Okay, this one was rather captivating! Mikki and Lark are stuck in their small town, working nights at the local truck stop. They've long had plans of getting out, but those have been set aside as the years slide by. Now Lark is pregnant, and Mikki sees a claustrophobic future unfolding before her. Then a charismatic stranger in a BMW rolls up to the truck stop and invites Mikki to be his guest at a wedding in Florida. Mikki has never even seen the beach. Despite Lark's reluctance, she goes with the man, Chris. But she never comes back. Seven years later, Chris shows back up in town, and he too is looking for Mikki.

Told in a back and forth fashion that builds suspense, CATCH YOU LATER flashes back to 2014, the year Mikki disappeared with Chris and then present day, as Lark deals with Chris' return and the ramifications on her relationship with her daughter, Dove; her fiance; and Mikki's grandmother, Nini, with whom she and Dove live.

So, first off, there are a few annoying factors. Nini, while she does have the beginnings of dementia, is rather irritating and seems to exist to plague Lark and those around her. Mikki doesn't take her phone to work the day she disappears, which, c'mon! We're given a "reason," but this just seems so improbable, even in 2014. Then Lark makes a big deal of a bunch of "lies" she told the police that turn out to be incredibly silly; I hate those sort of lead ons.

But otherwise, even if some of this story seems crazy, it's quite a page-turner! I, personally, would not follow a rich man to Florida and try to wow over his wealthy and uppity family, but Mikki seemed the type (and up to the job). The book ramps up the tension, keeping you wondering what happened to Mikki. Was Chris to blame? Why on earth would she leave her beloved (and pregnant) best friend behind. Strawser does an excellent job of showing the strong bond between Mikki and Lark, even though they aren't together in present time in the story. She also explores the themes of motherhood (giving us insight of both bad and good examples).

There are lots of great twists in this story, even if it's a bit wild. The ideas of friendship, motherhood, finding yourself, and seeking happiness with what you truly have--those are universal, no matter how crazy life gets.

Catch You Later by Jessica Strawser Best friend stories are always one of my favorite tropes to read about. Strawser does it exceptionally well. Her writing is smooth and flows so much that I didn’t even realize I was almost done with the book!! This is my first book by Strawser but it won’t be the last.

Wow! So many mystery books have a similar plot line with each other but this one was so creative! I loved it! I did find myself wanting a little bit more of an ending with how the characters ended up in the end though.

Mikki and Lark are best friends in their late 20’s, and still working at the same gas station they started at as teenagers. Mikki feels stifled by small town Ohio life. When handsome Chris stops in for a coffee on his way to a wedding in Florida, and invites Mikki as his date, she jumps at the chance for a small taste of freedom. While Lark tries to stop her, Mikki goes anyway, never to be heard from again. 7 years later Lark is a single mom, still working at the gas station, when Chris walks in. He’s looking for Mikki, and he claims he had no idea she was missing. This book was a great thriller. I loved the dual time lines, and the accurate depiction of small town life. It held my attention the whole way, and that can be difficult. Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked the overall concept of this book - it sucked me in pretty fast. The middle slowed a little bit and there are definitely some gaps in the storyline. The end threw me off and it felt like the ‘twist’ with Mikki - was a little half hearted. I’m not sure if that’s the right way to describe it but it didn’t feel like it was fully thought out. I liked how the 2 timeframes played parallel and the reader sees Mikki’s thought process. Overall a good read but the ending fell flat.

I loved this book. This is the second Jessica Strawser book that I’ve read and I love how in depth we get to know her characters. I was really surprised by this book right from the start because I expected Lark and Mikki to be teenagers. The plot line of two women stuck in dead end jobs in a dead end town hasn’t been done in this way before, that I’ve read. And I loved it.

When a stranger walked into the Travel Stop where Lark and Mikki are working, Mikki decides to stick her and Lark’s life motto to “always say yes”. Nikki walked out with the handsome stranger and was never seen again. 8 years later the same man shows up one night asking for Lark.

Through alternating perspectives Jessica Strawser tells a story of friendship and poverty and love and fear in so many different aspects of life. The ending has me in tears. 10/10.

This gripping thriller weaves a complex tale of friendship, loss, and small-town secrets around the mysterious disappearance of Mikki and its lasting impact on her best friend Lark. The narrative skillfully jumps between past and present, building tension as Lark struggles to uncover the truth about that fateful night while trying to maintain the fragile stability she's built in the years since. With its rich character development, atmospheric setting, and unexpected twists, the novel keeps readers guessing until the very end about Mikki's fate and the potential consequences of uncovering long-buried truths.

