I know it is a cliché to say that you couldn’t put a book down, but that is the case with this book. Widow Alex, a much in demand solicitor with demanding clients is attending a wedding in Florida and is accompanied by her 3 year old daughter; a very strong, independent character, who is one of the five bridesmaids. The ceremony is conducted on the beach in front of the beautiful hotel. Lots of people: wedding party, tourists gawping at the bride and security on the gate separating beach from hotel. Alex goes to the beach with a tennis player who is a guest at the wedding to have sex. Four hours later they discover Lottie is missing. So begins Alex’s nightmare.

Clearly there are similarities to the Madelaine McCann abduction and this adds a further dimension to the plot which is well structured. Overall I thought the characters were well balanced, the tempo just right and the style of the writing very interesting.

All in all I thought this a really interesting story and was enthralled. My only negative thought is that towards the end I was speed-reading as I wanted to finish the book but also it felt a bit too contrived, not totally believable and all I bit rushed. That said, I have no hesitation in recommending it as a thoroughly good read.

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

What a great read! I liked that it seemed to be similar to real life incidents. Gripping and didn't expect what happened!

What a thrilling read that had me on the edge of my seat. When a little girl goes missing from a beach wedding the search begins and so does the questions, like where was the mother when the girl was taken?

The story is written from two points of views the mothers and a journalist who you can say has an obsession with the case. If you like kidnapping thrillers you need to get your hands on this book. The twist will have you jaw dropping.

Thanks Net Galley for the advance copy!

*4 Stars*

Copy kindly received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a really interesting read, and you could picture some of the events happening in real life. I was surprised by something things that happened in it.

Would recommend.

Wowser! I didn't see all of that coming. It's been a while since I last read a book by Tess Stimson and thus had forgotten just how impressive her storytelling is.

I was completely hooked in with the prologue and spent a bit of the book wondering just how it fitted in, as we learn of Lottie's disappearance.

I liked how it was likened to the Madeleine McCann real life disappearance, and there are all sorts of matters touched on, that had me thinking.

It really is every parent's worst nightmare, taking your eyes off your child for a few moments and them not being there afterwards. It is shocking to see that a child can disappear from a wedding when there are so many people around.

At first it was hard to really like Alex, her initial very honest thoughts of of motherhood, but it soon becomes apparent how much she really does care about Lottie, and how the not knowing where Lottie is, or if she is still alive or not being the hardest thing to cope with. Her tireless efforts to keep the story in the press and the search afoot were incredibly heartening to see.

At points during the book I pretty much suspected everyone at being involved and what is clear is Alex's anguish is real. As is the pain of anyone else in a similar situation.

I really quite enjoyed the chapters from Quinn's point of view, she is troubled with her demons, but also quite determined.

I was reading the last quarter on the tube and it was a miracle I got off at the right stop as I was so engrossed in the story.

Truly wonderful and gripping that I was utterly hooked on.

Thank you to Avon and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

Stolen by Tess Stimson

This is a book about every parents nightmare, your young child going missing.
Alex is attending her best friends wedding and her beautiful daughter Lottie who is just four is also at the wedding as a flowergirl .
Whilst Lottie is still missing an international search is taking place , and Alex's life is being investigated to see if the abductor could be close to home and someone know to Alex.
I loved the way the book kept you on the edge of your seat, suspecting one character and then the next.
Tess Stimson does not disappoint with the book. Very good.

OMG there are so many twists and turns in this book. It started off idyllically with a wedding paradise. and then turned gritty, emotional, and mysterious, Alex was not a very likeable character but her determination , to find her daughter changed my perspective about her a little. The supporting characters were very sympathetic either and each one would seem to have a motive, The story moved along a good pace, it did not drag at all and the conclusion was mind blowing. Trust n one!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for this ARC.

This is my first read by this author and if her other books are like this I’ll definitely be looking to read them. I really, really enjoyed this book. It grabbed my attention right away and just didn’t let go. This book is about every parents worst nightmare - the disappearance of their child. Lottie disappears when at a wedding with her mum Alex, and suspicion immediately falls on Alex. Wow, this book is a cracker of a read. I didn’t initially like Alex although her character did grow more on me the further I read. She is a strong character who leaves no stone unturned trying to find her daughter. It had twist after twist after twist and was such a well written and thrilling read. I loved the authors writing style and that parts of the story were told through the different characters, and at one point it seemed every character was hiding something and I thought I knew who had taken Lottie and was wrong. The final reveal wowed me, I was not expecting that and I found I had so much empathy for Alex and I thought the ending was good and it tied up all loose ends. I’ll be looking at this authors other books and hope they are as good as this one was.

I love Tess Stimson’s writing and this novel was another corker. More twists and turns than you can shake a stick at. A skilfully woven tale that keeps delivering right till the end.

“Grief is the price we pay for love.”

