Emily, Gone is an amazing book! I have read many of Bette Lee Crosby's books, all of them are poignant stories of families dealing with situations we all can relate to!

This is a story of a family in a small town whose infant daughter is stolen out of her crib in the middle of the night. There aren't any clues that can help find her.

The woman who took the infant believes God has led her to this child as a replacement for the stillborn daughter she lost. Her boyfriend is uncomfortable with the kidnapping, but doesn't want to turn her in to the police.. He believes she will come to her senses and return the child.

As time passes, each person deals with grief, regret and how to move on with their lives.

This story will grab you from page one, and keep you hooked until the very last sentence.

Bette has a way of tapping in to our emotions, our heartstrings and you feel you are part of the story. As in real life, I found myself wanting the story to be different, to turn out the way I want it to be, but it doesn't. Instead, this story is REAL LIFE.. Even in grief and sadness, we can become happy and experience love and kindness.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for this ARC for my honest review.

Bette Lee Crosby is another one of those authors who's books I will grab up in a second! She knows how to weave a well written heart grabbing story every time!
Emily, Gone is no exception. It's a no put-down marathon read.
Six month old Emily, asleep in her crib, is taken from her home....and just when you think you know where the story is going a surprised is weaved in, making for a jaw dropping, rip out your heart read!

EMILY, GONE is another of Bette Lee Crosby’s superb “can’t put down, don’t want it to end” books. Written so beautifully in her Southern voice, the author evokes all the emotions, tears, and emptiness that the Dixon’s felt when they discovered their baby was kidnapped from her crib during the night. EMILY, GONE is a story that will tug at your heartstrings.
Ms. Crosby’s characters are true-to-life and could easily be your neighbor, your friend, your family, and even a stranger who sneaks into your home at night. I love when I have a visual of the main characters, but when I can also picture the supporting characters so clearly, you can buy into the story and better understand why the story took the turns that it did. So often a great number of characters can confuse the reader, but that was not the case in EMILY, GONE. Each character, so brilliantly developed, stood on his/her own.
The storyline is well chronicled and was told by numerous points of view throughout.
As always, I enjoyed another delightful book by Bette Lee Crosby, who is undoubtedly one of my favorite authors. I recommend EMILY, GONE to anyone who enjoys reading women’s fiction, historical fiction, mysteries, tearjerkers, realistic stories, inspirational stories, and diverse characters. EMILY, GONE positively deserves 5-stars!
My thanks to the Bette Lee Crosby and Netgalley for this ARC. All thoughts and praise for this book are my own.

A baby is missing from her crib, when her parents wake in the morning. Three families lives are impacted by the loss. A story of heartbreak, unresolved grief, and impossible attempts to rebuild their lives. We see the kindness of family and friends that struggle to support the parents in their loss, and the endless search for this child.
This is a heart wrenching story, beautifully written by Bette Lee Crosby. Her characters are well developed and human, as we get to know them and their own stories. A page turner that had me thinking about the outcome, long after I finished that last chapter. My thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for this ARC for my honest review. I hope I did justice to this wonderful book.

The setting of this book is in a small town in Georgia. Its 1971, and there is a music festival in a field, (reminded me of Woodstock) . Rachel Dixon lives near by, and puts her 6 month old baby girl Emily to bed. At the music festival is another woman, Vicki, who had lost her baby only months before. She finds her way to the home of The Dixons in search of food, but when she sees the baby, she takes her. Rachel awakes and finds her baby gone, and their lives are torn apart.
The book was so well written, full of suspense and yes, tears. I found myself unable to put this book down!! Its a book that will stay with you after you read it. Thanks so much at Netgalley and Bette Lee Crosby for this wonderful read!
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From the moment you start reading this Amazing emotional story ,your heart will go through many emotions Anger, Hope, Empthany, understanding overall the feeling of overwhelming love pouring from each character. Great story that will stay with you long after you have read it .

This is a heart wrenching story of loss for a family and coincidence that makes things happen down the line. I was hooked from the time I started until the last page. I cried a few tears in the middle and again at the end. Loved thus book and highly recommend it!

