This was a fun, suspenseful read. What I liked most were the layers of "knowledge"- meaning that you were constantly trying to figure out who knew what and how much they knew. Some things I was able to guess, other things surprised me. Overall, a great thriller that you won't want to stop reading.

As expected, I loved this. Lisa Jewell gets better and better.

Ever since 15-year old Ellie Mack disappeared, Laurel has put her life on hold while those around her have tried to move forward. Now, ten years after her daughter went missing without nary a trace, Laurel meets a charismatic man that gives her reason to finally do the same. But when new evidence is unexpectedly brought to light, past and present collide, making Laurel wary of the new man in her life and questioning all that she believes to be true.

Switching between past and present and told in various POV’S, this dark and twisted tale is heart-breaking as much as it is disturbing. Compelling, though tragic, this story demonstrates how one mother’s unfettered anguish became a destructive force that tore the remainder of her family apart. But after years of her wallowing in the ensuing chaos, what she once thought to be lost, will eventually come to be found.

“Then She Was Gone” is the second book that I have read by Lisa Jewell, and she has quickly become one of my favorite authors in the suspense/thriller genre. Weaving an intricate web of mystery, intrigue, and suspense, Lisa Jewel continues to wield her magic. Just like her previous book that I have read, “Then She Was Gone” grabbed ahold of me from the start and held me captive right up through the very end. Boasting an interesting premise and strong characters, this is one book I never wanted to put down.

Title...Then She Was Gone

Author...Lisa Jewell

My " in a nutshell" summary...Danger! My entire “ nutshell” summary should be tagged with a SPOILER ALERT! Please skip to thoughts to avoid learning too much too soon! I am so sorry!

Ellie Mack was abducted by her maths teacher...Noelle...and kept captive in a basement room. During her captivity she was drugged and impregnated artificially by this maths teacher. Ellie was 16 years old. Ten years later her bones are found and her devastated mother meets a man who has a 9 year old daughter who looks just like Ellie. This would be the lovely yet unusual Poppy. Poppy’s father...Floyd...contrived to meet Laurel...Ellie’s heartbroken mother. Ellie’s family has been destroyed and separated. During Laurel’s relationship with Floyd bits of information about Ellie’s disappearance are uncovered. The key question seems to be this...why does Poppy look and act so much like Ellie?

My thoughts after reading this book...

I loved this book. The sadness and the realness of this book just drew me in to this broken family. Ellie’s life...after her disappearance was so sad and awful. Noelle was horrifying.

What I loved about this book...

I loved Laurel. Her life after Ellie was taken was heartbreaking. Her happiness when she met Floyd and Poppy...I wanted this to work for them but it was not meant to be.

What I did not love about this book...

Noelle...the bizarre and evil maths teacher. Her selfishness was truly horrifying. What she did to Ellie and Laurel and their family was beyond forgiveness.

Final thoughts...
Would this be a good choice for you...potential reader?

Readers who love a thought provoking story with truly engaging as well as unnerving characters should enjoy reading this book. Everything in this book felt real...the sadness...and even the little odd bits of happiness felt real. I was engaged by these characters from the beginning.

I received an advance reader’s copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley and Amazon. It was my choice to read it and review it.

Then She Was Gone is the latest book by Lisa Jewell. Then She Was Gone is told in various voices with some back and forth in time. Ms Jewell has done an excellent job of merging the voices into this story. Some twists and surprises makes When She Was Gone difficult to put down. I was given an early copy to review.

Ellie Mack was a smart girl about to ace her school exams. Only she never made it to the testing place as she disappeared a few days before. Did she run away or was she taken? Nothing was really missing from her room and she was excited about her exams and loved her boyfriend.
Years later Ellie’s mom Laurel meets an attractive man in a cafe and they begin dating. She meets his 2 daughters, by different women. Imagine her shock when his daughter Poppy is the spitting image of her missing daughter.
She starts to question everything. Her boyfriend, Poppy’s mother.
Will she find her daughter?

15-year-old Ellie vanished on her way to the library. Ten years later her mother meets a man who has a 9-year-old daughter that looks like Ellie did at that age. Told in different perspectives, this book is very creepy, disturbing and also heartbreaking. A real page turner - I couldn’t put it down!

Laurel Mack has never gotten over the disappearance of her teenage daughter Ellie a decade earlier but finally the police have provided some closure and she's ready to live again. A chance encounter with a man in a bakery leads to a relationship but as Laurel gets to know Floyd's family she is disturbed by the resemblance of his young daughter to Ellie.

