The father she went to find is a fast paced, action packed thriller. Since emerging from a coma, Penny—who is extraordinarily unique—has been residing in an institute for the intellectually bright. Beyond what is typically understood by the term, Penny possesses an idetic memory. She can recall every last detail of every incident in her life, as well as everything she has ever seen or heard. But not about the mishap that left her unconscious. The mishap, for which she holds her mother accountable, led to her father's disappearance

Penny is just aware of the institute. There, with her doctor, all is safe until one day he phones to tell her that he's got a new position. This is the starting point of a series of events where Penny chooses to escape from the institute, she finds herself just turning 21. The real world is very different from the institute and Penny finds herself lost. Day by day everything gets harder and more complicated for her outside of the institute.

This was my first book from this author and it did not disappoint. I will definitely be back for more books by this author. I just reviewed The Father She Went to Find by Carter Wilson. #carterwilson #NetGalley

Penny is a 21 year old savant. She is not your usual savant. She received her abilities through an accident. She has also been raised in a facility. She has been studied because she is so rare. But now she has decided it is time to find her dad. He left after her accident and she needs him. This adventure does not go as planned.

I enjoyed Penny. She is tougher than you think. And she makes some pretty tough decisions, are they the right decisions??? Hmmm! But, I do admire her thought process and her tenacity. I love reading about savants. I have read some stuff before and it is still unique and interesting.

I did figure out part of the ending. However, that was probably the author’s intention. Then there is the part I didn’t figure out. A bit of a surprise but it fit perfectly with this tale.

Need a good cross country adventure…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

I cant quite decide how I feel about this one. It definitely kept me interested, but it was also wildly far fetched? Especially the end was quite a bit wacky... but entertaining at the same time?

Regardless, it was a very quick, easy read! I do enjoy the authors writing style.

Such an interesting protagonist in this one. She’s a savant. I wasn’t sure I would connect with her, but I did. I really like that she sees colors for numbers. I’d never heard of that. I was invested in the story, wanting to know what had happened with her father.

Action packed and full of mystery and suspense. It had moments that made me wonder a little if it had veered off course, but I was oddly drawn to it and had to know what happened.

And the nostalgia of the 80s jumped off the page at me. I’m such a sucker for remembering the times before always being connected.

Gina Rogers did a great job with the narration. Voicing Penny’s inner and outer thoughts.

Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press, NetGalley, and Carter Wilson for the chance to review this book for an honest opinion. I have to admit I was quite intrigued by the main character in this book, Penny. She is a savant, not by birth but due to a tragic accident, and she cannot forget anything she reads or sees or hears. She also has a rather unique ability that she sees numbers as colors and that to me just made her such an amazing person. Penny has spent a majority of her life going to a special school that helps her develop her abilities and that studies her, although she doesn’t realize how important that role is supposed to be. On her 21st birthday she receives a birthday card from her long absent father that makes her remember a trip out west they made and she decides it’s time she looks for him. What follows is a rather unique journey as well as a coming of age story. As she travels, Penny has to learn who to trust and how to trust herself. The answers she finds are such a surprise that I really feel her emotions come through so easily. The author does a wonderful job in creating these characters and how they relate to each other. I will be looking forward to reading more books by Carter Wilson. Definitely I recommend this book.

Review: What a thrill of a book. When I first started reading, I was a little confused because it didn’t read like a thriller. But then the more I got into it, the more thrilling it became. The things this poor girl had to go through when she just wanted to be free. My gosh. This is a non-stop heart racing read that will make you want to continue reading way past your bedtime! That’s what I did and how I was able to finish 350 pages in 4 days. Would 💯 recommend!! Thank you @netgalley and @poisonedpenpress for my ARC copy! This book is out now and I would definitely go get it now!!

Absolutely obsessed with this book!!! I love seeing a neurodivergent role!! It keeps you on your toes the entire time! Definitely a must-read!! Thank you so so much for sending me a copy! Now, I need to go back and read all of your other books!!

@carterwilsonauthor #thefathershewenttofind #thrillersbythebookclub #bookstagram #booklover #booknerd

When I started this book I actually didn’t like it 9% of the way through. My husband told me to stick with it and it will hook me. I’m so glad he did. Not only did I get so hooked I found this book incredibly hard to put down but I actually ended up loving this book. What a roller coaster of emotions! By the end of this book my jaw was completely on the floor!

This book was great, it felt fresh and not like anything else I've read lately. It kept me intrigued all the way through, I didn't want to put it down.

What a ride 😱 This book had me in a chokehold. I needed a good thriller and this one delivered 100%! I went in blind and to be honest didn’t know what to expect but OMG!!! The premise is so interesting, chaotic and unbelievably sad at times. There were many twists throughout, some I was able to see coming but others came as a shock.
Loved the author’s writing style, is definitely one that makes me want to read more from him.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

This book is available right now! Thank you so much to @netgalley, @poisonedpenpress and the author for the ARC, opinion is my own.

