Willingham hit it out of the park with this one, suspenseful, deep, and kept me guessing the whole time. Highly recommend this!

Stacy Willingham is the queen of southern suspense. This one kept me in grips. I don’t usually read books this far ahead of release day but I HAD to read this early (sorry May, June, and July arcs!)
The twists were spectacular and I was always guessing. It was so atmospheric and the added drama of the journalist turned true crime writer with the bonus of it being her own sister’s murder… chefs kiss.
I will say that the diary pieces being in third person did throw me at first but I just accepted it and went on.
Thank you @stmartinspress and @stacywillingham for my early review copy.

Forget Me Not had me guessing the whole way through. I really liked how twisty and dark it was without being confusing or over the top. Stacy Willingham has a way of building suspense that makes you want to keep reading just one more chapter—until suddenly it's 2 a.m. I also liked that the main character wasn’t perfect; she felt real, messy, and relatable. The story kept me on edge, and I didn’t see the ending coming, which is always a win for me.

The beginning was a little slow, but as soon as Claire started reading the diary, I was hooked. Her older sister’s disappearance over 20 years ago has haunted her—presumed murdered, but a body was never found.

Claire returns to her hometown to help her injured mother, but after just one night, the tension becomes too much. She takes a job on a farm a few hours away, where she stumbles upon a hidden diary. Claire begins to suspect it may be connected not only to her sister’s disappearance, but to a string of murders spanning several decades.

As the story unraveled, I was on the edge of my seat. I couldn’t read fast enough, desperate to gather the puzzle pieces and see the full picture. The final 20%—in true Stacy fashion—had me gasping at the twists and revelations.

If this book isn’t on your TBR, I highly recommend adding it. It releases on August 26, 2025, and you won’t want to miss it!

Huge thanks to Stacy for writing such a twisty, fun thriller, and to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press | Minotaur Books for the digital ARC!

Totally unputdownable!!! Southern Gothic suspense at its best!

This book hooked me so fast. From the very first chapter, I was all in with Claire, a tough but emotionally scarred journalist forced to return home after years of running from her sister’s disappearance. The setting—a hazy, humid muscadine vineyard in coastal South Carolina—is perfectly atmospheric and adds that eerie, slow-burn Southern tension that makes thrillers like this so addictive.

What really got me was the way the story layers past and present so seamlessly. Just when you think it’s going to be a peaceful summer job kind of vibe, Claire finds an old diary that turns the whole book into a spiraling mystery. The diary entries were creepy in the best way, and as Claire gets more obsessed, so do you as the reader. I flew through the pages needing to know how it all connected, her sister’s case, the vineyard’s secrets, everything.

If you liked A Flicker in the Dark, this one feels even more mature and twisted. It’s emotional, suspenseful, and just gritty enough to feel real without being over the top. The pacing was perfect! Tense without being exhausting, and the ending?! Genuinely satisfying with a few gasp-out-loud moments.

Highly recommend if you're into dark family secrets, small-town vibes, and mysteries that slowly unravel in the most chilling way.

I loved her first book so I’ve always been eager to read any of her releases since then. This one is my second favorite to A Flicker in the Dark. In a world of so many mystery books, this one has a unique take and spin, which I appreciate it. The first half was pretty slow for me, but half way through it picked up. The last 20% was great. I’d recommend this to readers interested in the genre. Thanks for the ARC!

This is one creative, layered thriller. Claire’s sister, Natalie, disappeared twenty-two years ago when she was only eighteen years old. Claire was a much younger eleven and had to deal with the fallout of her parents’ divorce and a mom who disappeared into herself.

Now Claire is an investigative journalist who finally returns to coastal South Carolina to reconnect with her mom. There are still so many unanswered questions about Natalie and Claire is in the business of answering questions. Told in present day with details from the 80s and early 2000s, Forget Me Not weaves together lies and secrets, twists and turns to keep you turning the page.

This could have been rated higher but the author’s excessive use of similes and metaphors was distracting.

