3.5! Am I getting back into thrillers? Especially a southern one? Yes. 22 years ago Claire’s older sister, Natalie, disappeared after her 18th birthday. They quickly charged a man and the case was closed. Claire ended up moving away and becoming an investigative journalist, trying to flee her past. When an unexpected call from her dad forces her to come back to her childhood home in South Carolina, she’s forced to deal with the feelings she’s been trying to subdue. In her attempt to distract herself, Claire gets a summer job at Galloway farm, a vineyard her sister also worked at before she disappeared. Sounds sexi but is more like oh miss babygirl Claire you are about to find out. As she begins to work at the farm she uncovers more and more about what secrets this vineyard is really hiding and why her sister really was spending so much time here before she disappeared. This was fun and had me wanting to stay up to read the next chapter. This book did for me what a Caesar salad and some truffles fries does for me, it hit the spot. A lot of plot twists that I truly didn’t expect. As always, thank you St. Martin’s Press for the earc.

I tried SO hard to get into this book, because I've loved all her previous novels. This one was a struggle for me, though, and I DNF at 52%. I still love you, though, Stacy!

A slow burn novel full of creepy little puzzle pieces that click into place as the story moves forward. It keeps you guessing until the very end.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. I would say this is less of a thriller and more of a mystery that slowly unfolds. I thought it was well written and the story held my interest until the end. I would recommend!

Eh…. The bones of the story was good but the conclusion left something to be desired. The story didn’t feel rich enough to me, almost like a key ingredient was missing. 2.5 stars. Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC!

Thank you to Minotaur for my gifted copy of this book! I was needing a good thriller and knew exactly where to turn! Stacy never disappoints when it comes to delivering a twisty, unpredictable thriller. She is an auto buy author for me and this book only solidifies that. We did this as a buddy read and I was messaging the others about how anxious I was while reading certain parts! It had my blood pressure up and I couldn’t stop and maybe flew through the end of the book a day early.. 🫢 Once the twist came and then each reveal was another shock and I had to know how it ended! I absolutely loved the mixed media throughout with the flashbacks. I was definitely surprised by this one and feel like every single loose end was wrapped up so nicely! I am always awaiting the next one from Stacy!

I thought this was a solid thriller that kept me interested throughout. There was nothing that shocked me or a major twist that had me jaw-on-the-floor but I still enjoyed it as it wasn’t the same old story. I think fans of the authors other books will really enjoy this one as well.

Thank you so very much for the arc! This book felt like more of a mystery than a thriller but gave some great suspense and certainly had me wondering what was next at every turn.
This is my first Stacy Willingham read, and I’m excited to read more of her work! Thank you again for the arc! Highly recommend to everyone

Claire is an out of work journalist living in New York- when she’s passed up for a promotion, she loses her sense of self- and sitting at a bar sees a headline that shakes her- another 18 year old girl missing, no where to be found.

15 years ago, Claire’s sister Natalie went missing under similar circumstances, her bloody shirt found in the car of an older man, and Natalie was presumed dead. When Claire goes home to take care of her mom, she starts to see inconsistencies that make her want to know more about those last months, when her sister seemed different. She needs to know how and why everything changed.

She takes a job at a farm and she finds herself thrust into the last summer Natalie was alive.

This is the first book I’ve read by Stacy Willingham and I’m excited to read more. The story telling seems effortless and you’re left intrigued throughout the entire book wanting to know what happens next. I read this in one sitting, and it was so easy to do. Stacy has a way with words and you find yourself emerged- picturing the marsh, in that little town in South Carolina.

First off, big thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!
Second off, lets get to my review. I am giving this book four stars, the only thing holding me back was the very slow start to the book. It really picks up in the second half and makes the book complete, but for all the people who will DNF at page 20-50, I can understand why. There is a lot of backstory that seems like just filler. Once you hit 50% the book will soar. There are so many things I did not see coming. It starts as another missing person, runaway book, then seems like it maybe a cult, then back to some weird murder mystery. It isn't until like maybe the last 25% that you even know what is happening. The author does wrap it up in a neat little bow which I do appreciate.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! Forget me not by Stacy Willingham is a thriller on slow burn. When Claire loses her job as a journalist and decides to try and make it on her own freelancing, she wasn’t prepared for the feelings of total failure she would soon develop. So when she is suddenly asked to head back home following an accident, she takes the chance to clear her head. She soon also realizes, with her friend’s help, that the trip could also help her come to terms with her sister’s death 22 years before. But nothing could have prepared her for the truth she would ultimately uncover. Through several twists, the author, paints the picture of a pure dysfunctional “cult” that her sister seemingly was part of for a short time. Discovering an old journal in the cabin she lived in when offered a job on a vineyard, she slowly unravels not only the story of her sister’s disappearance but also cracks the case on several more decades old unsolved mysteries. Overall, a great read I’d recommend to others.

