Having read Elisabeth debut book 99 Red Balloons, I was very excited to read this her second book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, the story was told in two parts, Debbie's story from the past in 1986 and then the daughter's story Anna in the present, some 30 odd years later. You spend a fair bit of time throughout the book going back to the past then the present, back to the past and so on. I found it easy to follow and I loved reading both their storys at the same time.

I was truly captivated and enthralled with this book and throughout reading it, I kept trying to piece everything together in my head, and figure it all out, and wondering how it would all end. There were plenty of surprises, twists and turns come the final chapters that I literally didn't see coming.

However, as much as I did enjoy reading this story from start to finish, there was one thing that did confuse me. The title of the book 11 Missed Calls, there was only one sentence in the whole story that actaully referenced the missed calls and then nothing, no reason as to the missed calls or who they were from or what the intention of them were.  It has made me wonder as to why the book was even given the title of 11 Missed Calls!

Despite this though, it hasn't made me regret reading this book, as I did thoroughly enjoy it and was very entertained, right to the very end.

A wife and mother disappears on a family vacation and is presumed to have run away. The story is told in two timelines, before her disappearance by Debbie and 30 years later by her now-grown daughter Anna. While reading most of the book, I could completely understand why Debbie chose to leave. Her husband was a jerk, oblivious to helping his wife and newborn child. But it was still difficult to understand, if she wasn't dead, how she could abandon her kids. Then Anna gets an email supposedly from her mother and decides to try and find out what really happened that night. The end result is an enjoyable book with lots of sub plots to keep the action lively and the assumptions going. Though, no real clue what the title has to do with the book at all!

Firstly thank you to NetGalley for this free arc in exchange for my honest review!

This story follows Debbie who is married with 2 young children, when her second child is little over a month old the family go abroad on holiday with Debbies best friend Monica, her husband and their young son. On this holiday Debbie does not return and no one knows what happened the night she went missing.

The book is told from 2 perspectives, Debbies which is told in past tense and Annies/Anna's (Debbies daughter who was a month old when she diappeared) which is told in present tense. Anna never stopped wondering and looking for her mother, at certain points in her life it became an obsession and clearly messed her up. Debbies story begins when she has Anna and tells the indepth story of how she struggled being a new mum again and juggling 2 children. Her husband Peter seems to be a 'stereotypical husband' of that era (late 80's/early 90's) where he works all day and expects his wife to be a mum but also a chef and maid too, that irritated me to no end. Monica is also a big part of the story as not only is she the best friend but she also ends up marrying Peter and helping to bring up Bobby and Anna which in any thriller is very suspicious.

What this book does well is it makes you believe certain things as true such as we believe Nathan to be Leo's father so we never question that hes alive throughout nor is it ever mentioned that he too disappeared, i liked this twist as it was very clever! The ending was a but meh as Debbie was portrayed to be the loving mother who would do anything for her kids but the ending contradicted that for me.

I have so many mixed feelings about this book, im between a 2 or 3 star here but think im settling on a 2.5. It wasnt a bad book or terribly written i just think there are so many better thrillers out there like Gone Girl, Girl on the Train, The Girl in 6E etc

No i didnt guess the twist but i didnt really care that much either, yes i was intrigued and wanted to see it through until the end and im glad i did but how i know im loving a thriller is because i will constantly be thinking up what the twist is and thinking of my own conspiracies but i wasnt doing that with this book. It wasnt terrible and i did enjoy it but it doesnt stand out much as a UK thriller in my eyes.

This book has it all - family drama, love, lies, depression, detrayal, secrets.

Anna has never known her mother as she went missing on a family holiday in Tenerife, when Anna was just a baby. Thirty years later Anna is still looking to find out the truth about what happened to her mother.

The story is mainly told in alternating chapters between Anna, in the present day, and Debbie (her mother) in the time leading up to her disappearance. Although I normally love this style I have to admit I did find this quite confusing in this book, mainly as I found the two characters so similar and I often found myself have to flick back to remember who I was reading about, maybe the heat was getting to my concentration. I did however still really enjoy this book and was desperate to keep reading so I could find out what happened.