In the small town of Hesterville, Georgia in the year 1971, Emily Dickson, a tiny six-month old baby, is stolen from her crib one stormy night, leaving behind her two distraught parents. It nearly destroys her mother Rachel. Emily is always in her mind It’s not only the craving to nurse her precious daughter but also the uncertainty of not knowing whether she is in a loving caring home that breaks her heart, leaving her on edge and thinking every blue eyed blonde haired little girl may be theirs. The town sheriff and his team search exhaustively, covering miles to follow up new leads, but all too often they return deflated, having been on a wild goose chase. Emily believes her daughter is alive and tortures herself wondering where she is. She prays for her. After four years she has twins and George, her husband, buys a dog for protection and builds an impenetrable fence around his property, trying to still his wife’s fears that she may lose one or both of the near identical twins, a boy and a girl.
Vicki Robart and her partner Murphy move into a new neighbourhood with their new arrival, a daughter. They have previously suffered the tragic loss of their treasured firstborn who was sadly stillborn. Vicki has grand plans, including getting married and living in a home of their own with a garden for their daughter to play in. Their future will be brighter with a new baby to love and nurture. But there is a longstanding difference of opinion that they cannot resolve. Although Vicki loves Murphy she makes the tough decision to leave him. She knows he will never change his mind and she is determined to have her own way. One day, when Murphy goes out she collects her belongings and she leaves him. She has been in contact with her sister who assures her that she can move in with her and that her husband is happy about the arrangement. So their new life begins, a very different life than she had once envisaged. She is happy but misses Murphy increasingly, so she writes him a letter.
Angela and Kenny are trying for a family so when her younger sister dies suddenly of a heart attack they decide to take on her young daughter. They already love her and are having trouble conceiving their own child, so it is a done deal that they will raise Lara as their own, filling her in on the circumstances of her birth mother when she is old enough. Lara grows up to be an outgoing, kind and thoughtful young lady, ready to set off to take up a place at university. She’s beautiful, clever and has everything to look forward to. Her parents are moving to the East Coast and she will be able to have her friends come to stay, something she is very happy about. But life is about to throw a curveball into her court and when that happens her life will change forever.
I absolutely loved this heart-warming novel about love, loss and forgiveness. The storytelling is amazing and filled with a roller-coaster of emotions. As the author said she ‘had to delve into a treasure trove of emotions hidden beneath the surface’ and with great success. Her story is alive, vivid and full of kindness and empathy. Her characters are brilliantly created and developed in great detail throughout the story so that the reader comes to know them intimately and really cares about what happens to them. Best of all I loved the ending. It was a satisfying reward after the tears I shed.
I received a complimentary copy of this novel from Lake Union Publishing through my membership of NetGalley. Thank you so much for my copy. These are my own honest opinions without any outside influences. It’s an exceptionally good read and an all-round 5* review from me. It is unmissable Women’s Fiction with a real heartbeat.

This was one outstanding story. Once I started there was no stopping Totally gripping. This was one of many I’ve read from this author

I loved this book. I loved the story. I loved the characters. I love this author. All of the characters are believable and very important to the story. The storyline is well developed and believable. Yes, about 2/3 of the way through the book, I kinda knew what was going to happen but, I didn’t know how it was going to happen. And I’m so glad that I kept reading. I laughed and cried while reading but no matter what emotion the story brought, it kept me interested. I definitely will recommend this book. Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union for allowing me to read an advance copy for my honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it! There’s laughter, heartbreak, joy, and sorrow woven in and out of this story.

This book is so captivating. I literally felt like I was in the book.. this could happen to anyone and I hope it never does... I have never read a book like this one and Bette did not disappoint me , this book deserves to be on the number 1 reading list and I hope she writes more like this.

Emily Gone by Bette Lee Crosby is a book whose story will stay with you long after you’ve finished the last page. It is the haunting unfolding of a mother’s love for her child and the complications and heartache that follow when a child disappears. Ms. Crosby’s style of storytelling is compelling, encouraging you to linger on each page as the voices of the characters speak to you. A must read!

Beautiful yet heart wrenching....
A happy, young couple with a baby girl live quietly in the country, until the long weekend of a rock concert. Exhausted, sleepless and at their wits’ end from the weather and the raucous noise until all hours of the night, the young family finally falls into a worn out sleep.
But another young couple that attended the rock fest is cold, wet and hungry, and miles from a bed and a warm meal. Until they stumble upon a house sitting by itself - a place certain to have food for the taking. But this couple takes more than just food from the house.....
The reader is privy to both sides of what happened that night, and the heartbreak and emotion of both families. Thank you, Bette Lee Crosby, for this story! Highly recommended!

Emly, Gone is a suspenseful novel that kept me wanting to read more since the first page. A sad story about the kidnapping of a 6-month-old infant that has you following the pain and heartbreak the family went through, as well as the sadness the kidnapper experienced that led her to do what she did. You follow along as time passes and Emily's kidnapping keeps affecting multiple lives. The writing is amazing and you can sincerely feel the pain felt by each person involved. I read this book in 2 days as I could not out it down and I NEEDED To find out what happened to little baby Emmy. A must-read! Just be prepared to cry.

