Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC of this book.
Absolutely loved it ! Was unable to put it down as I was so involved in the story. The characters were amazing you almost felt as if you were there. Had no idea re how her brother had gone missing at all.
Will certainly look out for more books by Diane Saxon.

Wow! This was without doubt the best psychological thriller that I have read this year!

The story is full of suspense and tension, but at the same time I felt like we really got to know Caryn the main character. Her character was so well rounded (like we see in women’s fiction) that I really felt her pain and fear and need to know what had happened. The setting is a small Welsh village where everyone knows everyone also reminded me of a different genre of books, but at the same time there were so many secrets and lies and bad stuff.

I think this book will really appeal to women’s fiction readers who want to get a taste of psychological thrillers.

Really enjoyed this book, and read it quickly because from the first page I was desperate to find out what had happened..
Caryns character is well written, I really liked her and the story is great. Plenty of twists to keep the reader guessing!

What a great read, gripped me from the first chapter and didn’t let go till the last chapter. A well written storyline with characters to love and ooh some really nasty characters to hate. Dylan has to be my favourite character and the tell of a good author for me is one who can evoke feelings whether good or bad about the characters they write about. I won’t review about the storyline as I feel the job of the blurb is to peak your interest and draw you in and boy does this book do that.

Caryn has been holding a a secret for twenty years and it is time for her to resolve her guilt and anxiety, and find out exactly what happened to her little brother all those years ago.
She receives some letters that invite her to come back to her childhood town, but Caryn has not a clue who sent these notes.
However- upon her return, she realizes that she is definitely not welcome to return to beloved home and see her family, and acquaintances that may still be there.
Can Caryn discover any information about her lost brother?
It is not going to be easy!
Will it give her the closure she desperately seeks?

I really enjoyed this novel. I actually read it in just a bit over a day.. It is that good!
The story flowed from the early years to present day which allowed for so much detail into this suspenseful, intense, psychological mystery.

This is my first book by Diane Saxon, but I will be looking at her other stories.
Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for this ARC and allowing me to provide my own review.

I have loved previous books by this author so ofcourse I had to read this one and I am so glad I did. I really enjoyed it and loved it. It had me hooked from the first page till the last. Constantly kept me guessing and I never figured it out. What really happened to Lloyd? 20 years ago Caryns brother just vanished. Disappeared. While she was incharge of him aged 10. The story is told 20 years later when Caryn returns to her home town after receiving a note that someone has news about Lloyd. Will she be welcomed home? Accepted back into the family? Will she find out what really happened 20 years ago? It won’t be easy with someone trying to stop her. Gripping. Thrilling. Mysterious. Highly recommend. A well deserved four stars from me. (Blog tour)

My Little Brother by Diane Saxon was another fantastic book. I was gripped from the beginning till the end and a great page turner. All of Diane 's books have been a wonderful read. I highly recommend them and they are great for your holiday sitting by the pool relaxing.

Big Thank you Netgalley and Boldwood Books Publishers for the opportunity to read and review this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

My Little Brother by Diane Saxon is a dark and twisty narrative of psychological suspense. While it did take a little longer than I would have liked to become fully immersed in the plot, I was flying through the pages as the story gradually took hold.

Caryn is only ten years old when her little brother Lloyd goes missing from a school playground. Blamed for his disappearance, she is all but banished from her family home, and spends nineteen years carrying the guilt of that horrific day. A series of anonymous notes written in her native Welsh will pull her back to a community that is not quite ready to forgive, but Caryn is determined to find out what happened to her little brother all those years ago.

This is a compelling read from an author who can always be relied upon to deliver some spine-tingling suspense.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for an ARC.

I really enjoyed this book. I quickly became immersed in to the plot and couldn't put it down until I was finished. Poor little Lloyd. Loved the plot twists and the flashbacks. Thank you for keeping me read this excellent book.

WOW !! A deliciously intense and emotional thriller that you won't soon forget ! I highly recommend this book ! Thanks to Netgalley and Boldwood Books for the opportunity to read and review this book ! Opinions are solely my own ! #MyLittleBrother #Netgalley #BoldwoodBooks

Caryn has been missing her brother for the last 20 years, having been since away as a young child believing he was missing because she lost him has been an ache in her heart all this time. The mysterious notes she receives call her to return home for answers but when she arrives back in her hometown, the mysterious disappearance of her brother only seems to deepen and danger seems to be all around her. I loved Caryn and her story, especially the pages of her memories, and getting to know her. This was a great read that flowed so easily I read it too quickly! Definitely a great book for those suspense lovers like me!