The book was riveting and enjoyable but I was unclear about why the author included chapters written from the perspective of Noelle, Ellie's kidnapper. They are enlightening for the reader, but wouldn't be accessible to the other characters in the book. Her motivations can be inferred from the plot, so those sections seemed unnecessary to me.

I've enjoyed Lisa Jewell's last few books and I look forward to promoting this one to fans of domestic thrillers.

Then She Was Gone
By Lisa Jewell
Pub date: April 24, 2018
4 star

I have never read this author, however, she will be on my radar from now on. I thought the book was well written, kept my attention from the first page and I was anxious to return to reading anytime I had to deal with real life. The story is told from different POV’s, which I enjoy. Of course, the story is about a mother’s worst nightmare, her 15-year-old daughter does not come home from the library. The years pass and have torn the family apart. After 10 long years, the mother, Laurel Mack ventures out and meets a man, Floyd, who she begins to fall in love with when she is introduced to his daughters the youngest is the image of her daughter. I have to say that Laurel handles this well. Slowly she starts to dig for more information. Could the meeting between her and Floyd have been a setup? Ok, that is all I am leaving you with, except, that I love the way the book flows and I love the ending. Happy reading!

This author has yet to let me down!

This was a well executed mystery, told from multiple POV's and spanning many years from past to present.

Laurel's daughter Ellie goes missing at the young age of 15. Years later, Laurel meets what could be her daughter's clone in the form of her new boyfriends child, Poppy. The similarities are uncanny, but Laurel can't help but be drawn to her daughter's mini-me.

The more time she spends with Poppy, the more Laurel can't help but revisit the past, and retrace the final steps that led to her daughters disappearance.

I loved how the story unfolded, the author offering up little crumbs here and there-just enough to keep me curious and confused. The pace was a bit too slow for my liking, but the ending made up for this as I thought it offered the perfect amount of closure all around.

I think this is one that will hit everyone's check list-highly recommend!

ARC provided by NetGalley

I'm a big Lisa Jewell fan and I do a little dance whenever her newest book lands on NetGalley because I am an impatient book monster who feels a deep jealousy that the U.K. gets to enjoy her publications months before anyone in the U.S..

Jewell's latest has a deep creep factor early on with characters of all shapes and sizes doing things that leave both main characters like Laurel and Ellie feeling unsettled, and readers feeling dread.
While the story is mainly focused on Laurel and how she's struggling to live her life after her daughter goes missing, the reader also gets little snippets of insight into the supporting characters of the book, including their devious machinations, which means that we the readers have more information than Laurel does. So for me at least, this results in a heavy dose of Whoopie Goldberg's "Molly girl, you're in danger" every time Laurel decides to ignore the icky feeling in her gut and spend time with questionable people.

While I was living in New York City, and trying to suss out how to best take care of my female self while out and about on my own, I read an interesting article about how over time women have been subtly and not so subtly taught not to trust their gut feelings. Using patriarchal favorites like "You're being hysterical" and "you're just being overemotional" too many women who have been in dangerous situations because they didn't want to "overreact" or "seem rude" and later said, "I should have listened to my gut." This book is the epitome of this experience.

Jewell often delivers mostly happy endings in her books, and tidies up loose ends, and this book is no exception, delivering on the more uplifting endings I've ever experienced coming off a book so deep with creep that just the word "tutor" has me pushing helpful academics away in a hurry.

"Stories," she says, "are the only thing in this world that are real. Everything else is just a dream."

This isn't my first Lisa Jewell novel, and it won't be my last.

Ellie Mack was the 'golden' child in her Mother's eyes. Then one day Ellie disappears, on her way to the library. Her mother, Laurel, falls apart and never fully recovers. Her marriage suffers as well as the relationship her other children. Ten years later, she finds herself alone and at a standstill with her life. She finally allows herself to open her heart again to Floyd, after seeing him at a local coffee shop. Her life seems to coming back together, until she meets Floyd's youngest daughter Poppy, who has a striking resemblance to Ellie.

Then She Was Gone is slightly dark as it intertwines the lives of several characters. It's told from multiple POV's, which is necessary in order to get the entire story of 'What happened to Ellie Mack'. Lisa Jewell does this thing where she gives away little pieces of the story, but they don't spoil anything. The plot is unraveled slowly at first. There aren't exactly 'bread crumbs' left for you to make sense of, but much bigger pieces. Even when you start to figure out where the story is going, there are always hidden gems that you miss because you were focusing on the bigger picture. Somehow, Lisa brings everything together in the end and still shocks you. The characters are well developed... everyone is more than what they seem.

Was I able to figure out some of what happened to Ellie? Yes, but there was no way to guess all the details.

