This Southern thriller was good/average. The story itself kept my attention, but nothing overly riveting. It seemed to check many “thriller” checkmarks.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books for this ARC. This review will be shared on NetGalley and Goodreads.

Pub Date Aug 26 2025

Forget Me Not is a moody, slow burn thriller that pulls you deep into a world of long buried secrets and unresolved grief. Stacy Willingham delivers a haunting story about a woman forced to confront the disappearance of her sister decades later and the truth that may have been hidden all along.

Set in a small Southern town, the book is rich with atmosphere and quiet tension that builds with every page. Willingham’s writing is sharp and emotional, keeping you hooked without relying on constant twists.

Perfect for fans of character driven thrillers with emotional weight and a strong sense of place, Forget Me Not is gripping, thoughtful, and hard to shake.

This was another hit by the author! The story sucked me in immediately and I enjoyed the pace of it from start to finish. While some of the twists were a little predictable for me, it was an entertaining summer read, I'd recommend to fans of fast paced, psychological thrillers.

Stacy Willingham is quickly becoming one of my favorite thriller writers. I loved the twist in this story and think she did it so well! I flew through it! While all of her books are great, I definetely think this is her best one yet!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced reader copy.

3.5 stars

Claire Campbell's life isn't going the way she'd hoped. After losing out on a job promotion to her only friend, she quits her job as an investigative reporter but is struggling to find freelance work. So when her dad calls and says that her mother had an accident and could use some assistance at home, Claire decides to buckle up and go home to South Carolina. Going home means bringing up all the ghosts that made her family fall apart--her sister being murdered almost twenty years earlier.

When it's clear that Claire's mom doesn't want her around, Claire decides to take a job at Galloway Farm, a place her sister used to work that Claire hopes will help her feel closer to her enigmatic sister. Instead, Claire stumbles into the secrets that hide Galloway Farm, surrounding Mitchell and Marcia, the owners. Once Claire starts digging into the secrets she finds out more about her sister's murder, she realizes that things aren't as they seem and that she herself is now in danger.

The beginning of the book was a bit slow for me and I struggled to connect with Claire, who seemed secretive with other people for reasons that didn't quite make sense. Even throughout the rest of the story Claire wasn't super compelling, but the strength of the plot and the mysteries that get revealed kept me engaged and sitting on the edge of my seat. The end came fast and furious, with twist after twist being revealed, but not in a way that felt forced or overly done. This is a good moody summer read.

Forget Me Not is out August 26, 2025.

I really enjoyed this! One of Stacy’s best so far on my opinion, this was very captivating with well written characters and plot. I’m excited to see what is next from her!

Claire returns to her hometown once her mother falls through the deck and hurts her leg. It doesn't take long for Claire to want to move on. After she finds a role of film her sister took. she starts checking around to see if she can figure out what happened to her the summer she was murdered. She is not convinced the cops arrested the right guy. She gets a job at a vineyard and starts to uncover all sorts of secrets. Before too long, Claire discovers dangerous things and is not sure she will survive. Who can she trust? Great book!

This was pretty good. A little slow to start. I think it was about 40% before it really caught me. But once it did, I couldn't put it down. The story came together for a very satisfying ending.

Five enthusiastic stars! This book has the perfect amount of suspense and terror, balanced with a great story, beautiful characters and an amazing atmosphere.
This gripped me from page one and kept me guessing until the end. And I did not see that ending.
This flowed so well I had to read it in one sitting. Unputdownable. This is one of those rare books you can’t put down but also are sad when it’s over.
Highly highly recommend

Claire’s life has hit a rough patch; she just quit her job as a journalist and heads home to care for her injured (and emotionally distant) mom. To pass the time, she takes a job at the same vineyard where her sister was working the summer she disappeared twenty-two years ago. What’s supposed to be a peaceful reset quickly spirals into something much darker: cue culty vibes, a creepy old diary, and secrets that refuse to stay buried. Slow-burn suspense with that signature Stacy Willingham tension.

Thank you Stacy Willingham, Macmillan Audio, St. Martin's Press, and Netgalley for the advanced copy!

#forgetmenot #netgalleyarc #netgalleyreview #netgalley #arcreview #arc #arcreader #review #somanybookssolittletime

Claire Campbell is still grieving the loss of her sister Natalie, 22 years after her disappearance. Natalie had just turned 18 and had her whole life ahead of her, instead she disappeared. Even though the case was solved and a conviction secured, Claire is still haunted by the loss and the events surrounding it. Claire decides to go home and takes a job at a farm where her sister previously worked and finds more than she expected. Fast paced, creepy novel, not to be missed.

Another knock out read!
I don’t even know where to start with this one because it sucked me in so completely from the first chapter. I’m talking about read in one day kind of sucked in.
I loved Claire so much. I also loved that I wasn’t able to figure anything out. Amazing read!

hank you to netgalley and the publishers for an arc in exchange for an honest review!

i was thrilled to get this arc — i'm a big stacy willingham fan and this one did not disappoint. the minor flaws — namely that some of the twists are predictable, and i think she could've changed the pacing a little so the story doesn't take place quite so quickly — are not enough to overtake the fact that this is a REALLY well-written and atmospheric novel. she is so good at drawing out the dread and tension; i felt stressed and tense reading certain chapters/passages (short chapters, my fave) and thought the setting was so well-done and an integral element of the story.

this was fab and i'd definitely recommend it if you're a thriller fan! another great one.

"Avoiding the thing you're afraid of only gives it more power." - Ryan

✨ A Missing Sister. A Forgotten Diary. A Vineyard Full of Secrets. ✨

✨ BLURB:
➡️ When Claire returns home after two decades of running from the past, she stumbles into a haunting mystery buried beneath the sun-soaked charm of Galloway Farm. A forgotten diary. A string of unsolved crimes. And a chilling suspicion that her sister’s disappearance was never what it seemed.