My Little Brother by Diane Saxon surprised me around every corner. This is one of those books where you finally think you’ve put the pieces together, just to have a curve ball thrown at you. Impressive writing here. I was glued to the pages, desperately trying to figure out what was happening.

The characters are well written. I think they were interesting. I found Caryn compelling. She is in a rather stressful position and I found her very intriguing to watch as she navigated this plot.

I really enjoyed My Little Brother. I was surprised quite often and it kept me flipping the pages. I would definitely recommend giving this a read if you enjoy thrillers that take you on a puzzle of a journey.

Thank you to Rachel’s Random Resources for the free review copy and tour invite. All opinions are my own and unbiased.

★★★★ 3.5 stars (rounded up)

“Dewch adref. Mae’n amser i chi wybod y gwir. - Come home. It’s time you learned the truth.”

I read and loved Diane Saxon's "The Ex" , despite it being part of a series it sufficed well as a standalone, so I was excited to delve into the mystery of MY LITTLE BROTHER. A missing child, a family torn apart, secrets and mysteries abound. Although I didn't find it quite as enthralling as "The Ex" , it was still a decent enough read to keep me interested throughout though I did feel it dipped in the middle.

The story opens with a prologue taking place twenty years previously when ten year old Caryn was left to look after her six year old special needs brother Lloyd. It's a lot of responsibility to place on a ten year old but Caryn loves her little brother, even if he is a little demanding at times and throws the odd meltdown. She has learnt to read him well enough to gauge how to best avoid one and avert a crisis. But today Caryn just wanted to be herself and sit a while with her best friend Dylan. But it was her mam's 50th birthday today and she needed to keep Lloyd occupied until they could return home for the surprise cake her dad had ordered. Then when the time came for Dylan to head home, Caryn walked with him to bid him goodbye. Lloyd was still on the circling roundabout counting his fingers over and over. She wouldn't be a minute. But when she returned...the roundabout was empty...and Lloyd was gone.

Twenty years later, Caryn is a doctor in a busy London practice. Her life has moved on from that fateful day when her little brother disappeared and was never seen again. Her parents blamed her for "losing him" when she was supposed to be watching him and sent her away to live with the paternal grandmother she had never met. She never saw or spoke to her parents again. Years of therapy have helped her move on and box up the memories of her brother's disappearance and the events surrounding it. And she has not thought of it, or anyone else from the Welsh village that was once her home, again.

But in the last few weeks, Caryn has been receiving notes typed in Welsh, a language she has not read nor spoken for two decades. But with a little help from Google, she has translated them and their inference is clear. Someone knows what she did. Someone knows what happened the day Lloyd disappeared. Someone knows what happened to Lloyd. And now they are calling her back to where it began...and ended.

Unable to move on without knowing the truth, Caryn takes a sabbatical and makes the long and unfamiliar journey to the place where she grew up until the age of ten. If she thought people would welcome her with open arms, then she is sadly mistaken. It seems even twenty years is not long enough for this village in North Wales to forgive...or forget. Not even her parents.

But Caryn is home to finally learn the truth about what happened to her little brother, even if the village inhabitants don't want her there. And she will stop at nothing to uncover the truth.

What happened to Lloyd? Who sent Caryn the notes and why? And who wants to stop her from uncovering the truth?

MY LITTLE BROTHER was certainly not what I expected, especially after the frenetic pace "The Ex" . It is a domestic thriller set in a small Welsh village with cold whipping winds and snow on the mountain tops...and that sing-sing lilt that only the Welsh have. I love the accent I could almost hear it in the dialogue.

The story unfolds through Caryn's third person narrative, with the odd narrative in the villain's voice. While it is set in the present day, there are flashbacks cleverly inserted and played out in italics (for easy identification) that come back in the form of memories as bit by bit the pieces of the puzzle fall gradually into place for Caryn. There is a real mystery as to the identity of the villain and their motive, but the pieces finally fell into place for me just moments before the reveal came.

I enjoyed MY LITTLE BROTHER, though not as much as I thought I would, but it is still a good solid read to keep you engaged enough to know the outcome. The story is well-plotted and cleverly told, particularly the anonymity around "the watcher" which added that sense of impending doom. And I especially love the cover. That roundabout/merry-go-round was my favourite ride as a child.

My favourite part of the whole tale was the ending. It finished with the same lines uttered twenty years ago and I thought it was very fitting end.

Overall, MY LITTLE BROTHER is a suspenseful read that has a steady pace, though it dips in the middle somewhat. The writing is good and the story isn't overly complex making it a relatively enjoyable mystery thriller.

I would like to thank #DianeSaxon, #Netgalley, #BoldwoodBooks and #RachelsRandomResources for an ARC of #MyLittleBrother in exchange for an honest review.

