I loved this book! I have to admit, it took me a few chapters before I was hooked but once I got further in this book had me in a grasp. A definitive must read, Forget Me Not should go to the top of your TBR come August!

After previously reading two other works by Stacy Willingham and loving one of them, I had high hopes for Forget Me Not. The plot description checked all the boxes - mystery, flashback with diary entry, creepy Southern farm, but the book really fell short. Most of the story revolves around the inner monologue of Claire, an unemployed journalist living in New York, as she works through solving the mystery of her missing sister. Claire's sister has been missing for 22 years and when her mother suffers an accident she returns to her hometown to help her. Claire ends up leaving her mother's house to live and work at the same vineyard where her sister spent most of her last summer. The story got a little more exciting once Claire discovered the diary of the wife of the vineyard owner hidden in her guesthouse; however, Claire's character remained unlikeable - consistently missing important clues and making ridiculous mistakes throughout. The plot really picked up at the end, but by that point it was almost too late and there were many things that did not make sense. Spoiler alert: If Liam read the diary, how did he not know that his real mom was dead? If Liam knew Marcia was buried underneath the shed, how did he not know his real mom was dead? If there were three bodies buried beneath the shed, why didn't it smell? Everything just worked out a little too conveniently in order to make the plot twists sustainable. Willingham's writing is overly descriptive to the point where it's a bit much including her overuse of figurative language making paragraphs drag out, phrases with the word "still," "bubbling up," and once using "vastly different" twice within the same page. Hopefully her next novel will live up to her book All the Dangerous Things instead of falling short like A Flicker in the Dark.

Let me wade through my brain fog-inducing book hangover to string together coherent sentences to describe what just happened (I.e. how much I enjoyed this book...).

22 years after the disappearance (and presumed murder) of her 18 year-old sister, Claire Campbell gets a call summoning her back to her hometown. The timing is right - she's just quit her job at a journal to go freelance - so she begrudgingly heads "home" for the summer for the first time since she left for New York after high school graduation.

While her stay is much shorter than planned, an old shoebox in her sister's room - full of long forgotten memories and an even longer forgotten roll of undeveloped film - leads her to Galloway Farm, where her sister worked during the summer before she disappeared. With lots of time to spare (she can't head back to the city so soon and the film, she's learned, will take weeks to develop), Claire takes a job on the farm: a decision which sets off a domino effect she could never have foreseen. A forgotten diary cracks open Claire's world and leads her down a clue-riddled trail towards answers she never knew she needed, and, reader, is it ever a wild ride.

Forget Me Not is an electric, fast paced thriller that you will not be able to put down. Just when I thought I knew where it was headed, Willingham pulled the rug from under me in the best way and left me guessing (and surprised) all the way until the end. The characters were so well written and fully developed that they felt like familiar friends or people from my own hometown. The writing was great, per Willingham's usual, and the dual narrative was effective and really added to the story. Honestly I have not been able to stop thinking about this one and it's been a few weeks. 10/10 recommend for fans of the author and the genre more broadly. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Stacy Willingham is an auto buy for me. Unfortunately, 2025 has mostly been misses with my auto buy authors so I approached Forget Me Not with caution. Fortunately for my will to live, Stacy Willingham delivers again. I love a sister book. I love her writing and love love her story telling. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to NetGalley and the publishers for the gift of this book. Please pre-order. Read and listen to this if you haven’t yet. Trust me on this giving me the hope of it all or at least of my tbr.
Thank you Stacy for writing this book and for your continued consistency 🥹

Forget Me Not is about a young woman, Nathalie, who has been missing and presumed dead for 22 years and the remaining sister, Claire, who hasn't been able to come to terms with it in all that time. Claire returns to her hometown and gets a job at a nearby farm where Natalie had worked before her disappearance. Claire finds an old diary at this farm and finds some possible connections to Natalie.

This was such a page turner and although much of the plot is deliberately predictable, there were enough twists to the predictability that it was not always clear where everything was going to end up. More mystery than thriller, this story had many secrets to discover to keep me interested.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this novel.

Thanks netgalley for the ARC!

I have to say, this was not my favorite of Stacy Willingham’s books. This was very slow paced, and I didn’t really find myself getting hooked until I was about 80% done with it. Even then, I wasn’t dying to know what happened next. I was kind of just trying to finish it so I could move onto the next book.

Thanks to Netgally and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
This had a slow start but it definitely didn't stay that way. There were times when I wanted to reach into the story and slap some sense into Claire lol but the story definitely had my heart rate up. Good twists, good story (cult vibes which I LOVE) and great ending. Stacy Willingham has yet to disappoint me! Go ahead and add this one to your tbr.

A must-read author favorite of mine - Willingham does it again. The story contains suspenseful moments and details about the crime you want to pay attention to. It's a book that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I love Stacy Willingham’s books so when I saw this was on NetGalley I had to read it! This was so good! It did a great job keeping me guessing! There were a good amount of twists throughout the book. But the ending?? Oh my goodness! That had even more good twists I did not see coming! I’m also big on closures and this book did a pretty good job at giving me all the closure I needed. I would definitely recommend this book!

22 years after her sisters disappearance, Claire is living in New York and recently quit her journalism job. She decides she could use a break from the city after a call from her father asking her to head home to North Carolina to spend time with her mother who recently had an accident. Once in her childhood home, Claire realizes she cannot stay another second in this house that has become a shrine to her sister. A house where it looks as though nothing has happened and everyone is happy.
After finding a picture of her sister Natalie in Natalie's old room, Claire sets her sights on a local vineyard where Natalie spent a lot of her time. She wants to feel close to her again in anyway she can. When she arrives, she quickly decides to ask for a job on the vineyard for the summer, living in a small home next to the owners. Mitchell and Marcia own the farm while Liam is the only other worker in the fields. When Claire gets settled in she discovers a long ago forgotten journal of Marcias from when she was much younger.