WOW - I loved this one. I've been close to five stars before with SW, but this one knocked it our of the park. I love her writing style & "helps" you with understanding all the twists and turns as the story goes on. Loved talking to Emily & Natalie with this one. If you plan to read - I'm here for a check in be there's so many fun twists!!!! Thank you @stmartinspress for my digital
ARC • Publish Date: 8/26/2025

As a big Stacy Willingham fan, I was so excited to be given an advanced copy of this book to read. However, I did not find this book to be as engaging as her previous books. The story line, while unique, felt drawn out at times. I struggled with staying focused and found myself skimming ahead at times. It definitely had its fair share of twists and the creep factor was 100% there. Overall, I enjoyed this book, just not as much as previous books by this author. I will absolutely still be grabbing her books up in the future.

Claire's older sister disappears, a body never shows up, case closed. She moves to NY to become a journalist and gets passed over for a promotion and returns home to help her mom. Her sisters bedroom isn't touched and she starts getting suspicious of her disappearance, This book actually dragged on a little bit longer than I would have liked but I enjoyed it.

Thanks St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books & Netgalley!

Wasn't sure what to expect going in, like most of my arcs but I loved this one. I'll be sure to find more from this author. Thanks for the early read!

Well, this one had a lot of potential. I just didn’t feel like it lived up to that potential. I had a hard time keeping track of the female characters and how they fit together. The last 20% went super fast and was all tied up in a neat little bow. I thought it was just ok.

Claire’s a journalist who quit her job returns home for the first time in years since her sisters murder. Claire nervous to return to the last place she saw her sister alive and to visit her mom who she doesn’t have the best relationship with. Remembering claire’s sister Natalie worked at a winery the summer before she was murder, claire decided to take a visit and ends up staying longer than expected. While she is visiting she find an old journal that leads to more questions about what really could have happened to Natalie.

I enjoyed this book and I love the first to books of Stacy’s. This is more of a slow burn mystery than a thriller I would say. But once you get into it you will be curious to know what really happened to Natalie and is Claire’s inklings are right.

Thank you so much for the ARC. Stacy does it again! Her books are easy to read and are full of twists.

Stacy Willingham can do absolutely no wrong.
I have been captivated by her books before, and truly don’t know how she continues to create stories that are unique, twisty, and down right thrilling.
This story will leave you positively breathless!
Claire’s sister went missing when she was 18. Her body was never found, but a man sits in jail for her supposed murder. Still dealing with the trauma decades later, she returns home when her mother requires help after an injury. Will this be what she needs for the closure she so desperately seeks? Or will she just end up with more questions?
Willingham is an absolute genius of the English language. You can feel, hear, smell, and see her landscapes and layered characters. Read this book when it is released in August! So good. While you’re waiting, if you haven’t read her back list, do it! She never disappoints.
Thank you so much netgalley! I jumped up and down when you sent me this one!

This new novel by the author does not hit the mark as compared to All the Dangerous Things (5 stars from me). The original mystery, a missing sister, sounded fascinating, but the book took a while to get going and I was not a big fan of the main character. The last third of the novel redeemed it overall although I thought that at least one of the twists did not have enough support to be impactful. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I think the author is a great writer, however I feel things were a bit slow in this ? Maybe the characters were underdeveloped too? I found myself being irritated at the MC for being nosy and it seemed to work out in the end however, it all came crashing really quick. Will read from this author again but just not this.

Forget Me Not by Stacy Willingham completely sucked me in within a matter of pages. I honestly picked this up while I was trying to decide what to read next and became so invested in it that suddenly I was chapters deep and realized I guess this was the book I was reading now.

The story follows Claire as she returns to the hometown she has avoided for decades, since she was able to get away after the murder of her sister who haunts her family even 22 years later. She ends up taking a job on the same vineyard her sister worked at all those years ago, to find a connection with the sister she lost, as well as a means to get her life together after leaving her previous job and struggling to find new work.

