The premise was compelling in an odd sort of "that's new" kind of way but sometimes bizarre is just that. It's not intriguing as much as the "what if" game gone terribly wrong. The idea that a child would not be at the daycare and then there is no record of that child did have me thirsty to find out how the author could pull it off... but throwing in a terrible romance, a twin, and a cop that has no redeeming qualities made this one very hard to finish.

There were moments when I was sucked in, especially in the beginning when you have no clue what's going on but wanted to so badly. The tension was pretty good, so I give the author credit there, but there were jumps in POVs and too many weird sexual twists that I had no expected. The main character was not sympathetic to me, which is so common now I almost expect it sadly, but when it comes to a missing child you should feel for the mother. She went from anxious to cra-cra too fast and the grounded qualities that could have held some sympathy disappeared. Then there was the cop character that I didn't like. I know cops are not in favor right now but I give them more credit than this author in terms of capability and intelligence. Portraying him as a misogynist was boring and irritating and I wished he had more dimension. The hardest thing to understand was the mess of sub-plots that were meant to confuse but ended up just being noise.

(spoiler hints) I also found so many holes in this story. Why was the main character avoiding her twin? Why would the cop risk his career to sleep with someone he doesn't trust? Why did the publisher not red-flag the twin thing?

My Review:

Wow, wow, wow!!!!! I absolutely loved this book and was so sad when it ended. This book could definitely be made into a movie. This was the first book I read by this author and it sure did not disappoint.

This book was about a woman who went to pick up her young daughter from day care and found out she’s not there nor was she ever there. Of course she tried calling her husband but he’s no where to be found either. Is this woman going mad? Did her husband run off with the daughter? Are they ever going to be found? You find these answers and a lot more by the end of the book.

I want to start off by saying that I hated the main character Kelsey and the author definitely intended this. You knew even at the very beginning of the book that there was something wrong with this woman and that she was hiding many secrets. She refused to help in the investigation of her daughter and did not seem to know very much of what was going on. You will find out later on though why this was and that brings me to what I loved about this book. That twist at the end was a whopper. It made the whole book for me. I would have never guessed that in a million years. I have to say this is one of the few books that through me for that big of a loop. What I thought was going on was no where near what really happened. This is what made this book so great.

Between the plot, characters and all the twists in this book it made it an easy and fast read. I would definitely recommend it and happily give it 5 Hearts❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Review featured at www.books-n-kisses.com

4.25 Hearts Ummm Wow… Ummm What? Yeah that is how I feel after reading the last page of this suspenseful mystery.

Imagine you go to get your child and there is no record of a child at all. Your husband doesn’t work where you “know” he does. And now a detective is involved and isn’t sure he believes you. And might even think you did something to the child you claim is missing. Oh so many secrets!!!

This book had me turning my head as fast as I turned the pages (theoretically). And then when I thought I had an answer up pops even more.

This book is crazy. I mean really there is no better word for it… Crazy!!! But worth the suspense and mystery you will not see coming. Really enjoyed this story.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Kelsey Jennings goes to pick up her 2-year-old daughter at the day care. But they have no record of Kelsey or her daughter. She frantically calls her husband at work .. only to be told Malcolm Jennings has never worked there.

Detective Paul Ryan is not sure if he's working a missing persons case ... or an abduction by the child's father. But the more he talks to Kelsey, the more his gut tells him there's something more going on. What is she hiding?

What he finds are deeply buried secrets that someone clearly never wanted found.

What a roller coaster ride! I feel like I've been turned upside down and inside out. The twists and turns just keep a-coming! Each chapter unfolds by a different point of view. There is also a subplot about Ryan's sister who went missing and was never found. I read this one in two sittings ... was so hard to put down for any length of time.

Many thanks to the author / Thomas & Mercer / Netgalley for the digital copy of this Psychological Thriller. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

I had to hold off on reviewing this book to decide how I felt. Why? Well, because except for one detail this is a really good story! The problem is that one detail that I had a problem with, a big problem, was a major pillar of the story. So do I let that ruin the whole book for me or just chalk it up to an eye roll and get back to the good stuff? In the end I decided it was just one of those things and to move on. Hopefully, if you have the same reaction (and I can't tell you because it would be a spoiler you can move on as well and enjoy what is really a well thought out and twisted kind of story. Definitely some new fun in the whole thriller genre and ultimately worth the read.

Kelsey, having moved to a new town, shows up to pick her daughter up from school after a yoga class. When she arrives, she is told her daughter was never a student there. Then, she finds out that the job her husband supposedly was hired for was nonexistent. Detective Paul Ryan finds inconsistencies with Kelsey's story when brought in to investigate. This book was full of twists and turns and any fan of psychological thrillers will love it!