Claire spends her days trying to understand the owners and Liam and why they seem so keen on keeping an eye on her. Why are they dodging questions? What are they hiding? It's a race to finish the journal and uncover long hidden mysteries and deceits before she ends up becoming just another missing woman like her sister.

While I enjoyed this, I thought it dragged a whole lot as well. I wanted more out of the owners storylines, especially Mitchell. But it is incredibly twisty! I actually did not see one bigger twist towards the end coming at all. It's dark and moody and suspenseful all in the right spots.

This was my first book by Stacy Willingham, and it will not be my last. I really enjoyed this book - while I would consider it more mystery than thriller with the slowest burn possible, I still enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

4.5 stars rounded up. This definitely started off slow and was a slow burn up until the 80% mark and then all hell broke loose. I was hooked throughout, trying to figure where it was all going. It felt more like a mystery but the thriller aspects did come out towards the end. The author put a lot of clues within the pages, so if you're paying close attention, you'll be able to figure some the twists out but there were still a few jaw droppers at the end! The ending was so good and I was not left disappointed. I'm a huge fan of the authors' previous work and this one did not let me down!

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

this book right here? yeah, it owned me from page one. stacy willingham doesn’t miss, and forget me not might be my favorite from her yet. it’s sharp, unsettling in all the right ways, and full of that creeping tension that makes you keep flipping pages even when it’s 2am and you swore you were going to stop three chapters ago.

the premise is instantly gripping—when a woman’s new husband goes missing, the investigation starts digging up old wounds from a past tragedy she thought she’d left behind. it’s layered and smart and messes with your head in that slow-burn, psychological way that actually pays off. i love a thriller that doesn’t rely on cheap twists but still keeps you guessing the whole way through, and this nailed that balance.

the atmosphere is so well done too. it’s haunting without being over-the-top, and every detail feels intentional. the characters are messy and complicated in a way that feels real, and i really appreciated that the story never gave me exactly what i expected.

Could not put this one down! The queen of the Southern thriller, Forget Me Not was exactly what I wanted. I felt the story started slow but it wasn’t long until I was sucked in. I did not see the twist at the end coming which is so rare these days. One I will be recommending!

First slow burn thriller for me and i absolutely loved it! I enjoyed all the detail about the main characters, how they all fit together in the end but had me guessing throughout the whole book. I loved A Flicker in The Dark by Willingham so it is no surprise to me that I loved this one too!

Another excellent Stacy Willingham book! Forget Me Not was definitely more of a mystery than a thriller. Regardless, I still found myself hooked from the first page. The character development was next-level (as expected from Willingham), and the plot was easy to follow and digestible.

The twists were unexpected and kept me guessing until the end. I’m not a huge fan of cult-related books, so that took the book down a little for me - however I’m glad the cult bits were relatively short.

All in all, a solid 4.25 from me!

It’s been awhile since I have been this impressed with a thriller. I will definitely be recommending this to my friends and followers!

OH WOW! This was the best suspense thriller I've read in a long time. Even as I started piecing little bits together, I still missed so much. Fantastic read!

Can we please get half stars?! 4.5 solid stars for this thriller that kept me up all night reading. I love Stacy Willingham and she has done it again. 🙌 Read this if you like twists and turns and "can't put it down" vibes.

Fresh out of a job, Claire decides to visit home for the first time in years. Her older sister Natalie disappeared when she was 11 and she couldn't wait to leave her past behind. When she's drawn to Galloway Farm, the last place her sister worked before she disappeared, she feels closer to her. Galloway Farm seems off though, she can't put her finger on it. The owner Mitchell seems nice enough but maybe a little controlling and his wife Marcia seems out of it. Liam, the other farmhand seems nice and more normal at least.

When she's offered a job and the guest cabin for the summer, she feels like it's a sign. And when she finds Marcia's diary in the cabin, she knows she shouldn't, but she can't stop reading it. It reveals more than she bargained for and she thinks Marcia may have been kidnapped or coerced by Mitchell, but she isn't sure. Her sisters disappearance and some of the things in Marcia's diary seem eerily similar. She can't stop digging, but at what cost?

You won't be able to put this down as Claire reads Marcia's diary and tries to figure out what is really going on at the farm.

Thank you to netgalley for an ARC to enjoy.

I have read all of Stacy Willingham's books, and I think this is my favorite. It was compelling, the twists were well-plotted and well-executed, and despite a really wild set of circumstances, the characters all felt like real people. I thought the setting of Galloway Farms was absolutely perfect - haunting but intriguing - peaceful, but slightly sinister. The writing really spoke to me, and the diary absolutely sucked me in. I felt like Claire, desperate to find our what had happened to Marcia and Mitchell and reading faster and faster to get to the bottom of it. Sometimes, mysteries and thrillers have these rushed twists that aren't satisfying or provide more questions than answers, but I thought this ending was right in the sweet spot.

Things in the book did feel a little rushed or under-explored. For instance, I felt like we didn't get to know a ton about Claire and her journalistic pursuits and career or really that much into her relationship with her parents and sister pre-disappearance. Other than Ryan, she didn't seem to have a life at all and we weren't really clued into what would make Ryan so dedicated to Claire. That said, once she was in Galloway, her journalistic skills and single-mindedness were extremely clear. I just think I additional exposition into her personal life could have helped connect some dots. Also, I would have liked more of a backstory on Mitchell and his goals for his Farm, but I thought the mystery around Lily was super intriguing.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend this book. It has a true crime vibe, there is a summery quality to it, and it's a satisfying thriller.