This had me on the edge of my seat, I absolutely loved the story, the twists and the journey I went on

This was a brilliant read. As soon as I started reading this book I just knew I was going to love it. Highly recommended

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book. Unfortunately it’s not for me. Did not finish @ 23%.

Sorry for the long delay in reviewing this book I was very ill for a while and have only just managed to regain access back to my account. I very much loved this book and the author and hope I will be able to read many more of their titles.

This was an interesting story. Laura cannot see/register faces. It is a great mirror to realize how much information you are getting from a persons face and how you are depending on that in your daily communication with people.
The way Laura was dealing with this was interesting. She was making clear choices in whom she was sharing this handicap with and who not.
The story is a quiet but exciting read. It was hard to put down but in the end it is getting a bit to much and it is over all of a sudden. I did not really see the value of the two point of view narrative but that was not disturbing the story either.

Laura has a big secret that has kept from all of her office companions. she has Prosopagnosia, meaning that she can not recognise the faces, she has to rely on little details like a hair cut, a tattoo… to know who is she talking to. So, when during an office party someone abuses her, she doesn’t know who to trust and starts to being paranoid and anxious trying to discover who was the “Pink Shirt”.
Ready to find him?
Let me say that I was surprised with the plot of this book, I already knew about Prosopagnosia, but never had the chance to really think what it would mean. I could understand why Laura didn’t tell anyone apart from her boss about her condition, it would make her more vulnerable that she already felt, always trying to find the detail to know who you are talking to it doesn’t have to be easy at all. But it makes this psychological thriller a great read; original and twisty that will keep you searching for a pink shirt all of the book! 😉
Sadly, lately I am reading too many news were rapists go free, without prison, simply a fee… In Spain last month there were 5 men that raped a girl during festivities and now they payed a fee, have to check every week and can’t leave Spain, but they are not in prison, they are walking on the streets… Seems that the laws are against women, that a rape is not something punishable… it is not only sad but disgusting and I am really angry about it, and let me say that after reading how “Pink Shirt” thinks about the “night” it makes me angrier, when men will understand that no is no?
I liked Laura’s story, told in first person, trying to discover who is the “Pink Shirt” and how she starts becoming paranoid searching for clues to unmask the mysterious man. At the same time you feel pity for her and how she has become isolated from everyone around her, too scared to share her weakness turning her weaker and fearful. She will have to be brave and face the truth, and maybe take down some of the barriers she created if she wants to survive.
We also have the story of Rebecca, Laura’s boss, the only one that knows Laura’s secret in the office. Her story is told in third person, while I was reading the book I didn’t understand how their stories could be linked together, so different… but of course they have a link… but sorry, no spoilers!
Be prepared for a constantly guessing story, with a few twists, surprises and some angry moments, but when a book makes you think it means it has left their seed on you, don’t you think?
Ready to search a “Pink Shirt”?

Utterly fascinating, believe it or not for a psychological thriller, I feel as though I have come out of this book a lot smarter than when I went into it.

Or at least I have a far better understanding of face blindness - and what a severe sufferer of it would be going through, such as Laura our main character.

Laura can't recognise faces at all, she can't typically even recognise her own mother, let alone whether the man she had been dancing with at a Christmas party, is the same one she goes home with. She uses other distinguishing features about a person - and is absolutely horrified when her pink shirted dance partner turns into a blue shirted man she had sex with.

Now this is where it gets tricky, as it was consensual, she just didn't realise at the time due to the condition that it wasn't the man she thought she was consenting too - which is absolutely terrifying.

What Laura is sure of is that she won't let whoever it is get away with it - so long as she can work out just who she was in bed with.

So we have Laura's story and running alongside it, Rebecca's. Rebecca is Laura's boss and doesn't seem like the nicest of women. Her story isn't as compelling but still interesting to read, especially as you get to see some things from multiple perspectives.

