Is it my imagination or have there been an awful lot of books like this one lately?

Anna lives with her mamma in Florida. On her 18th birthday, Anna sneaks off with her boyfriend to Astroland, a theme park that Mamma has always forbidden Anna to visit. But how can so many things in this theme park be so familiar?

Meanwhile, in London, Rosie is doing her best to be a normal teenager. Except she's not normal. Her sister, Emily went missing from an American theme park almost 15 years ago and Rosie has had to grow up with people pointing and whispering about her and her family.

This time though, Rosie has had enough and decides that once and for all - she and her family need to find out what happened to Emily.

I enjoyed probably the first 65% of the book. Even though it was massively predictable, it was well written with characters who were interesting enough to keep me reading.

Not my kind of book. I found it very predictable and too religious. It was an okay read and I liked the premise, but I couldn't always believe what I was reading and found me getting distracted by other books.

This is an easy and enjoyable read that will draw you in from page 1. I found the ending slightly disappointing but overall, it’s a good book with an intriguing plot.

My Name is Anna Is a story that had me hooked from the start. It’s every parents worst nightmare to be honest! It’s about two girls hundreds of thousands of miles apart but share a huge bond; they are sisters!

Anna lives at home with her mum and she has a very religious unbringing, she is forbidden from doing many things including going to the theme park, she disobeys her mother and goes on her 18th birthday and somehow the place feels familiar for some reason.

Rosie's sister Emily vanished when she was 3 years old in Florida whilst on holiday and now 15 years later Rosie wants to find her.

This is a great story, an emotional one but also gripping in parts. Makes you really think and I adored it, well done to the author it’s a fab read.

I wouldn’t call this an amazing book but I don’t think I was the right audience for it. It will definitely appeal to a younger audience. But still a nice read with a good plot.

Its not often you find a book that can get you from the first page but this one did. Well written. great characters. Not read anything from this author before but I will certainly be looking for more.

Highly readable, though the twist was somewhat predictable. Nevertheless, the writing and plot is strong and really engaging.

I was lucky enough to receive this book from netgalley wow and what a fantastic explosive read it kept me hooked from the first page this is a must read

I read this book very quickly but was disappointed in the ending as it seemed to me that there were a lot of unanswered questions. Having said that it was an easy and enjoyable read.

I believe My Name is Anna to be Lizzy Barber’s debut novel which blows my mind as it is so brilliantly written and such a powerful story.

Anna lives with her mother who is deeply religious and incredibly strict. This discipline is heavily focussed on cleanliness – being pure and therefore closer to God. Anna loves her mum but cannot help but wonder as to how it would be to have a parent who might show her affection and love in a more direct and warm way. She finds herself often looking at the one portrait in the house of her parents when her father was alive and questioning her lack of resemblance to them both. She and her mother live in Florida near Astroland, a famous theme park, but she has been firmly forbidden from ever going there. So when she rebels against her mother for the first time and attends the park with William, her boyfriend, she is taken aback at sudden and vivid flashes of memories that tell her she has most definitely been there before.

Rosie lives with her parents and brother in London and also with the shadow of her sister who went missing many years previously. As the fifteenth anniversary of Emily’s disappearance approaches can her family finally recover from the heartbreak and deeply entrenched sorrow at her loss? Rosie is desperate to find out what happened to her older sister so that she can prevent her family from fracturing beyond repair. But as she ventures into dark areas of the internet in order to do so, is she putting herself in the line of danger?

This is a great read that shows how vastly different lives can be and how the damage caused by one person’s actions can echo across the years and create so much harm to so many and change the course of their lives. It is beautifully written and contains deeply complex and damaged characters whilst taking on the ever asked question of Nature Vs Nurture. It is at times deeply heart wrenching and yet full of drama to keep you on the edge of your seat as the story develops. A book I certainly recommend and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

My thanks to #Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of #MyNameisAnna in return for an honest review.

