I was very excited about this book because it was a different sounding thriller.
The premise of a young woman on the run from an abusive man and taking on the identity of a missing daughter was quite innovative.
Unfortunately, I felt like the author had really great concepts in mind, but they were not executed very well within the pages of the story.

There were some fantastic twist that I did not see coming, but the conclusion was a hot mess. There were way too many moving parts and some important aspects of the story were give one or two sentences. I found myself re-reading to make sure I was understanding the plot progression quickly.
The author tried to write in a literary form, but sometimes it was a bit forced, especially for a book in this genre.
I never felt like I truly understood Elizabeth's motivation. The character of the mother, Myra, was built a bit better. She is known for seeing her missing daughter in people, her family is skeptical and she easily believe she has returned.
But Elizabeth goes to the family, which I never truly understand why, and then constantly feels like she needs to escape or get away.
There is a overarching tone of anxiety within the pages of this book. Which I liked at first because you felt how on edge everyone was, but eventually it got a bit tedious.

Overall, this book had a good concept and I did appreciate the plot twist and family secrets that were slowly revealed. But I felt some characters and motivations were inconsistent and I found myself a bit confused at some point in the story.

“Elizabeth tries to breathe but can’t seem to fill her lungs. They have left the woods, and yet she is engulfed by the immense, dark forest where monsters hide in the night.”

Elizabeth Lark just escaped the remote cabin in the woods where she and her son Theo have been kept virtual prisoners for the last five years by her husband Peter, Theo’s father. Elizabeth fears she may have killed Peter with the pills she put in his drink to knock him out, but has to take the chance to run now. Since the plan is to hide where no one who knows her can find her, including Peter, she concludes she and Theo have to get on the road regardless.

As Elizabeth leaves Washington State on the advice of an online women’s advocate, she decides to stop at a local Inn on the Oregon coast for the night, one she remembers as a cash business. She immediately realizes it’s this was a very bad idea when the inn’s proprietor Myra mistakes Elizabeth for her own daughter Charlotte who mysteriously disappeared one night 20 years ago when she was 8 years old.

My Thoughts:
An entertaining read in a lovely, forested, Pacific-Northwest setting that kept me turning the pages until the end. The predicament main character Elizabeth finds herself in, of being mistaken for another woman, is a very interesting premise tailor-made for tension and nail-biting drama. I also found myself caring and worrying, with a maternal-like tenderness, about little Theo who is just a little boy who wants nothing more than friends and time to play.

Elizabeth’s decisions, or should I say reactions, are frustrating at times, yet she is likable and I found myself rooting for her. I was a bit disappointed, however, in the mystery that is the crux of the story. I’m not usually one to resolve the plot lines in advance, being happy to let the story unfold. Yet, I was able to predict this one pretty early on, and I found a significant plot point pretty unbelievable.

That said, this one should be popular with those suspense-thriller-mystery lovers out there, and I know there are lots of you! And it should especially appeal to fans of female leads as well as moody settings. Drop me a Comment below and let me know what you yourself thought of this review and of the novel Call Me Elizabeth Lark!

A big thank you to Melissa Colasanti, Crooked Lane Books, and NetGalley for providing a complimentary Advance Reader Copy in exchange for this honest review.

Call Me Elizabeth Lark released from Crooked Lane Books March 9, 2021, and is available now in hardcover, compact disc, and MP3 CD. Please consider buying from www.bookshop.org – the online bookshop that gives 75% of the book’s profit back to indie book sellers.

#CallMeElizabethLark
#MelissaColasanti
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#NetGalley
#BookShop

This story was just a little bit too familiar to read for some reason. Maybe its because I have read books with a similar plot, with the missing child returning years later. There was also animal abuse in here, which I do not do well with reading. Also, the characters were not likable to me for some reason. I just didn't enjoy this one as I thought I would.

I want to thank Netgalley, Melissa Colasanti, and Crooked Lane Books for giving me a chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Trigger warning for domestic abuse and violence, death, and animal abuse.