Whenever I wasn't reading this, it was playing on my mind. which is the sign of a good book, and the last I'm not sure how much it was, but I couldn't put it down. I was completely engrossed and hooked on just how everything would resolve itself.

This is the second book I've now read from Emma Curtis and I'm already eager to see what her next will be. Clearly my love of her first wasn't a fluke and she is now definitely an author I want to keep reading.

Thank you to Transworld and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

When I Find You by Emma Curtis.

5 Stars

Face blindness actually exists.

Prosopagnosia or face blindness is the central theme of this book, and of course, I am now using Google to find out as much as I can about this disorder. Imagine facing each day not being able to recognise the faces of your closest family and loved ones, let alone strangers?

Laura Maguire is twenty-eight years old and face-blind. Her life is fraught with anxiety as most people don’t know that Laura cannot recognise their features at all and leads people to surmise that she has a terrible memory, or that she has no interest in remembering them. This disorder is neurological and can occur from damage to the brain at birth or at any other stage. Laura has adapted by using visual cues relating to body language, hairstyles etc. but of course she is stumped if the person changes their hair or shaves off their beard or appears out of context.

Somebody closes to her realises that she suffers from the disorder and takes advantage of her inability to recognise faces and rapes her after a boozy office party and the story revolves around Laura trying to unravel the truth about her attacker. A process of elimination leads her to identify the most likely perpetrator, but the plot is complicated by a couple of twists and turns.

I loved the character of Laura, she is so brave and proud and tries so hard to succeed without using her disorder as an excuse. She works in the advertising industry, and her job is very stressful, and yet, no allowances are made for her. I cannot begin to imagine how difficult it would be to navigate the corporate world with face-blindness, let alone day to day life.

The most exciting thing about reading books is the wealth of knowledge they reveal and how they can expand one’s knowledge in such a seamless way. Not only did I thoroughly enjoy the book, but I also learned something new.

Gillian

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

An intriguing premise that is quite well-handled. The main protagonist suffers from face-blindness, which I wasn't very familiar with. This book does keep you guessing - although I did feel at some points that the other indicators (smell, clothes etc) to a person might have solved her mystery earlier, this was still an enjoyable read.

Emma Curtis gets better with every novel. This was gripping and beautifully written, and I can't wait to read her next book!

Just didn't get into this – didn't believe in any of the characters and didn't find the plot compelling.

Unfortunately for me, 'When I Find You' just seemed to waffle on and on. Whilst an interesting premise, the pace of the story and everything just didn't measure up for me and i found myself bored and just willing it to be over.

Thank you to the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When I Find You has a really intriguing opening. Laura wakes up the morning after her office Christmas party to find a stranger in her bedroom. Laura suffers from a condition called facial-blindness, also known as Prosopagnosia. She thought she knew who the person was who she brought back to her flat the previous night. Her condition means that she has to look at certain features about a person: what they’re wearing or the colour and style of their hair, but this isn’t always easy. Now she realises that someone may have taken advantage of her condition and tricked her into sleeping with them. The thought leaves her feeling angry and upset and she tries to uncover who it was who did this to her.

The novel is told through the perspectives of both Laura and Rebecca, her boss. Rebecca is supposedly the only person who knows about Laura’s condition at their office. Both Laura and Rebecca lead very different lives and they are both dealing with their own separate problems.
As I was reading I had my suspicions about everyone in the advertisement agency where she worked and I felt as though I couldn’t trust anyone who worked with her. It does give the novel a unique look at a crime that has taken place, but I could see that Emma had also researched the condition.

The ending of the book is so chilling and unexpected. When I Find You was really enjoyable and I couldn't put it down. I’m looking forward to seeing what she writes next. Thank you to Emma Curtis and Netgalley for letting me read this.

