I wasn’t a huge fan of flicker in the dark, so I actually put off this ARC for a while. But seeing all these amazing reviews made me want to pick it up! It was actually such a page turner, and I enjoyed the twists and didn’t see the ending coming. It’s a very fun, fast paced thriller. However about 3/4 through I was ready to get to the actual outcome - I don’t know if I was just eager or getting bored. Either way, it was a really fun read! Review posted on Goodreads. Thank you for the e-galley!

After reading A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham (and loving it!), I knew I wanted to read this one! Going into this one, I expected to like it, but it exceeded all expectations! Every time I made a prediction, she completely flipped everything upside down with a new twist. I was hooked from the first few chapters all the way to the end!

Even though the twists in the book were my favorite part, I also love how she touched on how hard it is to be a mother and a woman, and how secrets and lies can affect so many things. She is truly one of my auto-buy authors. I can't wait for her next book!

Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press, and Minotaur Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you Netgalley for the audiobook for my honest review! Thank you also to Stacy Willingham for a great book! It is full of suspense all the way through and it definitely kept me guessing. I was wrong on both counts, despite the author's subtle dropping of hints throughout the novel. I really enjoyed it and I look forward to more by this author!

I liked this follow up better than Willingham’s first novel. As a mom of two small kids the issue of sleep deprivation definitely spoke to me, and the ensuing dysfunction is all too real. I love the unreliable narrator trope too, and I felt Isabelle’s conflicting emotions keenly. Lastly, I love a book that keeps me guessing.

Nothing can be more terrifying than waking up and finding your son missing, that's exactly what happens to Isabelle Drake. Isabelle gives talks on how her son went missing in hopes to find clues on his whereabouts. On a flight back, Isabelle by chances meets a true crime podcaster that wants to help locate her son. Over time Isabelle grows wary of him as he starts to uncover her past.

This is a fast paced page turner that I really enjoyed.

An absolutely fantastic read about a mother facing the unthinkable. Her child has gone missing from his crib, and she’s afraid she had something to do with it.

What followed was a well-crafted mystery/thriller told in dual timelines, introducing us to a woman that has believed to be dangerous for her entire life. Isabelle lost her sister at a young age, and now her son is missing. Her marriage has fallen apart in the aftermath and she hasn’t slept in a year. She spends her all her time following leads and trying to keep the case alive.

The author did a great job at creating the perfect swampy atmosphere to set the story in. It was a bit of a slow-burn at the beginning, but once things started to move there was no pulling over!

I’ve already gone ahead and bought this author’s previous book and I look forward to reading it soon!

*Received an ARC with thanks from Netgalley and the Publisher in exchange for my honest thoughts*

3.5 stars but rounding up for review purposes. This was a case of a super hyped book that just didn't quite live up to the expectations for me. It was still a very good book, and the end chapters redeemed it for me, but I didn't love love it like so many others seemed to. It follows Isabelle, a mother whose toddler son was kidnapped from his nursery one year prior, as she pleads her case to the true crime convention circuit, trying to crack the case that has gone cold. Her husband, Benjamin, has left her, and she suffers from insomnia, slowly starting to question if maybe she was the one to do something to her son in her bouts of sleepwalking, a parallel to her traumatic childhood. For most of the book it seemed like the obvious direction, and I was really hoping that it wouldn't go that way, so was happy when some twists started occurring. However, the fallback domestic thriller twist was utilized, to a degree, so that was frustrating for me. I did like that this book ended on a "happy" note, which is rarely the case. Moms, check your TW, because this one touches on child loss/kidnapping, postpartum depression and psychosis, and all the guilt and feelings of worthlessness society dumps on us.

•It was soooo slow until about 40%.
•Some of the twists toward the end were pretty surprising and kept me interested. I guessed bits and pieces of things, but not the way it all tied together.
•Really over of authors using suicide and overdoses as any kind of “twist” - it’s predictable at this point and just seems like lazy writing. Not to mention it doesn’t do anything to help remove the stigma.

First I’ll start off by saying that I neglected all my responsibilities to read this book after I hit the halfway point. I had to know what happened! I was hooked!

I thought it started too slow and it took me a week through the first half. I felt like we were on repeat for a little long with details of things (that were later relevant). But once I got beyond that- the book took off and I really liked it.

It’s been a year since Isabelle and Ben Drake’s son was kidnapped from his crib in the middle of the night. Since then, Isabelle has only been able to sleep in small snatches and her marriage to Ben has fallen apart. But, Isabelle is determined to keep the kidnapping front and center, trying to solve the mystery of what happened to her toddler while also dealing with murky memories of her own childhood.

