The Wrong Daughter by Dandy Smith is a definite page turner that kept me engaged throughout the book.

The evening Caitlin and Olivia's parents leave them to go to a dinner party, both girls are bubbling with excitement. At ages 10 and 13, they are at last old enough to stay home alone. After all, in their idyllic town no one even bothers to lock their doors. When the parents return Olivia is gone and not seen again for 16 years.

What happened? Why? Did Caitlin tell the whole truth about what happened?

The twists and turns in the book kept me going until the end. I can't wait for this book to be published so that I can get my book club to read it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

This book was nothing if not a wild ride. What it did successfully was leave me guessing. I never knew which way to turn. I absolutely loved the dual story line. That more than anything kept me interested and reading even when I wasn’t sure if they would connect. I did enjoy how the two stories were brought together I just wasn’t sold on the execution of the plot and it just rang so far fetched that I had a hard time connecting to any of the characters. Is still recommend to anyone looking for an unpredictable twisty thriller.

3.25 stars
I have very complicated feelings about this book! I found it on a Goodreads list of "most read thrillers this week" and found an audiobook copy on Hoopla, so I immediately jumped in. I love the concept of the "missing person returned" and the author wrote a very compelling story that had a lot of twists and turns throughout the book!

I really liked Caitlin's POV. She's the main character of the book and it's her sister who has been missing for over a decade. When a woman returns claiming to be her long-lost sister, suspicions arise when things don't quite line up. I loved the wild back-and-forth as Caitlin questions whether this woman is really her sister or not, and how other people either don't want to believe she's an imposter or genuinely think Caitlin is losing her mind for thinking so.

There is a second, seemingly unconnected POV in this book, and usually that's pretty interesting in thrillers. I love seeing how things connect and hopefully, having my mind blown by the connection, but this POV was incredibly uncomfortable and I truly wish it hadn't been a part of the book. The second POV is a girl named Elinor who lives with her brother and her controlling uncle after her parents died in a boating accident and drowned. Elinor has a very uncomfortable relationship with her brother where incest is heavily implied but it's not clear whether she is longing for him inappropriately, if he is longing for her inappropriately, if it's both, or (my hope) that it was neither. I was really, really, really hoping we weren't going the incest route and spent the whole book hoping that would be a big misunderstanding with an explanation for it.

Things escalate throughout the book, naturally, and I found the writing to be quite compelling! There were reveals and red herrings, clues and tricks, and I couldn't get enough! I was dying to see how the stories connected, if someone was impersonating someone else, if the characters from Elinor's POV were characters in Caitlin's POV, and how these stories possibly connected and why it was important.

Finally at about 85%, things started coming together and it got really good and then took a turn. I liked how things were going until the last 10% where it felt like things went above and beyond. There was a whole new person introduced that wasn't necessary, fears were confirmed (and not in a good way), and things got a little too wild when this could have been a REALLY good psychological thriller without going over the top.

I would be VERY interested to read more from this author, but I would personally hope that things got less over-the-top. I can see why this has such a high rating and people loved the twist, but I was pretty disappointed in it. I can see lots of potential and I did really like the writing, which is hard to find in a thriller for me sometimes, so maybe a different story would hook me better!

First, gross--You'll know what I mean when you read it. Second, there are so many twists I didn't relax until the end. Last but not least, it definitely met all the expectations of a psychological thriller. It is an easy 4 stars for me...5 if not for the gross thing.
Thanks to the publishers for an eARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I will recommend to others.

When Caitlin’s sister Olivia returns years after being abducted, Caitlin suspects something is off. The story alternates between Caitlin’s unraveling life and another mysterious narrative involving siblings Elinor and Heath, which eventually collide in an unexpected way.

Some readers may find parts of the plot very disturbing and unsettling (HUGE trigger warning for incest and pdf files) but otherwise, it's a book that's hard to put down.

The Wrong Daughter was one of my favorite books of the year! I couldn't put it down... so many great twists and the ending was crazy!

