I didn’t find this read ad intense or complicated as some of this author’s other novels. I didn’t care for any of the characters because of their lack of depth except for Lily and Michele. The adults were one dimensional and had no real relationships.

She's Not There by Joy Fielding is a psychological thriller about the kidnapping of a two year old girl from a Mexican resort while her parents are at a dinner party close.

This story is told from the mother's tormented perspective and flips back and forth from past to present giving the reader glimpses into what happened that night and how their lives were devastatingly impacted by the traumatic events of that night fifteen years prior when Samantha disappeared. Caroline Shipley is continually blamed and ridiculed by the press, the community, and her own family, inevitably costing her her marriage and teaching career.

This story has a familiar backstory and made me think of the true crime and kidnapping of Maddie McCann in Algarve, Portugal in 2007 under similar circumstances.

I have always been a fan of Joy Fielding's books and jumped at the chance to read her latest thriller. I was not disappointed and highly recommend this novel if you like this genre. I rate this novel 4 out of 5 stars.

Thank you NetGalley and Bonnier Zaffre Publishing for providing a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review. https://moesbookblog.wordpress.com/

Reviewed: October 29, 2017. Novel Publish Date: December 14, 2017.

This is the first book I have read by this author and it certainly won’t be the last!

This is one of those slow burners that gently draws you in and then before you know it, it has got you hook, line and sinker, not allowing you to go anywhere until you get to the very end.

You can’t help but think of the Madeleine McCann case when it comes to this book. A couple having a meal with friends close by whilst the children are left in the hotel room unsupervised. The majority of people certainly hold the McCann’s responsible for her disappearance and to a certain extent in this story you could say the same. Seeing Caroline’s side of things though did have me feeling a whole load of empathy I didn’t expect to feel.

Caroline has drifted through life since her youngest daughters disappearance. Her marriage broke down soon after and her eldest daughter Michelle, their relationship is quite estranged to say the least.

Even though the story starts off with someone claiming to be the missing daughter, this story is more about what happened as the story flicks between present day and to the past when Samantha went missing. What I loved though is seeing the fragile relationship between Caroline and Michelle as we only tend to think about the parents when this sort of thing happens, but what about the other siblings.

Michelle was a character I really enjoyed. She has had to go through a lot, constantly living under her sister’s shadow, my heart really went out to her.

She’s Not There is a brilliant read. It lulls you into a false sense of security, dropping a few treats along the way, but like with a meal, my favourite part has to be, the dessert, or in this case the ending. Superb!

As the blurb said, a lost child, a phone call fifteen years later claiming to be the lost child, and then flashbacks along with the present and future repercussions. All this sounded great which made me request for the book.
This is my first Joy Fielding book, I have heard of her but haven't read any of her previous works. Hoping to lose myself in the book, I started the story with great enthusiasm.
The story starts well, there is the feeling of anticipation of how, when, why. The author has a great plot line with strong characters, but somewhere down the line, it falls short.
The mother, Caroline, who misses her baby every second in these fifteen years, should have brought out my sympathy but misses her mark. I just couldn't connect with her, I knew she was going through pain but could not feel her angst in the words. In spite of being a math teacher, I didn't think she was well versed with the ways of the world, she couldn't calculate the odds at any point of time. I never felt she stood up for herself, always being sorry, feeling sorry.
The elder daughter, Michelle, got short changed in the entire book. I felt bad for her and empathized with her plight. A stubborn clingy child, not liked much by the mother especially when the younger child was angelic, growing up to be a rude moody teenager whose good side sometimes peeks through the pages, but always covered by her ornery words. I liked the way the author has developed Michelle's character. A girl with a heart of gold but covering it with a blustery nature. She was an enigma.
I couldn't care less for the father in the entire book. He did have 2 families pre and post divorce, but he loved only one person - himself. His feelings for his lost daughter did not even come out, and I didn't know if it was deliberate. The rest of the characters play their part, go through the motions the author puts them through.
The only part in the book which excited me was the ending; it was unexpected and twisted. It came at a time when the book felt lacklustre. A book which read more like a family saga ended with a bang!

