I thought this was a good book. It kept me hooked with all the twists and turns. There was only one part that I didn't care for, and that was the revelation at the end. It just seemed like too much of a coincidence.

The story seems a bit fantastical. I enjoyed the story and how fast paced it was that at some points I wondered how the author was going to maintain the momentum.

I didn't expect the twist at the end and it kind of threw me. An okay read if you're bored.

This book seemed (pardon the pun) open and shut from the beginning-- as we meet Ellie, she's just been kidnapped. Nope, that was too easy, trust me, keep reading. There were twists and turns for the rest of the story-- psychological thriller is my favorite genre and it's well represented here. The main characters were predictable - I really liked the wife, the husband was sweet, but also made me mad and annoyed me (just like my own husband, lol) and that bad guy -- oh, he's creepy with a capital C! One thing that I did not like- changing to a completely different scene/characters in the next paragraph (and then back again just a couple of paragraphs later) took some getting used to. Maybe it won't bother some readers but it was confusing to me because it happened alot. I kept having to stop and look back to see if this person had now arrived and was interacting with that person, etc. Good book overall, it kept me entertained.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Upon originally starting this novel, I thought that the plotting felt off - things were happening really fast, and I was skeptical I would really enjoy it. However, I stuck with it, and I am so glad I did. The suspense ratcheted up, and things that seemed obvious were revealed as not so obvious at all. By the time I reached the end, the twists had left me very surprised. After the beginning which threw me off (which may have been intentional by the writer), I was completely sucked in and I really enjoyed it. This is the first Erin Ruddy book I have read but I will definitely look for more.

I felt like this book tried to be so many things (ie: a thriller, a psychological study of criminal intent, a romance, etc.) that it ended up becoming a giant overdramatic mess.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/47319814

Ellie wakes up and finds him looming over her. “Tell me my name", he demands.

She has three chances but if she gets it wrong? Well, first her husband loses a toe, then a finger, and then he dies...

I pulled for the main character(s) and just loved the pure crazy of our antagonist. This was a tight, quick read that was difficult to set down.

To be totally transparent, this one is not getting rave reviews on NetGalley but I quite enjoyed it!

Thank you to Erin Ruddy, Dundurn Press and NetGalley for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Overall a pretty good read. I kind of felt like the ending was abrupt but the characters had good depth and tons of determination. The husband Neil was not going to stop until he found his wife. That perseverance ultimately saved (in my mind) their marriage.

Ellie is kidnapped by a man who really wants her to remember him. He feels like they were soulmates destined to be together, yet weren’t. He once heard her say that she liked men tall, dark, and devastatingly handsome… like George Clooney. So, when the love of his life slips away from him, he, over the course of years gets plastic surgery to look like, who else? George Clooney. He plays the game of making Ellie remember his name, but she only had three chances, and for each wrong answer something bad would happen to her husband. After running quickly through her life she guesses it correctly, I think on the second try. Also, Clive, aka Clooney, has major mommy issues.
I really had hope for this and the reviews I read did nothing to dissuade that expectation. The first thing that threw me off was how quickly the story unfolded. I felt like I was sitting in an airport waiting for my flight, with a total stranger telling me her life story, like we were on a stopwatch. I was interested at first, listening, until everything starting running together and I felt like she was lying about everything. It was too unbelievable. I also felt like I should be looking at my watch, sending social cues to stop her, but she kept on telling me her story while we waited for our plane. Parts were ridiculous, even to the point that I almost put it down. The sad part is, this could’ve been a 5 star winner had the characters been developed and the storyline unfolded at a slower pace. There was no time to feel angst or fear because the story wasn’t really developed into much of a thriller/mystery. Every question was answered too quickly and some, unrealistically. The one twist/surprise/reveal at the end did make it worth having finished it, but again our plane had arrived anyway and the would-be girl in the airport waiting area was rushing to finish line.
Don’t hate me. I hate, hate doing negative reviews, but I did receive an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you Netgalley & Dundurn Publishing for giving me this book to read before the June release.

