This was a fast paced, action packed, and suspenseful thriller! It hooked me from the beginning and had me riveted until the end. I loved the nostalgia- the 90’s and the US Olympic womens gymnastics team are prominent throughout. I could NOT put it down! The dual timelines worked fabulously to keep me engaged. This is a short book that really packs a punch!

When She's Gone by Rea Frey is a fast-paced, intriguing psychological / mystery thriller. Cora Valentine won a gold medal in gymnastics at the 1996 Olympics. Then her life changed forever when she survived being kidnapped on Halloween. Still haunted by that harrowing event she is determined to protect her daughter at all costs. Cora's world is rocked once again when years later, on Halloween her child gets abducted. The unthinkable has happened and now Cora is forced to confront her past and make an unbelievable choice while uncovering a connection to her own kidnapping.
This book was a fast-paced gripping read that had me hooked from the beginning! I really liked the dual timelines shifting from Cora's kidnapping to her search today for her daughter. The tension and suspense continue to build as you discover why Cora's daughter was abducted.
This book is full of twists, secrets, and drama and is an absolute must read for psychological thriller lovers!
Thank you to NetGalley, Rea Frey, and Thomas Mercer for an ARC. Expected publishing date is January 14th 2025.

"When She's Gone" was a thrillingly good book. Frey did a great job builing up the suspense throughout the story. The characters felt real, and I found myself caring about what happened to them. Each page had new surprises that kept me interested - the twists and turns were great in this book.

Frey's writing style is easy to read. She mixes suspense and character development well, so you get invested in both the story and the characters. The main character's inner struggles and growth adds extra depth to the story. The book deals with themes like trust, betrayal, and identity.

Overall, "When She's Gone" is a fantastic book if you like psychological thrillers. Rea Frey has created a memorable story with twists and turns.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #Thomas&Mercer for the book #WhenShesGone by #ReaFrey. This book centers around kidnapping, revenge and jealousy and is the perfect read. Cora used to be a gymnast who was in the Olympics. But right before her tryouts for the team, she is kidnapped. Even now, she never found out who was behind the kidnapping. Present day and someone has kidnapped her daughter and insists that she kidnap another child. Can she save her daughter before it’s too late?

3.5 stars, rounded up. A very fast paced, intriguing mystery thriller.

Cora Valentine is very well known--she won a gold medal in gymnastics at the 1996 Olympics. She tries to live a very quiet life now, because she is raising her young daughter Lulu on her own. During the town's Halloween festivities, Lulu disappears, and Cora receives a note that someone has kidnapped her daughter and not to call the police. Cora is frantic and wonders--does this have anything to do with her own kidnapping as a teenager?

This book does require the reader to suspend a lot of disbelief, but if you can just go with the story it is exciting and engaging. My own daughter was a competitive gymnast (as was the author) and setting the story in that gymnastics world made it all the more captivating for me. I was on the lookout for gymnastics inconsistencies and didn't find very many.

I did call a couple of the twists before they were revealed, but there were definitely quite a few surprises. If you don't read as many thrillers as I do you will probably be able to go with the flow a bit better. The book is very entertaining and I read it very quickly because I wanted to know what was going to happen.

In a world saturated with thrillers, this is a refreshingly different take due to its gymnastics focus.

4.5 Stars
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a chance to read early and review!
Rea is an Auto-Buy author for me and when she started branching into the thriller genre, I was ready for it!

The book starts off with Cora taking her daughter trick or treating. (I know -- it's a Jan release)
This is already a difficult day for her, as she was kidnapped on Halloween, many years ago, her name splashed across headlines. Hounded by the public, Cora’s time as a missing girl and member of the Magnificent Eight has its consequences (she was to be a part of the 90's olympic gymnastics team)-- would her dreams be smashed?
Flash forward to TorT in the present - and her daughter was taken! History repeating itself...
Each chapter alternated to show her capture and escape, to the present blackmail scenario to get her daughter back.

I loved all the real references to the actual Olympic team at the time (fictitious only in timeline of it being fall and not summer). I loved that there were elements of being in the gym, floor, beam, bars -- all of this was right up my alley!