I firstly want to say that I love the thrill of this book! This book never fails to give me so many questions and makes me theorize while reading it. Every time i'm reading there's this always a feeling that some things will happen, and I kept asking "will it be bad or good?", and I loved it so much. It has so many mysteries that needs to uncover throughout its plot and it became even more addicting to read. The author is very good at writing a thrilling vibe in this book. I can feel the anticipation that something might happen, the fear of the characters and their urgency to do something. It was really so good. Everytime it has a revelation I was like "what? What the hell is really happening?!". I feel like this is a fast paced book because many things happen and I just flew through it.

As for the characters, the author is great at highlighting the characteristics and personality of each character that is vital to the plot. Even if the book will not mention their names, I can still know who is talking or who is this character they are talking about. They are very unique and really amazing at providing good contexts to the plot.

I can also see the suffering and feelings of these characters. For example, Myra, I can clearly tell her grief for losing her daughter. As for Elizabeth's character, it is so raw and damaged. I can tell the trauma of the domestic violence that she experienced as her thoughts are always on survival mode. In just the first eight chapters, I can already see the connection or bond between Elizabeth and Myra. They are both so damaged and broken in their own way but they somehow found solace at each other. One more bond that I want to mention is the bond between Elizabeth and her son. Some character in the book tells Elizabeth that what she do for her son is helicopter parenting, but I don't see it that way. Like I said, her brain is always on survival mode and her protectiveness towards her son is understandable. My heart melts for them.

Overall, I rated this book 4.5 out of 5 stars. It might not a favorite but the thrill that I experienced while reading this book will definitely stay for long. And I totally recommend this to everyone!

This story felt familiar and yet distant. There are a lot of ,using child returns stories and they can be done very well. The disconnect from this story and these characters made it interesting without ever being engrossing. It was a slow read with characters that I never could connect to and never really liked. The writing style was overdone in so many places that I wanted to skim over it to get to the point.

EXCERPT: Herb says Myra has drowned herself with Charlotte, where the beach is rocky and the tide tinged gray-yellow, its crest effervescent.

At the inn, wind batters the wooden shingles like the ocean thrumming the shore at high tide. The squall sends sand whipping through the air. The pier empties of people, except for the lone fishermen who wear rubber boots and heavy yellow raincoats, casting their lines in turbid water.

Myra and Herb are ensconced in the inn, wrapped in sweaters and crocheted afghan blankets. Occasional guests trickle in, but not often. People visit the Oregon coast in summer.

Myra doesn't take vacations during the off-season, no matter how many empty winters pass. Charlotte knows her mother is waiting. She lived for the scent of the ocean, for the lacquer of salt on her skin. The crabs hidden under mounds of sand and the starfish in the tide pools enchanted Myra's youngest child. Myra supposes this is why Charlotte was so attracted to the mystery of the deep dark sea. The waves sweep away an entire pool of living things, but with the next tide, they begin again.

And so, Myra is not particularly surprised when her dead daughter walks in the door.

ABOUT 'CALL ME ELIZABETH LARK': Twenty years ago, Myra Barkley's daughter disappeared from the rocky beach across from the family inn, off the Oregon coast. Ever since, Myra has waited at the front desk for her child to come home. One rainy afternoon, the miracle happens--her missing daughter, now twenty-eight years old with a child of her own, walks in the door.

Elizabeth Lark is on the run with her son. She's just killed her abusive husband and needs a place to hide. Against her better judgment, she heads to her hometown and stops at the Barkley Inn. When the innkeeper insists that Elizabeth is her long lost daughter, the opportunity for a new life, and more importantly, the safety of her child, is too much for Elizabeth to pass up. But she knows that she isn't the Barkleys's daughter, and the more deeply intertwined she becomes with the family, the harder it becomes to confess the truth.

Except the Barkley girl didn't just disappear on her own. As the news spreads across the small town that the Barkley girl has returned, Elizabeth suddenly comes into the limelight in a dangerous way, and the culprit behind the disappearance those twenty years ago is back to finish the job.

MY THOUGHTS: Don't go into Call Me Elizabeth Lark expecting a thriller. Yes, there is gunfire and a car chase. But this is not a thriller. A character driven mystery is, to my mind, a more apt description.

Myra has bi-polar. She is a mother who has become untethered by grief and, although she has two other children, her life centres around the missing, presumed dead (by everyone but Myra) Charlotte. Several times in the past she has believed that she has found Charlotte, only to be disappointed. But this time...

