As soon as I saw this was by Haylen Beck, I knew I had to read it. What a book! The storyline was fast paced and very well written. Any mom could relate to Anna's feelings during this book, and some can relate to Libby's desperation to become a mom. The ending was not what I expected!

Lots going on here, a missing child, surrogacy and single woman. A little farfetched but interesting enough. Lots of plot twists that make it unlike other missing child "thrillers" but the writing was a bit flat.

I enjoyed this book! With the kidnapping of a happy-go-lucky three year old in the very beginning of the book, an entire story begins to unfold as one mother's fight to find and keep her child, and another's deception. Somewhat of a psychological thriller, there were moments in this book I just couldn't read fast enough.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this book in return for my opinion.

This one was a doozy! There were some unexpected twists and turns, but I liked it. The book is about the lengths a woman will go to have a child. What makes a mother? Biology? Nurture? Both? All aspects are covered in this book as a woman's past finally catches up with her.

I did think at times that the plot was a little outlandish, but overall I liked the suspense and the build up. I liked the format of present, past, present, and so on. it kept me engaged in the story.

Lost You is a thriller that was hard to put down! A mother and her young son were on vacation when he goes missing, in an elevator. A mother's worst nightmare. What will someone do for a child? What will someone do for her child? These are the questions Lost You answers. I highly suggest.

Haylen Beck, in one of his interviews, says “a strong female character” bores him. Is this why his entire female characters, especially his two protagonists, in “Lost You” are sad, pathetic women who run on pure emotion?

Haylen Beck’s psychological thriller, “Lost You,” explores the lives of two emotionally weak women who look for something to fulfill their unhappy and uninspired lives. Surrogacy, an illegal one at that, intertwines them. Libby Reese, who can’t have children due to endometriosis, and Anna Lenihan, for some reason looks almost identical to Libby, grew up in poor families and are daughters of unloving and prideful mothers. Libby, however, manages to have an education, a humble job as an Administrative Assistant at Albany City Hall, is married, and is an aspiring author, while Anna resides in a trailer in Lafayette, living from hand to mouth, and has just lost her waitressing job. Both of their mothers play favoritism to their older siblings.

Libby’s mother biggest and only accomplishment in life is humility. She passes this on to Libby like it is the secret to life mystery and success. “Always remember who you are, where you’re from, her mother had said. Don’t have to be ashamed, but you’ve nothing to be proud of. Not with the father like yours. When you’re a mother, that’s when you can hope to be proud, she’ d said. I raised my boy right, and he served his country. That I am proud of.” She is proud of her son but says nothing when her daughter asks if she is proud of her. Also, she is inattentive to Libby and discourages her from honing her natural talent in art when her art teacher advised her to take private lesson. She tells Libby that it’s only “for the rich kids, not the likes of her.” Libby experiences dark times with her mother more often than not, before the latter dies. Libby, as a teenager, can’t even come to her mother for advice when she experiences terrible cramps and heavy bleedings. She discovers birth control pills help her. When her mother finds her stash of pills, she gives Libby a savage beating, drags her by the hair, and locks her in the closet beneath their stairs.

Anna Lenihan’s mother is a proud woman. She sees Anna as a troubled eighteen year-old girl and doesn’t believe her words against her older sister’s fiancé who kissed and molested her. He says she has thrown herself at him. “As Anna wept and tried to explain what had happened, Marie and their mother turned their stony faces away and would not listen. Stephen and Marie had a long talk with Father Turlington, and Anna packed a bag and left. She had never returned.” Even years later, after the grabby Stephen is accused of sexual harassments at work and being sued by one of the women, Marie and her mother never go out to search for Anna and apologize; not until Anna returns home to hide after having stolen the baby boy she had surrogated for Libby; but only Marie apologizes, as their mother has too much pride.

Granted Libby and Anna grew up in an unloving environment and have complex relationships with their mothers, but the two women have no redeeming qualities about them either. They allow themselves to be victims of their pasts and believe that a baby completes them. They fight over him with every fiber of their being to a tragic end. The baby represents unconditional and pure love—the love they give and receive since they have never received such love from their own mothers.