This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.

Told in third person this was one of those psychological thrillers that had me firmly gripped in its clutches right to the very end.

What a fantastic plot it was, highly suspenseful, fast paced and proper edge of your seat stuff. Full of twists and turns, with an ending I wasn't expecting and boy what an ending it was!

The characters were complex and all had their own story to tell.

This is the first book I've read by this author and if her other works are all as good as this then it certainly won't be the last. And it's probably one of my favourite thrillers I've read so far this year.

Many thanks to Rachel's Random Resources for my tour spot.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

My Little Brother is a great story that kept me gripped and had me guessing throughout. I really enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for my ARC.

Caryn is often tasked with caring for her younger brother, Lloyd. Their mother is often ill leaving Caryn to be his caregiver. One day as school has ended, she is on the swing and Lloyd is playing on the roundabout. Lloyd has been diagnosed with Asperger’s so dealing with him can get difficult. When she tells him it’s time to go home, he refuses. So, even though it is steadily raining and getting colder, Caryn decides to let him play a little longer as she says farewell to a friend a short way away. When she returns for him, Lloyd has disappeared. Caryn’s parents are furious with her and blame her for Lloyd’s disappearance. She is devastated when she is told she is to leave her home and go live with her grandmother.

Twenty years later, Caryn is now a doctor in a good practice. She has not seen or heard from her parents all this time and Lloyd has never been found. But when she receives some cryptic notes saying she needs to go home because this unknown person knows where Lloyd is, she takes a sabbatical from her job to try and solve this mystery.

Back in her hometown in Wales, she is met with skepticism and unfriendly people who all believe she murdered her brother. When someone turns up dead, the case begins to blow wide open.

This is a totally mesmerizing book that I could not put down. I was fascinated and shocked by the evil in some people. This is one book that readers will not want to miss. Totally compelling! Enjoy!

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Well written story with surprise twist where a boy is missing for 20 years and the sister is lured home to discover the devastating truth.

I read and reviewed a digital copy of My Little Brother on Netgalley in exchange of honest feedback. This psychological thriller is full of twists and turns, and ‘I did not expect that’ moments. It was action packed, thrilling, sometimes chilling and dark, a great read from the start.
This novel held my interest throughout. I loved the strength of the main character, no matter everything thrown at her. I loved the writing style, the intriguing plot twists, character development and Wales as a location. It was remote, cold and the wind was brutal, perfect setting for this psychological thriller.
If I could have given this book 6 stars I would have. It is the first book I’ve read by the author but I will do my best to read more in the future as I really liked this novel.

I couldn’t figure out what happened to Lloyd either! I love a book with a mystery where I don’t know it from the beginning…
Caryn’s life changed 20 years ago and now she’s come back to face it all. And wow, for someone who left a town when she was 10 years old, she sure comes back facing a lot of blame. However, she’s determined to see it through and find out what happened to her brother!

When I saw that this book had a plethora of five-star ratings, I figured that it was either totally awesome, or something so mainstream and cliché that I wouldn’t care for it. In this case, the great ratings are warranted, as this was a fantastic book! There wasn’t too much cliché at all; it was pretty original.

Caryn was ten, her brother, Lloyd, six, when he disappeared while she was supposed to be watching him. He was never found, and after her parents turned their backs on her, and the small village in Wales turned their backs on her, she took classes to change her accent and moved to England. She studied, became a doctor, and went through years of therapy to remove the memories of her brother’s disappearance and events surrounding it.

Coming up on the 20-year anniversary of losing her brother, Caryn begins getting letters. Written in Welsh. Saying they know what happened to her brother. Saying it was time to come home. Unable to go on without knowing the truth, Caryn heads home. Not much has changed in the small town, the same familiar faces are all there … except her brother’s. Is he alive? Has he been writing the letters? Who is this person, and what closure could they give her about the past?

I won’t get into anything outside of the synopsis; the book is such a good read, you should go into it not knowing much about the details! It kept me engrossed the whole way through due to a ton of suspense, quite a mystery and some great flashbacks that were almost in coming-of-age territory. All of the characters were well-written, there was good imagery, and the ending! Oh my gosh, the ending!

I had just about every contingency in mind, so I did guess the ending, but only because I was guessing absolutely everything while reading this book. The finale was still shocking, and really fun to read. This doesn’t have the same feel as most books I rate with five stars, and I’m really giving it 4.5 rounded up, but this gets the ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me. This is quite a thriller, and while missing children thrillers can get formulaic, this one stands out.

(Thank you to Boldwood Books, Diane Saxon, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)