This is my first adult novel by Thomas, and I really enjoyed it. I loved Lee's character as well as how her relationships develop with other main characters, particularly Chase and Nelson. The plot kept me guessing, and the twists all felt pretty believable to me. I will definitely be checking out more books by Thomas soon!

Thank you for this review copy! I enjoyed the book, but honestly it also confused me a lot. There were a lot of (similar) characters and at one point I didn't know who they were talking about anymore. The plot was well written and the build-up to it was also really good!

Lost To Dune Road was pretty harsh. Two women were not only lost to Dune Road but taken and used before then, This is a pretty sad story with a flawed protagonist that you eventually connect with. I hope there is another opportunity to read about her.

In today's political climate, what would happen if a woman was to attempt suicide while 6 months pregnant and survive, albeit in a vegetative state? That's a question I have to say I've never asked myself but it's interesting to ponder.

Lee, formerly Natalee, is a disgraced former Vanity Fair journalist. She failed to properly vet a source she interviewed and and got dropped like a hot potato.

Now she's in the private investigating arena and when she loses her current position, she has time on her hands so when the mother of the aforementioned comatose girl, Amanda, reaches out to her, she decides to give it a looksie and it has some ties back to the story that ruined her career in the first place.

Reluctantly, she goes down this rabbit hole with Amanda's mother, who could be suspicious for good reason, or could just be a mother in denial. Either way, Lee's number was found in Amanda's things and it's just not adding up. Who was the father and why was Amanda being put up in a ritzy apartment?

It seems a conspiracy is at hand and using her natural intuitiveness and detective skills, Lee may be the only one with the guts to get to the bottom of it.

I'm a huge fan of Kara Thomas. I'm in my 30's so I should prefer her new stuff, but I miss the YA novels. Thomas is an amazing writer, there's no doubt about it, but in her newest works, she tackles subjects that are more politically charged and as a news junkie, I'm usually reading to escape that world. It's not that I disagree with anything covered, in fact it's often that these stories are preaching to the choir and that bugs me. I didn't care for the racial aspect and felt it was a bit tone-deaf and cringe.

Regardless, it was well-written and a page-turner. I got a lot of Long Island Serial Killer vibes. It was very dark, very heavy and definitely worth a read if you're somewhere at least center left politically.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read ahead of release in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

An exciting mystery about a clever formerly disgraced reporter turned PI.

There are plenty of clever twist and turns as the main character, Lee, attempts to find out who attempted to kill the young woman in a coma with her unborn child (a crime originally determined to be a suicide).

The only loose strand that bother me intensely was the fact that Lee never returned to rescue her friend Nelson's beloved dog, we were left to believe that it died a solitary death in Nelson's backyard! You will have to read the book to learn what I am talking about, but this was a detail on which I kept HOPING for resolution, but it was left unresolved.
.
What can I say, as an animal lover, this detail haunted me (I am amazed no one, such as book editors do not notice these loose ends so they can be addressed before a book is released).

However, I wanted to mention that I LOVE STORM publishing; they have kept me busy reading their top-quality books, and they are rapidly becoming my favorite publisher.

Natalee Ellerin, a disgraced journalist after the man she wrongly suspected and disgraced killed himself, takes on the case of Amanda Hartley. Amanda’s mother contacts her because she found her number in her daughter’s belongings. And before she can halt her investigation she’s back on Dune Road again, the place where Jenna Mackey went missing. Sometimes fiction is used to spotlight how an investigation into the truth is mishandled. Corrupt elected officials getting rid of those who don’t fall in line, and instead hire yes men. Lower class women being victimized in the news by calling them trash. A body (or bodies) found in the marsh of a beach.

When I received this ARC they had just announced the arrest of the Gilgo Beach serial killer. It was kind of funny to see the way that this book mirrored the investigation in some ways. I think it shows incredible knowledge and planning for an author to correctly nail down what happens in the aftermath of an investigation. Kara Thomas really knows her stuff. She shows incredible foresight into how the real life investigation would work out.