I requested this book from netgalley because of the unusual subject matter. I was intrigued right from the start, but also perplexed. Not recognising a face is one thing but not noticing the colour of the shirt has changed when she relays in such details,is hard to fathom.
Admittedly I was drawn into the story and I didn't get who dun it, but it some of it make you suspend believe. It was worth reading but it didn't measure up to the hype

When I Find You is a book that throws you straight in there and from the start I knew I would like this read.
Laura is at the office Christmas party and is getting along with a fellow colleague perhaps a little too well, she has drunk too much free booze, it gets to the end of the night she is going to share a cab home with her colleague, he goes back to get his scarf and they go back to her place. The next morning she gets up to find that there is a blue shirt on her bedroom floor and she knows damn well that the guy she brought home had a pink shirt so what the heck has happened. This is hard for Laura as she suffers from prosopagnosia which in plain terms is face blindness so will never know who shared her bed but she’s going to try and find out.
This is the second book I’ve read this month covering the topic of face blindness and I have to say it seems an awful condition and can’t imagine what it’s truly like to live with day in day out and Emma Curtis has done an excellent job in showing the reader how hard it is to hold down a job and how it feels to not recognise anyone out of their normal surroundings.
This was a good read I have knocked a star off as at some parts I did feel it was a little repetitive but in the whole this was a book I greatly enjoyed following Laura’s quest to find this awful man.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Random House UK, Transsorld Publishers, Black Swan for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

What if you can't remember the face of the man who you slept with, but you remembered his penis?

I'd write that as the tagline of this book.

Laura is face blind, a condition prevents her to remember the faces she look at at a later time, so when she hooks up with a man at work's Christmas do, in the morning she woke up next to a man whose face she doesn't remember. But she remembers his t-shirt and realises it's not the man she meant to come home with. The man she fancied had a pink shirt.

While Laura is confused, the man escapes. Laura is certain the man used her condition to get her to bed, and understandably, she is furious. She clings into bits of information she knows about the man, the most important being his penis: circumcised. Then we took of the journey of finding her rapist with Laura.

I will give credit to the author, it's an original plot in the age of cliches, but original didn't prevent it being a bit ridiculous. At one point in the story, when Laura asked a man: "Are you circumcised! Tell me! Are you??" I couldn't stop face palming and honestly, rape is a subject that has to be taken with a LOT of seriousness. I am not sure I enjoyed reading this really important problem of consent/rape into a story line like that. Makes the whole thing look tacky.

I couldn’t not read this when I read the blurb; this follows Laura who has prosopagnosia which is also known as face blindness {and yes, this is a real life medical issue!} and she waked up after her xmas party to find that she hasn’t slept with the person she thought she had but because of her condition, she has no idea what his face looks like. We follow her as she works through finding out who she slept with as they technically raped her as she consented to sleeping with the man she knew as ‘Pink Shirt’ but not to the man who has a blue shirt.
When I first read the blurb, I did have to have a google to see if prosopagnosia was an actual condition and it is and sounds like it must be a real struggle for someone to live with. If you start to properly think about not being able to see people’s faces, it’s quite alarming on how much we rely on facial expressions or just being able to see someone’s face to identify them. We do get a lot of detail in the story about the condition and Laura does mention how she helps keep track of people which was interesting. The actual plot of this was really gripping; Laura actually keeps her condition to herself and only lets a few people who need to know, know about her condition which limited the pool of people who could have assaulted her. Or so she thinks. As we’re following Laura trying to discover who has assaulted her, we are also following along with the investigation of the hit and run accident that killed one o Laura’s friend and Co-worker outside work and also on the night of the xmas party. I did figure out very quickly who had killed Laura’s co-worker, but I thought that it was meant to be easier to figure out who did it as I struggled to work out who had assaulted Laura.
This book is also told from 2 perspectives; Laura and then her manager, Rebecca. It become clear later on in the book as to why we see Rebecca’s perspective so although it may seem strange at first, it does all come together towards the end of the book so stick with it!
The only reason I gave this a 4-stars and not 5 was because of how bloody stupid she was with the police! She didn’t want to go to them with what had happened because she was scared that they wouldn’t believe her with her condition. However, she has been properly diagnosed with prosopagnosia {Face Blindness} and has attending a university for studies with a leader in that field so it isn’t like she’d be making it up as she has the evidence to support her diagnosis. Then again, I obviously don’t suffer from the condition so I have no idea how other people have treated her because of her condition and I also imagine that she could be very embarrassed going to the police to describe her situation and having to explain that she slept with someone without actually ‘knowing’ their face and just knowing them by the colour of their shirt.
Other than that tiny niggle, I really enjoyed this and I would highly recommend it! I thought it was a unique view on a thriller and I’ve not read anything like this! It was a very good use of a medical condition in a thriller that isn’t amnesia related or alcoholism and is also a possible take on an unreliable narrator which actually worked for once! I would 100 % recommend picking this up.