Lark and Mikki were best friends since they were little kids, to the point that until their thirties they stuck together, but suddenly a guy named Chris came along and proposed to Mikki to be his date at his sister's wedding, and Mikki, who had a long wish to leave Backswill Town, in a heat of moments, thought why not, and without her phone, go alone with Chris. After 8 years of Lark not seeing her best friend, she never gave up on finding out what really happened to Mikki because she believed there was no way Mikki would leave her when she knew Lark was pregnant. But after a fateful encounter with Chris after 8 years, the secret resurfaced, changing many things.

The book is a mystery thriller by the same famous author of "Million Reasons Why," and it stays mystery till the end. The book also shows the normalcy of Lark's life and how she went through the seven years without Mikki. She got engaged with Heather, her daughter Dove got married, and she became lovely, but somehow Lark couldn't live happily, and it shows how close Lark's relationship with Mikki's was, but I don't like how hanging Lark was to find Mikki, even though at the end you will realize the old quote "it's fate," but through that, I really don't like that. Mikki and Lark were in their thirties, and they had the privilege to decide for themselves. In the book, I had this thought: She was fed up with a small town and would not be able to live a better life; of course, by the only chance she would leave and cut ties, and I was kind of pissed at Lark's pinning without the thought that maybe her happy life mode doesn't include Mikki, and Sha wants better, so why are you being dramatic? But in the end, it shows it's really worth it.

Honestly, till the end of the book, you can't understand the big secret; you need to take the long journey and sail with each step to understand why and what. If you ask, it's slow burn at max level because even at the end the reason wasn't clear, but suddenly at the end the curtain drops and all the fogs disappear, and if you weren't some patient reader, it's hard to go in this journey, especially when there is this feeling of discomfort about why Lark Soo hangs on to her friend even after 8 years and even suspected a totally awsome guy who shouldn't be blamed, and the fact Chris even started to help Lark, it really made you annoyed at Max, and Mikki's inconsiderate act of leaving, you have these urges to slap someone, but when again at the end you find the reason, you can't blame her either.

All in all, the book makes you frustrated. The urge to show some sense and integrity to both Luke and Mikki is everywhere, but Mikki, Grandma Nini, and Heath, Luke's fiancé, make the book a bit tolerable. But you need saintly patience and lots of self-control to read this. Still, the book deserves a mystery level of 4.5 and a rating of 4. Just know you need to read every detail of the book till the end; don't drop midway. If you do, you will suffer a bad dose of frustration without a satisfying ending, though you still need to consider which level you will satisfy at this rate. The blood pressure will boil at some point.

Catch You Later said Mikki Jensen to Lark Nichols as she impulsively joined a stranger in a BMW heading to a wedding in Florida in the latest novel from Jessica Strawser coming out October 22. Mikki had just made the man her fabulous iced coffee recipe when he extended his invitation. Open to a trip anywhere out of fictitious Becksville, Ohio, where she and Lark were still stuck working at a truck stop in their thirties, Mikki jumped at this opportunity to see the ocean.

The trouble is Mikki went to the wedding in 2016 yet never returned, never made contact again with her long-time best friend forever, leaving Lark with the responsibility of Mikki’s grandmother as well as her own child Dove. Lark created a campaign to find Mikki, even hiring a private investigator, who returned no results in the eight years since Mikki vanished without a trace.

Still working at the truck stop, Lark is startled when the BMW driver turns up again in 2024 asking for Lark and wondering where he might find Mikki. Lark calls the police who take in Chris Redmond for questioning about Mikki’s disappearance, and the search for Mikki gains new tread.
With Redmond showing up in Becksville again, Lark finds herself questioning if Mikki is actually missing or is it she just does not want to return to her life stuck in Nowhereville Ohio. Law enforcement briefly resurrect the case of a missing person only to drop it as soon as Redmond’s story about Mikki checks out. Lark persists even as she is warned off the case by police.

Where is Mikki? Why does Redmond say that Mikki came into some money? Why does he insist Mikki was on her way back to Lark after the wedding? What has happened to Mikki? The shocking conclusion holds answers to these questions.

Jessica Strawser, with seven novels under her belt, is a full-time writer and a popular speaker at writing conferences, book clubs, and book festivals. The Next Thing You Know was a People magazine pick for 2023. She lives with her family in Ohio.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting July 21, 2024.

I would like to thank Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

This is my first Jessica Strawser book. It held my interest as chapters alternated between Lark and Mikki. I do have mixed feelings about the ending. I wanted more, but I can't put my finger on exactly what was missing. I will recommend this to readers who enjoy a mystery/suspense with a dose of female friendship and female hardships. The cover of this book was great and will help lure in the readers.

I've given this book a few attempts but there's something about it that I have struggled with.

Thank you Netgalley for chance to read and sorry that it's not one for me, this time!