Penny is a dream of a character. Her back story is fascinating and she brings such an unusual perspective to absolutely everything, which the author presents incredibly well both through descriptions, dialogue and interactions with other characters. I loved this book, even when I had to flip back through it because it took me down a tangled path. It’s clever, confronting and made me look at the situation with different eyes,

Penny is about to turn 21. She has spent most of her youth at an institute where a team of specialists work with (and study) her, because when she was 7 a traumatic brain injury left her with acquired savant syndrome. In her case, this manifests itself as photographic recall of everything she has experienced since her fall—as well as a sudden talent for photorealistic drawing. In her sheltered existence, Penny has had little experience of the world at large, but when her annual birthday card from her long-absent father says it will be the last time she hears from him, she decides to take the drastic step of leaving the institute to find him. Who can resist a protagonist who combines exceptional skills and cluelessness about the real world? There are maybe a few dozen individuals on Earth with this sort of miraculous recall, but they crop up with some frequency in mystery fiction because we find them so fascinating. For someone with such a staggering amount of information available to her at all times, Penny makes some stunningly bad decisions, but of course that’s half the fun. As Penny pursues her quest to find her long-absent father, the discerning reader will see where this is all going, but that doesn’t make the ride any less entertaining. It’s easy to overlook convenient coincidences or things that don’t make a lot of sense when you’re having fun watching the adventures happen. Bonus points for the nostalgia-provoking cultural references in this 1980s-set novel.

Thanks to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for a digital advance review copy.

What a page-turner this book is! Penny, the main character, became a savant after an accident. She was living in an institute, but on her 21st birthday she decides to go on a road trip to find her father whom she has not seen in years. There is suspense, friendship, and a coming-of-age story all contained in this adventure.

Master storyteller Carter Wilson returns following The New Neighbor with his latest intriguing coming-of-age complex mystery thriller—THE FATHER SHE WENT TO FIND. An exceptional, emotionally wrought tale of a young girl who sets out on a road trip to uncover the secrets of her past and find her father.

Fabulous—Like no other book you will read!

Set in the 1980s in Wisconsin. Penny Bly just turned 21 and received her annual birthday card from her father. Has he been traveling all over the world? However, this card will be the last by his note and the only one with a return postage stamp. She has received a card yearly since childhood—since he left.

Penny had a tragic accident falling down a flight of stairs when she was only seven years old. She was in a coma and experienced a brain injury.

She became a savant and can remember everything. She has the uncanny ability to remember details, see numbers as colors, and more. She has a brilliant mind. She remembers almost nothing of her life before October 1973. Every now and then, she recalls something of that lost period of her life with small details.

Her father left her after the accident, and she has not seen him since he left her and her mom. Her mom was unable to take care of her. She studied at an academy devoted to those with brilliant minds, and they also studied her.

She feels like she is at a turning point. She remembers bits and pieces of a road trip she took with her father when she was six.

At age 21, her mentor, Dr. Brock, is leaving the school, and she decides this is the perfect time to venture out into the world and out of her comfort zone. The doctor says she has abandonment issues. She has an acute fear of desperation and cannot seem to find hope for a good outcome. She processes the information and holds all the pain inside, talking to her father. The one who left fourteen years earlier. How deceiving memories can be.

It is time to find her father—the man who left her. Why? She has always wondered. She needs answers. She has no address, only a postmark. Penny sets out on a road trip to find her father and the clues they buried all those years ago in their final moments. She needs closure and possesses a solid need to face her fear of abandonment.

She and Travis, a starving artist she met at the mall (funny story), are two artistic minds who begin to travel to California (where the last card came from) with a woman named Fia. They run into all sorts of problems, dangers, and adventures. She soon learns she is out of her element and may get in over her head in this complicated world she has been sheltered from. She is intelligent but not worldly (street smart).

Will Penny find answers to what she seeks —happiness over or through tragedy?

Carter Wilson is a gifted, dynamic, creative writer whose stories are compelling, intriguing, and thought-provoking. From action, suspense, and mystery, THE FATHER SHE WENT TO FIND is unique, emotional, and intensely psychological, with opposing forces of joy and happiness, despair, fear, abandonment, and the unknown. Penny possesses a fierce drive to understand her past.

As we find in the story, Penny is an interesting character—intelligent and bright, book smart but not street smart. The story is told in first-person narrative, giving the reader a complete view of her thoughts.