I had suspected the culprit early on, but I started to doubt myself almost immediately - so many curveballs! In traditional Rea fashion, the ending was a climactic one with someone getting shot and a race against the clock. to find her daughter. All in all, I really enjoyed it! It was a fast read

Even though I figured it out pretty early on, I still couldn't put it down and kept reading. With that said, it was not the best book by Rea Frey that I've read, but it was a good, solid read.

Thank you #netgalley and #thomasandmercer #apub for the eARC.

When She's Gone spans three decades when a young gymnast ends up escaping a kidnapping but what happens when years later she is forced to face the past when her daughter disappears? This had me on the edge of my seat the entire time and I could not stop turning pages until the end. The author was new to me and I look forward to reading more books by this author. All of the twists and turns in this were so good and I was guessing who did it until the very end. It was a fast paced story that you do not want to miss and the characters in this were great. Overall, this was one that I highly enjoyed and would recommend to any reader who loves thrillers. Thank you to NetGalley and Publisher for this ARC read in exchange of my honest review of When She's Gone by Rea Frey.

Another killer book by Rea Frey! The book bounces between past and present flawlessly and was easy to follow. This book made me want to keep reading to figure out what happened and it left the end of chapters on a cliffhanger. I couldn’t put it down!

Thank you NetGalley, Rea Frey, and Thomas & Mercer Publishing for the ARC!

SYNOPSIS:
In When She’s Gone by Rea Frey, former Olympian hopeful Cora Valentine’s life was forever changed when she survived being kidnapped on Halloween—a trauma that haunts her even after becoming a mother. Determined to shield her daughter from the same fears, Cora’s resolve is shattered when her child is abducted on Halloween years later. To save her, Cora is forced to confront her past and make an unthinkable choice, uncovering a chilling connection to her own abduction.

MY THOUGHTS:
When She’s Gone by Rea Frey is an edge-of-your-seat thriller that kept me captivated from page one! The dual timelines, blending Cora’s harrowing kidnapping in the ’90s with her present-day search for her missing daughter, create a gripping narrative you won’t want to put down. Set against the high-stakes world of competitive gymnastics, the story is fast-paced, with short chapters that make it a binge-worthy read.

The suspense builds as you unravel the mystery of Cora’s daughter’s disappearance, and while some twists were predictable, they didn’t take away from the adrenaline-fueled ride. Yes, there are moments where you’ll need to suspend disbelief, but that only adds to the fun! If you loved the intensity of The Chain by Adrian McKinty, this book will absolutely hook you—it delivers that same pulse-pounding tension and emotional depth.

Full of drama, secrets, and shocking twists, When She’s Gone is a must-read for fans of fast-paced popcorn thrillers.

Thank you Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley.for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Cora Valentine has a shot at competing at the Olympics, in fact she is the best on their gymnastics team. When she goes with the other girls from the team to a Haunted House, and gets kidnapped waiting for her parents to come pick her up, it looks like her dreams may be over. However, days later she manages to escape and she still ends up being able to compete. No one was ever caught, and she not only continued to live in fear, but Halloween especially was a trigger for her. Years later, she is a single mom to a little girl, and despite her misgivings, she agrees to take her to the town's Halloween festival for the parade and trick-or-treating. Cora gets stopped by one of her daughter's teacher's and turns her back for just a minute. When she turns around, her daughter is gone. She searches everywhere but only finds her daughter's stuffed animal, abandoned. She goes to the parking lot and finds a note on her windshield. telling her she must take another person's child if she wants hers back. It looks like worst fears have been realized................

This psychological thriller kept me on the edge of my seat for the entire book. I could not put it down. It was a dual-timeline book, so one timeline was Cora's kidnapping and the other was her daughter's. It was obvious it had to be someone connected to her, past, but that left a bevy of suspects. The kidnapper kept leaving taunting notes with pictures of a doll dressed in a costume exactly like what her daughter was wearing, and the photos progressively got more graphic as they mutilated the doll and threatened to do the same to her daughter. If you are a fan of thrillers, then this needs to be at the top of your TBR pile. You will love it!

Thank you NetGalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I almost didn’t finish this book. I wanted to put it down as soon as I started it. The writing was choppy and kind of jumped from one thing to the next without any flow.

Then it picked up momentum, and I didn’t want to put it down. But the whole thing was kind of bizarre.