Thank you to Avon Books and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I felt empathy with both Deborah/Debbie and Anna/Annie.
It seemed obvious to me that Debbie was struggling to cope after the birth of her second child. She had no self-worth and felt people were looking at her and talking about her in negative ways.
'My essence, my identity, is defined by other people. I've become a shadow. And I don't know what to do about it.'
I think this is so true for so many people - you become a mother and a wife and you lose your own identity and forget what you enjoy about life as a person in your own right. Elisabeth Carpenter brings this point across so clearly.
Then there is the other main character in the book. Anna has grown up without her birth mother. She is grateful to her 'step-mother' but has always craved knowledge of the woman who gave birth to her and it has affected her life to a lesser and often greater degree throughout her life so far. It affects her relationship with her husband and makes her question her own abilities to cope with her relationship with her husband and her daughter. There is something missing from her life and there are many similarities between mother and daughter, despite the fact she has never known her mother and this, too, is well portrayed.
The mystery is almost incidental to the book but is well plotted and paced.
I love that the blurb on this title has not been too explicit and does not give too much of the story away.
This is the first book I have read by this author but definitely not the last. I will definitely be reading 99 Red Balloons!
Many thanks to Netgalley/Elisabeth Carpenter/Avon Books for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

This is a good story overall. The plot is good and the ideas are good. It just seemed to take too long to find out what had happened to Debbie. The chapters went between the past and present day and slowly told the story. Different characters told the story from their perspective. When this book is stripped down to its bare bones there is definitely a good story underneath.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

This was just an ok book. I so wanted it to be much more given the synopsis but just fell short for me. It was slow to get going and only picked up about more than half way through. I also thought the title was misnamed like a few other reviewers. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to review this novel.

Had been looking forward to reading this book, but unfortunately it didn't have the WOW factor for me.
It was an ok read, with good writing and plenty of twists, I just found the characters irritating.

Thank you netgalley, Avon Books UK and Elizabeth Carpenter for allowing me to read and review this book.

i really struggled to read this book, the story was slow and really didn’t live up to my expectations at all.

many thanks to netgalley and the publishers for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

11 Missed Calls by Elizabeth Carpenter is a mystery novel.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Avon Books UK, and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My Synopsis:
First there was Debbie, married to Peter, who she thinks is cheating with her best friend Monica. Nathan, Monica’s husband, seems to be in love with Debbie. Rather convoluted. But Debbie has other concerns. She is suffering from postpartum depression, and although everyone seems to think something is wrong, no real diagnosis is made. She is trying to cope with her six-year old Robert, and her new-born Anna, but she is not handling anything well. She feels everyone would be better off without her. When she disappears, Peter remarries – Monica.

Debbie’s father never gives up on finding his daughter.

Thirty years later. Anna has never known her birth mother, and although Monica has been a wonderful mother, she has always wanted to know more about Debbie, and will not let it go. She sees Debbie everywhere, to the point of stalking those that seem to meet the criteria. When the bookshop gets a new volunteer named Ellen, Anna’s first thought is that it might really be her mother. And so her obsession continues. Anna and her husband Jack have a daughter named Sophie. Anna thinks Jack is cheating on her.

When an email, supposedly sent by Debbie, appears in Monica’s inbox, lives will change. Anna hires a private eye. She is going to find out once and for all what happened to her mother.

My Opinions:
I really enjoyed Carpenter’s first novel (99 Red Balloons), and was really looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, I had a real problem getting into this book. I just couldn’t get into the characters. The chapters alternated between Debbie and Anna, and I was often confused as to who was who, and since I didn’t really like any of the characters, it made it harder.

Overall, the plot showed promise, but it was just sad. Depression is sad, and that is a big portion of the book. It’s also about love, and secrets. About 60% through, I finally got involved. That’s a long way to read without anything really happening. However, somewhere around there, I got into the story and although I won’t say it was great, it had a relatively happy ending. But overall, it was still sad.

So, this book was just not for me. That’s not saying it wasn’t well written, because it was. And the premise was great. It just left me drained, and not in a good way. I am sure others will love it….just not me. It, does, however, earn its 3 star rating on the writing alone.

I enjoyed this book BUT firstly I felt the Title could have been a lot stronger and much more relevant, there are certainly better title options lurking in the book.

Although I was intrigued to get to the end, at times it felt like hard work as the 2 characters voices, Debbie the missing mum and Anna the troubled daughter, were very similar and I had to concentrate very hard and reread certain passages to stop myself getting confused. This book is certainly worth a read and with a change of title and a few tweaks this would be 'a one sitting delight' .


Thank you NetGalley, Avon Books Uk and Elisabeth Carpenter.