After reading Stacy Willingham’s other novels, I was extremely excited to receive an ARC of her upcoming release. Overall, I really liked the story and appreciated how everything played out.

I feel like it took me a bit longer to get into the story because it is very much a slow burn thriller. The story starts with Claire Campbell, an out of work journalist who returns to her southern small town to help her mom. In her childhood, Claire’s sister Natalie goes missing and is presumed dead. After finding some pictures of Natalie at her childhood home, Claire decides to visit Galloway farm. She then ends up staying/ working there, and stumbles into a mystery that she can’t resist digging into.

This story does utilize a dual timeline, via a journal, to help accentuate the plot but I also feel like there was a lot of time where the story was not progressing. The creep factor was present, but not deeper than surface level. And the mystery felt predictable about halfway through.

I do feel like it’s worth the read, but perhaps not a favorite by this author. Forget Me Not releases August 26, 2025.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press (via Netgalley) for gifting me with an eARC, all thoughts expressed are my own.

Such a great suspense thriller spanning decades. I loved how the main character, Claire, unwind, not only the story of her sister's disappearance, but several other mysteries, all intertwined in a fast paced page turner!

“Forget Me Not” is a fast paced and mysterious thriller! Our FMC, Claire, has avoided going home for 22 YEARS. When she was a young teen, her sister had gone missing and presumed murdered by her boyfriend. The heartbreak surrounding this, including her parents divorce, kept her away from her hometown. Our story begins with Claire’s mother having an injury, and Claire decides to go home to help her. Upon arrival, she is offered a summer job at Galloway Garden…. Which just so happened to be the last place her sister worked before her disappearance. Claire begins to find clues, and realizes that there is more then meets the eye surrounding her sisters disappearance.

Stacy Willingham has a great talent for really putting the reader right in the middle of the story with her descriptions and atmospheric setting. So intricate and detailed, I really enjoyed it! Thank you so much to NetGalley and publisher for the ARC!!

This was a fantastic new book by Willingham. I loved A Flicker in the Dark and I'm happy to say this new novel reminded me why I enjoyed her writing so much. This is a suspenseful mysterious story with strong characters and so many twists and turns. I really enjoyed this story and found myself quickly turning the pages. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

3.5 ⭐️ I have read every Stacy Willingham book so I was super excited for this one but unfortunately it just didn’t hit the mark for me. The story was good, it just wasn’t a page turner and didn’t have me excited to see what the outcome was.

Claire finds herself unemployed and unsure of what her next move is when she receives a call from her dad, asking her to return to her hometown in order to help out her mother whom she hasn’t spoken to for quite some time. Claire heads back to South Carolina for the first time since she moved to New York and once back at her childhood home, the memory of her sisters disappearance comes back to haunt her and she tries to talk to her mom about it but her mother doesn’t want to discuss it so they have a falling out and Claire leaves. Claire decides to look in to her sisters disappearance further and ends up at the vineyard where her sister worked the summer before she vanished. Claire ends up accepting a job and living in the guest house at the vineyard where she stumbles across a diary that is very old. Claire soon realizes that the story told in the diary is somewhat similar to her sisters disappearance and that makes Claire even more determined to solve not only her sisters cold case, but that of the woman that wrote the diary.


This book publishes on August 26, 2025.

hank you, St. Martin’s Press, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Claire Campbell returns to her home town in South Carolina for the first time in over two decades. After a disastrous visit with her mother, Claire decides to retrace the steps of her missing sister, Natalie. Claire makes her way to Galloway Farms, the place Natalie worked the summer she disappeared. When Claire decides to take a job as a farm hand for the summer, the pieces of Natalie's disappearance start to finally get put together, but will the truth cost Claire her own life?

Stacy Willingham consistently wows me with her writing, unique plots, and a few twists actually surprise me. Forget Me Not is no exception. This book is paced perfectly to feel the urgency and tension, and with just enough history and secrecy revealed each chapter that keep you guessing but not rolling your eyes at "of course" moments. Willingham manages to leave enough clues to get you most of the way to the answer without the story feeling spoiled because she's always got at least one trick up her sleeve that ties it all together. As someone who reads a lot of thrillers; it's a delight to find something that manages to surprise me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Such a great book. Thank you for letting me read this in advance. I was hooked from the start and couldn't stop reading it.

This book starts off a bit slow, but honestly, I think it was totally necessary to set the stage. We really get a chance to meet and understand each character, with even more intriguing ones introduced through flashbacks as the story unfolds. I absolutely loved Claire — her determination to uncover the truth about what happened to her sister had me hooked. The locked-door mystery vibe mixed with that haunting feeling of returning home made it impossible to put down. As the plot thickened, the writing picked up speed, and I was fully along for the ride. I loved how the story wove between past and present, and those twists? I never saw them coming!


Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

I really enjoyed this book and didn’t see the twist coming! The only reason I have 4 stars instead of 5 is I felt like the beginning of the book was slow and I wasn’t very interested in the plot at the beginning