done (regardless of how obvious cause of death might be). An investigation would have been done to confirm accident versus foul play.

While I’m discussing writing and things that bugged me, David Bell (maybe unintentionally) casts homosexuals in an unflattering light, talking about the location from where Summer and Haley disappeared as if it being a known gay pickup site makes it a foregone conclusion it’s also the kind of place where one might be murdered. Is the author homophobic? I don’t know, but it sure seems like it. This factors in later when *spoiler alert* the broken jaw incident is explained. To each their own, but this feels prejudicial and like an author intrusion rather than an integral part of the story. 

The plot unfolds without a single surprise and *spoiler alert* Adam as a villain seemed likely. The convenience of his leaving a note and key in the event something happens to him is laughable, but that aside, the investigation (prior to his death) continues on an obvious trajectory toward an unsatisfying conclusion. A bunch of characters surface in the second half of this book as to serve as red herrings. At one point it’s almost plausible that Summer might’ve been involved in something shady, but that point is fleeting and never quite pulls me off –track as the reader. A shame, really, as I had high hopes. Despite the author’s backlist, credentials, and awards, doesn’t measure up to other bestsellers I’ve recently acquired. My reading of David Bell begins and ends with Bring Her Home. I thank the author and publisher, however, for offering me this advance copy through Netgalley.