Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing an advanced reader copy of this book for my honest review.

I wasn't aware this was a sequel to *My Name Is Emily Ray* until I started reading, but I'm pleased to say that it didn't hinder my understanding of the storyline at all. I'm now excited to go back and read the first book, and I look forward to any future installments in this series.

This book follows Emily Ray, an FBI agent on leave, as she heads on vacation with her father. While there, she encounters a girl named Lillian, whose best friend mysteriously died in an alleged drowning accident. As the story unfolds, more mysterious disappearances and crimes come to the surface, putting Emily's vacation on hold.

I was fully immersed in this story from the very beginning. The author's writing style made the narrative even more intriguing. This is a perfect book for thriller and mystery lovers.

Following the upheaval of her prior investigation, Special Agent Emily Ray finds herself on enforced leave, retreating to Lake Arrowhead, a site rich with childhood reminiscences. However, her respite soon takes a sinister turn when she becomes aware of the dubious drowning of fifteen-year-old Hayley Hope, a case quickly categorized as an accident by local law enforcement. As Emily probes further, she uncovers a disturbing trend of missing girls within the small community. Emily must navigate a perilous terrain of secrets, all while contending with escalating threats against her and her father, who is afflicted by dementia.

This novel is a wonderful sequel that builds upon the themes established in the first Emily Ray book. Similar to the first in the series, this one does not disappoint. It is a compelling narrative that kept my interest. While I would have preferred a more character development and interaction with Emily’s father, he wasn’t really a prominent character in this installment. The essential elements of a mystery and thriller are intact, and keep you guessing. The revelations revealed, I would never have guessed. The finale of the story hints at further challenges awaiting Emily and I couldn’t be happier to read another book in this series. This book will be a wonderful read for enthusiasts of thrillers.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance review copy in exchange for my review.

Emily Ray is on administrative leave from the FBI and vacationing in Lake Arrowhead with her father, who has dementia. While there, she hears about a 15 year old girl who recently drowned. But Emily's teenaged neighbor is convinced that the girl was murdered, as were other foster teens who mysteriously disappeared. Despite being on leave and being on vacation, Emily is compelled to look deeper into the girl's drowning. Each detail she discovers strengthens her belief that all is not as placid as it seems at Lake Arrowhead.

There is tension on every page of this book as Emily uncovers surprising links between the people of the town. Readers will anxiously root for the teenagers who are caught up in a system outside of their control and who have no one, except Emily, to seek justice on their behalf. Though this is the second book in the series, nothing is lost by not having read the first.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

This was a dark thriller. It shows that even on vacation an FBI agent is still working. It really draws you in from the start and it is really hard to put teh book down.

Set in the rustic mountain town of Lake Arrowhead, the novel follows Special Agent Emily Ray, who’s on forced leave and hoping for solace. Instead, she’s pulled into unraveling the mysterious death of 15‑year‑old Hayley Hope, believed to have drowned. Despite the sheriff calling it an accident, Hayley’s best friend insists something far more sinister occurred.

Emily and Lillian were such an awesome team!

I loved the atmosphere & pacing: Greene masterfully crafts a claustrophobic, small‑town ambiance—fog, forests, and hushed secrets—that grips you from the get‑go. The tension builds incrementally, with short chapters that make it nearly impossible to set the book down. Emily is both empathetic and tenacious. Her personal struggles—career stalled and her father’s health deteriorating—add a meaningful emotional underpinning to her investigative drive.
The dynamic between Emily and Hayley’s friend Lillian brings depth. Their alliance feels genuine, and it’s this emotional core that raised the stakes beyond a typical whodunit

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The twists were superb and I was on the edge of my seat until the end. I will definitely be recommending this book to friends and I’ll be reading more by this author!

All Agent Emily Ray wants is to have a peaceful holiday with her ailing father in a place which had happy memories for her family. She did not think she would get embroiled in a case of a drowned teenager. The neighbour of Emily is convinced that it is murder, and an abduction run by a gang of corrupt law keepers who control the town.

Knowing she is out of her area limits and acting outside the boundaries of her mandatory leave, Emily slowly uncovers a trail of missing teenage girls, a cult fixated by their wishes to protect their own and very dangerous to outsiders.

The plot unravels slowly but Emily is not giving up. She is a voice for those girls without anyone to speak up for them. The predators seem to go for those in foster care, knowing that they are helpless.