Even though this was written months before that person was arrested.
Don’t get me wrong. The ending is not something that you can predict. There is nothing contrived or procedural about it. When reading this book, it’s not hard to get Lost to Dune Road.

Lost to Dune Road started as a slow burn and then just *poof* exploded into a truly captivating mystery. A disgraced former reporter turned private investigator gets herself embroiled in the investigation of an attempted suicide that might just have ties to the murder investigation years ago that she lost her career over. I found myself quickly obsessed with this well-plotted and engrossing read showing the dark underbelly of the rich Hamptons elite, with a cast of complicated and flawed characters.

Lost to Dune Road by Kara Thomas is another fantastic thriller that had me glued to the pages.
What can I say, Kara Thomas has done it again. I love her books, and this one is no exception. She has a way of spinning a tale that keeps you on the edge of your seat and leaves you wanting more.
What a wonderfully paced thriller, both creepy and intriguing that will have you flipping those pages quickly.

Thank You NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

The beautiful cover drew me towards this read but I cannot, for the life of me, get into this book. There are way too many characters that it’s making my mind swim with uncertainty and I was struggling to move forward. Every time I pick up this book, I feel like I need to pay extra special attention to the storyline because the two cases being investigated are quite similar, but I’m having a hard time differentiating the two.

It’s taken me a week to read a little over half and I’m not enjoying it. I understand that a good book would need a little romance splashed inside, but this one felt child-like. After about 70%, I skimmed to the end, but I wasn’t wow-ed with the conclusion.

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this read. It was an okay read for me. It was just jam packed with characters it was way too much. I did not enjoy it as much because of that. Sometimes you forget how this person relates to the story and they come out of nowhere. It was okay.

I live for a redemption story and one that has a new thrill added to the mix.
This was atmospheric and dark and entertaining and OH WOW SO GOOD!

I loved this and didn't want it to end!

This was my first novel by Kara Thomas and I was definitely impressed! This was a twisty suspenseful novel and I couldn’t get enough!

Lee’s determination to get justice for these two young women was just amazing. She never gave up even when everyone wanted her to. She followed her gut even when it might get her in trouble. I loved that she cared so much about what happened to the women.

I definitely plan to read more of Kara Thomas.

Lee was once a journalist, but became disgraced when a murder suspect she named ended his life. She has been trying to forget the Jenna Mackey case and working as a PI since then. When the mother of Amanda, a girl found pregnant and on the verge of death, finds Lee's contact info in Amanda's bag, she reaches out for help solving what happened to her. But the more Lee digs in, the more connections she finds between Amanda and Jenna.

This is my third book from this author and she is an instant pre-order for me. That said, this book was a lot slower of a start than I am used to seeing from her. Some parts of the book felt a bit random and convoluted, but overall I enjoyed the story and kept reading to find out who the killer was.

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was a good read! Loved the theme, and the way it was written. A slow burn that wasn't boring or lost momentum in the middle. I hope there's more mysteries with this journalist that's spunky, smart and capable.

Thank you to MBC PR for my review copy. all opinions are my own.

3 stars.Lost to Dune Road is a dark and suspenseful thriller that does discuss some tough topics. The overall premise is a good one and immediately grabbed my attention however it was easy to get lost in the multitude of characters, the pacing and two different situations they were flipping back and forth for. The tough subjects discussed in this book include: police (and politician) corruption, abortion and adoption, and unhealthy relationships (particularly where older men and young girls are concerned). I was able to get into the book/plot over halfway through and actually really liked how both major storylines were woven together, however at times I was confused about which victim I was reading about and the details of their story. There were some suspenseful parts but there were also some parts that tended to drag on for awhile. My major issue was with the sheer number of characters involved in this book. I understand there are 2 major plot lines going on within however it was hard to sometimes follow along.

