I really enjoyed this psychological thriller. Noa was a fantastic main character & had so much depth partially due to her CIPA diagnosis. This definitely requires you to suspend some disbelief but I was into it. While I wasn’t blown away by the mystery & reveal surrounding who took Skye, I enjoyed it nonetheless and really enjoyed some of the little surprises the author has coming. The audiobook narrator was very animated & gave some flair to Noa.

Noa Romwell is a unique protagonist for several reasons. First, she managed to leave a small town in the Everglades, a town where "no one leaves", to set up a new life in the big city of Miami. Second, she's a somewhat unreliable narrator--as a kid, she created an imaginary "big sister" and some wonder what else she imagines. And third, she has Congenital Insensitivity to Pain & Anhydrosis, meaning since birth she has never felt pain and is unable to sweat. I don't believe I've seen this used in a book before and as a result of her condition Noa has a very different outlook on relationships and life in general. The first-person narrative told from Noa's perspective hooked me, and then the plot, which involved the missing 6 year-old daughter of Noa's ex-boyfriend, pulling her back to the Everglades for the first time in years, kept me interested.

I figured out most of the ending about halfway through the book, though the red herrings thrown out made me question it a few times. Parts of the book reminded me of Wendy Walker's Don't Look for Me, with the same level of terror, but there were moments that made it really tough to suspend disbelief (especially in the last few chapters). Overall, it's an entertaining read and wonderfully narrated by Tara Sands.

Thank you to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this audiobook in exchange for a fair review.

This book was full of twist and turns. Just when I thought I had it figured out, I realized I didn't. 😅

Thank you to Netgalley, Dreamscape Media, and T.L Finlay for an advance listening copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. I wasnt sure what I was going to feel when I started listening to this one, as part of the premise (a girl who cannot feel pain) was so unusual to what I normally read. I ended up really enjoying this one and I felt like the author had me completely immersed into the story. I really enjoyed the depth of the characters and how their pasts and presents intersected throughout the storyline. This one was a bit graphic at times (at least I think it might bother some readers) but besides that, it was a great book! This one comes out tomorrow, Tuesday, August 9th! 4.5 stars!

Girls Without Tears is a gritty mystery about a woman who returns to her remote hometown in the Florida Everglades to assist with the search party of a six year old girl who has gone missing. The story follows Noa, who suffers from a rare condition that makes her unable to feel pain, meaning she could become injured and not even realize it. This has caused her to be overlooked or picked on. I found it a little hard to connect to the characters, but the story was interesting. I wasn't quite sure where it would go. I listened to the audiobook which was well-narrated by Tara Sands, who fit Noa's character perfectly.

Thank you to the publishers for providing this ebook/audiobook ARC. All thoughts are my own.

I really don't understand why Noa goes back to her home town to "help" in a situation that has literally nothing to do with her, It's also kind of awful that a 28 year old women gets immediately wrapped up in high school drama. Get over it. If your'e this old and still hung up on your childhood boyfriend, that's a you problem and you have to deal with it.

I wish her connection to the missing child was more. Like a niece, a goddaughter, or something. It bothers me that she has no connection to this kid. She's never even met this kid!

If she had more of an emotional tie to the child I would have liked this better. Her actions make no sense. She's just causing drama for no reason.

Imagine not being able to feel pain, or sweat. No sweating, love it; however when you can't tell if you're body is overheating, that will lead to many complications throughout your whole life. This was an interesting perspective on this novel.

Noa is a character that you can feel the complications her life gave her and how unfair life can be when those around her are overprotective and she misses out on key pieces to life: sports, outdoors enjoyment, even a job. People are hesitant and discriminate. You want so much for her, but she is constantly being held back.

Noa returns to her hometown where her ex and first love and his wife, the woman who stole him away from her, are missing their six-year-old child and to join in the search. Noa's return to her hometown is full of mixed emotions where everyone still misunderstands her and her condition. This story is full of emotions between her frustrations, her heartbreak and the trauma of a missing child.

With many twists and turns in this story it will keep you on your toes the whole story!

I thought this book was really interesting. There were a lot of moving parts that always kept me guessing. I didn't love that they kept making the main character seem like she was going crazy, but I understand that was the whole point for some of the plot. Overall it was a pretty good mystery thriller.

Thank you Dreamscape Media for the ARC of this book!

3.5 stars

Interesting concept, and the follow-through on it was decent. The escape/magic trick scene at the end (as well as a couple of other descriptions) was a bit nauseating in its vivid description. The reveal of the villain was a bit surprising but was something that I started to suspect toward the last chunk of the book. I seem to be on a bit of a perpetual quest to find a thriller that manages to surprise me at the end while still staying believable; I know that’s a big ask, but I’m still hopeful, and while this story doesn’t quite hit that art of criteria, it was still a mostly enjoyable read.