A vast long-time fan of the author, THE FATHER SHE WENT TO FIND is a memorable and incredible road trip journey—Beautifully written, unpredictable, immersive, absorbing with well-developed characters, and a fascinating heroine to root for. It's a heartbreaking family drama, a wild ride, and a thriller with lots of heart.

I hope we see Penny again. I loved it, and it would be a great Father's Day novel and book club pick. Discussion questions included. I also enjoyed the Author's notes and inspiration. The novel would make a noteworthy movie.

AUDIOBOOK: I enjoyed reading the e-book and listening to the audiobook, narrated by Gina Rogers; delivering a superb performance— making the characters come alive!

Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press, NetGalley, and Dreamscape Media for an advanced reading and listening review copy.

Blog review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 5 Stars
Pub Date: April 2, 2024
April 2024 Must-Read Books
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𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔽𝕒𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣 𝕊𝕙𝕖 𝕎𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕥𝕠 𝔽𝕚𝕟𝕕
𝗖𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝘀𝗼𝗻
Thriller
448 pages
Pub Date: April 2, 2024

Sʜᴏᴿᴛ Sʏɴᴏᴘsɪs
Penny is a savant, one of seventy-five in the entire world. She wasn’t born with it, though. A fall down the stairs changed her.

She is studied from then on, never going out into the world or learning social cues. She has no friends and has been a recluse, splitting her time between home and the clinic.

Now, as a young adult, she is on a wild ride as she takes off searching for her father.

Mʸ Tᴴᴼᵁᴳᴴᵀs
My favorite part of this book is watching from the outside to see Penny’s behaviors, gifts, and life decisions affected by her being a savant. I find this to be incredibly interesting. Her brain works so mysteriously.

Though I don’t know anything about savants, I enjoyed the nuances the author gave Penny.
The problems Penny and her travel companion skid in to keep the plot rolling along at a fast pace with plenty of action. It’s a tense ride that takes the reader to a surprising ending.

💕Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing this ebook for me to read and review.

Isn't it ironic? Yes, The Father She Went To Find by Carter Wilson is absolutely ironic, in the way that only a psychological thriller with a character driven plot can be!

The idea for this book came to Wilson in the form of a female character, Penny, whom he thought about for months; it's clear that he developed her thoroughly, looking at every aspect of her personality in detail since she is such a fully formed entity. Penny has savant syndrome, meaning she is extremely intelligent, but also undeveloped socially. It was incredible to watch how she interacted with others on her quest to find her father, a man she hasn't seen since she was in a coma fourteen years ago.

I was constantly wondering where Penny's journey would take her, but instead of guessing, I just let the story unfold before me. The plot took many turns along the way, but none more shocking than how it ended! I could tell it was going to be this type of ending shortly before it unfolded, but watching it play out was a beautiful thing! This ending is perfection and I'm not sure I've ever encountered a finale that perfectly fit the main character and book so well!

I love what Wilson said about Penny's happiness in the Author's Note (especially related to the books ending). As a lover of character-based novels, Penny's story will be one that stays with me for awhile!

This audiobook is narrated by Gina Rogers and she did a phenomenal job embodying Penny. There was both empathy in her voice towards Penny, while still completely personifying the character. I really noticed the slight quietness that Rogers employed at times, emphasizing the importance of the specific scene.

I can't wait to read more from Wilson, after loving this one so much!

Thank you NetGalley, Kaye Publicity, Poisoned Pen Press and Dreamscape Media for the complimentary copies to read and review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this read. This was quite good. I have read Carter Wilson’s books before and I like his writing style and this one is no different. I like the short chapters and how he like to keep you reading with cliffhanger like chapters.

I enjoyed this book SO much! It gripped me immediately with the unique premise. It was action packed, dark, twisty, and absolutely thrilling. I couldn’t put it down. Definitely recommend

Spoiler free!

This was my first read by this author. I was intrigued by the title and the book description. I was intimidated at first because there were so many chapters, but the chapters were very short which made my heart happy. I loved the uniqueness of the MFC, Penny Bly. She lived a sheltered life and really put her smarts to the ultimate test by choosing to leave the institute and search for her father. I was not prepared for all the twists and turns and events that took place! I loved her honesty and snide comments/responses. The pacing of the book was perfect and the author did a great job at maintaining my attention which can be an obstacle because I am a mood reader. Penny remained in my head and I couldn’t wait to find out what was going to happen next or if she would find her father. The ending was really unexpected for me and a little emotional. I found myself questioning the end of the story and imagining my own ending. This was a five star read for me!

Thank you to the publisher, the author, and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read Penny’s rollercoaster of a story!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
An engaging, suspenseful novel with a unique plot about a trauma induced savant. However, it was
lacking in some character development and a particular discrepancy regarding the last birthday card affected my ability to be fully engrossed in the story. I loved the emotive ending.