Thank you to the publisher who gave me an advanced copy via NetGalley.

Lisa Jewell has been on my list of authors to try for a while now, so I was really excited to get an ARC of her new book, coming out this April. Then She Was Gone had me spellbound for pretty much an entire day. I think I read like 60% of this book in one sitting.

I actually quite like mystery/thrillers. I don’t read them all that much, but I do get really into them when I finally pick one up. The only thing is that I can get pretty disturbed by mystery novels and I definitely got disturbed by this one.

Then She Was Gone tells the story of Ellie Mack, who walked out the house one day when she was 15 years old and was never seen again. Her mother is obviously devastated by the loss of her daughter; her marriage falls apart, her relationship with her other 2 children suffers, and for 10 years, she struggles to find any kind of closure and is unable to move on. Until she meets Floyd Dunn and his daughter Poppy and finally begins to reawaken and believe she might be able to start to piece her life back together.

The format of this story is fascinating. It has 5 parts and a lot of different narrators. It is predominantly narrated by Laurel Mack, Ellie’s mother, but it does alternate to several other perspectives throughout the novel. Most notable for me was that it’s partially narrated by Ellie herself in the first part and we learn almost immediately who our main suspect for her disappearance is. I was so surprised that we learned this information so early in the story and I felt like the first part (~15%) was almost a book in itself.

From there, Laurel meets Floyd and is transported to an entirely new life. I found this part of the story a little boring, but Jewell still did a good job at keeping me intrigued because I still wanted to know what actually happened. This part mostly just felt a little in contrast with the first part of the novel, which has a super strong start. It only took 1 chapter for me to get totally into this story.

It is a little predictable what happens, but it’s so freaking weird that when I was guessing at what might have happened I was like, “surely not” and tried to dismiss my prediction. Parts of the novel are definitely very disturbing and Jewell does create subtle atmospheric changes to her writing as the novel progresses. I actually really liked the end of this book. While I predicted some parts, the end did surprise me and while parts of it are heartbreaking, I appreciated Jewell ending her story this way.

I liked Laurel’s transformation throughout the course of the novel. I was frustrated with her at times and I have to admit, I did find some of her actions a little unbelievable and not to be in line with her character. Laurel lost her daughter and couldn’t move on for 10 years, so I found it really hard to suspend disbelief that she wouldn’t be incredibly suspicious of some of the weird coincidences of this book and that she didn’t always trust her instincts. Like I said though, this book had me totally spellbound and I would like to read some more of Jewell’s work!

For me, this wasn't a page turner in the "OMG I have to see what happens next!" way, but in a "I have to figure out what is going on" way. I read this book over a few days, to the point of feeling like an addict. Even if I got three sentences read while waiting in line, I read whenever, wherever. Very fresh ideas, the twists weren't predictable for me. I will be looking for more from this author!

Loved this book... really quick read, liked the alternating perspectives. Was tied up a little too neatly, however kept me reading chapter after chapter.

Of the three children, Ellie was the favorite. It was devastating to her family when she disappeared. None of them thought she ran away except the police. For ten years her mother, Laurel, hoped Ellie would come back. She was never spotted, none of her belongings had been found. And then, bones and a backpack were found. DNA testing showed these were Ellie’s. And then Laurel could move on. She had lost her family and pretty much her whole life as she knew it. But when she meets Floyd and his daughter it all becomes better. His daughter, Poppy loves Laurel and Floyd and Laurel become very close. He isn’t the man Laurel thinks he is and only one person knows this. Her son’s girlfriend gets a glimpse of his psyche. Laurel just can’t believe it.

Thank you to the publisher for the advanced reader copy of Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell - all thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is yet another, absolutely awesome book by Lisa Jewell. Lisa continues to be one of my favorite authors, who is somehow able to weave complex character drama with compelling mystery into a perfectly paced, and delicious read.

Then She Was Gone follows Laurel Mack, whose teenage daughter Ellie, went missing 10 years before. There are not many clues, and the police eventually mark it down as a runaway teen, although the family never quite reconcile that with the golden girl they loved. Laurel's life unraveled as the years passed, costing her her marriage and her relationships with her other two children.

As Laurel works to piece her life back together, she meets a seemingly wonderful man in a cafe, who gives her a sense of possibility of moving on with her life, and starting anew. Soon she is meeting his daughter, Poppy, a dead lookalike for her long missing daughter, and all of the unanswered questions from her past are stirred back up again. What actually happened to Ellie ten years ago?