✨ MY THOUGHTS ABOUT IT:
➡️ This was such an intriguing read from the very beginning. I loved how it started off eerily creepy and how I could vividly imagine everything unraveling through Claire’s mind. I loved the goosebumps it gave me and how deeply I felt as Claire, Marcia, and Natalie’s story slowly came to light. The twists and turns made my gut twist and left me wanting more. Those revelations? It had me GASPING, JAW-DROPPED! It’s the kind of story that LINGERS IN YOUR MIND LONGER than you expect.

➡️ I’m rating this 4.5 stars because I truly feel this could’ve been an even longer book. I wanted more time with Claire, Liam, Marcia, Mitchell, and Natalie. I needed to get more attached to these characters. I wanted to feel more tension between them. I think I would’ve appreciated seeing Mitchell and Lily’s side of the story too. Nevertheless, this was an incredible rollercoaster with jaw-dropping moments that had me on the edge of my seat.

➡️ In a nutshell, I highly recommend this to readers who love a good thriller, slow-burn suspense, and haunting small-town mysteries. This was such an amazing read! It’s definitely WORTH YOUR WHILE!

➡️ A huge thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the chance to read this gripping and emotional story of Claire, Marcia, and Natalie.

✨TROPES:
📌 Small-Town Secrets
📌 Generational Trauma
📌 Twisted Found Family
📌 Dual Timeline
📌 Epistolary Elements (Diary)
📌 Whodunit Mystery
📌 Hidden Identities & Impostors
📌 Red Herrings
📌 Strong, Clever Female Protagonist
📌 Justice for the Forgotten
📌 No Spice

I love Stacy Willingham’s books. They’re smart, they’re fast-paced, and they always keep me guessing.

With this one, you know, you can just tell right away, something is not right with the place Claire finds herself in. The vibes are off, the feeling is eerie, everything is unsettled. Claire thinks she’s walking into a great gig that is exactly what she needs for the summer. The reader can feel it’s not — at least this reader could, even if I didn’t know have the genre to clue me in. The writing really sets the tone.

Despite all that, I didn’t know what the “off” part would be. I would think I had something figured out, and maybe I did, but then another layer would come in that I did not expect followed by more that I didn’t see coming. I think this is Stacy Willingham’s best yet.

I had the audiobook and ebook. The audio is great. Karissa Vacker is one of my favorite narrators and she delivered another fantastic performance here. Helen Laser is a new-to-me narrator and I really enjoyed her parts as well. Highly recommend the audiobook if it’s your preferred format.

Thank you Minotaur and Macmillan Audio for the eARC and ALC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book! Stacy willingham’s books are some of my favorites. I would definitely recommend this newest thriller from her!

Stacy Willingham delivers another taut thriller along the lines of “you can never come home again.” First person POV is Claire Campbell who has escaped rural South Carolina for journalism in Manhattan, only to be enticed back by her divorced father who thinks her estranged mother needs help after a catastrophic accident that broke her leg in three places.

Claire finds out quickly that mom doesn’t want her home or her assistance, but not before Claire searches the room of her sister Natalie, presumed murdered 22 years ago. An old photo leads Claire to Galloway Farms where Natalie worked part time during her last summer. A visit to the farm on her way back to New York leads to a lucrative temp job offer picking muscadine grapes for a month, and soon snoopy Claire finds an old 40 year old diary that belonged to the teenage version of the mute owner’s wife (Marcia). And as Claire reads it, she sees parallels to her sister’s last days and sinister connections to other missing women.

The storyline builds suspense as we follow Claire’s increased snooping and excerpts from Marcia’s diary. The audiobook is a two person cast with Helen Laser and Karissa Vacker giving life to and brilliantly portraying Claire and Marcia. The twists are guessable , I was entranced until the end. 4.5 stars!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): POSSIBLY: Natalie had eyes like sea glass and Bethany has hazel eyes
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO We do learn about muscadines and scuppernongs.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press/Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for advanced copies!

Claire is still stuck following the loss of her sister twenty-two years ago. She's never healed from that, Natalie's body never found. Heading back home for the summer, Claire hopes to ease the tension trapped inside her mind. She takes a summer job at Galloway Farms that lands her in a decades old mystery. Her investigate journalist skills will reemerge and she plans to find answer before leaving.

Stacy writes incredible characters that are driven by secrets. Her main character tends to be stuck on a traumatic moment that she can't let go. The plot moved quickly as the secrets kept stacking up. This book was on par with her debut and sophomore novels. Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy of this great summer read.

Whoa - did NOT see that twist coming. This was a thriller - which starts off talking about the disappearance of Claire's sister Natalie 20+ years ago. Her disappearance seemingly was solved, but Claire never really felt like anything was finalized. She is in the process of figuring out what she wants to do with her life and is drawn home to South Carolina and finds herself getting a job at Galloway Farm - where her sister worked the last summer before she disappeared. There are some cultish themes in this book which I always like in a thriller. But trying to piece together what happened to Natalie and some of the other women from the Farm (like Annie, Lily, Marcia, and a few others) was kind of crazy. It did all come together at the end - in a pretty suspenseful finale. I have never read this author before - but will be checking out her backlist b/c I think that summer is the perfect time for a thriller!

This was a gripping thriller, which I was sucked right into. I was lucky enough to get both the ebook and the audiobook and do an immersive read. The narrators did an amazing job and kept me interested throughout the whole book. Recently, thrillers have been a hit or miss for me, and this was quite the hit. Make sure to get a copy on release day. Thank you to the publiser and NerGalley for the opportunity to read.
4 star