I really quite enjoyed this book. I’m sure that others have already made the comment that the storyline has a Madeline McCann feel to it and that they recognised the premise of certain parts of the book which I also felt within the storyline.

It’s difficukt to describe without starting a spoiler alert. I enjoyed the book but didngiesss the ending abiut half way through . This doesn’t destruct from the interest in the story and the complexity of the characters. Focus on those and the you won’t be disappointed they you also guessed the ending.

Thank you to NetGakket and the author for allowing me to review this book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book and it flowed really nicely. I like to read my books 1 chapter at a time before I have to go adult in between, but Barber cleverly puts her cliffhangers at the end of each chapter so I had to keep on reading even when I should've been doing something else!
It's really hard to actually review this without giving away the spoilers, but although it's quite obvious from the beginning that Emily is going to be found, the circumstances in which she was taken were unexpected.

This book had me on the edge of my seat and I barely put it down to sleep. The many twists and turns, details and country cross overs meant that I was constantly guessing and wondering how the story would be resolved. I can totally see this as a short TV series because it was so visual throughout!

I was hooked from the start with this story, and I loved the Carrie references that is Anna's life. She lives with her deeply religious single mother leading a sheltered life and on her 18th birthday she sneaks away with a boy to a theme park. This triggers all sorts of flashback and niggling memories that she can't quite place. On the other side of the ocean in London lives Rosie, her family life has been turned upside down since her sister Emily disappeared 15 years ago - and though she was only a year or two old when her sister disappears her life growing up has been overshadowed by that event.  Now Rosie has decided to do some digging into her sisters disappearance at a theme park in Florida.

The story is told in the POV from each sister and you couldn't help but get sucked into the story as it slowly unfolds from both sides. I really enjoyed this book and found in emotional what Anna's real mother must have went through and continued to go through.

Rosie has grown up in the shadow of her missing sister. Her family have spent years following every clue and hint which may lead them to find her. There have been TV interviews for the whole family particularly around the anniversary of her disappearance. Rosie has never felt able to be Rosie, she has always been that girl whose sister disappeared. On the other side of the world in America lives Anna. She has been bought up in a very strict religious household by her single Mother. However, now at age 18 she wants to push the boundaries starting with a visit to a theme park which she has been banned from visiting.

This is a book written from the point of view of the two girls – Anna and Rosie. I found this particularly interesting as stories about people who have gone missing are often written from the viewpoint of the parents, the abductor, the police or another third party. These are very intimate accounts. I felt very much for Rosie whose whole life has been taken up by the disappearance of her sister. It certainly made me think about how difficult it must be to be in her position. & how siblings cope with the loss of a sibling, the focus on finding them & the associated media circus.

I felt the characters were written with real depth and emotion. I was particularly taken with Rosie’s family. However, Anna’s mother is also interesting – she has obviously been through traumatic events and wants to keep her daughter safe at all costs.

This was a well written and well plotted book. Some things are quite obvious to the reader from quite early on but I enjoyed following the characters as they made their own discoveries. Not everything was set from the beginning – there is still much to discover on the way – some of it quite unexpected.

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley.

I don’t know if I just wasn’t in the mood for this book as I had read some great reviews but it just didn’t grip me at all. I didn’t like the religious cult aspect of Anna’s side of the story and ended up skim reading most of it. However it was well written and I enjoyed Rosie’s side of the story much more. Would definitely give this author another go. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and Century for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was such an emotional read which tells the story of a missing child from both sides. We have the child herself who doesn’t know she is missing, but who starts to realise things aren’t quite what she always thought. We then have the missing child’s sister who has lived in the shadow of her memory for years.

As both sides begin to come together I was so drawn into the story. Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing a copy,

I’ve been struggling to find the right book to hook me and this is the one that succeeded. The author gives enough detail to make you want to read more.

Fantastic read, the story of a child that goes missing and the effect it has on the family, not knowing if she’s dead or alive, so unable to have closure.

A very different take on many a well known adduction story. Slipping between the two sisters point I raced through both story lines wanting to know what happened.