Emma has prosopagnosia or 'face-blindness' meaning that she cannot recognise anyone by their face, even close family members. She manages to hide this pretty well at work until the Christmas party when she flirts with a co-worker in a pink shirt and goes home with him - only to find out the next morning that the guy she slept with is wearing a blue shirt. Things ramp up into quite fantastical territory at times, although the twist ending was done well.

As someone who has the opposite issue (I never forget a face) I find the concept of 'face-blindness' intriguing. I think the author did a good job of conveying how disorientating and frightening it must be to not be able to recognise anyone around you, even your parents. The character of Emma was mostly sympathetic and finding out what happened to her kept me reading. The author also makes some points about consent obtained by deception and how rape isn't all about violence.

What brought the rating down for me was the character of Rebecca (one of Emma's bosses). I really didn't care for the chapters narrated by her and although there were several other characters who were also despicable, Rebecca with her two-faced cheating with her friend's husband and trying to trap him with a baby, was just horrible. She really didn't add much to the story except to hang a few plot points on, and it would have been better without her.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, Random House UK / Transworld Publishers, for the opportunity to review an ARC.

'When I Find You' is the second novel from crime writer Emma Curtis and follows her widely acclaimed debut 'One Little Mistake' into the thriller genre. Both books owe a lot to Curtis's fascination with the darker side of life.

Advertising executive Laura wakes up from an alcohol-laden christmas party with an unknown man in her bed. She assumes she must know him, as he attended the office party with her, but he is not the guy she thought she left with who was wearing a pink shirt, and the shirt on her bedroom floor is blue. Laura uses these methods to distinguish between people because she suffers from Prosopagnosia or face-blindness. The only person she has made aware of her medical condition is her boss, Rebecca, but someone else has found out her secret and used her condition against her in the worst possible way. She then attempts to discover exactly who her rapist is but with limited information she wonders if she'll ever be able to achieve justice or whether a dangerous rapist who prays on the vulnerable will get away with his sickening assault and will be emboldened as a result

In a bid to create an original premise and stand out in an industry full to the brim with overused ideas, I have noticed crime writers using medical conditions as a basis for their story ('The Date' by Louise Jensen is just one example). Unfortunately, with the vast amount of reading I do from this genre, this is also becoming a concept that is no longer unique. In fact, this almost mirrors a book I read recently that had the exact same storyline with only a few minor details changed. I understand that those who don't have the pleasure of reading crime fiction as much as they'd like to view this as an original plot but it isn't, i'm afraid. That said, I did enjoy this book, but a substantial amount of what went on was very far-fetched and lacked serious believability. However, Curtis is good at making you feel for Laura, as she endures a special kind of hell, and the writing style makes the story easy-to-follow. There were also some fantastic twists that I didn't predict.

Many thanks to Black Swan for an ARC. I was not required to post a review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK for this arc in exchange for an honest review.
Having read the synopsis I was intrigued, as Prosopagnosia is a condition I had heard of but had absolutely no understanding of the difficulties a sufferer would face (no pun intended!)
That aside, wow - what a book! The plot was so cleverly and intricately crafted, and it made for an exciting, gripping and chilling read right up to the last page.
This story is fast paced and full of twists that upturn everything you think you know.