This is a good dual timeline thriller. Forcing a mother to remember a horrific incident from her past for the love of her college age daughter. It’s fast paced and brings you in early on. Centered around secret traditions of a very small town you won’t guess the twist at the end. A lot more resolves and comes clear in the epilogue.

This releases July 29th. Worth a read, put it on your list!! Thanks NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the advanced copy.

Thank you so much to Megan Miranda, Simon Element | S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books, and NetGalley for this ARC of You Belong Here.

This book follows Beckett, an alumni and mother of a university in Wyatt Valley. When Beckett’s daughter Delilah decides she wants to follow in her mother’s footsteps, Beckett can’t help but relive the nightmare of her experience on Howling Night with her roommate Adalyn. Delilah is now in trouble and Beckett must confront her past to save her.

I liked the dual POVs of this book but this book was a SLOW burn. I really had to pull myself through the middle of this book to get to good ending. The novel was a bit predictable, but twisty nonetheless. 3/5 stars for this Miranda book!

Another page turner from Megan Miranda. Beckett, Valerie left Wyatt Valley 20 years ago during her senior year of college. Now her daughter has been excepted to the same college. One night Beckett receives a mysterious call from her daughter, desperate that the secret she fled from Have found her daughter Beckett rushes to find her daughter before it is too late no one is who they seem, and everyone is hiding their own secrets. And someone knows what happened 20 years ago and he’s ready to tell

I devoured this small-town thriller! Beckett Bowery returns to Wyatt Valley where years ago, while in college, a tragedy happened. Now her daughter, Delilah, secretly applied to the school and got a full scholarship, so they are now back where a lot of bad memories are resurfacing. I enjoyed this fast-paced thriller, which isn't surprising since Megan Miranda wrote it. While many twists were predictable, some were not, and I completely enjoyed the ride. This book was intriguing and suspenseful, and I recommend thriller lovers to pick it up.

A big thank you to NetGalley for providing another fantastic ARC!

"You Don’t Belong Here" is packed with secrets, unexpected twists, and turns as we follow Becket and her daughter through mysteries, traditions, and tragedy in a small-town college, set 20 years apart! Megan Miranda has done it again with another heart-pounding thriller! I was captivated from the very start! The dual timelines kept me on my toes, and I loved the constant guessing game! Just when I thought I had it all figured out, another twist would emerge! I managed to piece it together right before the big reveal, but the story was so engaging that I still thoroughly enjoyed it! I was completely absorbed and eagerly await her next book!

Beckett Bowery's daughter, Delilah, chooses Wyatt College for her college destination. Delilah is excited for her new beginning, but it brings back a lifetime of heartache and nightmares for her mother. Although Beckett has not told her daughter exactly what happened to her during her time at Wyatt College, it isn't long before Delilah determines something isn't quite right.

In Megan Miranda's new thriller, the reader is thrown into a fast-paced plot with some twists along the way. The characters are interesting - some you hope will win and others you cannot wait to see fail.

I highly recommend You Belong Here to anyone likes a good mystery. Thank you NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Megan Miranda has been one of my auto buy authors for years, so I was so excited to able to read You Belong Here a little early. She has been on such a roll with her past few books, and this one did not disappoint!

You Belong Here follows Beckett, who, twenty years prior, attended college in her hometown until her presumed involvement in a murder forced her to leave and never return. Now, her daughter Delilah is beginning her first year at the same college, and Beckett can’t shake the feeling that the town is still not safe for either of them.

One of the reasons I love Megan Miranda’s storytelling is because she always creates such a chilling, spooky atmosphere - but one that you would rather stick around and explore than run away from. Like Beckett, I went to college in the Appalachian Mountains, so this book felt eerily nostalgic to me. We didn’t have traditions like The Howling, but the mountains are the perfect setting to stage a thrilling, dangerous game that the characters can’t help wanting to be part of, and the reader can’t help being interested in. Then, on the next page, they’re also the perfect setting for a cryptic, haunting feeling of being lost and alone. There were several times that I set the book down, but the creepy feeling the story created stuck around a little bit longer.

If you are a fan of Megan Miranda’s other books, I would say this one was similar to All the Missing Girls and The Perfect Stranger. One thing about You Belong Here that was different from a lot of her books is that there seemed to be a little more complexity to the story - more characters with more storylines. This made the ending a bit harder to predict, and when everything worked out, it wasn’t as easily tied up. While I enjoyed having more leads to follow, at the end I felt like I still had some questions, and I wasn’t sure if I fully understood all of the explanations we were given. However, it’s very possible that this was just me.

Overall, I thought this was a great book from Megan Miranda. Maybe not my all time favorite of hers, but still very enjoyable! Thank you so much to NetGalley and Simon Element for allowing me to read this arc.

This is the fifth book by Megan Miranda I have given a 5-Star rating.

This was a fast paced, engaging thriller. I would recommend this to my friends.

I received this galley from NetGalley.

Megan Miranda always keeps me on my toes! There were multiple points in the book where I thought I knew which direction the book was going only to be proven wrong! These are the best types of books. No one wants to be able to predict what happens from the get go. I loved how relatable the characters were. Beckett has a complicated past and loves her daughter fiercely. The way Miranda crafts the relationships between the characters is phenomenal and feels real. Her daughter, Delilah, is off to college and Beckett's reactions/complicated feelings are spot on. I think my favorite thing about this book was the character growth. I would have liked to see a little more of it.

I enjoyed the premise and learning about the characters but the ending just felt disjointed and a little weird. I’m ok with being finished with this one.

