Sorry no review as I couldn't get into this book. It didnt grab my interest from the beginning and I knew it wouldn't be for me.

This is an interesting and unusual book, full of some wonderful imagery and description and some really clever little insights into people, places and situations that give the writing authenticity.
I found the descriptions of Evensand particularly well done and very evocative of a typical British seaside town out of season. The rain and the wind and the depressing greyness of it all came over very well. And little things like Harmony sneakily eating a KitKat in the library added to that.
I found it easy to warm to Harmony – while there were aspects to her character that verged on the stereotypical in places, her confusion and unhappiness came over clearly. I felt the hints around an eating disorder should have been more detailed - if she was suffering form something like this, it would have been a bigger aspect of her life, and if she was ‘playing’ with the idea for the sake of drama, then that too should have been developed.
I liked Mel a lot too, and it was nice to have a more realistic middle-aged woman in a novel. Too often they are either old before their time or impossibly perfect for their age – Mel was Mel, authentic, believable, kind and warm but with her own jealousies, and regrets.
I liked the subplot around Storm, the girl on the beach, and thought that the revelation as to how and why she as there was very unusual and made a refreshing change form the usual conclusions to these scenarios. It was a clever idea.
This is a slow burner – don’t expect fast-paced drama and lots of twists and turns. And there are places where I felt things could have been developed a bit further – Mel’s relationship with her husband and sons, Mason’s past, what compels the protagonists in the story behind Storm to do what they do, for example. But there’s some fabulous writing here. I really enjoyed it.

This book wasn't really for me. The characters were a bit predictable and the ending was a bit disappointing. On the plus side I didn't guess the twist about the girl that was found left for dead on the beach. I'm sure some readers will like it.

A very interesting read. Not what I expected but definitely worth exploring.

The cover drew me to this book and although it's taken a while to read I'm so glad I did. The story drew me in and got under my skin. I'll defiantly recommend,.

This is mediocre. I was hoping for something better. When I read the bio. I thought that it sounded really great. Interesting and it just sounded like it was going to be something I would love. But it was just lacking something. The plot just didn't really seem to go anywhere, and the plot twists didn't really do anything for me as I didn't find them surprising. And I found the ending unsatisfying. A lot of the story around Mel and her family would be fine if this was a contemporary fiction novel, but as a mystery, I found this quite a frustrating read and I found I began to care less and less about the internal monologues of the characters. Ultimately the focus of the story seemed too far off target so I began to care less about Storm's identity myself and was predictably disappointed by the ending. Not a mystery I cared for, unfortunately

Thanks to Net Galley & Little Brown Uk for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review. This story for me was lacking something, I didn’t particularly like any of the characters although I did feel sorry for Harmony and her rather unconventional family set up, no one really to parent her apartment from her aunt Mel. The plot never really seemed to go anywhere, although the mystery surrounding Storm was solved The ending was abrupt and rather unsatisfactory. For me this was a disappointing read.

I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately I found it really hard to get into. The story felt very disjointed and almost rushed, and I found that it was hard to connect with the characters & plot.

One aspect of this book that I really did not like, was the attempts Harmony makes from the start of the book to basically have an eating disorder in order to lose weight. Personally I don’t think that writing about the attempts a teenage girl will try to take - like laxatives - in order to give herself an eating disorder, is appropriate.

I know the author has included this to add to Harmony’s character, but I don’t enjoy reading something that highlights how young girls (and women) in today’s society, feel like they have to lose weight etc to be “good enough”.

Only 2 stars from me for this book I’m sorry to say!

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

It's well written and in an attempted realistic style could be enlightening for readers who want real life.

Unfortunately the characters are often stereotypes, the ladies man becomes a cop, the home schooled girl wears no bra, most of the women are equally 2- dimensional.

If you want something frank, contraversial in it's representation of society and easy to read, then this is the novel for you.

I received a free copy from net galley.com for my fair and honest review.

Set in a North Yorkshire coastal town where nothing ever seems to happen this is the story of Melody, a teenage girl who really wishes that something would happen to her. Her mother is absent – sometimes away, sometimes just too ill to get out of her bed – and her step-dad always seems to be working. Home-schooled (or rather mostly left to her own devices) she is working towards her GCSEs and what she really wants to happen is that her maths tutor will fall in love with her before her final exam. We also have Melody’s aunt Mel, trying to be in charge of everyone and everything, who finds a mysterious girl washed up on the local beach in the middle of a storm.

