I was given early access to the audio recording of this book, thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this!

This book was one that really conflicted me. On the one hand, the fact that it’s a true story about a case that is still open and unsolved, makes it an incredibly moving and important read, and this book seems fairly exhaustive. On the other hand, I think the author made the book too much about himself - it seemed like an opportunity to make money from tragedy and it certainly did not read like an objective account. There was a lot of bias present in this book that was not addressed.

The speaker in the audiobook version of this, however, was very good. The pacing and intonation was excellent, giving a lot of information in an engaging manner.

This book really does not give new information about this cold case. I also did not like how the author seems to focus on this case and writing this book after having personal issues. It makes it feel like he is trying to capitalize on this crime. The Crime Junkie podcast did a much better job of covering this missing person cold case.

Thank you NetGalley, Shawn Cohen, and Sourcebooks for the advanced listening copy of College Girl, Missing. Prior to listening I have never heard of this tragic story of the young college student Lauren Spierer disappearing in plain sight. I am not rating this book based on the story but by the authors telling of it. I do not feel comfortable rating a true crime story based on the events that occurred. My heart goes out to Lauren's family as this was a very sad story of what happens all too often in this world.

I enjoyed how passionate the author was about seeking justice for Lauren and her family. It seemed like Shawn Cohen was the long term fighter for Lauren and her family. If you enjoy true crime podcasts or shows like 20/20 and or Dateline then this audiobook will be for you. There was a lot of information and a lot of likely suspects and the author really does do his best to cross every t and dot every i.

Again, my rating is based on the authors portrayal of the story not Lauren Spierer's disappearance. Now that I was made aware of this story I will be looking into it more.

This audiobook releases tomorrow July 30th.

College Girl, Missing was a fascinating audiobook. I appreciated the level of detail the author used and the storytelling made this feel like fiction. Excellent and I liked the narrator.

Many thanks to NetGalley and HighBridge Audio for the free audiobook in exchange for my honest review. Kyle Snyder does a fantastic job narrating this story! I highly recommend the audio version if that is of interest!!!

A lot of times, when reading a true crime book, the author gets bogged down in the details and loses sight of the story. This is NOT the case here. This is one of the best true crime books I have read or listened to.

After a night of heavy partying, college sophomore, Lauren Spierer, leaves the apartment of an acquaintance and disappears, never making it home. The entire case was bungled by the cops and unfortunately, the investigation was never solved. Such a sad story but very well written.

Highly recommend for true crime lovers!!!

This is the shocking and terrifying true story of Lauren Spierer's disappearance.

On the outside, Lauren seemed like any other Indiana University student, rushing off to classes, embracing her independence and spending time with her friends. But suddenly, everything changed. On June 3, 2011 Lauren went out with some of her friends, but what seemed like a typical night out on the town, would alter the course of Lauren's life. In the small morning hours of June third Lauren disappeared, seemingly vanishing into thin air.

It is important to mention that Shawn Cohen - the author - is one of the top true crime reporters in the USA, but more importantly he was one of the first reporters involved in Lauren's case. I don't think there is a better person out there to tell Lauren's story, not only has he been involved since day one, but because Shawn has dedicated years of his life in the pursuit of the truth and justice for Lauren.

What really stuck with me about this book, is the attention to detail. I truly felt that no stone was left unturned in the telling of Lauren's story, starting from her early life, touching on her family and friends, and detailing every single step - and misstep - in the investigation. It's easy to feel overwhelmed with that amount of information, but the story is written in such a way, as to allow the reader to feel completely immersed and present in the case.

I really appreciate Shawn's honesty and openness, regarding the lengths he went to to speak to some of the persons of interests, and to track down other potential leads. I think Shawn's telling of the story beautifully showcases the human condition, stressing that ultimately everybody has secrets and things they don't want everybody to know. But in a case like this, those are the exact details that are most important. Shawn emphasizes that in a case as baffling as Lauren's, you never know which minute detail could open a new avenue for investigation, or lead to new questions.

