I devoured "Forget Me Not" in a single day. This gripping novel maintained my interest from the very first page until the conclusion.

The story follows Claire Campbell, a journalist facing challenges in her career, who takes a temporary position in her hometown in South Carolina. Claire's sister, Natalie, vanished two decades ago during her teenage years, and although a man was convicted of her murder, Natalie's body was never discovered. During her summer stint, Claire finds herself working at the same farm where her sister was employed prior to her disappearance. While the farm boasts natural beauty, it harbors an unsettling atmosphere. The peculiar owner, Mitchell, raises suspicions in Claire, and his wife, Marcia, who is almost entirely silent, contributes to her unease. Meanwhile, Liam, the farmhand, appears to be friendly, yet many inconsistencies linger. Utilizing her journalistic expertise, Claire embarks on a quest to unveil hidden truths, leading to a plot filled with unexpected twists and revelations.

* Tropes/themes:
* Diary entry flashbacks with a different POV
* Family secrets
* Dark past
* Isolation/seclusion
* Starts very slow- while I didn’t love the pacing (it took me pretty much half the book to get hooked), it did help to get a good understanding of everything and everyone, setting the stage very effectively for the whole story.
* Cult-like vibes
* Majority of the setting was a summer country vineyard that was a bit eerie; loved that… very atmospheric
* The way the mystery unraveled was very seamless
* I do wish the diary entries were in first person but regardless, I loved the diary entries
* Content warnings:
* Murder/death
* Missing child
* Death of a child
* Cults
* Grooming
* Gun violence
* Trauma

I liked the pace of this. It was a slower thriller, but I still really enjoyed it. She slowly finds more and more puzzle pieces that keep you wondering what is going on.

There were moments in the 2nd half of this book where I was super creeped out and scared, because this was written very well. I also felt like I was reading true crime with the way it was written, because it was just so believable of a story. It was also so intricate with every detail connecting and meaning something to the overall story.

I think this one will 100% be a hit. Even though it is slower at first, it is such a great story.

Thanks so much to Minotaur Books for the eARC!

3.5 ⭐️- not my favorite book from this author; however still amazing writing to easily follow along with. I felt the plot was a little too predictable and although there were a few tiny twists, I still found myself a little bored with them.

Loves:
- the first person POV
- the diary excerpts in between chapters
- descriptive scenes to easily picture the setting

If you like thrillers, Willingham is a great author to read!

3.5 stars - I liked this book, but it was a little slow and predictable. There were some twists I didn’t see coming but it fell kind of flat for me. The book was well written and definitely kept my interest. There are worst ways to spend your time!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Releases 8•26•25

Woah was it a dream come true when this ARC slide into my inbox! I adored Flicker in The Dark so I knew this book would be right up my alley and sure enough Stacy did it AGAIN!!

First of all the plot of this one was absolutely insane. I was so hooked from page one. She finds a film reel that’s undeveloped in her dead sister’s room and honestly from there the book just gets crazier and crazier and better and better. I obviously cannot go to much into detail as I don’t want to spoil or give anything away but holy crap this would be a good movie.

Loved the duel timeline and different prospectives in the form of an old diary Claire finds. It was interesting to see the mystery unravel in both real time as well as key points in the diary.

Cannot wait to discuss this when it comes out. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING ON GO PREORDER NOWWW.

4 stars. A binge-worthy thriller with sharp twists and a sinister undercurrent.

Big thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for the advanced copy of Forget Me Not. I flew through this one in a few hours. Willingham’s writing is consistently addictive, and this latest novel hooked me from the first page.

The story follows Claire Campbell, an investigative journalist who returns to her South Carolina hometown decades after her older sister, Natalie, mysteriously disappeared. What begins as an unplanned summer in her childhood home takes a dark turn when Claire takes a job at a nearby vineyard, Galloway Farm, where she stumbles upon a diary filled with unsettling details about past crimes. As Claire begins to unravel the diary’s secrets, she’s drawn deeper into the haunting possibility that her sister’s case may not have been as closed as it seemed.

I was fully engaged from start to finish. The writing is immersive and the pacing sharp, perfect for a one-sitting read. While I did spot a few of the twists early on, Willingham still managed to surprise me. She took the revelations further than I expected, layering in new tension just when I thought I had it figured out.