A gripping story about the deep desire to have a child and the lengths some will go to fulfill that need and the gut-wrenching fear of every parent - losing a child. I couldn’t put this book down!

First let me say, Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

NOW! No one can tell me that this was not a page turner. I could NOT put it down.
The first page- the first whole chapter had me hooked. Suicidal lady with a child on top of a building?? SIGN ME UP!
i was amazed at how Beck tangled all the stories together. It was an awesome read. I was impressed by the use of foreshadowing, flashbacks, and present description. time went seamlessly from now, to past, to present, to past, and back again. Usually i would have a problem with the changing of time so often but the story was compelling and made sense all the way throughout. I never found myself asking, "wait, now what happened?"
Really hoping my book club will want to read this one!

I never could have guessed at the beginning of this book what was about to transpire. This story kept me on my toes wondering what would happen and what had happened in the past. Libby and her son, Ethan, are on a much needed vacation. Adorable little Ethan loves to run into elevators and push the buttons. The only problem is when Libby fails to stop the doors from closing and Ethan seems to disappear into thin air. When CCTV footage shows an adult taking Ethan, Libby’s life is turned upside down. We find out who is after her child and why. Libby’s story is both bittersweet and heartbreaking. As the author delves into Libby’s past, it is revealed that Libby may not be so innocent. A fantastic read for lovers of suspense!

Thank you to Netgalley, Haylen Beck, and Crown for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

One of my favorite genres: thrillers.
This book did not disappoint. The relationships between mothers and daughters can be so fragile and unique.

Libby and her son Ethan journey to a resort hotel for vacation. When Ethan rushes into the elevator alone, he disappears. Security videos show that he has been taken by another woman. When Libby and the police catch up with the woman, she claims that Ethan is her son. The book alternates with the past, where Libby and her husband are working with an agency for a surrogacy adoption.

I had a hard time putting this book down. It was suspenseful and engaging. It unraveled at a nice pace, and the back and forth in timelines really worked. Overall, well worth picking up.

Lost You by Haylen Beck is a novel with a unique twist on the relationship between a surrogate mother, an adoptive mother and the child they both want. However, the extremes they will go to in order to have and keep him make this novel different than many others that tackle this same subject. A quick read with enough twists and turns to keep you interested, it unfortunately suffers from unlikable characters, a lack of character development and some very questionable decisions by them which make you question what the author was thinking. The relationship between Libby and her husband is the big question mark here...why on earth would they pursue surrogacy when their relationship was so rocky and how could he allow her to keep writing checks to the agency when their marriage was a shambles? Thank you to the author, Crown Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel for review.

The ending saved this for me. I have to stop with the child abduction stories. This is a bit different though and does offer some surprises but I need a break from them.

The characters were not likable. There is a lot of thinking going on in this story which is meant seemingly to round out the characters and add depth to the story but still too much. Other than that nitpick the writing was good.

Definitely give this a chance as I said I have read too many of this genre lately... I would read more by this author.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Crown Publishing for a copy in exchange for a review.

This book started with a bang. You are dropped right into the middle of the action. It was the set-up for a great thriller.

This novel had a lot of potential and the author is very good at painting vivid, heart-pounding action scenes. Early on I thought we were heading to a King Solomon-type resolution based on the opening scene, especially with the extensive details about the head of security. I was intrigued and engaged. I had lots of questions and couldn't wait to see how it played out.

Unfortunately, that is only 1/4 of the book. The rest of the story just fizzled out as it moved into the past to set up the motives behind the opening scene. That is where it really dragged for me. The storytelling bogged down here. The characters never fully came to life and the ending was flat.

I didn’t really like the main characters despite them having extremely compelling reasons that should have made them sympathetic. Maybe there were just too many reasons? After a while, a batch of new details were revealed that ventured into Lifetime Movie territory for me. Toward the end, I rolled my eyes when mentions of priest abuse and sexual harassment showed up in the backstory. This is where I really lost interest.

