****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
This was an absolutely wonderful thriller, along the lines of authors like Lisa Jewell, Gillian McAllister, Rea Frey, TM Logan... this book gets you hooked from the start.Young, free, single and kind of broke, Harper has to find a dress for a job, and quickly. Little does she know that stepping into that dress store is about to change her life...May has been abandoned, left alone in a big city that she doesn’t belong to, with no trace of any family, and no one reports her missing. Harper finds her, but what does she do? What can she do? Having grown up in care herself, she can’t bear to see this little girl suffer, but surely she has to do the right thing...Harper has a good friend in TJ, an ex-cop who has been one of the only people she has had around to care about her in her life & act like a father figure. So, she turns to him for help, which in turn brings her ex-boyfriend Reggie back into her life. Together they try to work out what could have happened to May in her short life that led to her being left alone in a city like New York.There are so many twists and turns in this book, a lot of characters, good and bad. The main focus is on Harper, May, TJ and Reggie. All of which are such likeable and relatable characters who just want to do the right thing. Reggie is clearly still in love with Harper, willing to risk his career to help her, and TJ is unwittingly doing anything he can to keep Harper happy and out of trouble ... which doesn’t exactly happen.What follows is a story of crime, corruption, heartache - a wild goose chase involving cults, road trips, crazy businessmen and FBI agents. All with (mostly) the same goal, to find May and find her parents.Harper, along with TJ and Reggie, come across some undesirable people on their journey, which takes them across the country to a place of worship, a place where con men are rife but they know there’s something there that will lead them to Mays family. The quest to get to the truth lands them, and mostly Harper, in some sticky situations.I didn’t see the ending coming, which to me is always the sign of a good, well written novel, no matter the genre. This book left me feeling like I had just watched an action movie, and I would definitely like to find out more about what happens to these characters after the story ends.A sequel telling the story next for Harper and Reggie would be great to find out what Harper does next, for herself and her future (don’t want to add too many spoilers) and how (and if) the gang we grew to know in this book stay in touch as May grows.This book was a genuine joy to review and I look forward to seeing more from this author in future.