Atmospheric, eerie, and compulsively readable, Forget Me Not is a slow-burn thriller that delivers emotional weight alongside its suspense. It had me second-guessing every character and flipping pages late into the night. This one lingers in all the right ways.

Stacy Willingham has done it again! I love a good thriller, and her books always catch me right from the start and keep me reading “one more chapter.” She is the queen of Southern spooky to me.

Claire is struggling to come to terms with the murder of her sister years ago, and after leaving her job and needing an escape, she goes back home to South Carolina. While there, she stumbles upon various clues and oddities about what she believes she knows about her sister and her death.

The plot is twisty, engaging, well written, and told from two POVs. The ending was executed perfectly. It will give you all the answers you need without leaving anything unaddressed.

I highly recommend this book to any thriller lover, especially a Southern thriller lover! And if this ends up being your first read of Willingham’s, go read her previous novels, you won’t be disappointed!

Huge thank you to S. Martin’s Press and Minotaur Books for my eARC in exchange for my honest review!

...𝐰𝐞'𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐠. 𝐋𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐢𝐫𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐬. 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥.

Claire Campbell is working as an investigative journalist and living a world away from her childhood home in South Carolina. But when she's passed over for a promotion, she abruptly quits and decides to freelance. But the work isn't coming in, and Claire is becoming desperate. Then a phone call from her father will change everything--her mother has had a minor accident and is having difficulty. Her parents have long divorced, and there's no one but Claire. She doesn't want to face the ghosts of her past, but she concedes.

She arrives at her childhood home to a mother who doesn't really want her there, and even worse, to the long-preserved bedroom of her sister Natalie, who disappeared more than two decades ago. The local police zeroed in on an older man with a criminal history, and when Natalie's bloody shirt was found in her car, the case was closed. However, Claire never got the answers she so desperately needed.

With the tension in the house at near unbearable levels, Claire decides to accept a seasonal job at Galloway Farm, a coastal vineyard less than an hour away from where she grew up. It's also the last place that Natalie worked, and Claire feels her sister there. Soon after arriving, she finds an old journal penned by one of the vineyard's owners. Claire settles in to read of young love, but the contents soon take a sinister turn as the journal begins outlining criminal activity and missing girls. I never would have expected the path this mystery would lead me down.

Deeply atmospheric with often lyrical prose and haunting themes of loss, this book is more than just a twisty thriller. It's both a reminder that evil often walks among us wearing its Sunday best and that we never stop mourning the ones we've lost. Many thanks to St. Martins Press/Minotaur Books for this early copy. This title is expected to publish August 26, 2025.

3.5
Forget Me Not by Stacy Willingham is a thriller set in rural South Carolina. The main character Claire Campbell grew up there but left for journalistic dreams in New York City, where she has spend the last fifteen years. She is estranged from her family and avoiding her traumatic past. When Claire was a teenager, her sister Natalie disappeared in that small town and a man put in prison for her murder. Now Claire has to reluctantly return to her hometown when her mother has an accident and needs help at home.
While there, Claire takes on a summer job at Galloway Farm, the same farm her sister worked at in the last summer of her life. Though on the outside it seems peacefully idyllic, with free room and board and cash to build up her savings, Claire finds an old journal that paints a different story. Her investigative journalist skills come in handy as Claire learns what really happens on the Farm and what happened to Natalie all those years ago.
This is a page turning read though the story is a little slow to be drawn out until closer to the end when the pace amps up. I really liked the little clues dropped along the way and enjoyed trying to guess the ending. And I liked the Southern setting. However, I did find the ending very “busy,” and it became more unbelievable when all the dots needed to be connected. Fans of Willingham’s previous book Flicker in the Dark, or Megan Miranda or Alex Finlay books will likely enjoy this.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for my ARC.

Forget Me Not by Stacy Willingham is a suspense/thriller set in rural South Carolina where Claire Campbell’s sister Natalie was killed over 20 years ago. Claire is set on a journey to uncover any missed clues or uncover any hidden information that was not known that may help her shed any light on what really happened to her sister’s death.

This story starts out slow, but the pace picked up pretty quickly as Claire tumbles into clues that takes her on twists and turns that sets this story/plot-line on a roller coaster pace. I enjoyed this book, as I have all Stacy Willingham’s books, and I recommend it, just as I do all her other books. She is one of my favorite suspense/thriller authors and this book did not disappoint!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Intriguing mystery
Southern charm
Difficult decisions

I absolutely devoured A Flicker in the Dark and was very excited to be gifted this ARC. While I did enjoy the story, it didn’t take over my mind like her previous work and took me a while to finish. I was interested, but I just didn’t get that edge-of-my-seat that I need from a thriller.