Poignant and tense this was a good story about human trafficking, still prevalent today.

This series is so good! I stayed engaged and on the edge from start to finish. I could not put this book down. On each page and at the end of each chapter I had to go on, I had to know what was happening next.

🌟🌟🌟🌟
Book two of the Emily Ray series.
Still on leave from the FBI’s CARD unit, (Child Abduction Rapid Deployment) Emily Ray takes advantage of the time with a much needed break. She heads out on vacation to Lake Arrowhead with her father. Meanwhile, Emily’s husband Antonio packs up their two daughters to visit his side of the family in Arizona before joining Emily in California.

But Emily is never truly off duty. Even on leave, trouble just seems to find her. Just as she and her father settle in to their rental, Lillian, a teenage girl next door catches Emily's attention. Lillian begins to share the mystery behind the death of her best friend Haley. And the cover up she believes is happening.

Well, that’s all Emily needs to dive deeper and determine if there’s any truth to this girl’s story.

What drew me to this series was the author’s ability to breathe life into Emily, displaying both her professional and personal life equally. And once again, in the follow up to My Name Is Emily Ray, Michele Dominguez Greene was able to capture that same magic.

Now that the family’s vacation time (if you can call it a vacation🙄) is over and everyone heads back home I’m desperate to see what’s in store for Emily next!

Anticipated publication date: July 10 2025

Thank you to Storm Publishing via NetGalley

A very dark and compelling thriller. Even on forced vacation this FBI agent can't get away from the work she is known for. I couldn't put it down. Very well put together.

I am loving this series so far! Dominguez Greene is a phenomenal writer and it really shows in her work. Not only is the characterization and pacing on point, but you can tell she really put a lot of work into her research. And speaking of characterization, Emily is a perfectly designed character. Not only does she have plenty of baggage (as a main character should), but that baggage is constantly rearing its head. In some ways, this is good because it makes for great reading. But this poor woman gets put through the wringer! In this book, I knew who the players were pretty early on. I promise when you think you have it all figured out, add more to it. This was a really tangled web that exhibited classic small town secrets and corruption. What I didn’t expect was the major event in her own personal life! It was a very unwelcome surprise, and when I saw it start, I thought, “ There’s no way X is going to happen after everything that happened in the last book.” Well, it did. There were no signs of this in the first book, even though it had been brewing since then! So I’m really curious to see how the next book goes!

Huge thanks to Storm Publishing and NetGalley for sending me this ARC for review! All of my reviews are given honestly!

This is the second book in the series about Emily Ray and it is as fabulous as the first. The book didn’t let me take a breath as it rushed from murder to secrets and hidden lies. Emily Ray is supposed to be on holiday spending quality time with her father and yet she cannot let go when a neighbour shares her concerns that her best friend was murdered. Nothing is simple and straightforward and as Emily starts to take each step taken to discover what is going on in the supposedly sleepy town there is a twisted version of the truth and more intrigue. The book is an odd mixture of hope and despair and sometimes both these emotions come out of the same situation. The ending of the book is an absolute banger and I cannot wait for book 3.

Ms. Greene is an excellent storyteller. Her books are full of intrigue, suspense, and family. Never pick up one of her books since these well written reads demand completion in one sitting. Source: Netgalley.

HAYLEY HOPE IS GONE, #2 - This intense story is better than the first book, which was awesome. Emily has a lot to handle, some devastating. 5*

MY NAME IS EMILY RAY, #1 - This book caught me by surprise with one thing. I was so immersed in the intriguing story lines that I finished the book in one sitting. I like the characters and their dialog, the outcome, and the fact there is another book. The best character is probably the husband, although there are many good characters. 5*

A mystery/thriller set in a small mountain town, what more could you ask for!?

Special Agent Emily Ray takes a “vacation” with her father to the mountain town of Lake Arrowhead after she’s been put on leave from her job. A young girl has just recently been found in the lake there, and the local police department ruled it a suicide. When Emily meets the young girl next door to their rental house, it seems that something more than what meets the eye might be happening in Lake Arrowhead…. Can Emily uncover the truth?

Quick & easy read that kept me entertained and eagerly turning the pages to find out what really happened.

Read if you love:
Small town drama
Corrupt police dept
Dual POVs

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance Ebook in exchange for my honest review.