I love that the story is told in from varying characters perspectives throughout - every new perspective lending a little more to unfolding the mystery piece by piece. I honestly thought I had a handle on what twists might be coming, but I truly never did figure it all out, right to the very end. The complexity of the characters and their intertwining dynamics were terrifically balanced, and it was so refreshing to read a story of a divorced couple who were not bitterly angry with one another.

Overall this was a fantastic mystery that kept me on the edge of my seat right through the final pages. This book is a perfect fit for book clubs everywhere!

This book will leave you feeling like you just got off an emotional roller-coaster. I read this late into the night before finding myself waking up early to finish it! Laurel is still hurting from her daughter Ellie disappearing 10 years earlier, when she meets a man who it turns out has a young daughter that looks just like Ellie did at the same age of 9.....you will have to read this to find out the twists and turns of this story and oh, what a story it turns out to be! Lisa Jewell does it once again with, Then She Was Gone. Thank you Lisa for another great read, and thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to read an ARC of Then She Was Gone and giving my honest opinion.

Lisa Jewell's latest will keep you guessing to the very end! When a bright, young, and happy teen goes missing, no-one really believes that she ran away - her life was just starting, so what really happened? When her Mom finally decides that its finally time to move on with her life, strange occurrences keep her questioning what really happened that day so long ago. #netgallley #thenshewasgone

That was how she once viewed her perfect life: as a series of bad smells and unfulfilled duties, petty worries and late bills.

And then one morning, her girl, her golden girl, her last born, her baby, her soul mate, her pride and her joy, had left the house and had not come back.

I read Lisa Jewell when I lived in England and always liked her, lately her writing has taken a darker turn, heavier subjects and I prefer this Jewell! Then She Was Gone introduces the reader to Laurel, a mother whose favorite child, Ellie, fails to come home. Her entire world goes from ‘perfect’ to ruinous. Her family is shattered, every relationship strained. Laurel longs for Ellie, because Hanna could never react to life in the sunny ways her sister would have. She refuses to let go of her hope, that she will find out what happened, that they will find Ellie. The crushing weight of the mystery of Ellie’s disappearance has become wound in Laurel’s heart that has infected her other children. She stopped being a wife, a mother… the routines that once carried her no longer seemed important. Laurel is consumed by the loss, the remains of her life, including her husband and children slip through her fingers. Everything she once did to nurture her family meant nothing in the end, it all becomes pointless. Naturally her other daughter feels her sister’s absense like a curse, a blackhole between she and her mother, one she can never hope to cross. She knows her mother would give anything, even her, to have Ellie back.

Many years pass and then Laurel meets a man, Floyd whose little girl Poppy reminds her too much of the daughter who disappeared so long ago. She is finally moving on, but with Poppy now in her life it is dredging up unanswered questions about the past, pulling her back into the mystery of what really happened.

The novel goes between Then and Now, then- Ellie becomes close to her tutor who is quite an interesting character. Ellie tells us her story, step by step, every mistake that led to her disappearance. Reading the novel, you want to step in and save Ellie from what is about to befall her. At times it seems removed from reality, but then I think about true crime stories that are shockingly similar which makes it less fictional. What could be scarier? How easily we open the door to our own nightmares. Mothers, even the best of us, are often blind to the small sufferings of our children. We are trained to look for the big stuff, hence missing the tiny details, for me that is the ache in the novel. It is the truest pain, that no matter how perceptive we are as parents, how attuned to our children, we still miss so much.

When she begins to be a part of Floyd’s life, her past is threaded through his. Has fate brought them together for a reason beyond love and healing?

I figured this one out early on, but it didn’t take away from the tragic turns. It’s strangely disturbing. I can’t talk about the twists in this review, it would give away everything. A child disappearing is as heart wrenching as the death of the love a mother should have for those who remain. It’s hard to blame Laurel, because this is every mother’s worse fear, but there are still other children too. I remember looking at my own grandmother who had suffered so much loss in her lifetime and being in awe of her; the ability to still give so much of herself, to love, to continue on… to still be kind, that life didn’t sour her, giving her it’s worse really. When asked “how did you move on”, always “I had other children to raise”, yet there is no answer that can encompass the pain of the years that she knew would follow. My own grandmother couldn’t even have a picture of her child around decades after tragedy, so reading a fictional account of a mother who closes up left me feeling compassion, while others will only see a selfishness in sinking into sorrow. I’m thinking I’d be more destroyed, like Laurel. On the one hand you hate her for closing up, on the other, can you blame her? Understanding what people need from us, doesn’t always mean we can give it, even when we should. In Laurel’s case, something died inside of her the day her girl vanished. When the truth is discovered, it only makes the lost years that much harder to take.

Publication Date: April 24, 2018

Atria Books