I tried on several occasions to get into this book but it just wasn’t for me. It was to slow and just didn’t catch my attention. I had to place it on the DNF shelf. Hopefully the others that enjoyed this book can give a better review as to what they loved about it. From what I read the story line is super predictable, you can pretty much tell what happened to Kelsey’s daughter. The author tried to throw some plot twist in there but it was still like watching honey drip from a spoon. Thank you netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

A missing child, a distraught mother and a detective with a tragic past.

Detective Paul Ryan doesn't investigate cases involving missing children so he's not very pleased when he is sent to Paradise Day Care to interview Mrs Kelsey Jennings. She was insisting that she had dropped her two year old daughter Mikyala off at the day care that morning and when she had returned to pick her daughter up, the day care staff were insisting that they hadn't seen her.

From the moment that he meets Kelsey, Detective Ryan is convinced that the woman is more than a sandwich short of a picnic and that Mikyala is probably just a figment of her imagination. But as the case unfolds and becomes more complex and frustrating, Ryan finds himself enchanted by the beautiful women and can't stay away from her causing him to become distracted and not realise that he is placing himself into the sights of a master manipulator.

This totally enthralling thriller is voiced from the perspectives of Detective Ryan, Kelsey Jennings and a third character who is introduced into the story in the later chapters of the book. Although I loved the interactions between Ryan and his father, I didn't think that he was a very likeable character, he certainly had some flaws but then so did the other two main characters. During the story, we are taken back fifteen years in the past and learn about the events that are still haunting Ryan and his father in the present day. This gripping drama doesn't have a large cast of characters but the ones who do appear were well rounded and believable.

Omg and double wow, I will warn you that you really have to concentrate whilst you are reading this intricately plotted thriller because this story seriously messes with your head. It's very well written, the author's words hold the reader captive as you frantically turn the pages and try to figure out who is telling the truth. I would love to watch a film adaptation of this twisty thriller and look forward to reading more of this author's thrillers in the future. This is definitely one of my favourite reads of this year so far.

Last One to Lie by J.M. Winchester is a recommended psychological thriller - for romance readers

After her yoga class, Kelsey Jennings goes to pick up her two-year-old daughter, Mikayla, at the child’s day-care center in Ellicott City, Md. Mikayla isn't there, there is no record of her ever being there, and no one knows a child by that name. Kelsey repeatedly calls her husband, Malcolm, but all the calls go to voicemail. Kelsey, obviously, has a complete meltdown at the day care and the police are called. Detective Paul Ryan is assigned her case and begins to investigate. He's certain that something’s up with Kelsey’s story. Along with Mikayla, Malcolm is also missing and Kelsey is suspected of being mentally ill.

All right, the very beginning of this novel will grab your attention and suck you right into the plot - before it gets ludicrous and goes off the rail. During the final scenes when we get the twisty scoop about what is really happening, I immediately recalled inconsistencies from certain parts of the story that were suddenly ridiculous and incompatible based on the new information. Also you could tell that Winchester is a romance writer under another name. The immediate attraction and sex scenes struck me as absurd and were a negative and a huge turn off for me. Why the recommendation? Because it seems that a whole lot of other readers liked it and were probably okay with all the incongruous details as long as they get the steamy, sexy attraction bits and the twisty ending (which has been done before and better.)

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Thomas & Mercer.
After publication the review will be posted on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Plot summary: New mom in town reports to her child's daycare, only to find her child mysteriously gone, her husband unavailable, and the daycare workers claiming no knowledge of the girl's getting dropped off. The police get involved, and there's a lot more than meets the eye as they try to sort out the whereabouts of the daughter and husband, and the story behind the mom.
This book started off very promisingly. I enjoyed the Lifetime-move idea of the mom, Kelsey, just finding her daughter...gone. But then, it devolved. The plot devices ultimately employed in the book (don't want any spoilers) were simultaneously predictable and confusing.
Speaking of confusing...I don't mind when there are multiple narrators in a book (there were 2-plus in this novel). But I would prefer if the narrators were differentiated by either identifying them in the beginning of the chapter, or using different fonts, or SOMETHING. Since every chapter was first-person ("I"), it was a burden to determine who the "I" was (the mom? the detective? someone else?). I supposed it was intended to increase mystery and tension but it just ended up irritating me. I give this one 2 stars out of 5. Many thanks to NetGalley for the copy.