Even more deeply intriguing is the diary that Claire finds which turns out to be an over 40-year-old journal of the mysterious, uncommunicative woman Claire is living next door to. Although it starts out in journal entry format, it does become full scenes of the past which did disappoint me a bit because I liked the journal aspect, but it was still interesting to watch the past unfold and get some answers on Marcia, who seems hesitant to speak to Claire in the present. As things become more insidious in the present on the vineyard, there’s a bit of a parallel in Marcia’s unfolding story in her diary which adds to the tension and only fuels the need for answers in both timelines. This becomes particularly true in the parallels that pop up between events in Marcia’s past and what happened to Claire’s sister.

Having the similarities crop in these two instances made for a fascinating read, particularly as Claire put together information from such old cases and tried to uncover what happened in both time periods. On top of that, there’s the suspicions and tension of the present where it’s unclear whether she is in danger or letting her guilt from the death of her sister get to her. I was absolutely hooked into all the different aspects of this book, from present, to past, and even further past and could not put this book down. I was so deeply invested in Claire finding answers, and even in the story unfolding in Marcia’s diary even though it was so long over, hoping for a good end for everyone. I highly recommend this book because it is the perfect kind of thriller and so hard to stop once you get going with it.

Forget Me Not is a slow burn mystery about a journalist returning to her home where her sister disappeared when she was a child. I think it’s important to go into this knowing it is a slow burn but you get just enough information each chapter to keep you going.

I enjoyed how the book toggled between the present and Marcia’s diary. I felt like the main character Alice trying to put the pieces of the story together throughout. A lot of connections I didn’t see coming and the end felt satisfying. A very solid 4.5 star book!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.

Thank you to Macmillan/Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the free ARC!

Stacy Willingham is, without a doubt, one of the most underrated thriller authors out there. Every time she releases a new book, I’m left wondering why more people aren’t raving about her storytelling—and Forget Me Not is no exception.

This one had me hooked from the first page. Willingham masterfully blends a tense, eerie atmosphere with layered psychological depth and a protagonist you can’t help but root for—even when you’re not sure if you should. I won’t spoil the plot, but I will say this: if you love thrillers that mess with your head and keep you questioning everything until the final page, this is a must-read.

"Forget Me Not" follows Claire Campbell, a currently unemployed investigative journalist whose sister Nathalie was murdered 22 years ago. When her estranged mother seemingly needs help, Claire reluctantly returns to her hometown in South Carolina for the first time, finding traces of Nathalie's life before her disappearance that lead Claire straight to Galloway Farm, a coastal vineyard an hour away where Nathalie used to work. When Claire is offered a seasonal job on the farm, she is only too happy to accept. But when she finds a hidden old diary, she becomes consumed by its contents, soon suspecting that it somehow ties into her own past and her sister's disappearance.

The author excels at painting a vivid, atmospheric picture in this tense Southern thriller. You can practically feel the oppressive summer heat radiating off the pages while reading. Claire's search for answers regarding the disappearance of her sister was compelling, though I was a bit confused as to her methods - has no one ever looked through Nathalie's room in 22 years? Why did it take Claire so long to finish reading the diary (surely she could have skimmed it)? Why did she not buy a freaking flashlight in town when her phone was already dead?

I would have happily skipped over those little things, but Mitchell and Marcia's story rubbed me the wrong way from the start. The whole "young girl and older boyfriend" storyline, with icky parallels to Nathalie's case, was probably intentional. But if Marcia was 17 in 1983, and Mitchell in his late twenties or early thirties, that certainly wouldn't qualify as them being "kids. Just two kids who stumbled in love", as Claire characterizes them.

All in all, "Forget Me Not" had a solid backstory, strong writing, and some thrilling tension, but the pacing was off (the addition of the diary entries certainly didn't help with that particular issue), and when it finally picked up speed, the conclusion felt very over the top (IYKYK).

Sadly, this didn't quite live up to my expectations, but I won't let that deter me from reading the author's next book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

"Forget Me Not" is slated to be released on August 26, 2025.