My first Michelle Dominguez Greene novel but definitely not my last. I did not realize this was an installment but it read perfectly fine as a standalone. Fantastic characters kept me burning the midnight oil. Dark and creepy, enjoyed it.
Thank you NetGalley, Michelle Dominguez Greene and Storm Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Title: Hayley Hope is Gone
Series: Agent Emily Ray Book #2
Author: Michelle Dominguez Greene
Publisher: Storm Publishers
Genre: Mystery Thriller, True Crime
Pub Date: July 10, 2025
My Rating: 4.6 Rounded up
Pages: 308

Special Agent Emily Ray recently closed the Josie Vance case that nearly destroyed her career.
~If you missed Book #1, I strongly encouraging read it!
Emily has been placed on Disciplinary review by the FBI. She has been a successful member on the ‘Child Abduction Rapid Development (CARD) protecting vulnerable children - they want to be sure she didn’t break protocol.

When Emily’s husband Antonio has a family reunion he should attend, they decide he and their twin daughters should attend and this is a good time for Emily to have some father/daughter time with her dad Michael Ray – who is suffering from dementia. They decided on nearby picturesque Lake Arrowhead —a mountain town where they spent many summers.
A peaceful vacation in this slow pace community is just what she needs—however that doesn’t last long as she soon learns that Hayley Hope, a Freshman at Rim of the Word High School drowned in Papoose Lake. Authorities ruled it suicide-they believe there is nothing suspicious.

Lillian Knox and her grandmother live next door to where Emily and her dad are staying.
When Emily has the chance to talk to Lillian she finds out that she and Hayley were best friends. Lillian tells Emily she is sure Hope was murdered.

Emily soon discovers that other girls have been disappeared over the past years.
The authorities have done next to nothing to find them.
Needless to say, Emily is going to do something!

Another WOW Michelle Dominguez Greene story!!
This one was very emotional.
Anxious for Book #3 will Definitely read Book #3 as I am hooked want to know what is happening with Emily, Antonia and twins Juliana and Eliza.

(I personally have vacation in Lake Arrowhead with my husband and daughters – we loved everything about it! In fact, in addition to vacationing there it is actually a short day trip. We live in the LA area close to the ocean and Lake Arrowhead is in the San Bernardino Mountains.
There is a town named “Rim of the World’ which has a perfect name. Whenever you drive on the main road into Lake Arrowhead you are driving on the rim on the mountain and overlook clouds below you! It is truly an awesome feeling!)

Want to thank NetGalley and Storm Publishing for this great yet very emotional eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for July 10, 2025.

I was fortunate to receive an ARC of this book, just like I did for the first book in the Emily Ray series, so thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for that!

When I found out the second Emily Ray book would be published so soon after the first, I was excited! The first Emily Ray book is one of my favorite thrillers I’ve ever read.

However, this book didn’t hit the same mark for me. While I adore Emily Ray, many of the other characters in this book felt like caricatures and it was harder to take them seriously. It also wasn’t nearly as twisty. It did feel like a good follow up to the first one, but I definitely wanted more from it and felt myself comparing the two stories often.

All that said, I absolutely look forward to more Emily Ray stories!

Phenomenal. This series is awesome so far and I can’t wait for more. This was dark and gritty and got into some seriously dark subject matter. It was told realistically and tactfully while still bringing the dark side of humanity to life. Oozing with suspense from start to finish. These characters were brought to life. Written with such depth you felt like you were there. So much terror and heart pounding fear!

Absolutely brilliant! Emily is on a two week (forced) vacation with her dad following the events of the previous book. What looks like a little slice of paradise in the mountains, a place she remembers from her childhood and which holds happy memories for her dad, reveals its dark underbelly when she stumbles across the possible murder of a teenager. The more she starts to dig, the bigger the case gets. But, Emily doesn't give up and, despite other personal issues raising their head, she fights to get justice for the children involved. Emily is a great character who refuses to fit into a mould of who people think she should be. Outstanding read.
Thanks to Netgalley, Storm Publishing, and Michele Dominguez Greene for the free ARC. All opinions are my own.

This book would have 10 stars if possible because it was so good! Second book in this series and Emily is back and on vacation with her dad. Is an FBI agent really ever on vacation? Emily's neighbor Lillian needs Emily's help in finding out what really happened to her best friend Haley the night she supposedly committed suicide. Emily uncovers dark secrets in this small town . Love this book from the very first pages it grabs you! Definitely 100% would recommend this book and series. Look forward to hopefully alot more books in this series!!