As an avid fan of true crime, I loved that Shawn presented all of the information without trying to lead the reader to any specific conclusion. He paints the picture as is and allows for each reader to form their own opinions and theories about what may have happened to Lauren. He is not afraid to ask tough questions, nor discuss touchy topics. I think this is exactly why I enjoyed this book as much as I did.

I often felt frustrated while listening to Lauren's story due to the lack of cooperation among some of the persons of interest, as well as the missteps in the course of the investigation. Ultimately, I was left with more questions than answers. But this is exactly why, I think it is so important for people to hear Lauren's story. It has been 13 years since Lauren Spierer disappeared, and someone out there knows exactly what happened to her.

Written by journalist Shawn Cohen who was writing about this case early in the disappearance of Lauren Spierer. This book discusses the suspects and lack of due diligence by local law enforcement. He does not shy away from the topic of the victim's drug and alcohol issues. This book will go far in keeping Ms. Spierer's case in the public eye.

College Girl, Missing by Shawn Cohen - This was your typical "true crime" story. It did have some interesting bits of new information in it. The narrator was a bit monotone but the content was interesting. The book was a quick read.

I do enjoy true crime stories and this was a good one to listen to. The author read the book - his voice was easy to listen to. The book was on the short side because Shawn was concise, direct and straight to the point. I really liked that he didn't try to send you down wild goose chases. He just let you follow him on his fact finding mission. It is sad that this is still an open case and the parents are still living with unanswered questions.

Enjoyed listening to this book as it was interesting topic & easy to breeze through. I feel like there weren’t enough details to make an entire book out of the story though, so it started to get boring at times with repeat details. All in all, glad I got the opportunity to listen.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc

I first heard of Lauren’s case a few years back on a true crime podcast, I was interested to see how this book could help and as the author states he wanted to put pressure on those involved. It was a surprise to learn the author was able to uncover some new information. The book was a mixture of the case and the authors life which didn’t bother me. The narrators voice was clear and of a calming tone so it made it easy to listen to.

On June 3, 2011, Lauren went missing after a night of hard partying with friends. The petite, blue-eyed blonde was enjoying her last few days in Bloomington before she was due to drive home with her boyfriend to New York. Ditching her plans for that evening with him, she instead went out with new friends, including a young man with interest in her, drinking at a popular local bar before continuing the party at his and his friends’ off-campus housing. Heavily intoxicated on both drugs and alcohol, Lauren had already fallen hard a couple times and had to be carried off-and-on, but the young men with her that night swear that she left their place in the early hours of the morning to walk the dark streets alone to her nearby apartment. She never arrived.

It takes no effort to victim-blame, but the truth is Lauren really could be any of us. My daughter and I both graduated from IU, and knowing that in the right set of circumstances or with the wrong group of people, anyone's story could have been hers. Who of us didn’t go through our teens and twenties feeling like we were invulnerable to bad consequences or testing out the new freedoms being away from our parents brought, even if it wasn’t in such extreme ways?

Lauren’s parents believe she’s dead, but as any parents would, they want answers. The most popular theory is that she overdosed, possibly complicated by a serious heart condition, and that her “friends” panicked and disposed of her body. Unfortunately, these young men from wealthy families lawyered up and refuse to talk. Add that to some early missteps in the local police response and the territorial police chief’s refusal to bring in the FBI or state police, and sadly the Spierers may never get the answers they deserve. I hold out hope that they will.

I listened to this on audio, and thought the narration by Kyle Snyder was well done. My biggest complaint about this book is that Cohen, the author, came off as self-important in touting how close HE is to the Spierers, and how HE broke the news first, and how HE doggedly pursued answers all these years, when in the end, he really didn’t bring much new information to the table. For all his self-congratulatory persistence, even when he got the young men to talk after all these years, they offered a bunch of “I dunno”s and “I don’t remember”s which got the Spierers no closer to any answers. It felt a little like a vanity piece at times. Nonetheless, I respect his efforts to help the family, and I hope his continued persistence eventually helps bring them closure.