This was an incredible thriller. I listened to it straight through on a long drive and I’m so glad I had it. I was hooked so quickly on learning what happened to the missing girl. The book follows a woman who returns to her tiny hometown in the Everglades to help search for the missing daughter of her high school love. He broke her heart and she never returned after high school, but was convinced to come help in the search efforts. I don’t want to spoil the book, but my jaw literally dropped open with one of the many twists.

This was a pretty delicious read.
The MC was easy to get along with and highly interesting.
I feel like the author crushed the research on Congenital Insensitivity to Pain, and I highly enjoyed learning more about this condition.
Great pacing throughout, fabulous cast of characters, cool Floridian scenery along the way, and the narrator was top notch!
I cannot wait to see more from this author!
Much love to NetGalley & Dreamscape Media for my DRC.

Loved everything about this story!
Unique, suspenseful and gut wrenching, this psychological thriller was brimming with plenty of unexpected twists that pulled me in from page 1 until the very end.
This author has a very unique way of creating mysterious and exciting stories that keep me guessing whodunnit until the very end.
Well paced, with well developed characters, the imagery alone of the haunting Everglades had me hooked.
There are many ways you can describe the main theme of this story. For me it was discovering the answer to our heroine Noa’s journey of “What are you willing to do to fit in!”
Noa our heroine was born with a rare medical condition that prevents her from feeling pain, hunger, and even the sensation to need using the bathroom, she’s been creating a new life in Miami after leaving behind her small town of Everglades City. An “adorable” small town full of secrets and described by Noa as “If Everglades City were a person, it would be a sociopath. And its dwellers—the enablers.” That statement set the tone for what lies ahead for Noa.
She left her home town 10 years prior and never returned for so many heartbreaking reasons. However, a child is missing and her family tells her she return to help rescuing said missing child.
The sacrifice she makes to return to a town that nearly pushed her out, to reconnect with people she left behind because of how they treated her was heart wrenching to read .
Who the parents are of said missing child, added another layer of suspense to this complex story. The feelings, Noa put aside to help for a greater good…gut wrenching.

What she does to prove her loyalty to her friends. What she says to fit in with her town folk. There were some dark wacky scenes that added comic relief to this mysterious story.

Haunting, soulful and full of twists, what she begins to suspect and discover as the rescue mission evolves knocked me sideways. This town is holding on to so many dark secrets and Noa begins to realize she’s smack in the center of very dangerous territory.

Things are not what they appear and it seems the town has almost won in getting Noa second guessing her own sanity, and ability to do what she has to do to help on this rescue…even those she thought she could trust!

Except Noa has an ally in one Hector who helped her see things more objectively. Hector Morales that is, and he is the unexpected hero and savior of Noa’s living nightmare.

She begins to let go of her own self doubts, and things begin to happen she never imagined.
You need to read this book and find out what happens!

We all need a Hector Morales!!

Channeling my inner baddie to go with my first @netgalley review. I listened to Girls Without Tears by T.L. Finlay and really enjoyed it. I’ve been trying to add more thrillers/suspense into my reading list and this one didn’t disappoint.

You definitely need a bit of suspension of disbelief at times but definitely find yourself rooting for the main character and how badass she becomes as she overcomes struggles with her health and how that has affected her past and current relationships, to live a fuller and more honest life with those around her but also with herself.

Alongside the emotional journey is a twisty turny kidnapping mystery that while at times feels predictable is also so fun and keeps you guessing so you actually end up second guessing your guesses 😂. The setting in the Everglades is perfect because after listening to the @nationalparkafterdark episode on the Everglades I want to visit so badly and even though the book is dark it also made me want to visit even more! At first I didn’t know if I loved the narrator (Tara Sands) but as you get to know the main character I actually thought the narration lined up very well and kept the book engaging!

The book releases next week on August 9th so you too can get it and read/listen for yourself!! Thanks again to Net Galley for the early copy!

Wow! A lot to unpack here. If you can suspend belief like another reviewer mentioned, you will enjoy this book immensely. However, if you are someone who is going to get hung up in the very first chapter over health privacy issues, like I almost did, this book might not be for you. We only have one narrator and she is may or may not be a reliable narrator. I enjoyed the mystery, though I knew who it was pretty much from the beginning of the introduction of the bad person. Even so, the author did a good job making other characters also seem a possibility. I will admit that I thought one character was going to be the culprit because it would have been ludicrous and because the character seemed to good to be true. The last part couple of minutes the book were also interesting. I really feel bad for characters that everyone else deems unreliable. Some might find that the ending before the epilogue was long and drawn out and unbelievable what she went through, but I enjoyed it for the uniqueness of the story.

This psychological thriller is set in the wild and isolated Everglades, FL. A woman reluctantly returns to her hometown when her ex’s young daughter goes missing. Secrets from her past come back to haunt her and make her wish that she had never returned. The audio version of this was outstanding. I thoroughly enjoyed this. I loved the setting and the fact that the protagonist had an unusual medical condition that caused her not to feel pain or hunger. It threw an interesting and unique challenge into the mix. The narrator of the audio version does an exceptional job of conveying the intensity and franticness of the situation. The very twisty conclusion was both unexpected and satisfying. I look forward to reading more from this author.

