A fun, quick YA mystery. I enjoyed this one and the characters. The writing style was fun and easy! 5 stars!!

Missing
by Susan Thomas
Pub Date: 20 Jan 2023
Great young adult thriller. Definitely purchased for our library. Students are drawn in with the cover and so far it as been well-received and passed around.

Ugh where to begin with this book! I absolutely enjoyed this book, not once did I know where it was going. The gaslighting this book has was insane I wasn't sure what to believe!
This story starts off saying Madison's cousin Becky went missing the year before the day of her sweet 16 and no one has seen or heard from her since. Madison is recalling how close the two were growing up and how much she loves and misses her cousin as she's driving home. As she's driving down the road someone comes out on to the road and it causes her to swerve and crash into a tree. When she wakes up she finds herself not in her car but in a cabin used for "rustic getaways" with no idea how she got there or who brought her there. So she gets up and takes off to make it back to town. A she was sneaking out she sees the gentleman who took her and I careful to get away without him knowing.
But that just the beginning of this amazing read! The gentleman turns out to be a reporter Derek Ransome who is in town to do a "one year later" story about her cousin missing. When she goes to the police station to report what she remembered the officers are the ones to tell her why he was in town and that he has already stopped by to tell them what happened and why he couldn't take her in to town since he only had a motorcycle. But Madison doesn't fully believe this story even though it's not logical he was going to do anything to her.
Then she goes to a coffee shop in the following days and runs into Jake, her brothers friend. Jake Dawson is the school QB, smart, heartthrob and Madison has the biggest crush on the guy. When she orders her coffee he tells her to get them a booth so he can visit with her, Jake tells Maddy he wants to help her because he believes in her and that she thinks something suspicious is happening again.
This story had me guessing the whole time about what happened to poor Becky a year earlier and I wasn't sure how it would end. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone and have actually bought a copy of it after release!

thanks you netgally & overnight teen for this ARC it was amazing!!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is something a little out of my norm, but I was willing to give it a chance because it was relatively short. Missing follows the story of Madison, cousin to Becky, who went missing on her sixteenth birthday. This was a decent suspense/psychological thriller - definitely something I would recommend for YA readers - and it is probably a book I will pick-up again for a re-read when I'm in a thriller-y mood!

This book had a good storyline that intrigued me to pick me up, but after reading it it just fell flat not holding my interest. It was nothing like I initially thought it was going to be and I was really excited to read this one when I got picked on Netgalley. Not sure if it was just not long enough to be well written and drawn out with details because the whole book was under 200 pages and a kindle edition copy. 🤔 It felt very rushed throughout the whole book.

Becky, the pretty girl who is the life of the party, vanished into the thin air. She stayed with her cousin who was the closest to her. After a year of search, the police and her family almost gave up on finding her. But, what about her cousin? Is she really unaware of what is happening in her bestfriend's life?

A decent suspense thriller which is easy to read. Suggested even for beginners. If this is the author's debut in this genre then I would say it is commendable.

A great, quick, clean read full of suspense and secrets. Madison helps her cousin “disappear” only for it to become an actual disappearance. She has to decide if she will face her own part in the aftermath.

I enjoyed this story. It would be appropriate for teens through adults.

I love a good missing person book and the plot line of Becky May being missing is right up my alley. This book is tense and keeps you turning the pages as you race to find out what secrets Madison needs to unlock to find out what really happened.

I requested this book mainly because the storyline sounded so intriguing. Becky and Madison are cousins who have been together since birth because they were born only a week apart, When Becky goes missing on her sixteenth birthday and the police didn’t seem to have any lead its up to Madison to figure out what happened. But she has her own secrets.

3.25/5 stars! This book had a unique premise and I think would appeal to YA/teen readers. Becky May has been missing since her 16th birthday and only Madison can unlock the secrets to this mystery. This was one of those stories that the reader could see where it was going, but you could still enjoy watching the MC watch it all unravel. It wasn't an overly complex mystery thriller but I enjoyed it.

I received an advance review copy for free through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily

Oh my what a ride! I don't want to spoil but I really enjoyed the roller coaster this one sent me on. The only criticism I have is that it didn't keep going! I'd love to see an epilogue with the 2 of them.

This was a short book so it didn’t take me long to read. It was a little confusing as there were many times the wrong characters name was used. Becky’s name was used instead of Madison’s which made me have to go back & reread to make sure I read it properly. While the book had some suspense…the ending was extremely disappointing.

This is a mystery written by a talented author. The characters are realistic, and this fiction reads, at times, like nonfiction. This story could happen. Teens are often not aware of the dangers they experience daily. The protagonist , in this novel, was careless and not always honest. Discovering the resolution to this mystery was obvious to the reader, but it was not, of course, to the characters. This is a good book for teens. This book was sent to me electronically by Netgalley for review.

The premise for this book was intriguing. I enjoy a good thriller/mystery and I will say that this one lived up to that as promised. It was fast paced, to the point and delivered a punch. I was never bored as something was always happening to keep me on my toes.

Madison’s best friend and cousin, Becky disappears on her 16th birthday one year ago. With no leads, it’s up to Madison to try to figure out what happened to her. But Madison has been keeping secrets and all consuming guilt is eating her alive. Could what she knows be the key to discovering what happened to her cousin?

The story started off with a bang, literally. Our narrator crashes her car and swears she sees her missing cousin at her window. She ends up in a cabin in the woods where she feels she definitely doesn’t belong and escapes, running into a friend from town who drives her to the hospital. She tries to tell people what she saw, but no one believes her. This turns into a regular theme throughout the book. This was action packed, but for me, hard to follow right from the get.

Social media posts start going up, accusing Madison of being crazy and telling her to off herself, which seemed kind of harsh to me given the circumstances. She becomes a social pariah in her own town and quite honestly, I didn’t understand why everyone was either ignoring or being nasty toward her. Have they never heard of grief before?? Ever heard of a head injury?? There was one guy who believed her though- her brother’s best friend, Jake. Convinced Becky is alive, Jake and Madison set off to uncover what really happened. Will they uncover the truth or is someone determined to make sure that never happens?

I’m not sure how old Madison is supposed to be, however her birthday is a week before Becky’s and she can drive. So if their birthdays are the same year, that puts her at 17. The tone and writing style did not give me the impression she was a 17 year old girl. She came off as extremely childlike. On the other hand, some phrases used such as “banging down my front door” reminded me of my father, so the narrator’s voice kind of seemed all over to me.

This book had too many spelling errors for my taste. It was hard to follow and had very little actual character development. It was like the characters were just placed in the story, but didn’t fit quite right. The dialogue seemed off-like characters of this age group would not speak like that. This took me out of the story, unfortunately. The story itself needed more detail, more backstory. For example, I wanted to know what life was like before Becky went missing-show me how close the girls were, don’t just tell me. I wanted this within the family dynamic as well. This book would have done well with a prologue.

Now I love a novel that is fast paced and gets to the point quickly, however this one may have moved too fast, especially at the beginning. I felt like I had whiplash while trying to follow it. The ending/climax was definitely my favorite part. I couldn’t stop reading!

In all, this had so much promise, but unfortunately didn’t do it for me. During most of this, I felt like I was missing something and not in a good way. A way where I felt I had just turned on the TV and was caught in the middle of an episode of a show I’ve never seen and couldn’t understand. I had more questions than answers. I would, however, try another book by this author as I did enjoy the actual story she was trying to tell.