This book looks like it is the story of Storm, the name given to the mystery girl, who doesn’t speak or communicate in any way – she is certainly the focus of most of the town – but really it is about Melody. She is adrift – her short experience of mainstream schooling mainly involved being bullied – and has very little contact with other young people (apart from her cousins). Melody lives in a bit of a fantasy world – one where her tutor will fall in love with her and take her away from her boring, yet messy, life – but by the end of the book she is starting to grow a little. The story involving Storm ended a bit disappointingly (just a hint of the Bobby Ewings, if you know what I mean) but, once I reminded myself that, for me, this was just an also-ran of a plot that seemed to matter a lot less.

This was a nice enough read, but I wanted more. I’m not quite certain if that was down to me, but I thought the blurb was slightly misleading.

This story, to me, was about an extended family with a few dysfunctional members. The missing girl didn’t really impact on me at all in that I could have seen all the family events having taken place without the discovery of the body.

I enjoyed this novel – but not as much as I expected to. If this has been a tv drama, my other half would have turned to me at the end and said ‘and that’s it??’. I can’t help but feel a bit disappointed. If it has been listed as a family drama my satisfaction level would have been much higher.

Amanda Coe does a good job as a writer, I have no complaints there. I would just like a more open synopsis so I knew what to expect.

I received an arc via NetGalley in exchange for my honest, original and unbiased review.

I so wanted to like this book, the story sounded promising and just the sort of book I enjoy reading.The reality however was somewhat different.I am sorry to say I found it hard to connect with and found the story rather disjointed and rambling and very hard to get into to.I wasn't expecting the book to be like this I don't mind it being a slightly different genre to the one I was expecting but it certainly wasn't a thriller.Sorry to be so negative in my review but I did struggle with reading this.Thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for an ARC in return for an honest review.

ADORE this book!
Such a fantastic premise, it almost feels as if it's set partly in the fairytale.
There's a mystery about a girl who's found on the beach and seems to have lost her memory, but the story does not revolve around that. The family involved in looking after the girl are really the ones under the microscope. From from teenager Harmony, who's struggling with her weight and her crush on her maths tutor; to her 'aunt' Mel, whose hectic life involves keeping three sons in check; to the policeman Dan, who really wanted to be investigating his first murder case.
The writing style flows well and had me entranced.

Everything you do is wrong is a book I found a little disappointing .It started very well with the girls body (Storm) being found on the beach ,she is alive but not speaking and the story spends a lot of time in trying to find out who she is through various characters .which I found interesting .When we do find out who she is and why she was on the beach it was rather random and to me didn't make much sense .I thought after that revelation the story seemed to just ramble on and the ending seemed rushed and didn't end as I had hoped .

I tried really hard to get into this book but it was just not keeping me interested enough at all, there was no real plot, very wishy washy all the way through. I was expecting a story about the girl washed up on the beach, a mystery all about her but this just revealed around the families, girl with crush on teacher, woman who found the girl on beach and the policeman. I really could not wait to get to the end.

An interesting set-up and plot, but I felt cheated by the ending: it was as though a couple of chapters were missing. So many strands were left hanging, or seemed unnecessary, it was overall an unsatisfying experience.

Thanks to netgalley for the opportunity to have read this entertaining read! It is a bit of a slow read, but well written on the other hand and worth the effort. Recommended.

It just didn't work for me. I couldn't empathise with the characters and couldn't understand why they acted as they did. It was all a bit unbelievable really and the storylines that I wanted to be explored were largely ignored. It was ok but certainly not one I would recommend.

Firstly I want to stay that I thought the storyline was pretty good, and the ending was played out brilliantly. I loved the late reveal and the way we were left on a cliff edge in the dying moments, being asked numerous questions as the story looped full circle once again.

Having said that I did have to battle through the early parts of the book where it felt the author had all the right words and all the right intentions, but just couldn't seem to put them into coherent segments. There were other times were it felt like a Thesaurus was used too often and other times where the sentences just felt absurd. The statement 'once the girl was called as life extinct' comes to mind. Who says that? Surely the standard 'time of death' could have been used, even if the two phrases are interchangeable.

I enjoyed the short curt sentences at times, snapshots into characters minds. But again it wasn't always effective and could have been improved upon. I felt I just glossed over them sometimes as they didn’t seem to have enough relevance.

All in all a lot of potential, but definitely some fine tuning required.

As a note, I loved the quote that was used a few times in the book;
“A secret isn’t the same as a lie. A lie is what a secret gives birth to, when it mates with speech”

Thanks NetGalley for a review copy

I have mixed thoughts on this book, it's well written and easy reading but on the other hand not much happens, it's slow and the story line is weak. Three stars as it's not terrible but I wouldn't raved about it either.