2⭐️ Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for an advanced copy of Hayley Hope Is Gone.

Detective Emily Ray is taking a much needed vacation with her dad after a difficult case. Her husband is taking their daughters to a family reunion. While on vacation Emily is approached by a young girl who believes her friends death was murder and not suicide. Emily starts investigating and what she discovers is truly shocking.

I really liked the first book in the series but this one just had too many moving parts and was more difficult to follow. I felt like the marriage issues that were thrown in were kind of weird.

Just finished Hayley Hope is Gone. A gripping read with an unforeseen conclusion making this a great book for fans of this genre. This slow burn thriller draws you in with its moody atmosphere and keeps you hooked thanks to FBI agent Emily Ray, a complex and fascinating lead who really carries the story.

The pacing is deliberate, but it works by building tension and emotional depth with every chapter. Just when you think you have it figured out, the story takes an unforeseen turn that completely shifts everything. The ending caught me off guard in the best way.

Gripping, absorbing, and thoroughly entertaining, this is a recommended read. I’ll definitely be picking up the next in the series!

Hayley Hope is Gone is one hard to stop reading a book once you start. Best to plan some uninterrupted time to read this book. The Special Agent Emily Ray Book 2 is just as gripping as the first book, both written by Michelle Dominguez Greene. She is a newer author to me, but this series has sealed the deal that I want to read anything she has written.

Special Agent Emily Ray is on mandatory leave, so she has retreated to Lake Arrowhead with her father. Now that is a story in itself, so if you haven’t read the first book in the series you will want to be sure to do so. While others do not believe Hayley’s best friend Lillian Knox, Emily listens and begins to look into the case further. This story pulled me into this case as Emily ignores orders and investigates. Another hit out of the park of a thriller. I highly recommend Hayley Hope is Gone to all who love a thriller that keeps you on your toes, thinking about the clues of a case.

BOOK: HAYLEY HOPE IS GONE
AUTHOR: MICHELE DOMINQUE GREENE
PUB DATE: 10TH JULY 2024
👩🏼‍✈️👩🏼‍✈️
REVIEW
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
👩🏼‍✈️👩🏼‍✈️
It's a super amazing book! And to think I was about to give up on it. First of all, I'm glad I continued the book. The first couple of chapters were boring to me, but they were necessary and filled with background information on the case and Emily's personal life. I also thought it was going to be a typical mystery, girl, was I wrong!
👩🏼‍✈️👩🏼‍✈️
The book started off with the fbi agent fmc, taking a break at a sma town with her dementia father where she met a teenage girl who's trying to figure out what happened to her best friend, Hayley Hope. The situation interested Emily, and she started working on it. I thought it was just a single crime, but it was an organized small-town, cult-like crime.
👩🏼‍✈️👩🏼‍✈️
The church in Lake Arrowhead, Church in the Hill, was a typical cult organization with all the trimmings, the submissive women, and the men who blame the women for all their sins. Basically, the cult controlled the whole town, and they have some people as outcasts if they don't conform to their rules. The church was really scary, and I was really glad to see their end.
👩🏼‍✈️👩🏼‍✈️
Emily was an elite agent. She was amazing and smart. She was able to outsmart the manipulating people in the small town. She believed the girl no one else would. Now, Lillian was just 15 years old with absent parents, an old (possibly) dementia grandmother, and still managed to talk about her friend's wrongful death. She was young and brave. I admired her.
👩🏼‍✈️👩🏼‍✈️
Anyway, this book was really good, I liked that everyone got the punishment they deserved, and Hayley got the justice she deserved. I eoukd definitely recommend this book, and I can't wait for the next book in the series. I want to read and see more of Emily.
👩🏼‍✈️👩🏼‍✈️

This was a solid mystery with an eerie small-town setting and a dark, slow-burning plot. Emily Ray’s return to Lake Arrowhead brings emotional depth, and the tension builds nicely as she digs into a case no one wants reopened. The stakes felt real, especially with her father’s declining health adding urgency. That said, some of the twists were a bit easy to see coming, and the pacing seemed slow to me in spots. Still, the underlying mystery and themes of long-buried secrets kept me interested to the end and I'm invested enough to go back to read the first book!