★★★ ½

Unfortunately, this book just didn't do anything for me.

I read a LOT of true crime books, and I have my favorite authors that I pick up whenever they have something new or to re-read any time I want to dive back into that world. (I'm looking at you, John Douglas!)

I had, however, never heard of this author. And sometimes, with true crime, that's a great thing. Moving away from the more popular names into someone unknown can give you a whole new perspective on old crimes or can introduce you to someone knew to follow.

I don't think Shawn Cohen will be either of those things for me.

I wasn't a huge fan of his writing style, for one thing. He puts WAAAAAY too much of himself in the story. Now, as an investigative journalist, he's, of course, going to be in the story. That's not even in question. But a lot of the places where he inserted himself seemed superfluous and gratuitous. Like he just wanted to make sure we all remembered he was part of the story.

Secondly, I didn't feel like this book really added anything new to the case of Lauren Spierer. To be fair, I didn't really follow the case when it was out. I honestly don't even remember it that well (if at all). But after some obligatory Googling, I found just about everything that was in the book on the web somewhere.

It was less of a revealing, shocking new twist and more of "I've compiled all this research people have done and put my name on it."

I don't know. I just wasn't impressed with it; it wasn't my cup of tea, so to speak. It just seems like maybe this dude was having a crisis of identity and really, really wanted to be important again, so he decided to write a book to get his name out there without contributing anything new to the actual story.

I kind of feel the same way when people release a book of myths or fairy tales without putting their own spin on it. They did nothing, save compile a bunch of stuff in one place. Why should I give anyone credit for that?

I appreciate the publisher and Netgalley giving me access to the ARC of this book, but unfortunately, it just wasn't for me.

As for the narration aspects, those were fine. I had no complaints with them. Audio was clear, and the reading speed was fine. I think I listened at 1.5x speed, and that was plenty fast enough for me. (I'm usually a 2.0x speed kind of girl.) So this was actually narrated fairly well. I just wasn't a fan of the book itself.

This book was so incredibly boring. The author gave us information that a girl went missing. I am still wondering how he wrote an entire book about what very little he knows about the case. Would not recommend. The book was more an autobiography of the author, not a book about an unsolved murder/disappearance.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance review copy in return for an honest review. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Really crazy story. But it felt like it jumped around a bit too much.

Every parent’s worse nightmare! This book broke my heart for the missing girls parents. It was interesting to hear all of the different perspectives that the author presented.

3.5 the story was compelling about a family’s search for answers 11 plus years later while also giving facts as presented and methods used to go back to dig deeper so many years later. Thank you Netgalley for the audio ARC

This book was really well done. It was investigative, insightful, and easy to understand. Great information was explained, the timeline was extremely helpful, and the possible persons of interest were well explained. I feel like investigative/true crime stories are harder to read sometimes, but this author did the story justice and was respectfully written. I never felt anything problematic in the way it was written and appreciated him explaining his own story and why he had trouble speaking with others in the case due to his own misfortunes. I think it was important and helped the story.

The narrator did a great job. I definitely felt that it had the right type of sound/feel. It was read with a journalistic tone and enhanced the listen, as it gave the vibe that the style of book was written in. Narrator was easy to understand and pitch was great.

I really hope this book increases the chances of solving the case. It’s always weighed heavy on my heart as we are close in age and I began college in 2011, right after she went missing.

Thank you NetGalley, Shawn Cohen, and HighBridge Audio for the audiobook.

I listened to the audiobook and enjoyed the narrator’s smooth, even voice. The story of Lauren is sad, I liked the first half- learning more about the situation. I did not like the author’s personal details that was most of the second half, it felt unrelated.

I listen to this book and I initially thought this was a fiction story but it’s actually a true story. So sad to hear that Lauren went through this and all of the craziness that happened to her that night.

So I won’t spoil the book. The narrator kept my attention and the chapters were short enough to drag on. I’m just truly sad that this is a non-fiction book and poor Lauren is no longer with us.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for letting me read this ARC in exchange for my honest review!