Rachel Dixon put her six month old daughter to bed one night, the last night of a huge rock concert being held at a farm near her house. She got up the next morning and the baby was gone. Vicki Robart was a concertgoer who couldn't get into the music because she hadn't come to terms with the loss of her baby girl a few months before. In a momentary impulse, she grabbed baby Emily from her crib and took off with her boyfriend. This started a journey into heartbreak for two families which is poignantly depicted in Emily, Gone by Bette Lee Crosby.

A good novel, although a random occurrence suddenly ties everything up in a neat and somewhat unbelievable bow at the end. Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for providing me with an ARC in return for an honest review.

Emily, Gone had me captivated from its first pages until the last ones because of the superb storytelling of Bette Lee Crosby. The book starts in the small town of Hesterville, Georgia in 1971. The Dixon family lives close to Baker field where a music festival takes place. Vicki and her boyfriend Murph are attendees at the festival. A very stoned and hungry Vicki asks Murph to stop at the Dixons house, so she can steal food. What she ends up doing instead is kidnapping Emily, the Dixons' baby. We follow what happens to the lives of the Dixons and Emily for the next 18 years.

Grief, heartbreak, compassion, forgiveness, and healing are some of the themes that are tackled so beautifully in this novel. The book tugs at your heartstrings. The characters are drawn expertly and I felt like I knew them. I was so engrossed in the story. I kept visualizing myself sitting in the front porch with Rachel and mama Dixon and crocheting along with them and listening to Mama Dixon's advice and wisdom.

When you sit down with this book, please know that you may not be able to put it down. I was curled up on my couch with my Kindle glued to my hands for hours.

Mother's who lose a child for any reason feels the emptiness over the loss and grieves forever! This is protrayed in the amazing book Emily, Gone by Bette Lee Crosby.
Rachel Dixon, a mother who takes her baby into her room and places her into the crib at bedtime! She then goes to her room to sleep herself. The next morning, Rachel finds her baby gone from the crib and home.
Vickie Robert loses her baby through death. This loss drives her to do the unthinkable and kidnaps the baby, Emily!
The lives of these two women and also Vickie's sister, Angela are changed forever by Vickie's action.
This book is a page turner, can't put down read that shows the motherly love of these three women, well worth reading! I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Copy of this book!

The year was 1971 and there was a huge music festival right outside of town. The people at the festival were all hippies and there were lots of drugs to take and share...what they didn't have was enough food and since there were more people at the festival than expected, the small town of Hesterville had bare shelves. In a small house not too far from the festival, as the crow flies, live the Dixon family - George who owned the hardware store in town, his wife Rachel and their 6 month old baby Emily. The noise from the music festival was so loud that they couldn't sleep and Emily kept them awake with her crying. When the baby finally went to sleep, George and Rachel both fell into a deep sleep and never heard Vicki, come into their house looking for food and leaving with Emily. When Vicki's boyfriend, Murph, found out that she had taken a baby, he panics and doesn't know what to do. Vicki had recently lost her baby during pregnancy and was convinced that Emily was really her baby. When George and Rachel get up in the morning, they can't believe the Emily is gone. "He saw Rachel standing beside the empty crib. her eyes were wide with horror, her face a ghastly white and her entire body shaking as she choked back the sound of a sob." (loc 416)

Will George and Rachel ever find Emily again or will Vicki and Murph raise her as their own? This book is full of twists and turns and lots of tears. Bette Lee Crosby can write family drama better than most authors today and she does a wonderful job of presenting both sides of an issue. I cried with Rachel at the loss of her daughter but I was also sympathetic to Vicki and Vicki's sister, Angela. Rachel is convinced that Emily is alive somewhere and prays that she is with someone who make sure that she is safe and happy.

This is an intense book that will keep you turning the pages, hoping and praying that Emily will be returned to her family. It's also a wonderful story about importance of family and friends; love and hope. It is a book that will make you feel the pain of a mother with a missing child and her attempts to go back to living her life. It will make you cry - not just at the end but several times throughout the book as families are formed and re-formed. It was a wonderful book and I highly recommend it.

Thanks to the author for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.

Wow!!! I have read so many books by Bette Lee Crosby and have loved them all, but this by far is my new favorite of hers.
I grew up in the 60's and 70's in a small town and could really relate to this story starting in 1971. I could also relate to the main characters right away and their emotional feelings became mine. I didn't want to put this book down and read it in two sittings, finishing it in the wee hours of the morning.
If you're looking for a well written book by an excellent author do yourself a favor and read this one. You'll be on the edge of your seat like I was, trying to figure out how it might end. This book deserves 5 stars!
Thank you to the author and Lake Union Publishing for allowing me to read an arc of this book, which is to be published on April 30, 2019.