Thank you to Storm Publishing via netgalley for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Review was posted (Instagram, Goodreads, bookishlytara blog, Storygraph) on July 11, 2025. (links below)

would like to thank netgalley and the publishers for letting me read this awesome book

emily ray is on special leave from her unit in the fbi so whilst they finish their investigation into her last case she takes a well earned break with her father to a place they use to visit when she was younger....

they have rented a lovely lakeside place and there seems to be only one two other people around them... a grandmother and granddaughter all is peaceful until the granddaughter lillian tells emily about her best friend hayley hope who she says was murdered....

it was enough to to get emily interested and whilst the woman who she had hired to look after her father she started to sniff around... not enough as this was a holiday to relax but it was also enough for emily to find gaps in the investigation.....

things werent adding up... and the childhood friend that emily had made years ago seems to have changed quite a bit...

ohh man this book is fast paced and shocking in its extreme... sometimes second books in a series are just that little bit flat after the first book introductions but this one kept up and introduced another element of emily that we saw....

i cant wait to find out what is next from this author... exciting times ahead

Hayley Hope is Gone by Michelle Dominguez Greene was a great read.
I was hooked from the beginning!
It was amazing and engaging.
I was instantly sucked in by the atmosphere and writing style.
The characters were all very well developed .
The writing is exceptional and I was hooked after the first sentence.

This is the second installment of the Emily Ray novels. We start with Emily on a mandated leave from the FBI.

She returns to her parent’s favorite vacation spot with her father. Emily was there as a teenager and is catching up with old friends and new friends alike.

Hayley Hope’s death was ruled a suicide but nothing is as it seems. Lillian, her best friend, keeps insisting that Hayley would never do that. The police keep insisting she is making waves for nothing. She needs to see a counselor.

Emily can’t just walk away and look the other way. Going rogue from the FBI once again, limits are tested to solve the case. Things aren’t as they seem in this small coastal town. Relationships are tested and secrets are revealed. I hope this isn’t the last we see of Emily Ray!

Thank you NetGalley and Storm Publishing for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

Thank you for allowing me to review this second book in the Special Agent Emily Ray series. It was just as good as the first. Full of mystery and crime. Hayley Hope has been found dead, only her best friend Lillian doesn't accept the suicide verdict and is making her voice heard. In this small remote mountainous town, who can be trusted. Emily and her father arrive for a vacation and Emily is soon disturbed by the story Lillian tells her. Lots of uncomfortable truths begin to emerge, can Emily investigate? Can she save the life of another young girl? A highly recommended read. I can't wait for the next book in the series.

Hayley Hope is Gone
by Michelle Dominguez Greene
Pub Date: Jul 10 2025

Harley Hope is Gone is the 2nd book in Special Agent Emily Ray series, but can be read as a stand-a-lone.

It's a gripping story of a small town horror. A wonderful story that hit's you to your core, I found it hard to put down even when the scary parts started, and they were scary! This is a book I highly recommend, I eagerly await the authors next installment in the series.

Synopsis: The second installment in the addictive Special Agent Emily Ray series delivers heart-pounding suspense that will keep you turning pages late into the night. After closing the case that nearly destroyed her career, Special Agent Emily Ray is placed on mandatory leave and retreats to Lake Arrowhead with her father—a mountain town where she spent childhood summers. A peaceful vacation is just what she needs—until she learns about Hayley Hope, a fifteen-year-old girl found drowned in Papoose Lake. When Emily meets Hayley’s best friend Lillian Knox, the teen is convinced it was murder.

I want to thank #HayleyHopeisGone #NetGalley and author #MichelleDominguezGreene for providing me an E-ARC of this exciting book!

Special Agent Emily Ray is just coming off of a case that nearly destroyed her career. Placed on leave, she decides to visit Lake Arrowhead with her father. Lake Arrowhead has a special place in Emily's heart from when her and her father would spend summers there while growing up. Expecting a peaceful and relaxing time away from work, Emily instead stumbles upon the case of 15-year-old Haley Hope. Haley's best friend swears that Haley was murdered but the local police are dismissive. That all changes when Emily begins to investigate and she realizes that for such a small town, there are a lot of lies and deception, along with a trail of young women disappearing. Can Emily uncover the truth before it's too late?