Gwen is Charlotte's older sister. She was 'looking after' Charlotte when she disappeared. She believes her mother blames her for Charlotte's disappearance, and mother and daughter don't seem to connect at all. She overcompensates by being the 'perfect mother' to her daughters, and she is rigidly in control of her life as if that will make up for her mother's flakiness. Jimi, the youngest, and only son, never knew Charlotte. He was born after she disappeared, but he has lived his life in her shadow.

Into their lives arrives Elizabeth and her five year old son Theo.

There are a lot of things I liked about Call Me Elizabeth Lark. The first is the cover, which is absolutely beautiful, but has nothing whatsoever to do with the story. I love the way Elizabeth is torn between wanting to give her son a wonderful home with the Barkley family, and not wanting to cause them any more pain than they have already endured. Similarly I love the way the author has depicted motherhood, the pressures to do it better than anyone else, the uncertainties, the doubts, the insecurities. I also love the way she has portrayed the intricacies of marriage, the give and take, the compromises, the flare-ups, the betrayals, the forgiveness, the stand-offs.

The mystery carried me along beautifully until almost the end of the book, when everything became overly dramatic and, dare I say it? - faintly ridiculous. The 'white room' in which several of the characters are held, the confrontation when he could have just 'disappeared' his captives, and the gunfight at the Okay Corral. All a bit OTT and unnecessary.

Yes, it does get a bit messy in places, but mostly I liked this read. The author has a great talent for getting to the essence of her characters. I will definitely be putting my name down to read whatever she comes up with next.

⭐⭐⭐.5

'Life is messy. Decisions are complicated. And dammit, you can't change the past.'

#CallMeElizabethLark #NetGalley #melissacolasanti #crookedlanebooks

@mmcolasanti @crookedlanebks

#contemporaryfiction #crime #familydrama #mentalhealth #mystery

THE AUTHOR: Melissa Colasanti is a mother and an author. She has a BFA in fiction from Boise State University. Her writing has appeared in Lithub, Memoir Magazine, The Coffin Bell Journal and others. She is the Stephen R. Kustra scholar in creative writing for 2019, and was awarded the Glenn Balch Award for fiction in 2020. (Amazon)

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Crooked Lane Books via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of Call Me Elizabeth Lark by Melissa Colasanti for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...

A suspenseful and engrossing story full of twists and turns, Call Me Elizabeth Lark is narrated by Myra Barkley, Myra’s adult daughter, Gwen, and Elizabeth Lark, who is presumed to be Myra’s long lost daughter, Charlotte. When Elizabeth shows up at the Barkley Inn with her son, after having been held captive in a remote cabin, a chain of events unfolds that places the entire family in danger. The plot is unique and captivating and the characters are multi-dimensional and well-fleshed out. While the story has a lot of potential, I felt that the it could have been executed more effectively. There are some pacing and stylistic issues that interfere with the flow of the book. I found myself having to reread certain portions to understand what was happening and/or what the characters were talking about. Despite these issues, the book has many redeeming qualities, including the atmospheric sense of tension, that make it well worth the read. Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for providing me with an e-galley in exchange for an honest review!

I found this story to be interesting, mysterious and emotional at times. I felt like this was a slow read and I often found myself losing interest but when something big did happen it definitely made me pay attention. I did enjoy all of the secrets and twists.

I didn’t really connect with any of the characters but I did like Herb because he was level headed and because he wasn’t emotional to the point where it became annoying or uncomfortable. I could never understand what Myra was going through after her daughter disappeared but most of the time she was so annoying and I just couldn’t stand her. I found her to be pushy, overbearing, rude, controlling and just plain annoying.

I didn’t predict the twist in the last part of the book and it actually did shock me. A little after that I did figure out who the villain was and it wasn’t as shocking as it could have been.

I recieved an advanced copy for free, and this is my honest opinion.

Call Me Elizabeth Lark
By Melissa Colasanti

Melissa Colasanti’s Call Me Elizabeth Lark is an excellent book that does a lot of things right. Colasanti starts by giving the reader a vivid description of the dreary Oregon in and the family at the center of the story.