A dual time line novel where a woman-Anna- tries to solve the mystery of her mother Debbie's disappearance and presumed death. Anna was told her mom was dead but now there's a suggestion that she did not die in Tenerife all those years ago. The two narrators thing works well here but there's an added third voice that doesn't become clear until the end. This wasn't the most suspenseful version of this plot line I've read but Carpenter did a good job with telling Debbie's story. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I really wanted to love this book but it didn’t flow enough for me to get truly into it. The book jumped between characters which left me confused at points. The storyline is actually very strong but could be better structured.

I really enjoyed this.

It's a heartbreaking tale of a mother who disappears whilst on a family holiday in Tenerife and her children who continue to miss and look for her, especially her daughter, Anna/Annie.

The story is told from the perspective of both the daughter and the mother and it maintains an effective flow of emotion and information that kept me reading steadily to the end. I must admit that I was hooked from the 'I remember 2 things about my mother 1. that she had dark hair and 2.She wasn't very happy at the end.

I've read some frustration about the title and I was a tad confused initially, however, it is explained, just stick with it!

Overall, a really good read and definitely one I'd recommend.

Thanks so much to Netgalley, Harper Collins Publishing and Elisabeth Carpenter for the opportunity to preview this book in exchange for an honest review.

Sadly this book didn't live up to expectations.

For me it was incredibly slow however I persevered in the hope that it might pick up towards the end. Unfortunately that wasn't the case.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Avon for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.* I need to start by saying that I am unsure about the choice of title for the book. There is a point in the story where Monica, one of the main character's stepmother receives 11 missed calls to her mobile phone, but it just didn't seem that pivotal to the story. Maybe I am missing something, but another reviewer made the same observation. The book switches between the present day and the 1980s and between different characters' points of view. The two key protagonists are Anna and her mother Debbie, who disappeared without a trace 30 years ago. I enjoyed the switching of time frames as well as the descriptions of domestic life in the 1980s. Overall, I did enjoy the book and was keen to keep reading and discover what had happened to Debbie all of those years ago. I did feel like the ending was a little rushed and could have been built up a little bit more. Overall, an enjoyable read.

Debbie is on holiday in Tenerife with her family and friends Nathan and Monica.
Debbie is not happy and no longer feels in control and disappears one night leaving a note. Debbie two children Robert and Annie who was only a baby when she left have moved on or have They?
Annie needs to find out the truth, but she has problems of her own when she finds a love letter in her husbands wallet.
This book is beautifully written and very emotional. It gradually ramps up until the crescendo when you finally find out what happened on that fateful night.
I would like to thank the author Elisabeth Carpenter, Avon Books and Net.galley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for giving an honest review.

Anna’s mother, Debbie, has been missing for 30 years. Some believe she is dead and some gossip that she left her husband and two children and ran off with another man. But for Anna, finding her mother, dead or alive, has become an obsession.
That is, until her father’s wife Monica, who was also Debbie’s best friend, receives a mysterious email, signed by none other than Debbie herself.
What really happened to Debbie all those years ago? Why was she acting weird days before disappearing? Is she alive or someone is playing nasty tricks, pretending to be her?

The premise of the story was generally good and the suspense was such that made you keep reading to get to the bottom of the mystery.
However, there still remain some unanswered questions for me and I don’t like loose ends in a book.
There was an overabundance of inner thoughts and dialogues which go on and on.
The first person narrations of Debbie in 1986 and Anna in present day, and also occasionally some unknown person, were extremely confusing as the voices sounded very alike.
Overall this was a fast paced read.

Thanks to Elisabeth Carpenter, Avon and the NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy.

I wanted to like this book. I really did. But it was so difficult to get through. The author tried to do too much in drawing parallels, and as a result the tension never really built like it should have. The switching back and forth between Debbie 30 years before and Anna in the present did not mesh. It seemed as if we were supposed to think that Anna was following in her mother’s footsteps, but it wasn’t fleshed out enough to actually occur. There were plot points that didn’t go anywhere, and it just seemed like everything was loose ends that weren’t tied up, even though the central mystery was resolved. And I have to say that the resolution itself was a disappointment. A psychological thriller should have that “oh my gosh” moment that makes the reader re-evaluate everything to that point. Unfortunately, "11 Missed Calls" had more of a “that’s it?” moment. And the title itself comes in a “blink and you’ll miss it” mention. This had the potential to be a much better book than it actually was. Disappointing. Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I just wasn't sure when I'd finished this book if I liked it or if I didn't and if I feel like that then I can only give it 2 stars. Sorry, just not the book I'd hoped for I guess.