This book was full of twists and different plot points that eventually tied together in the end. The person that committed the crime was not the person that I expected. I was proud of Cora of not giving up on both fights of trying to escape as a kid and finding her own child in that similar situation.

Cora was a victim of a kidnapping and the perpetrators were never caught. She was an Olympic gymnast hopeful and the kidnapping just before the final trials put several competitors in the spotlight. Nothing happened but Cora has lived with the trauma since that Halloween.

Fast forward and with a four year old daughter of her own Cora faces the same horrific crime. Lulu is kidnapped and ransom notes that follow outline a horrific plan. Injure a child gymnast in such a way that they get knocked out of the competition. The same theme with the demands going higher and higher.

The story is detailed and depraved. How ambitious parents will stoop to anything to get what they want. How love can be so possessive and subverted that it can force a normal person to be temporarily insane.

Riveting story.

Cora a young superstar in the gymnastics world - headed to the Olympics if she makes it past the trials. Except she is kidnapped and held hostage in cabin .... but why? To make this creepier, she is kidnapped on Halloween from a haunted house she is at with her teammates. The team captain is whacked in the knee and Cora runs for help in this nightmare but is kidnapped.

Years later, as a mom of four year old Lulu, she braves going out for Halloween because Lulu is so excited to trick or treat; and her worst nightmare happens when she Lulu goes missing. while she is out there with her! A nghtmare for any mother, but Cora knows what it is like to be kidnapped.

The story is told in NOW and THEN segments back and forth but I recommend this one on audio. It felt long reading this as I was anxious for the story line to advance. But the ending did not disappoint!

My thanks to Net Galley and Thomas & Mercer for an advanced copy of this e-book.

Thank you to NetGalley & Thomas & Mercer for the chance to read this before it is published!
Let me tell you GO GET THIS BOOK THE SECOND IT COMES OUT! It was well worth the read!

Loved this! It was a VERY fast paced easy read, there is a bit of switching between timelines, but doesn't get confusing at all, it was very smoothly done imo. I haven't even thought about Gymnastics since i was a wee little child, kicked out because my pathetic little butt couldn't even do a cartwheel!!! But still knowing nothing of that world it was still very easy to read!

I will say I guessed WHO it was, not naming names or genders, no spoilers here.. But I did guess a very valuable character's truth, like right away pretty much, not sure if it was common sense for anyone else but DID NOT spoil anything twist wise or anything like that, I was still very hooked and curious of the who what why and when, All the plot twists at the end will still give you all the whiplash you're looking for don't worry! I did not know of Rea before this book, have seen some of her books around my timeline and let me tell you, I HAVE SINNED never checking them out before, But i will be quick to remedy that situation after discovering this book!!

This one was just okay for me. I did enjoy the fast pace, the questionable characters, the plot, and the intensity of the story. However, most of the story was just too unrealistic for me, especially the ending. I also was able to predict the all the twists, which was also a bit disappointing. Overall, it was "okay" but definitely not my favorite book of Frey's.

This was a quick read. I didn't want to put it down. I was hooked from beginning to the end. I was surprised with the ending, I didn't want to believe it.

First book by Rea Frey that I’ve read and it was great! The story line was great and kept me hooked. I read this in about a day!

Meet Cora Valentine, an incredible gymnast competing for a spot on the Olympics gymnastics team. All is going according to plan until the unthinkable happens, she is kidnapped on Halloween. Thankfully, she is returned safely; however, no one is ever caught for the crime. Years later, now a mother herself, she is determined to move past her tragic history and give her daughter a better life. Moving back to her hometown, she thinks the past is in the past, until once again the unthinkable happens and her daughter is kidnapped on Halloween. Moving through a story that spans three decades, she must race to find her daughter safely.

Let me start by saying I love love love Rea Frey and her thriller novels. Don't Forget Me remains one of my top favorite novels of all time and this book definitely did not disappoint. I raced through this book as soon as I received it. The dual perspectives were perfectly thought-out and written. There were so many twists and I definitely did not expect the ending (which i do love). It was very complex at times and a lot of characters at play here. Losing one star just because the crimes seemed very serious and well done for the people we find it out to be.

Thank you to NetGalley and Rea Frey for allowing me to read an advanced readers copy of this book.