We are introduced to the Barkley Inn during the winter off-season.The dilapidated inn attracts guests for two reasons. The inn has a no-questions-asked policy for guests who are escaping their current lives and forging new identities. It also became a true crime spot after Herb and Myra Barkleys’ young daughter Charlotte disappeared 20 years before.

Elizabeth is fleeing an abusive marriage and arrives at the Barkley Inn with her young son, Theo. Myra immediately believes that Elizabeth is her now-grown daughter Charlotte. Herb and daughter Gwen are skeptical, since this isn’t the first time the mentally fragile Myra has mistakenly identified a female guest as Charlotte. Elizabeth perpetuates the assumption that she is the long-lost Charlotte as she fears her husband will find Theo and her. Even after he was confirmed dead, Elizabeth and Theo are still not safe. Who is targeting Elizabeth and the Barkleys?

Throughout the book, we’re introduced to new characters whose initial entrance can be puzzling but whose secrets, intentions,and bad decisions contributed to the story and its outcome. Just when it appears that a question is answered, more questions are introduced. While I was reading, I’d think a character was giving clues, but I wouldn’t know how those clues fit in until I read the books’ concluding chapters. I often would facepalm when those clues were resolved, since the answers she gave made sense

Some secrets would provide more insight into a character’s intentions and behavior. At the end, the loose ends have been tied up as the mystery was unveiled.

Successful mysteries present a confusing situation and a satisfying conclusion. The mystery is solved, the villains are exposed, and other characters are a little wiser as they return to their “normal” lives. Colasanti wrote a successful mystery that I quickly devoured, and I look forward to reading more of her work.

Call Me Elizabeth Lark by Melissa Colasanti is a thriller about Elizabeth and her son escaping her abusive husband. Twenty years ago, Myra Barkley's daughter disappeared from the beach near the family inn, and now Elizabeth needs a place to hide so she pretends to be the missing daughter. Myra takes Elizabeth and her son in, but strange things start happening at the inn. Who is after Elizabeth--the abusive husband, a friend of his, or maybe the person responsible for Myra's real daughter's disappearance? This story kept my interest, but there was just too much going on. The conclusion didn't need to be so messy, in my opinion. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

There was so much I loved about this book.

There was multiple P.O.V which is just my favourite thing.

I loved the plot, it was really original and so unpredictable.

The only thing I wasn't a fan of is the pacing, at the early stages I felt this moved a little too slowly but that's just personal, I love a book that moves super fast and to be fair, towards the end this really picked up.

This book was a really twisty read. I could never have guessed the ending.

I also really liked the characters. I did feel like I connected with them and they each had their own place in the book.

This was 4 stars from me and I really enjoyed it!

Thank you to Melissa Colasanti, NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for an eArc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book has a good premise. I will never tire of the story of the missing child who disappears, and then resurfaces as an adult years later, who may or may not be telling the truth about being the lost child. Unfortunately though, this book just did not work for me, primarily because of the way it was written. The tone tended more towards soap opera or melodrama, and I like my mysteries more gritty and raw. The writing was somewhat flowery and repetitive, so I found myself bored, despite the fact that the drama (particularly at the end) was over the top. I think this book would have benefitted from a bit less telling and a lot more showing. Bottom line, I was expecting more intrigue, action, and characterization than I got here.

I would not really characterize this book as a thriller. If you like more of a dramatic family story written in this style, with a focus on secrets and betrayals and mistaken identities, this book may work for you, But it wasn’t a fit for this girl, who likes her mysteries more hard-boiled and to the point.

Thanks to Crooked Lane, NetGalley, and the author for the ARC.

A little convoluted and I was not surprised when the villain creating all the turmoil was outed. At the time I thought this is either the greatest red herring only to find that no, that's the culprit. Still, it was an enjoyable read.
An independent review thanks to NetGalley / Crooked Lane.