Neil and Ellie have been married for 10 years and there marriage has gone stale. They drop there two children off at summer camp and decide to spend the week reconnecting at there new remote house in the woods. Hamish there dog wanders off and Ellie meets there new neighbor. Deception at its finest, the man is not truly there new neighbor and ends up kidnapping Ellie. There is a lot of suspense in this book and the twist at the end is amazing. Highly recommend. Cant wait to read more by Erin Ruddy.

Initially, I was drawn to this book by the cover - it's one of those typical mystery covers, with the hazy image that tells you nothing about the story, with the title in big block letters. But then I read the description, which I found intriguing, and read a small excerpt, and I was hooked. I was thrilled to receive the eBook as an ARC from NetGalley, and I devoured the book within 2 days.

My main thought: the first part of the book moves very quickly, and "the name" was revealed way earlier than I thought it would be. But the rest of the book still kept me riveted, and there was a completely unexpected twist near the end. I was very pleasantly surprised by both the story, and I fully enjoyed it.

There was one small thing that bothered me a little bit - the perspective of the narrator switched around a LOT. To basically any character - either main or side. I typically prefer to have the same narrator throughout an entire book, or throughout parts of the book (a la Gone Girl), so it threw me off a little bit, but my issue with the writing style didn't impact my enjoyment of the story. I still very much liked it.

I quite enjoyed this book but it didn’t feel to me as though there was as much tension as I would have expected given the premise. There was a twist at the end but again, it felt more like ‘ah so that’s it’ rather than “who would have thought that – what a shock”.

I did finish it but must admit it is not the most thrilling of thrillers. Sorry Ms Ruddy.

Thank you to the author, publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

This is a fast moving and gripping thriller with s few extra twists thrown in.
Ellie and Neil are spending some time alone in their new, somewhat remote cottage in Canada. The children are away at camp and they are taking time to get to know each other again.. whilst out with their dog Ellie comes across a neighbour and reluctantly invites him for supper.
This has dire consequences and unleashes a chain of events which looks unlikely they will escape from alive.
Who is this mysterious man and what is the connection with their past?
A little extreme at times but an entertaining read!

What would you do, if you are kidnapped by your new neighbor and forced to play some sick game. That’s exactly what happened to Ellie and her husband Neil. This stranger claims that Ellie knows him , but she’s never seen him before. He tells her that he looks different now but if she just thinks about it she will know who he is. He tells her she has three chances to say his name, if she doesn’t tell him his name the first time he will cut off her husbands toe. The second time he will cut off one of his fingers and the third time he will kill him. We do find out pretty early who this stranger is and how Ellie knows him. This was a dark and twisted tale and a fast read. I enjoyed it and read it in one day. Thanks Dundrum Press and Netgalley for this arc of Tell Me My Name.

Ellie and Neil have been together for over a decade. Their marriage has been under strain and they're hoping a few weeks on their own will reignite their old spark. The weekend starts out well, but when a man initially claiming to be their neighbour abducts them their nightmare begins. He says that Ellie is the love of his life and they belong together. He tortures Neil and threatens to kill him unless Ellie can guess his name, but Ellie doesn't remember him. She combs through her memories to try to figure out who he is, save her husband, and herself.
This is a solid psychological thriller set in my home country of Canada.

This book grabs the reader from the first page and doesn't let go. When a seemingly normal neighbor turns on Ellie Patterson and holds her hostage, she must remember who he is before he hurts her and her husband Neil. When she finally remembers his name he takes her away from her husband and her house, insisting that he is her soul mate and that her husband is hiding something form her. She plays along with his fantasy, trying to find ways to escape along the way. Meanwhile, her husband and the police are trying to track them down. The story seems to come to a climax earlier than expected, but there is a twist near the end that changes everything. A very well written book. I look forward to more books from Ruddy in the future.

Thus turned out to be a very hood book. The first few chapters had me questioning a few things, a few inconsistencies. But I was hooked. There are a few crazy twists and turns I wasn't expecting. Well done!