Thanks Netgalley for the free ARC! I really like Jessica Strawser’s novels, I may have read them all, and I was excited to review her latest book. To me the storyline was mediocre. I noticed a couple flaws in the plot that ended up making the plot unbelievable and ridiculous for me. However, she is a great author and you may get more from this book than I did.

This is a hard book for me to review. I cared about the two main characters and the family they created. The twists/ending was satisfying but it felt like it took forever to get there. Way too many details that I didn't care about It was told in two timelines, the present where Lark starts looking for Mikki again after her being missing for 8 years and the past where we got to see what happened to Mikki. So real mixed feelings about this one

This is a more slow moving book and most of my students don't have the patience for this. They prefer something with more action and less details. The issues of family obligations, friendship, class differences and being stuck and wanted a change would be relatable for most of them. 3.5 rounded up

Hypnotic, elegant and beguiling, Catch You Later is a beautifully written story about the power of female friendships. There’s a compelling mystery, emotional depth and tightly plotted twists, but where this book really shines is its characters. Mikki, who disappears after a stranger comes to town, and Lark, left behind to pick up the pieces of her shattered life. Smart, textured and with a dark, atmospheric heart.

Catch You Later is about two best friends who are more like sisters, Mikki and Lark, living in a small town that they dream of getting out of. They do everything together. They live together and even work the night shift at the travel stop together. One night, a stranger passing through town, headed to Florida, convinces Mikki to spontaneously take this adventure with him. Despite Lark’s objections, Mikki leaves with this man, never comes home and is never heard from again. Then, eight years later, the same stranger reappears in town asking for Lark…..

This book was full of mystery and suspense that kept you dying to know what the heck happened?! It is written in dual POV and dual timelines. This book looks at female friendship, the ties that you have to the place where you’re from, and the lengths we will go to and what we are willing to sacrifice for those we love. This one will keep you guessing until the end!

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the opportunity to read this ARC copy of Catch You Later in exchange for my honest review.

4* Not at all my normal cup of tea, not what I expected, but it grabbed me and pulled me in.

I got this book based on the blurb and the publisher's trusted name, and discovered a tale that drew me in immediately. I didn't have a clue about the ending, not right until the very, very end when a certain person seemed to go awol, but I believed it. Just one tiny niggle - how come Google didn't clear things up? A VPN could have hidden the person-in-question's location, keeping them from harm, and the situation could have been resolved earlier. Much, much, much earlier. How come no one asked the question?

I'm not sure I can ignore that, as there's no reasonable explanation for it in 2024, or in any of the 8 years before, over which the tale spanned. But, I'm not going to dwell on it, and will put it down to fear of drawing attention to themselves and fear of the threat from a certain character who gets their comeuppance at the end. But, the reveals? Brilliant and done subtly enough that I didn't see anything coming, unlike Trooper Heath - not Fiancé Heath - who came prepared because of his love for Lark.

Not everything was rosy at the end, but the tale had an honesty and uniqueness that made me want to believe that distance, silence, and lies for good reasons, could all be overcome in time. It ended at the right place, without faux mushiness or an unbelievable HEA. Definitely going to check out more from thus author, who has a back catalogue of 6.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing, for my reading pleasure.

This one is difficult to put down! This is a mystery/thriller about one half of a best friend duo that goes missing. Lark is just starting to get her life together when a the person who drove her best friend,Mikki, away returns. Is Mikki missing or does she just not want to be found? This book has some twist and turns and I really was hooked by the suspense. Thank you to NetGalley for the Arc copy.

If you had a free trip, not string attached, to a resort and the only catch is you need to fake being a wedding date, would you do it? Would you escape? Would it be worth leaving your best friend behind? ( low key I would do it) This makes for a fast pace novel of is a person ever really missing or did they escape?

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the Kindle ARC. I have read all but one of Jessica Strawser's books and I've liked them all but this one was the best. It's suspenseful without being over the top with a frenetic ending like so many books these days. I wouldn't categorize it as suspense/thriller. Catch You Later is the story of friendship, loss and making the best of the life given to you. Lark and Mikki are lifelong friends in their 30's, working together at a Travel Stop. Both women had dreams for another kind of life. A handsome wealthy man comes by the Travel Stop and Mikki spontaneously leaves with him to Florida for his sister's wedding. Lark discourages her but ultimately can do nothing to stop her. The stranger, Chris, has a family in turmoil since his parents died and a tragedy struck their family business. Circumstances lead to Mikki not contacting Lark about her whereabouts, making this book hard to put down. The story is told from Mikk's and Lark's perspectives and I was very anxious to find out what happened to Mikki. When I see a new book by Jessica Strawser, I always look forward to reading it.