The idea was good, the execution less so. It was difficult to follow and felt strung together in spots.
Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Great premise for a book! A young woman shows up at a bed & breakfast and looks just like the owner's daughter who has been missing for 20 years. Is it her? What happened to her? And why, if she killed her abusive captor, is someone still stalking her? Very quickly the reader knows she isn't the missing daughter. From that point, the story seems to drag for a good portion of the book. Elizabeth feeling guilty. Elizabeth feeling scared. A lot of flashbacks for her and for other characters in the book, primarily the mother. But really, way too many pages were spent going around in circles and not really advancing the story. In addition, the writing was awkward. Jumps in time weren't really well done, and a paragraph or conversation would be in one place and then halfway through skip to another subject and then at the end come back to the original subject. Several times I had to go back and reread thinking I must have missed something. Finally, some things just never made sense and were never explained. This all made for a frustrating read!

f Elizabeth isn't Charlotte, how did she get Charlotte's necklace? That the question bothering Charlotte's mother Myra and her sister Gwen who have been mourning (and in Gwen's case, guilt ridden) since Charlotte disappeared 20 years ago. Now Elizabeth has turned up at Myra's B&B with her small son Theo. This could be a happy reunion except it's not. Elizabeth not only has a secret (it's not a spoiler that her husband was abusive) but she's also got someone after her. This twisty tale is told alternately by the three women, each of whom has their own take on what happened and what's going to happen. You gotta feel for Myra and Gwen who so wish this to be the answer to all their questions. Is she Charlotte? If not, who is she? It's an interesting one but the ending, well, it gets a little out there. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A page turner.

Charlotte was eight years old when she went missing. Her mother, Myra, never gave up hope that she would come home safe and sound.
Now, twenty years later, a woman who looks just like Charlotte, has walked into her life. She says her name is Elizabeth, and she is on the run with her son. Myra knows this is her daughter and is eager to welcome Charlotte home.
Elizabeth knows she isn't Charlotte. But the security Myra is offering her and her son are too good to pass up. The more time she spends with Myra's family, the more she questions Charlotte's disappearance. Is she the key to unearthing the truth about what happened twenty years ago?

I really liked solving the mystery of Elizabeth Lark. We know from the beginning she is not who Myra thinks she is, but her sudden appearance has brought a lot of new evidence with her. So many secrets come out, weaving a web of lies that catches everyone in it. Each new reveal had me waiting on pins and needles to see where it was going.
I did find the story twisty and mysterious. I wouldn't call it a thriller, but it was definitely suspenseful. The slow build of pieces coming together worked perfectly with the timing of the end twist. I found it to be a really good mystery that could have gone in a lot of directions.
Another quick read that held my attention the whole time. I will defiantly read this author again.

A daughter lost decades ago , a daughter left behind to shoulder the burden of lost turns to resentment. A necklace shared by two daughters is the key to a mystery that sets in motion a revelation readers will not see coming. Myra has never lost faith that her daughter Charlotte will return. The odds of this occurring are not in her favor,until a woman insisting to be called Elizabeth appears on her doorstep. All the physical signs point to the fact that this is Charlotte, and only Elizabeth knows the truth, but she also knows this is the only safety net she can offer her son. Elizabeth’s memory of that night is clouded by decades of abuse at the hands of a person she believed was a stranger. This story reveals this is not the case. Myra’s family will never be the same.

Thank you to the author, Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is an intriguing premise - yes, it's been done before, many times, but why not if done well. Unfortunately the very sloppy execution spoiled it for me. Told from three different POVs, there are gaping holes in the story and too many improbable "coincidences" that make credibility a strain, not to mention an excess of careless grammatical errors. There were some glints of promise, I would be interested to read the next book by this author, even if I can't recommend this one.

‘Call me Elizabeth Lark’ tells the story of Myra Barkley and the heartache of her daughter’s disappearance twenty years ago. Elizabeth is on the run with her son and seeks safety at Myra’s inn. Myra instantly sees something familiar in Elizabeth and hopes that she is the little girl she lost all those years ago.
However there is more than one person who is watching Elizabeth and it could be the person who knows exactly what happened all those years ago; but how far will they go to protect the truth?
I thought I knew where this thriller was heading with the family secrets and lies to achieve all the personal agendas but I was so wrong! It is a gripping, twisty mystery that keeps you guessing until the end. It fully embraces the theme of what a mother would do for their child but also the complicated relationships that make up a family and those who threaten it.