I read an advanced copy so I felt obligated to finish the book and give it a fair review and to find out how that opening scene was resolved. It was disappointing. I really wanted to like this book. It could have been five stars if the book continued as strong as it started. It was a 2.5 for me. Rounded up to 3 for GoodReads.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for an advanced read in exchange for this review.  

Libby is about to go on a much needed vacation with her 3 year old son, Ethan.  Her husband left them, so she is a single mom.  Things have been looking up as she just sold her first novel.  While on vacation, Ethan disappears.  Police find him, but the woman who took him refuses to give him back.  She says she is his mother.  DUN DUN DUN.

This book is sad.  Everyone is flawed.  However, I thought it could have been a much shorter read.  There's a lot of unnecessary filler.  The twist is something I have not read before, so it has that going for it.  The author spends too much time on the unnecessary parts of the story.  This is where the author loses me as a ready.  It's an okay read, but please, cut out the unneeded parts!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to.

Thanks to NetGalley for a Kindle ARC of Lost You.

This is my first book by the author and I'm not sure if its my last. Too soon to tell. Just because I did not like Lost You does not mean I may not like his next novel. But the odds are not good.

Lost You follows Libby Moore, a woman desperate for a child, and Anna, a woman desperate for money.

Each woman embarks on a dangerous journey to achieve their individual goals; Libby's quest for a child and an opportunity for Anna to stop waitressing, climb out of debt and get her feet back on the ground.

But the decisions each woman makes brings them closer together for a finale that ends in their mutual destruction.

There was a decent twist in the end but I couldn't help feeling, as I was reading, that I read this story before. Or seen it in a 80s Lifetime movie.

The plot was also bogged down with unsympathetic characters and unnecessary filler, such as Anna's down on her luck backstory, the clinic she visits and the people she meets there.

Libby and Ann were too similarly flawed and unlikable for me to differentiate between the two; both women are desperate for different things, both women have low self esteem and are always worried about their appearance and that they don't belong anywhere.

Case in point: when Libby travels to the resort with her son, she points out (numerous times) how the monied tourists reeked of wealth and privilege and were always staring at her because it was obvious she did not belong.

Second case: after Libby's son is abducted and the police are escorting her to wait in a secure location, she can't help but worry about her appearance and fret over what the hotel guests must think when they gaze upon her disheveled appearance.

Seriously, dude, your child is missing and you're still worrying about what others think?

Grow the f**k up!

Look, I don't mind unlikable characters, or characters with no morality, but give me something to like; a brilliant mind, a diabolical scheme or a sinister agenda. Nope, nothing here but a bunch of sad sacks.

The author also gives us a little background on the bad guy, I guess to make us care or understand his perspective, but in a story like this, a little goes a long way and there was just too many details. Also, I already didn't care about anyone so more info did not help anyone's cause.

Before I hit the midway point, the writing began to sound like a monotonous drone in my head and all the drama and violence toward the end so overwrought that I ended up skimming the last several chapters since I could see where all this was headed

I can't recommend this, not even for the semi-decent twist, because I didn't like the writing, the characters, and the predictable story.

I really enjoyed this book, the characters were well developed. It had an interesting plot. I would be interested in reading more

YES! My first thought when I started reading this novel because of how good it was right at the beginning. Do yourself a favor and read this one! Haylen Beck is an amazing writer and I am so happy that I was able to read this novel. The characters are superb!

So, I started reading this and I almost just stopped. I just kept thinking: this old plot again?

Um...I was wrong. This is a very different plot full of unexpected twists.

I still didn’t love it – but I didn’t hate it. My main issues were that I didn’t like the characters and I thought the plot was a bit..too too? I just never bought into it. But I sure was curious about how it all would end.

3.5 stars. The author managed to surprise me. I’d try the author again.

*ARC Provided via Net Galley