I received an arc copy of this book in exchange for my honest review of it. Caroline and Hunter we're married with two daughters. They go on vacation with all of their friends to celebrate their anniversary. On their last night, the babysitter cancels and Hunter convinces Caroline to leave the kids in the hotel room and check in them every 30 minutes since the restaurant is right outside and could be seen from their window. Two year old Samantha is gone when the kids are checked on. Fifteen years later, a young woman appears at their door claiming to be Samantha.

I read Joy Fielding's books years ago and always enjoyed them. Haven't read one for years. This one didn't disappoint.

I have read all of this author's previous works and have thoroughly enjoyed and have been entertained by them. And although this is a good story well written, peopled by great characters, I just couldn't connect with the storyline emotionally. Perhaps it's because I'm not a parent that I could only sympathise with the protagonist's plight, and not truly empathise. Nevertheles,s I will look out for the next book by this accomplished author.

This book was a great read!! Not overly fast paced, but ended really well!
Overall really enjoyable book!!

Caroline's 2 year old daughter was snatched from her crib while her parents were dining in the hotel restaurant. Caroline's life has never been the same, as the press has hounded her constantly, the public thinks she was a bad mother, and she's dealt with several people trying to con her over the years. Her husband has divorced her and remarried. Her 20-year old daughter Michelle constantly fights with her. Her mother constantly criticizes her.
Then one day she gets a call from a girl who says she thinks she's Caroline's daughter.
Nearly every chapter in this book alternates between past (either the time of the kidnapping or several years later) and the present (15 years after the kidnapping and after the girl's call). At times, it's a bit difficult to keep track, but the storyline is intriguing, and one wants to keep reading to see what happens. I thought the complicated relationship between Caroline and her older daughter Michelle was well done. You don't hate one or the other, and can easily see the perspectives of each. There is no black and white there--lots of shades of gray. An interesting book!

'She's Not There' is the fictional account of a couple whose 2-year-old daughter goes missing from their hotel room one night, whilst the couple are eating at a restaurant with friends. First and foremost I am surprised that I picked up this book on that alone, as the plot has a lot of similarities to a well-known true story of a young girl that went missing from a Portuguese holiday resort. It sits uneasy with me that such a tragic (and real) story has been used as the fodder for a fictional novel, but that is my only gripe with this book.

Fielding's writing is absolutely genius. Throughout this book she seamlessly travels from accounts of the present day, to up to 15 years ago when the main protagonist's daughter goes missing. She takes us along the journey from discovering the child is gone, to the days and weeks that follow. To the breakup of her marriage, and her understandably never-ending desire to find her daughter. All this changes when 15 years after daughter Samantha's disappearance, mother Caroline receives a phone call from a stranger. Given that we are given this information from the book blurb alone, I'd say that the plot of the book pans out fairly predictably, and although I found the pace of the book to be fast and snappy, I was still desperate to get to the answers. When the answers finally came, a few facts were as I predicted, whilst others were a bit of a surprise.

Joy Fielding is hailed as the 'queen of psychological suspense', and although I would say this novel ticks those boxes, this one perhaps didn't offer enough suspense as I would have liked, given its predictability. That being said, I really enjoyed her writing style and so will be looking out for many more of her books.

Whilst this ebook which I received from Netgalley is billed as a psychological thriller I would class it as more of a light weight mystery.

The story of a child who goes missing in circumstances very similar to the disappearance of British child Madeleine McCann did not really engage with me emotionally and that is unusual for me.

The plot is well conceived and written in away that I was actually hooked in quite early on and it was very near the end that I was able to deduce who was to blame for the abduction. The reuniting of Samantha with her birth family was glossed over in a cliched manner but overall this was an enjoyable read and I will look out for Joy Fielding books when I go on holiday as this was the perfect holiday read.