This is the second book in the Special Agent Emily Ray series and while you can absolutely read it as a standalone, the first book is just as good! Emily, our main character, is so real and relatable but also competent. She's not like a superhero badass but she is vulnerable and carries baggage like a normal person, so I took an interest in her right away. With short, punchy chapters, this story was fast-paced and steady, making me stay up entirely too late to finish! Overall, I'm really liking this series so far and if you'd like FBI thrillers and small town secrets, definitely give this series a shot!

Thank you to NetGalley, Michelle Dominguez Greene, and Storm Publishing for this ARC! Publication date is July 10th 2025.

Hayley Hope Is Gone by Michele Dominguez Greene is a dark, atmospheric mystery that pulls readers into a town brimming with secrets—and not all of them stay buried. From the chilling opening to the last haunting revelation, this is a story that grips you with a sense of unease and refuses to let go.

At the center of the novel is Emily Ray, a determined and instinct-driven investigator who simply can’t ignore when something doesn’t sit right. Despite warnings and a lack of official approval, she dives headfirst into the suspicious drowning of a young girl, Hayley Hope, uncovering a twisted web of lies, secrets, and long-held grudges that surround the town.

Greene’s writing masterfully sets the tone—eerie, tense, and laced with psychological unease. The small-town setting is painted with creeping dread, its residents full of cryptic behavior and hidden motives that keep the reader—and Emily—constantly on edge. The suspense is crafted with precision, making each revelation more unsettling than the last.

Hayley Hope Is Gone is a well-paced, immersive thriller that expertly blends character-driven drama with slow-burning suspense. Michele Dominguez Greene has delivered a mystery that not only chills but lingers, and Emily Ray is a protagonist readers will want to follow into her next case.

A good storyline, filled with suspense and emotional turmoil. Emily's vacation becomes a search for the truth as she unravels the towns deceit and hidden secrets. Young girls are groomed, manipulated, murdered or disappear and Emily is determined to find and bring the perpetrators to justice. Recommended.

jumping into the middle of an already established series midway through is always a little challenging however when it is a detective mystery that continues where the first book left off it makes it much more difficult. Unfortunately that is where I found myself as a reader. I went into this book completely blind with no back story at all so I spent a lot of this book trying to get caught up. This book was a very fascinating mystery all about a young woman who is taking a leave from her job as a detective following a personal tragedy. So decides to go back to her roots when she can relax and grieve properly. However once Emily gets there she realises that there is more going on than it seems. Her once peaceful spot has now become a dark haven as it homes he possible murder of a local teenager. With her own issues still ringing in her head she decides that she is the only one that can bring justice to this family and the missing girl (Hayley Hope) so she jumps feet first into this case. While I do think reading the first would have been best I do like how this was a completely seperate mystery with just a few connection points so it made is simple to read however I feel it would have been better had I read the first. I'm not the biggest detective novel fan however, so parts of this book were just not up to my interest. I think had this been my genre of choice it would have been a lot better. I did really like the characters however and the fact that the chapter lengths weren't to long let you get into the story without a whole bunch of unnecessary information. Very different than what I'm used to however I did enjoy parts of this book. If you like detective books the check this out for sure however I do suggest reading number one first. This book just hit the ground running with not much build up however it was very well done that even though I'm new to the series I still found myself getting pulled into the plot of this book. Really good read however the second half of the book was much better
I can't wait to read the first book in this series.

Emily Ray is back, and this case seems more dangerous than the last!

Emily and her dad Michael are on vacation on Lake Arrowhead,while she is cleared from her previous case. Her cabin is next to a young girl named Lillian who tells Emily about her friend who recently died. Lillian believes that the sheriff, the pastor, and the whole community are hiding what really happened to her friend Hayley. They claim suicide. She believes it was murder. Emily is intrigued, and she begins to look into the disappearance of Hayley.
I thoroughly enjoy Emily as a main character. Her family, her dad, and her husband's family are always such joy to read. This case was huge, and the intricate details that weave the whole community's web of lies were so good. I look forward to reading more about Special Agent Emily Ray and to see what happens with Antonio, her husband. 😒

Thank you, Netgalley and Storm Publishing, for this ARC. All opinions are entirely my own.