I am not sure how to feel about this book. It started strong and was a page turner and then got weird?! Idk just the insinuation of certain things rubbed me the wrong way. If you read it, you’ll know what I mean. Caitie’s parents are horrible. The characters are unlikable and then I’m not sure why the double POV was necessary. I had high hopes.

Caitlin and Olivia were sisters but 16 years ago a masked man broke into their house while their parents were out for the evening. The man walked Olivia out of the house and she was never seen again. Caitlin grew up feeling a huge amount of guilt from that night, she froze as the events occurred and did not scream or call for the police. Her parents arrived home to find Olivia missing several hours after she was taken. Caitlin has lived her life feeling that her parents blaming her for the disappearance of her sister and so has always stayed close to home rather than follow her dreams of travel. By doing so her parents still had one daughter.

This is well put together story with two separate storyline’s occurring throughout the book. It is not until the very late stages that the two merge together and we finally are made aware of how the two connect. To say anymore would give spoilers away. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and highly recommend it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the book, all opinions expressed are my own.

Thank you for the Arc !
I loved this story! I couldn’t put it down .
Loved the characters and all the twist . Definitely did not see that ending coming.

I was all freaking over this! Could not and did not want to put it down. This was such a great read. Really enjoyed the characters and the steady pace.

When Caitlin was just a kid, her older sister Olivia disappeared. They were alone in the house, and all Caitlin remembers is a masked man taking her sister away. Years later, Caitlin has built a life for herself—she has a job, a fiancé, and close friends. Life seems fine, despite the hole left by her sister’s disappearance. But one day, Olivia comes home.

At first, Caitlin is overjoyed to have her sister back, but as time goes on, she starts to sense that something is off. Caitlin begins to suspect that the woman who returned is not really Olivia, and her fears grow when she feels stalked by the same masked man who took her sister all those years ago. However, everyone in Caitlin's life dismisses her concerns. She's gaslighted by the people around her—no one believes her, and they think she's imagining things.

Meanwhile, chapters about a girl named Elinor and her brother Heath begin to intertwine with Caitlin’s story. At first, their connection to Caitlin is not clear—whether they are from the past or the present is unknown—but eventually, their relationship to Caitlin's situation is revealed.

This book was intense and disturbing, and I would have appreciated a content warning for the incest subplot (a topic I really like to avoid). While it’s not celebrated in the narrative (which is a relief, given how common that can be in fiction lately), I still think the story could have worked without that. Caitlin endures so much, and reading about how everyone dismisses her felt suffocating at times, but it was well-written. She definitely deserved better friends. This is a twist on the typical “imposter returns as a missing child” trope, and it’s executed well, resulting in a heartbreaking story

The Wrong Daughter started strong, pulling me in immediately with its dark, layered backstory of Heath and Elinor. Their tragic and obsessive relationship was the most compelling part of the book, and it kept me invested when the present-day storyline with Caitlin and Olivia started to drag. Unfortunately, by 80%, I was so frustrated with the pacing and inconsistencies that I resorted to reading just the dialogue to finish it.

Elinor’s story had potential, but her sudden decision to leave Heath felt completely out of character. She was written as someone who depended on him for protection and was terrified of being without him, so her decision to run made no sense. Heath’s descent into obsession and his guilt over killing their uncle was believable, but his response—killing Elinor and kidnapping girls who resembled her to replace her—was predictable rather than shocking.

I hoped Olivia’s story would deliver a more unexpected twist, but it stayed straightforward. The suggestion of a darker relationship between Heath and Elinor was unsettling, but it didn’t hit as hard as it could have. I kept wondering if Olivia might have been a kidnapped version of Elinor, but the truth was far less interesting.

The side characters were the most frustrating part. Caitlin’s fiancé, Oscar, was trash—dating her just to exploit her family’s tragedy for a story. Florence, Caitlin’s supposed best friend, was just as bad. Caitlin gets kidnapped, her story is corroborated by another victim, and Florence still can’t reach out because her wedding was “ruined”? Shallow and infuriating. Caitlin’s dad was no better, constantly blaming her for Olivia’s disappearance and showing no redeeming love even as an adult. His excuse of blaming himself felt hollow given how openly he favored Olivia.