Girls Without Tears by T.L. Finlay

A six your old girl name Skye is missing from the Florida Everglades. Noa is hesitant to want to come back home she is currently living her life in Miami and happy that she moved away from Everglade City. Her parents beg her to come home and help search for the little girl. The little girl belonged to Noa's high school sweetheart and he broke her heart when they split.

The story took off from there Noa returns home to help with the search. I forgot to mention Noa suffers from Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis (CIPA which she was teased about when she was younger. This is one of the main reasons why she did not want to return.

Anyways the story started off strong then it fell off a bit in the middle of the story. The plot of the book started strong but sort of fell flat near the end. The book started so fast and then moved like a snail pace for me. Some of the people Noa knew as a kid seemed not to be given much character development. I think the idea of the book was great just the execution of it just did not work for me as I wish it would have.

The strengthen of the book was the main character Noa her illness and how she came across was good just build from there. The person responsible for taking Skye and how the ending worked out did not feel believable to me. The way the character acted just did not fit right.

Tara Sands did a good job giving each character a voice. I am giving this one 3 stars and I still recommend this book it is worth the read just keep your expectations to mediocre. If you like mystery thrillers this will be for you. I would still read from the author for any future works. There is so much potential if executed correctly.

Thank you to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for a free audio version of this book for an honest review.

This book was a page turner from beginning to end. Noa struggles with returning to her small home town to help out her old friends and ex boyfriend when his child goes missing. But she does. To make the situation worse she has a disorder that makes it so she doesn’t feel pain. Yet everyone thinks she has grown out of it. Definitely slow at parts and a little difficult to read with the child violence but had me guessing until the end. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for advanced access to the audiobook of Girls Without Tears by TL Finaly in exchange for an honest review.

CW: torture, violence, blood, medical content, kidnapping, gaslighting, murder, fidelity, suicidal thoughts, see full list on StoryGraph.

Nothing like a child going missing to bring a community [back] together. Main character Noa returns to her small hometown in the Everglades of Florida to help her ex-boyfriend and his wife search for their missing child. When Noa finds herself deeply entrenched in the case in more ways than one, she is forced to face the reality that not all the friends from her past are still friends. Complicated by the fact that Noa has a medical condition that prevents her from feeling pain of any kind, she is in a high-stakes situation fighting for her own life and that of an innocent six-year-old child's.

Wow. This is one of the best thrillers that I have read in quite a while. Noa's medical condition was so interesting and really deepened the threats present in the narrative. In addition to contributing to her characterization, Noa's condition also opened up the door for an important conversation about disability and discrimination in the workplace, which, though tangential to the plot, was nevertheless an important conversation. The twists at the end of the book were not entirely unpredictable, so I would consider the best aspects of this thriller to be the larger topics of friendships changing over time and how a physical condition can effect a person psychologically.

Noa lives in Miami, having left her stifling small town of Everglades City behind after high school. But when the daughter of her high school sweetheart is kidnapped, she is urged by her parents to come back and help with the search. The return home is difficult as she once again must deal with misconceptions and ignorance surrounding a medical condition she’s always had – the inability to feel pain. But this is soon the least of her problems when the search for the missing girl turns violent, while tensions and secrets begin to surface amongst her old friends.

I really enjoyed the premise of this work, but the overall execution left me wanting more. I liked that the protagonist had a little-known medical condition, which added to her character and the interactions she had with other characters. I enjoyed the narrator and felt that she did a good job with the different voices and bringing everyone to life.

There were a few areas where I felt the author could have done better. The descriptions of the setting were lacking. I’ve worked outside near the Everglades, and it’s a vibrant, spooky, unique place full of life and mystery, but this didn’t come across in the sparse descriptions of the setting. This could have been an amazing atmospheric work but unfortunately it was lacking in that department.

The pacing also felt a little off. The work started with a relatively fast pace that maintained my interest but then shifted into a much slower exploration of Noa’s interactions with people she used to know and a slow uncovering of some of the mystery, during which point it became a little bit of a drag to get through. I also felt that the characters were lacking in development overall – they felt like caricatures/stereotypes rather than fully developed characters. I didn’t find the villain to be that relatable or engaging, and unfortunately, the reveal of the motives and the confrontations didn’t feel realistic to me, which left me disappointed with the ending.

Overall, this was an okay read but it just wasn’t what I wanted. I think readers who enjoy drama, thrillers, and small-town mysteries would like this work.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for providing a review copy of this work, which will be published on August 9th, 2022. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I was completely enamored by this book from beginning to end I could not stop needing to know what would happen next. This is the first book I have had this year that I have not stopped thinking about. With it starting out with a immune disorder that I have never heard of which I immediately had to Google to a story that kept me guessing as to who was to blame. I enjoyed the character builds in the intensity. I will definitely be buying a paper bag for myself and telling all of my friends about this book. Definitely one of my favorites for 2022