What a tangled web we weave when apathy or denial becomes a way of life. There is an underlying sense of evil in this small community known as Lake Arrowhead. It pervades the senses and you can feel the darkness. The question is what is it? Everything appears perfect on the surface of what should be paradise, but there is something just on the edge, beneath the surface where dirty secrets and horror abound.

Special Agent Emily Ray has been temporarily put on leave from the FBI after her last case. So, she decides to take her father for a trip down memory lane at Lake Arrowhead, which was a place of good memories of him and Emily's mother. Emily is not in town long before she realizes something is not right in this town.

After reading the first book in this series, I knew that Emily was not going to sit back and enjoy her vacation after she found out about the mysterious drowning of a teenage girl. The whole case stinks to high heaven, and has been wrapped up by the police force with a nice, neat and tidy bow. However, nothing about this case is neat and tidy, which Emily soon realizes. She is like a dog with a bone. She will not let it go. Her sense of justice and her feelings about crimes against children will not allow her to sit back. What she discovers will give you nightmares and make you mad at the same time.

I did not think this author could top the first book in the series, but this one is extraordinary, albeit chilling and horrifying at the same time. It is a deeply emotional book from one end of the spectrum to the other. As I learned more about Emily's personal life, I felt I knew her more personally. She is truly a hero without a cape. Her scars and her past have somewhat defined her, but she has used her tragic past to make her into a warrior for those who cannot fight for themselves. I applaud her and her tenacity to do good.

This stunning thriller left me speechless and gagging a little as I learned the truth behind the evil in Lake Arrowhead. Sleep is overrated. So, I did without it because I was so deep into this story that I could not get it out of my head until I finished it.

Thank you to Storm Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This one really got to me. Hayley Hope Is Gone isn’t just about a missing girl. It’s about how one moment can shatter lives. I was pulled in right away and found myself needing to know what happened, even when it got heavy.

The different perspectives worked really well and added a lot of depth. I especially liked how the story didn’t just focus on the mystery, but also on the emotional fallout for Hayley’s family. It felt real and messy in a way that stuck with me.

It’s a slow burn at times, but the tension builds nicely and there were a few turns I didn’t see coming. Definitely one of those books that stays with you after you finish.

If you like thrillers with heart and don’t mind some emotional weight, then this one’s worth picking up!

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this!

4 🌟

Hayley Hope is Gone is the second book in Michele Dominguez Greene's Special Agent Emily Ray series. It can be read as a standalone, but I recommend reading the first book, My Name is Emily Ray, to get an in-depth background on the FMC. It helps explain why she makes her decisions and how she has dealt with her past trauma.

Having read both books now, I’m really enjoying this series. They’re rapid reads and fast-paced. I love that this book went into more detail about Emily's relationship with her father and the addition of Sammy. I would definitely read future books with Emily Ray.

Recommended for anyone who loves to read fast-paced thrillers featuring a badass female FBI agent.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for the ARC.

i really enjoyed this book. it was so different from the first book but the same, if that makes sense.

this a new story that takes place just months after the first book , my name is emily ray, where emily and her dad go on vacation and meet this girl Lillian. Lillian her best friend Hayley committed suïcide but Lillian doesn’t believe it’s suicide at all. so emily looks into the town people, Hayley her story and all what everyone says.

Lillian was right, it was never a suicide, Hayley hope was murdered.

this was such a gripping story just like the first book. i didn’t love the ending in emily her personal life as she’s been through so much already and than this happened… but other than that it was such a fast paced book i couldn’t put down !!

i cannot wait to read more of what Michele writes in the future

4.5 ⭐️
I didn’t realize this was a sequel, but it didn’t seem to matter. I had no trouble following the story or keeping the characters straight.

It’s a dark, haunting story full of family drama, corrupt cops, and a religious cult. There were plenty of twists and turns, even if the ending wasn’t super shocking.

I’ll definitely be going back to read book 1