Thanks to netgalley for the ARC.

I regret that I struggled through this book to the end, trying hard to engage in the plot and connect with the characters. I thought from the summary that this would be the type of book I would enjoy more, but I found the story too melodramatic, the psychopathology of the villain lacked credibility and felt overdone to me. As I did not like the married couple and their cold to hot, to cool relationship I was unable to feel much buildup of suspense.

The premise is a good one. The couples two children are in summer camp, and they go on holiday to their summer cottage in hopes of rekindling their marriage. They meet a friendly man pretending to be a neighbour who later returns and kidnaps the woman and later takes her husband as a hostage. The man tells her that she is someone from her past. She must tell him his name in three guesses. If she is wrong on the first two guesses he will cut off a toe and then a finger from her husband. If her third guess is wrong, her husband will die. This is not a simple task. The madman no longer resembles the person he once was. He has had extensive plastic surgery and now looks like George Clooney. Must have cost millions!!

Her mind is working as she mentally searches for undesirable men in her past; ones she has wronged or ones she feels treated her badly. All the while she hears her husband screaming in pain and sees his blood. Finally, she guesses correctly on her third attempt. She is told that her abductor decided to kill her husband anyway.

He then takes the kidnapped wife elsewhere by car. In his delusion, he believes they made a romantic connection in the past and were meant to be together forever. At times he seems to think she is connected to his abusive, drug-addled mother. They travel by car while she fears he intends to rape and murder her. She must use all her wits to avoid this outcome. The police are trying to discover his true identity and capture him, saving the woman from a very dangerous situation.

In the meantime, her badly injured husband is desperate to engage in his own pursuit. This seems brave and admirable, except in his pain and illness he persuades his brother-in-law to help him. This is selfish, as he is endangering the man who is a friend, and they are interfering with a police investigation and pursuit.

The placement of the backstories of the principal characters slows down the pace, and I felt detracted from the tension. A secret backstory for the husband seemed too coincidental. Since I failed to connect with the main characters, not finding them particularly likeable, I wasn’t fully engaged in the outcome. I would have preferred a more subtle, less dramatic approach. Sometimes less is more. I notice that my impressions were quite different from many readers who found this an enjoyable, suspenseful read. Prospective readers should not be deterred by my misgivings.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dundurn Press for the ARC in return for my honest review.

The premise of this book was really cool but the story itself fell a little short for me. It centers around Ellie and Neil, a couple with 2 kids who take some time to themselves at their recently-purchased vacation home while their kids are at camp, only to be kidnapped by a psycho from Ellie's past.

Most of the book is more of a suspense thriller than a mystery, with the kidnapper staying one step ahead of the police and family looking for Ellie. I found this to be a tad unrealistic, as he did things that would have surely gotten him easily caught in the real world, yet remains elusive for much of the book. Continually, I found the kidnapper's personality to be hard to follow- he had moments of lucidity and moments where he regressed to childhood, and it didn't ring true to me. Still, the pace was fast and the story sped along.

My main issue with the book is the end. Without giving spoilers, there is a revelation that seems far too coincidental to ever happen in real life, and also conflicted (I thought) with the rest of the book, making the whole point of the story somewhat unclear.

The author also wrote a forward in this book where she says something to the extent of getting the idea because life seemed less fun and going downhill after 40 and she thought it would be fun to tie back to the crazyfun people had in their 20s. While she ended this by saying she has resolved to have fun and love herself at any age, the whole thing made me feel kind of sad about aging and I felt indignant about her saying 40 was old. Maybe this is an over-reaction but it just rubbed me the wrong way.

All in all, this was an OK read but not super memorable to me. There were just too many things that didn't make a lot of sense. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I did enjoy this one but it started to strain the lines of realism and believability. However, mesmerizing in its own way

I'm not sure about this book. I really dislike reading about abuse, and I felt there was a lot of it. The story was good, but parts were so hard to read. It started out good, but as it went on, it was increasingly hard to read.