I thoroughly enjoyed Stacy Willingham’s first book, Flicker in the Dark, but this one was different. There were times I didn’t like this book very much and then it would turn around and I found myself enjoying it immensely. However, for the most part, All the Dangerous Things was not that suspenseful for me and at the beginning the pace of the story was rather sluggish. There are several twists that make the story more interesting as it moves along and that was why I sometimes liked it and sometimes didn’t. Finally, I was not really happy with the ending and how issues were resolved. It just didn’t seem right.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

📖 BOOK REVIEW

BOOK: All the Dangerous Things
AUTHOR: Stacy Willingham
FORMAT: Audiobook
GENRE: Thriller
DID I CRY: No
PUB DATE: 1/10/23
RATING: 8/10
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you so much @minotaurbooks for my #gifted advanced physical copy and digital copy via @netgalley and @librofm for my advanced listeners copy, out now!

MY THOUGHTS

After loving Stacy’s debut A FLICKER IN THE DARK, I was so excited to pick up her newest thriller, and while I didn’t love it as much, it sure came close!

I was invested in this book from the very start. We are instantly pulled into the story and my attention was kept from beginning to end. I was entertained the whole way through. With the true crime podcast element, the story felt modern & real which I enjoyed. The characters were pretty good for a thriller (sometimes I find them to be so unlikable because thrillers are pretty heavily plot-driven). The writing was great, as it was in her debut. As mentioned, it held my interest and wasn’t too wordy which I always appreciate. The dual timeline also was a fun addition to this book & helped the reader develop theories along the way. With an unreliable narrator being a trope I don’t usually enjoy at all, I can honestly say that this one was well done & it didn’t necessarily take away from the book for me.

My qualms are primarily with the ending. I wasn’t wowed by the twist. I definitely had high expectations with the insane ending of A FLICKER IN THE DARK & the whiplash that it gave me. I’m not sure the ending fully met my expectations. I also felt like the middle 50% was a little bit slow for me for a thriller. And finally, this is minor but I did not like the relationship between the MC and law enforcement. This was a problem for me with AFITD as well & it’s something that I remembered and it bothered me all over again. I know it’s so small but it gets so far under my skin when law enforcement don’t take the MC seriously & treat her like she’s crazy.

All in all a suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat thriller that was fun & quick. Definitely recommend!

This is one of the best books I’ve read in a while! Isabelle’s son has disappeared. Her husband left her. And she has insomnia. It all sounds like a terrible nightmare. She can’t move on and as a mother I definitely cannot blame her one bit. Her quest for answers leads her down a path to her past, as well as realizing what’s been going on in her life for years. An interesting and attention grabbing story!

Stacy Willingham's first book was a very good debut, but the second one completely stole my reading heart. I am delighted with her storytelling style, amazing atmosphere, and complexity of the plot and characters. Wow, wow, wow from now on I blindly buy each of her next books.

Solid thriller with two twists I didn’t see coming. what I love the most is that the author sprinkled clues throughout the story that made so much sense when those twists happened. This is my second book by this author and I can’t wait to see what she does next.

Isabelle's son has been missing for a year, no new breaks in the case and she hasn't slept since he went missing. Now Stacy Willingham writes a pretty damn good unreliable character, cause I thought right at the beginning that Isabelle had kidnapped her own son, she was just so flakey and the dual timeline into her past just made her whole story rocky.

But then Isabelle, is convinced someone broke in, she goes to true crime conventions to tell her story and follows up on all attendees. Then she basically lets, Waylon, a complete stranger into her home to stay and record her for his true crime podcast. It was all very moody, dark, sketchy and concerning. Not only was Isabelle unreliable, but so was Waylon and several other characters.

I did like this one a lot more than A Flicker in the Dark, it's a bit slow at the beginning, it really picks up

WOAH! First of all, I loved that the main characters name was Isabelle Drake. If you’ve read give me more in the salacious players club series you’ll understand haha. I had no idea how this book was going to end but that’s what made it so awesome for me. I felt the same kind of on the edge of your seat feeling with this book as I did with the authors debut novel - a flicker in the dark. The one thing that stood out to me in this book is how everyone in Isabelle’s life did something to feed into this false narrative she had of herself being this evil woman in her sleep. Her parents let her believe that for so long and that just lead to everything else bad that happened being linked to her sleepwalking. I think the characters in this novel were interesting and I loved that the ending didn’t feel so out of left field. I felt like if I went back and read through I could find little clues now that I know what to look for. I really can’t wait to read more books by this author!

This book has a great amount of suspense. I was left wondering what was going to happen as I flipped the pages. It features a strong woman and does deal with a missing child. So beware if that is triggering for you. I highly recommend this book

After really not liking her previous novel, I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I was gripped right from the beginning and couldn't put it down. I enjoyed the many different parts of the novel and up until the end, was quite in the dark about how everything would shake out. I thoroughly enjoyed! Will definitely recommend to thriller fans. 4.5 stars

Absolutely loved this! Better than her debut! This story was more of a domestic thriller about motherhood.

Stacy Willingham has an amazing way with words. A bit too many at times but still she has you so involved in the story and the characters. All the Dangerous Things was a fantastic read, and the ending was riveting. I would read everything written by this author.