#NetGalley #J.M.Winchester

Short but simple review:

I really enjoyed this book, my first by this author. I cannot describe it any better than the book synopses, or I would give away too much. Just let me say that i will definitely be looking for more titles by J.M. Winchester! I would definitely recommend this book and the characters develop nicely!

Thanks so much to the publisher, Thomas & Mercer, for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

As I'm sitting here wiring this I wonder if my review would be different if I were in a different mood. I mean, I just finished this and I want to pick up another by this author. Not because it was the best thing I've ever read. It's because I thought it was so much fun. Beyond twisty. I would give 4.5 if I could.

Now, usually if I rolled my eyes this much about how over the top something was I would not give it a positive review. This one started out intriguing and it became obvious REALLY fast that something was not right. A lot of thoughts started going through my head. Does anyone else play this game? The "If I wrote this I would" game? I can think of a lot of places this is going and can't wait to see which one the author took. It's almost a psych or personality test. If I'm having fun I will play it all the way through the book.

So this one starts big and fast and just gets bigger and faster. To the point of stretching reason. But I still loved reading it. "Oh, c'mon" was followed by "oooh, what will happen next?" If I were in a more serious mood, who knows.

Starting with a child abduction...it's been done. But starting with a child abduction from a day care where every single person swears they have not seen this lady or her kid ever...? Nice. And switching POV doesn't always work but the time stamps on each chapter with the switches between characters keeps you right in the story. You see from multiple points of view within minutes of each other. It's going so fast that before you know it, you've read it all in one sitting in your hammock.

Little things are telling. The very first conversation Kelsey has with another mother while leaving her yoga class is pretty telling once you get a little more in. Wait, what did she say? What did that say? How could those things both be true? They can. It's subtle until you get to the first flashback interlude. Then you know things are really messed up. Enter Holly, the sister Kelsey doesn't want to reunite with and of whom she seems slightly afraid.

The ending is...how it should be. I always end a book reviewing my "If I wrote this I would" game. Yes, there are a lot of ways this could have gone. I don't hate it when stories don't go that way. I absolutely enjoy it. Sometimes it even makes me wonder what the heck is wrong with me that I went the other way. I hate it when an ending comes from nowhere. The author here did a job of weaving in enough clues and discrepancies that you go, "Ah, OK. I like what you did there?" That's how I felt reading this one. There were a few things I could have done without, but overall. This was just so twisty. It was like watching The Tiger King. How much weirder could this get? Oh, yeah, you showed me.

Thank you to JM Winchester, Netgalley, and Thomas & Mercer for allowing me to read the ARC. I don't just throw starts around! Great read!

Wow. Emotional and heart wrenching. You will read this book with your heart in your throat. This is the first book I have read by this author but it won't be the last . An absolute must read. Pick it up today. Happy reading!

I've been wanting to read Last One to Lie, the second novel by author J.M. Winchester, since I first read the blurb at the end of 2019. It looked like an intriguing story, but I was especially interested because Ms. Winchester also writes romance novels under the name Jennifer Snow. Since romance and thrillers are two of my favorite genres, I was eager to give the author's work a try.

When Kelsey Jennings, a young mother who has recently moved to a new city, arrives at a local day-care to pick up her two-year-old daughter Mikayla, she's flabbergasted to learn the little girl isn't there. In fact, the day-care workers claim never to have laid eyes on Mikayla, something that makes absolutely no sense to Kelsey, who dropped her off there just a few hours earlier. She tries to call her husband at work, but is unable to reach him. When the police are called to uncover the truth about Mikayla's disappearance, Kelsey is both hopeful and nervous since she has some pretty dark secrets she's been keeping from everyone around her.

Detective Paul Ryan is not at all pleased to be assigned a missing person's case, due in part to the unsolved disappearance of his sister fifteen years ago. Still, he's a dedicated cop, so he vows to do whatever he can to ring Mikayla home safely. Unfortunately for Paul, his investigation into the lives of the Jennings family turns up far more questions than answers. It's obvious Kelsey isn't telling him everything, but he can't figure out if her secrets have any bearing on what happened to Mikayla.

This is a difficult book to describe, since the more information I give you, the greater the risk of spoilers. The story is told in alternating chapters from the perspectives of both Kelsey and Paul, and the reader quickly learns not to take anything at face value. There are clues to the truth sprinkled throughout the pages, but many of them seem insignificant at the time and can be easily overlooked, so be vigilant as you read.

If you're looking for a novel that accurately portrays the investigation into a missing child, Last One to Lie isn't going to be the book for you. I don't have first-hand experience with police work, but much of what the author describes here seems shoddy at best and inappropriate at worst. Still, it works to move the story forward, and with a book like this, that almost counts more than pitch-perfect accuracy.