A little disappointed. This felt a little drawn out and like it was going no where. I was intrigued but then it felt like all the lose ends got tied up and they didn’t make totally sense.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 stars

You Belong Here by Megan Miranda is a fun and reliable thriller set on a college campus in the main character’s hometown - the hometown Beckett planned never to return to. But when her daughter decides to attend, Beckett is forced to face the history she’s spent twenty years avoiding.

Some twists were predictable while others I didn’t see coming, but I just didn’t quite get that satisfaction from the ending that I usually look for with a thriller. Still enjoyable and easy reading and just the kind of read you want sometimes!

Thank you to netgalley, Simon Element, Mary Sue Rucci Books and Megan Miranda for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. Publication date: 7/29/2025.

Another great read from Megan Miranda! I’m typically drawn in by her books and hooked from the start and this was no different. Every time I predicted what was going to happen, Miranda threw something in to make me doubt my predictions. I liked the non-linear timeline with the majority of the book in present time and sporadic parts going back to when the mother was a student at the same college. This book had a few more characters and moving pieces than other books of Miranda’s and seemed a little deeper and made me have to focus a little harder, which made the ending that much more of a shocker!

Publication Date: July 29, 2025

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My kind of thriller! Rounding up from a 4.5. I stayed up so late reading my husband started asking me what it was all about. All my favorite tropes--dark academia, small town vibes, revisited trauma, a little mystical element with The Howling tradition. Likable characters and unexpected twists. Megan Miranda has another hit. Expected publication at the end of July--what a perfect time to read something with this energy. And also a great fall read if you are looking for something with just a little spooky suspense--this got my heart rate up a couple of times. Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the advanced copy and the opportunity to share my review.

I have read several Megan Miranda novels, and in general I enjoy her novels and find that the dual time approach works well. You Belong Here is a mystery, actually a couple of mysteries. The plot, itself, is convoluted and seems to be suggesting that the past is never really in the past. There are a number of confusing aspects, most of which are finally tied together at the end. Although the mystery is good, You Belong Here moves very slowly. I found the pace slow in too many places. which ment reading this novel did not seem compelling, which was not a problem in her previous novels..

Thank you to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for sending this ARC for me to read, in exchange for my honest review. I think You Belong Here will work well for most readers. It just did not work as well for me.

3 stars

Stacy Willingham has never let me down. This book delivers a more subtle kind of mystery—nothing too heavy, really easy to get into, but still completely captivating. The main character isn’t super complex, so I didn’t feel deeply connected to her, but honestly, that worked just fine. Overall, it was a really solid, quick, and unique read.

I always love Megan Miranda books. They are automatic buys for me.

Beckett had a traumatic ending to her college career at Wyatt Valley. When her 18 year old daughter Delilah wants to return to her mom's alms matter, Beckett has reservations. Almost as soon as Delilah steps foot on campus, secrets are unburied and the mystery and tension all resurfaces and Beckett is sucked right back in.

Positives:
Great pace, hooks the readers from the first page
Dark academia setting
Twists I didn't see coming with a satisying conclusion
Small town secrets, dark college traditions, unburied secrets, the past resurfacing and coming back to haunt, generational trauma
Dual timeline
Short chapters

Negatives:
I did not enjoy the whole "howling" tradition that set the backdrop for the entire book,

"You Belong Here" is a dark academia mystery set at a college in the mountains of Virginia. Beckett must return to the town where she grew up--and where her parents still live--and the the college she attended until a tragic event forced her out. Her daughter is now attending this school, much to her dismay, and it only takes a few weeks before things start to unravel. Beck is forced to confront the legacy and traditions of the college, the role that she and her friends played, and the direction her life has taken, in order to help her daughter and resolve long-standing mysteries. I liked this book overall, although I found a few scenarios implausible. There were plenty of red herrings and twists to keep me entertained. Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC and the opportunity to provide an honest review.

MM does it again with a nail-biting mystery thriller that made me stay up way past my bedtime!

#YouBelongHere is told through Beckett's flashbacks and present day voice when her own daughter Delilah decides to attend the college where a tragic incident occurred almost two decades earlier. Beckett's bestie Adalyn vanishes immediately after the incident, so it's Beckett left to face the police, her parents and the town who suspect she's an accomplice. Forced to leave the college, Beckett makes a new life in London, meets a fellow American, has her daughter and returns to the states a single parent.

Back in present day, Beckett's worse fears return when a dropped call from Delilah brings her back to the college to search for her missing daughter. Joining her is Delilah's father, Trevor, the one person Beckett trusts and seems to have the most regrets about in her life.

Fans of MM and new readers will find the twisty plot and deliberate pacing potentially frustrating since the clues are strewn like pebbles across a grassy plain and the frequent flashbacks sloooowly peel back the onion layers to this story. I wanted to know Adalyn's side of things. I didn't quite understand the "howling" and why a key scratch could start an inferno of vengeance. But murder and a coverup doesn't have to make sense. And that's why Beckett's story of regret works and shows that justice (or karma) always wins in the end.

Thank you to #Netgalley, the publisher and author for the ARC! Look forward to reading the final published version!

Is Megan Miranda my favorite author? Very good chance she is - fun fact I didn't realize that until I alphabetized my books and realized that I own 7 or her books but now I know and I always say yes to her books.

You Belong Here tells the story of Beckett, who must return to her hometown in order to send her daughter, Delilah, off to college. Years ago she left and vowed to never return but here she is. Shortly after starting the semester her daughter calls her but then the call is dropped and she is no longer answering. She drives through the night to try to find her daughter but as she is back her old ghosts come back to visit her.

Can she solve the mystery that is 20 years old while also figure out what happened to her daughter?

Great page turning thriller and lots of twists. As always great read

Thank you so much and NetGalley for the ARC!