The ending was bittersweet but anticlimactic. Caitlin essentially lost her sister twice—first to the kidnapping and then to the realization that Olivia was no longer her sister in any meaningful way. While Heath’s character stayed consistent from the past to the present, the events during Caitlin’s capture lacked tension and emotional weight.

The title didn’t make much sense to me, either. By the middle, I assumed it meant “the wrong daughter survived,” reflecting the father’s favoritism, but even that didn’t feel like a strong fit by the end.

Overall, the book had a gripping start and a compelling backstory, but the present-day plot dragged, and the twists didn’t land as hard as they could have.

This was a good read. The twist was different than most. However, it did seem to drag on and be repetitive in some parts.

3 stars
Thanks NetGalley!

I love this author! The books always grab me right from the beginning, so good! I couldn't put this book down! Thank you for the ARC!

3.5 ⭐️this book was entertaining and was told from two different POVs. Caitlin and Elenor’s. The whole time I was trying to figure out why I was getting her POV, and then when you do finally figure it out it just felt like a big waste of time. This book was fairly disturbing but it kept you wanting to come back for more. It did feel a little drawn out though. The plot twists weren’t really surprising to me, I definitely saw it coming. Heath was an incredibly disturbing character through and through.

I received this Arc through Net galley, however, all of my thoughts and opinions are my own. This novel had a very interesting twist and take in how two sisters feel about what had happened in their past. I really enjoyed Caite's take on everything and you can see the character development as the story progressed. My only gripe is the chapters with Elinor. Her story, although later explained, really interrupted the flow. I would be really getting into what was going on and then I would get to an Elinor chapter and have to figure out what exactly was going on. The transition between the two stories was not seamless. Other than that, the story itself was enjoyable. I liked it.

"The Wrong Daughter" is an engrossing psychological thriller that tangles suspense, family secrets, and deception into a mesmerizing web.

The plot commences with the unsettling abduction of Olivia, the elder sister when she and her younger sibling Caitlin are left alone at home. Sixteen years later, Olivia reappears, yet her identity is shrouded in uncertainty. As the family reconvenes, long-buried secrets surface, prompting Caitlin to question the circumstances surrounding Olivia's disappearance and return.

The novel's atmosphere is thick with tension and suspense, thanks to a plot that's carefully constructed to keep readers guessing. Smith creates characters that are both complex and relatable, each with their own mix of strengths and flaws. The relationship between the sisters is especially compelling, with their ups and downs propelling the story forward.

The themes of identity, family secrets, and trust are central, highlighting how far people will go to safeguard those they care about. This dynamic interplay of characters and themes makes the narrative both engaging and thought-provoking.

Smith's writing is crisp and absorbing, instilling a sense of urgency that leaves readers constantly anticipating the next twist.

However, it's worth noting that some scenes might strike readers as dark and unsettling.

Even so, the book is still really engaging, and it ends with a twist that will really catch you off guard.

In essence, Dandy Smith delivers a riveting narrative that urges readers to examine every assumption they've made about the characters and their motivations.

I just finished this book…..and I don’t know what to think. I will probably be pondering this one for days. The ended was definitely a surprise. It was an intriguing premise- a 13 year old girl disappears and returns 16 years later. But is it really her?
The beginning was a little slow, but I definitely wanted to know how it ended.

This was a good book. I think it was a bit predictable but nonetheless it was worth reading and has lots of twists and turns! I did enjoy this and would recommend it.
Thank you #NetGalley

Twists upon twists! While I did enjoy parts of this book it was extremely convoluted and detailed. There were a lot of red herrings and details that ultimately led to the grand reveal. I enjoy the suspense and the feeling of thinking you know whats happening and then a giant twist. The main character also made me want to scream sometimes lol. Does anyone else ever feel satisfied and unsatisfied with the ending of a book at the same time???

However, please do note if incest triggers you, avoid this book,

Overall, I would probably read another book from this author and am grateful for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.