Three-year-old Lottie Martini vanished from a wedding reception at upmarket Sandy Beach Hotel on a private barrier island off the coast of St. Pete Beach while her mother, 29-year-old Alexa, was chatting with guests just yards away. Lottie had just performed her duties as a flower girl at the wedding of a family friend when she was snatched.

This is a wild ride. Fasten your seatbelts. You know that feeling when you get off a ride at an amusement park and you’re dizzy and struggle to walk aright…yet you are on stable land and on two feet?! That’s exactly how I feel now that I’ve turned over the final page in this nail-biting thriller.

Things that make this a great thriller:

- Tess Stimson has thrown in more red herrings than Pike Place Market has available! Just when I thought I had figured out who’d taken Lottie, Stimson pulled my feet out from under me.
- she gave me a glimpse into the mind of the abductor. It was just enough to creep me out but not enough for me to understand ‘who’ or ‘why’ or ‘how.’
- The newspaper articles and interviews, reporting the abduction, instantly created an atmosphere of suspense and intrigue.
- The isolated setting at the ocean added weight and atmosphere to the story.
- A cute ‘n sassy blond three-year-old vulnerable character
- A bereft and vulnerable mother who experiences growth and will fight all odds
- Mind-numbing anticipation
- Multiple points of view helped me get inside the story
- The beginning of each chapter notes the years, months, and days that Lottie had been missing and this suspense build-up takes the story to the next level

Things I struggled with:
-Suspending my belief to accept an unrealistic plot twist

What should have been a perfect day, turned into the perfect nightmare. Tess Stimson makes sure you’ll never see the final twist coming in this fantastic psychological thriller!

Publishes August 5, 2021

I was gifted this advance copy by Tess Stimson, Avon Books UK, and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review. “Grief is the price we pay for love.”

📖Book Review📖
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

#stolen by @tessstimson

@avonbooksuk @netgalley

⏩for synopsis

Ooo how I do love a book that can surprise you! I was utterly convinced I had this one worked out and well turns out I didn’t!

This book is really well written, every little clue (and some red herrings) are worked out and planted neatly throughout the story which really gets your mind working; who did it? What’s going to happen now? Who can you trust?

I found the authors splitting of the narrative between main narrator/character Alex and the kidnapper really worked - it broke up the book and added fire to the mystery and suspicion that was rife throughout.

The author did a really great job with the characters too. She made you love them, then hate them, feel sorry for them and then back around again. By doing this, she cast everyone under the net of suspicion at some point and this meant that not only your trust but your emotions were thrown into working out what was actually going on. A really clever way of writing. I couldn’t put this one down, loved it!

This is my third book by this author and I must say I’m eagerly wanting more! 🙏

With thanks to author #tessstimson, #avonbooks and #netgalley for allowing us to read this one early!

Released: August 5th

-Emily @the_book_girls_1

Thanks to Tess Stimson, Avon books UK and netgalley for the advanced digital copy in exchange for my fair and honest opinions. Book release date 5th Aug.


Alex has a very difficult 3 year old daughter called Lottie. So going to florida for her best friend's, Mark's wedding it's not something she's looking forward to. Things go from bad to worse when Lottie goes missing during the wedding reception and no one seems to have witnessed anything, the police think she might have wondered off into the sea but Alex knows Lottie has a fear of water and there's no way she would never go with a stranger. This begs the question, did she know the person whose taken her daughter?

This book is so well written. We know what Alex is doing when her daughter goes missing and it's not the most sympathetic thing. However we also know that even if her daughter annoys her she loves her more than life.
I found it fascinating because I honestly had no idea who has taken her or worse if she's alive.

The book really highlights racial injustice when it comes to publicity around middle class white missing children. They even make reference to real life missing Maddie. There are a lot of parallels and yet its done with respect. I found that this book really highlights this as well.
We follow Alex and we follow the journalist (I have forgotten her name).

The way the book is written is fantastic I must say. We follow the kidnapper, the mother and the journalist as well as a few others throughout the story. Well let me just say my mind was blown at more than one point. The book also spans over almost 3 years. I was wandering how well this could be done it turns out extremely well!!!

Alex is an interesting character because she's not a sympathetic one. Many people would say you should of kept an eye on your daughter others can argue there was a whole group of them and she asked her friends to look after her. I think it highlights as well the struggle of motherhood it's not all sunshine and roses but that doesn't mean a mother doesn't love their child. She is still grieving the loss of her husband. The police don't trust her so she is left to do her own investigation. She knows her daughters alive she just wants to find out where. She is never going to give up the search.

All in all this is a very hard book to write an indepth review about because its very easy to write spoilers every accidently. What i will say is if you like a good thriller and a great mystery this is the book you! It's so well written and pretty much all go from the start. I loved this book and in my top 5 thrillers of this year. 5 stars 🌟

Thriller that already have a place on “fav in 2020” shelf.

This story is so twisted and unpredictable that this book keeps me up all night long.