Claire Campbell is introduced as an investigative journalist who was passed over for a huge promotion and chose to go her own way. After a distressed call from her father, she packed up and went to visit her mother in South Carolina. As someone who is estranged from her mother, it was easy for me to feel Claire’s likely turmoil over this complicated decision.

This is where we begin to learn more about her sister’s disappearance years prior. I won’t give more detail from here because I don’t want to spoil. Every reader needs to form their own opinion.

This was enjoyable and definitely something I will recommend to my thriller lovers, but not one I would recommend to those wanting an intro into the genre.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC. My review is 100% voluntary and my own opinion.

I enjoyed it, but it was a bit slower to start and overly descriptive compared to her other books. I will still read everything she writes though. The plot was great and there was a shocking twist (a few of them actually but one in particular that stands out.)

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It was a tense, tightly woven narrative that delved into generations of relationships and the secrets we try to hide. The layers unfolded with precision, revealing just enough at the right moments while cleverly using red herrings to build suspense. A gripping and well-executed tale.

Forget Me Not follows Claire, a journalist living in NY, who's sister went missing over 20 years ago. Claire, still haunted by the past, suddenly is called back home to South Carolina to visit her mom. While she's there, she finds herself digging into her sister's disappearance, trying to put the pieces together when she finds herself in the middle of other decade old unsolved crimes that sound eerily familiar to her own family's situation.

This was so good! I found it to be a bit slower in the first half, but not in a bad way. It was a lot of setting the scene for events that would happen later. I was interested the whole time and kept needing to read on to find out what was happening. I was very impressed by all the twists. My initial thoughts on what was happening were semi true, but with BIG twists.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one! I've read Stacy Willingham's other novels and have liked them all. While A Flicker in the Dark is still my favorite, this one is a close second! I would 100% recommend this, especially if you've enjoyed her other books!

Thank you NetGalley, Minotaur Books & St. Martin's Press for this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Stacey Willingham’s writing is extremely captivating, I always feel like I’m actually there and that I need to keep reading to see how it ends. Forget Me Not was no exception to this. One thing I felt was missing was I wish the story had focused more on the sister and how her storyline played out. Also, while some of the twists had my jaw hanging open I did find others predicable. Overall Forget Me Not is a really strong thriller, super atmospheric, and perfect for summer.

Still reeling from job loss and the unresolved disappearance of her sister Natalie 22 years earlier, Claire Campbell returns to her hometown in South Carolina seeking answers. Taking a job at the local vineyard—Natalie’s last known place of employment—Claire has no idea how many long-buried secrets she’s about to dig up.

I have zero chill when it comes to Stacy Willingham’s thrillers. The second one lands on my Kindle, I drop everything to read it. While Only If You're Lucky didn’t quite hit the mark for me, Forget Me Not absolutely delivered—and it’s still living in my head, rent-free, more than a week later.

This novel is haunting in the best way. Willingham’s atmospheric prose, layered themes, and chilling setting create an eerie world that feels all too real. The characters are richly drawn and authentic—so much so, it’s unsettling to realize that one (or more) of them might be capable of murder.

Willingham masterfully keeps the suspense high with twist after twist, most of which I never saw coming. But when the final page turns, everything clicks into place. The breadcrumbs were there all along—you just didn’t see them.

A gripping, eerie thriller that lingers long after you finish. Highly recommend.

Thank you to Stacy Willingham, St. Martins Press/Minotaur Books, and NetGalley for the ARC copy.

This was an engaging read that kept my attention throughout. While I wouldn’t necessarily classify it as a ‘thriller,’ it definitely worked well as a mystery. I enjoyed the shifts between the present and the diary entries—they added depth to the story. Even though the ending was somewhat predictable, it was still a page-turner!!

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for this ARC! The ending of this was pretty apparent from when the plot really started. Normally I am kept guessing a little more with willingham’s books. Overall it was still enjoyable but not my top pick.

I had a very hard time getting into this novel; it wasn’t until I was about 25% in that I finally started to find it exciting. A lot of the first parts are unnecessary and didn’t lead any support to the storyline at all. Once it began getting interesting it was great! The twists were perfectly timed and provided plenty of drama. Overall I would recommend to readers.