If you like private investigator/detective based thrillers I think you may enjoy this one. It wasn't one of my favorites however I would pick up another book by her!.

Thank you Netgalley & Thomas & Mercer for the opportunity to read this novel. These thoughts and opinions are my own.

“‘Everyone wants to be on the winning team in the end.’ ‘Or maybe even shitty people are capable of doing the right thing sometimes.’”

I love how the author used the real life issue,
in the local to her Gilgo Case, of the mistreatment of families by authorities when a missing woman has a history of sex work. As if that diminishes the importance of them being found. Ugh!

In Lost To Dune Road a desperate mother asks disgraced reporter Lee Ellerin, now a private investigator, to investigate the mysterious suicide attempt of her pregnant college student daughter. She wants answers and she knows her daughter Amanda would never do this. Yet no one is taking her seriously. Can Lee help?

This is a multifaceted and multilayered story of money, police corruption, the power of the media, and murder. There are A LOT of characters here and I may have given this book five stars if I was able to keep them all straight. But overall this book hooked me from the start and had me flipping those pages looking for answers.

Thank you to @karathomaswrites, @amazonpublishing, and @mbc_books for the #gifted copy.

REVIEW as posted to my IG account 4/13

Review copies courtesy of MBC and Thomas & Mercer. Thank you #partner #gifted.

Lost to Dune Road
Kara Thomas
4/16

📖 For a disgraced reporter-turned-PI, unraveling a conspiracy of murder could mean redemption.

💭 This has everything I love in a mystery/thriller... The writing is excellent - the epitome of show, not tell. It's intelligent, plot-forward, perfectly paced, with no unnecessary details to bog it down. It pulled me in immediately, and kept me coming back for more.

Lost to Dune Road is a suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat, investigative thriller and easily one of the best I've read so far this year! I'm immediately adding Thomas's backlist to my TBR!

⚠️ This does get a bit dark and touches on SA and other difficult themes.

📌 Available 4/16, and will be available on Kindle Unlimited in both ebook and audiobook.

Exactly what you'd expect. Typical PI/Detective setup where they just run around interviewing people and trying to piece the crime together. Would have preferred the entire novel to be told from the victim's perspective rather than the PI. The victim chapters were well crafted and compelling. The PI chapters, not so much. Our PI, Lee, was that rough around the edges, beer drinking, taco bell eating (but still pretty!) character. Nothing new there. Her chapters were confusing due to too many characters, and annoying due to an unnecessary love interest.

This was perfectly readable and inoffensive. I'd just personally rather read something unique that I hate, than read something this generic.

I love a good murder mystery with a strong female lead, and this one did not disappoint! This featured a female private detective and the story was full of twists. It was fun to read and I was invested from the beginning. The conclusion was shocking and I never saw it coming!

Lee Ellerin is a former reporter whose investigation into the murder of a young girl caused her to lose everything including her own job as a reporter. Five years later, Lee is working as a private investigator, when she was asked to investigate the nearly attempted murder of pregnant Amanda who is left in coma. As Lee is investigating, she finds a connection between Amanda and the previous girl that Lee was investigating on--Amanda like the previous victim was seen on Dune Road. Is there a connection between the two victims? Why was Amanda at the Dune Road?

This was actually a fast-paced thriller, packed with twists and turns and is also a page turner. I also like the plot of the story as I found the plot to be interesting. The writing was also great and I feel that the author did a good job of making the reader draw into the story. Despite the good things, I felt there were too many characters in the book which actually made the book a bit confusing as to who is who. The romance part of this thriller I feel is unnecessary. Most of the characters in the book are unlikable which is also another bad thing. The story shifts between Lee, who is the main protagonist and Amanda the second known victim, which outlined how she got pregnant and got ended up in the situation. This is also more like a political thriller in my opinion as well--well known men, elite people from Hamptons, money, power...that was the main outline of the story.

But overall, I did enjoy the book despite these things and I am actually looking forward to read more books from this author. Worth 4 stars.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.