Caroline's 2-year-old daughter was taken from her hotel room 15 years ago. At the 15-year anniversary of the disappearance, news outlets publish updated sketches of what Samantha would look like today, and a young girl contacts Caroline because she believes she may be Samantha. The story flips back and forth between the past, at the time of the kidnapping and jumping forward through other notable anniversaries, and the present, with Caroline trying to find out the truth about this young girl who may or may not be Samantha. I really enjoyed this. I saw some of the twists coming and kind of suspected the end result but it was still a really good read. I was not a fan of Michelle, the other daughter, who was a complete brat despite being at least 20 years old. Overall, 4 stars.

Joy Fielding writes consistently entertaining suspense novels that don't pander to the lowest common denominator, so whenever I see a new one, I pick it up. This was a quick and enjoyable read with enough twists and turns to keep me on my toes. I particularly liked the evolving relationship between Caroline, the mother, and Michelle, the older sister of the abducted toddler.

Thank you, netgalley for the e-review copy of this book.

A young woman decides to find out about her biological family. A mother wonders what happened to her missing baby 20 years ago. Suspense builds until they all meet and there are a lot of obstacles in the way.

I am a long time fan of Joy Fielding. Her books are always compelling page-turners. She's Not There is all of that and more. It was a good story from the very first chapter until the very end, and full of twists and surprises. This book kept me on edge. One thing I really liked was that the chapters were clearly marked for time, if it was present, fifteen years ago, five years ago. There was no disruption in the story to try to figure out what the time frame was, as it is in so many books. I always look forward to reading more from Joy Fielding!

I started reading and realized I read this book a year ago.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance read of this title in exchange for my honest opinion. I have loved Joy Fielding for years, and this one met it's mark. This book alternates between present time, and 15 years ago, when Caroline Shipley's infant daughter went missing from a hotel room when she and her husband went out to dinner and left the children alone. On the anniversary, she is used to people coming out of the woodwork, but 15 years later, a girl calls who believes she might be the missing girl. There are a lot of twists and turns, ups and downs, and wondering if this girl really is Samantha. If it is, who took her and how will the rest of the family react to the news. I highly recommend this book.

I received an ARC from NetGalley to read and review. The below is my honest, unbiased opinion. Thank you, Joy Fielding, the publisher, and NetGalley, for allowing me to review.

A lifetime ago, every year Caroline Shipley looked forward to her wedding anniversary. But then a celebratory trip to Mexico for the occasion with her husband and friends ended in the unsolved kidnapping of her infant daughter, Samantha. Now, fifteen years after that horrific time, divorced and isolated, Caroline is forced to relive the kidnapping by reporters who call every year on the anniversary of Samantha’s disappearance. However, this year when the phone rings, Caroline hears the sweet voice of a girl claiming to be her long-lost daughter. Plunged back into the world of heartbreak, suspicion, and questions that led the case to run cold so many years ago, Caroline doesn’t know what or who to believe. But when she starts to figure it out, she finds the answers dangerously close to home.

SHE'S NOT THERE is marketing as an adult psychological thriller with mystery elements, but I found it light on the psychological thriller part. While I'd agree that it had mystery elements, I'd argue it's more of a family drama than a psychological thriller. This was my first Joy Fielding novel, and I enjoyed it. I don't have kids, so I can't say I wouldn't make the same mistakes Caroline makes; however, I'd like to think I wouldn't be as naive. Her naivety was a little off-putting, but Fielding's writing more than makes up for it. Her writing is captivating, and she seems to effortlessly draw the reader in. Her writing evokes emotion, and the reader is left feeling Caroline's despair after losing her daughter. The book is told in dual timelines (the abduction and its aftermath), which helps to solidify the exceptional character development.

I'd like to give this four stars, but I took off half a star for some annoying character traits which were almost unbearable.

I don’t think Fielding has ever let me down. I’ve loved all her books. This plot came from a headline several years back where a couple went out to dinner and left their child (or it might have been children) alone in a hotel room. One of them was abducted. That’s where the similarities end. Stick with this until the very end to find out what happened. I was quite surprised and think you will be, too. Another notch in Fielding’s thriller belt. I can’t wait for the next one. She did a great job of drawing some unpleasant characters in this one.