Both Kelsey and Paul are deeply flawed protagonists, dealing with some dark emotional baggage. We gain quite a bit of insight into who they are as the story unfolds, but I was still left with a few questions at the end. Some of the loose ends felt intentional, but there were a couple I would have really liked to see wrapped up in a more satisfactory manner.

What I’ve said here might make you think this is a poorly written novel, but that's not at all how I feel about it. It's one of those books I absolutely could not put down, even though some of what goes on feels a little over the top. It's pure escapist entertainment, especially if you prefer your entertainment on the darker side of the spectrum. It's not a perfect book, but its flaws pale in comparison to its fast-paced twistiness. The end took me completely by surprise, and I'm eager to see what other thrillery goodness the author has in store for her readers.

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When Kesley arrived at her little girl's day nursery to pick her up, little did she know that her life will fall apart.
No one at the day nursery had ever heard of her daughter or Kesley.
To make it much worse she cant even get hold of her husband and when she phoned the school where her husband's new job was they said he never took up the position.
Detective Paul Ryan knows that there is something not quite right and the more he investigates the closer he gets to Kesley with dangerous consequences.

3.5 out of 5 stars, rounded up to 4.

Kelsey Jennings' daughter goes missing when she goes to pick her up at day care, but the facility has no record of her daughter ever being there. On top of that her husband Malcolm is nowhere to be found either.
Detective Paul Ryan starts to investigate and quickly uncovers more inconsistencies in the story. Is Kelsey involved and does she even have a daughter?

Definitely a quick summer read with a unique plot. I did have a bit of trouble following the storyline with the narration jumping between characters.

Thank you to J.M. Winchester, Thomas & Mercer, and Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
#LastOnetoLie #NetGalley

OᐯᗴᖇᐯIᗴᗯ: When Kelsey goes to pick up her daughter from day care, she finds her missing. And her husband has also disappeared. Detective Paul Ryan is tasked with finding both, but he’s not quite sure he believes Kelsey’s story.

ᗰY TᕼOᑌᘜᕼTᔕ: This is a story of unreliable, unlikable narrators. At any point in time, the reader does not know who to believe or trust. None of the characters are appealing which leads to even more suspicion. There is not much to say about the story without giving spoilers except to say that it is twisty and surprising.

ᖇᗩTIᑎᘜ: ★★★1/2

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

My mind is spinning!!! LAST ONE TO LIE is the most twisted, mind blowing, psychological thriller I have ever read! The characters are absolutely incredible and the story line … HOLY CRAP! From the very first chapter I was hooked, and through all three parts of this book I just couldn’t stop reading! This is not my preferred trope, but thank you, author J.M. Winchester, for again peaking my interest in this type of read! The suspense flows throughout this whole novel and the twists are enough to give you whiplash! I cannot recommend this one enough! I loved the multiple POV writing, and the additional side and supporting stories…starting with her missing daughter and ending with…..well….you will just have to read it to find out! 5 mind-blowing stars!!!

Moving to a new city was supposed to be a fresh start for her family. Now it’s a nightmare.

Her little girl was supposed to be at day care when Kelsey arrived to pick her up. But they have no record of her daughter ever being there. And to make matters worse, her husband is missing too—he won’t pick up his phone, and the school he supposedly works at says he never accepted their job offer.

Last One to Lie started off a normal amount of twisty while you are trying to figure out where Kelsey's daughter really is and where her husband has been. As you get further into the book the crazier and twistier it gets. Some of it seems far fetched as far as the behavior of Kelsey and the cop but once you get to the end it makes sense. I never expected the level of craziness this book went to. I enjoyed it once it was all tied together but I was on the edge of my seat for a lot of it.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you #netgalley

After a relaxing yoga class, Kelsey Jennings returns to the day care center to pick up her daughter Mikayla. Mikayla isn’t there. She never was, according to the staff at the center. Kelsey is plunged into a nightmare that only continues when she discovers that her husband Malcolm is not at the school where he teaches. Not only did he never take the job, he is also missing.

It’s a simple, tragic case. Detective Paul Ryan suspects parental kidnapping and begins a search for Malcolm and his daughter. However, he believes that Kelsey is hiding something and there is more to this story than the basic facts he has been given. Wow, is he right! Things are definitely not what they seem.

What follows is a wild ride where truth and lies fly by so fast that you’ll have no idea what’s coming. The Last One to Lie is spectacularly and deliberately confusing. You will not know how it ends until the last page. If you love psychological thrillers, this is the book for you! 5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley, Thomas & Mercer and J. M. Winchester for this ARC.