As a mother I felt heartbroken. The feeling when you cannot find your child is a parent’s worth nightmare. And when it turned out to be kidnapped? That completely different. The panic, fear; it is impossible describe what is going to in mother mind in such a situation.
Especially, when the investigation went public and Alex is judged. Was she a good mother? How is it possible to leave 3 years old for her own on the weeding? All her past are in the flesh.

Stolen is a masterpiece. Well-written where every chapter is a encourage to read more, to immerse in this story and lost yourself in these pages. There are no black and whites, but many various perspective and view. The same with the characters - they complex and it’s easy to misjudge them.

And the final? Omg, That was a surprise! I would never ever expected that! Well done!

Twist I didn't see coming. Perfectly shows the anguish a mother faces when her child goes missing and everything she will do to try and get her back.
Things was a great read from beginning till the end. Only got better as the story went on.

Thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for an early release of this book.

This book drew me in from the very beginning. Every mother's fear, you turn your back for a minute and your child is missing. Poor Alex is a working mother with a willful child. Is she not allowed to have a life of her own just because she's a mother? She's at a wedding surrounded by friends with security bracelets required to go in and out of the gate. She asks friends to keep an eye on her child while she sneaks off to have a little fling. It is a wedding. Is she not allowed to have any fun? Evidently not since her child goes missing. What happened to Lottie? Who took her? How did she go missing from a security-enforced party? Will she ever be found? I never did guess who took Lottie. Stolen is a great book I loved it!

Wow Stolen is the first book from Tess Stimson I have read and after this I will be looking at the others that she has written. This is a gripping read, which I was hooked from the start.
Alex is a Criminal rights lawyer and has a year 3-year-old girl called Lottie. She is also a widow. Her husband Luca died in a freak accident in Genoa the previous year when a bridge collapsed. Luca was the main carer for Lottie while Alex went to work. So, when he died, she has struggled to bring her up. Alex does love Lottie, but Luca was better looking after her.
Alex’s friends Marc and Sian decide to get married in Florida and asks Lottie to be bridesmaid who Lottie doesn’t really want to do. But when they get to Florida on the beautiful beach Lottie seems happy But, when she is with the other bridesmaid she seems to be enjoying in the fun. So, she disappears with one of the make guests. She is single after all. They have sex. At the same time her daughter disappears.
It is a mother’s worse nightmare when their child disappears. The police arrive and starts search. The media gets involved which starts a media frenzy to find Lottie. Even the President makes an appeal. Is she alive of dead? But they all lead to dead ends, but Alex does not give up.
Thank you, Avon, for a copy of Stolen. This was a gripping unputdownable thriller of how far you would go to find your missing child. This is not your typical missing child story it is quite different to others I have read. There is a lot of twists and turns. Also questioning the competency of the mother involved and the way the media conducts themselves in this situation. It also had a hint of Madeline McCann story in it as well. And the ending??... You will have to find out about that when you read it yourself.

Have you ever had so much yard work to do that neighbors were giving you the side-eye? That's where I found myself this weekend. But they'll have to keep giving me the stink eye because I could not pull myself away from this book!

This twisty, riveting story of an abducted young girl breathes new and refreshing life into this crowded troupe. I loved how the author was able to dive deep into the impacts to the mother who lost her child - was she a bad person or just unfortunate?

The author blended in many realistic angles like the vileness of public opinion, the ruthlessness of the media, and the shameful truth about race when it comes to resources for missing children searches.

The ending is a bit OTT but I think fully plausible in Thriller World where we can suspend belief just a little. My only criticism is the character motivations behind the ending were quite weak.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC of this book. #Stolen #NetGalley

Pub date: 8/5/21

Thank you Avon Books and NetGalley for a WHOA WHAT JUST HAPPENED book!!!! Stolen has soooooooooo many Twists, I still can’t wrap my head around this novel, I do NOT like reading anything about kids being missing but this was done in a way that is unputdownable!!! This book kept me Riveted! WOW WOW WOW!!!!

Wow my head is all over place what a fantastic read my heart was pounding throughout the book as I just couldn’t figure out what was going to happen it was breathtaking !
This really is one fast paced twisted read and quite a number of times I though I had things figured out and was oh so wrong and I loved that I was. I read a lot of thrillers so when you come across a book that completely blindsides you it’s a wonderful feeling and all praise to Tess Stimson for the superb writing that sent me down so many wrong paths.
I don’t rehash the plot you can read that in the overview but basically it’s a missing child story or so I thought because really it was a whole lot more than that and that’s what made it special. I thought halfway through the read I knew what was going on but then bang all my working out the plot moments were turned upside down and I had no clue as where this book was going and as I said that’s what made this a 5 star read and one I really can highly recommend.
Many thanks to Tess Stimson for a twisted and wonderful read I loved it.
My thanks also to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

A cleverly plotted novel giving a real sense of a mother’s loss when a child goes missing.
Easy to read with twists and turns along the way to an unexpected ending.
My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an advance copy in return for an honest review.