Many thanks to Kim Nash and Bookouture for my spot on this Blog Tour
Hesitation… Trepidation… Fear was what I felt as I turned the pages of this book. Parental kidnapping was the initial plot arc. Megan and Greg were divorced when Greg kidnapped the 6-year-old Daniel and disappeared. It took another 6 years for Daniel to come back, but… Who was the boy who had returned? They shared the DNA but Megan wasn’t sure there was anything left of her sweet boy. She was scared now for her daughter Evie and husband Michael.
Nicole Trope managed to combine emotions and suspense in this story, weaving them both together to make them shimmer on the pages of this book. I read this with my heart in my throat feeling all the emotions that Megan experienced with joy, sorrow, fear, and despair. How was a mother to reach a child who had been brainwashed to believing lies about her by the father? The story wrenched these emotions from my heart, but my brain was aware of the vein of danger that ran in the periphery of this book. A lot of Daniel’s story had loopholes. What was he hiding?
Snapshots of his life and Megan’s were shown, written as chapters, giving me a wider understanding of how the mother and son coped with their loss in the intermittent 6 years. I guessed the twist, it was quite obvious, but that hardly deterred me from enjoying the winding road of the story.
One of my midnight reads, I was so happy losing sleep over it!!
I received a free ARC from NetGalley and publisher, and this is my journey into its pages, straight from the heart!! STRICTLY HONEST AND UNBIASED.
All my reviews can be read here
Nicole Trope went to university to study Law but realised the error of her ways when she did very badly on her first law essay because-as her professor pointed out- ‘It’s not meant to be a story.’ She studied teaching instead and used her holidays to work on her writing career and complete a Masters’ degree in Children’s Literature. After the birth of her first child she stayed home full time to write and raise children, renovate houses and build a business with her husband.
The idea for her first published novel, The Boy under the Table, was so scary that it took a year for her to find the courage to write the emotional story. Her second novel, Three Hours Late, was voted one of Fifty Books you can’t put down in 2013 and her third novel, The Secrets in Silence, was The Australian Woman’s Weekly Book of the month for June 2014.
She lives in Sydney with her husband and three children.
She becomes aware of the silence at the other end of the line. A prickling sensation crawls up her arms. Her heart speeds up. ‘Found who?’ she asks, slowly, carefully, deliberately.
‘They found Daniel.’
Six years ago
Megan waits at the school gates for her six-year-old son, Daniel. As the playground empties, panic bubbles inside her. Daniel is nowhere to be found. Her darling son is missing.
Six years later
After years of sleepless nights and endless days of missing her son, Megan finally gets the call she has been dreaming about. Daniel has walked into a police station in a remote town just a few miles away.
Megan is overjoyed – her son is finally coming home. She has kept Daniel’s room, with his Cookie Monster poster on the wall and a stack of Lego under the bed, in perfect shape to welcome him back. But when he returns, there is something different about Daniel…
According to the police, Daniel was kidnapped by his father. After his dad died in a fire, Daniel was finally able to escape. Desperate to find out the truth, Megan tries to talk to her little boy – but he barely answers her questions. Longing to help him heal, Megan tries everything – his favourite chocolate milkshake, a reunion with his best friend, a present for every birthday missed – but still, Daniel is distant.
And as they struggle to connect, Megan begins to suspect that there is more to the story. Soon, she fears that her son is hiding a secret. A secret that could destroy her family…
Publication Date: 28th June 2019
Publisher: Bookouture
23 Responses
Whoa! This sounds so good! Great review!!!
Thank you my darling
The cover draws into the story and makes want to read the book.
Have a great day.
Thank you Betty.. Enjoy your day
It sounds like quite an emotional ride. This book is on my radar. Thanks for posting your review!
I hope you like it too 😍
Fab review Shalini! Another winner from Bookouture.☺️
You bet… Thank you so much ❤️
Lovely review, you are stronger than me, this one would break my heart
Oooh this had its heartbreak moments… Thank you so much ❤️
That poor child! This sounds like an emotional read. Thanks for the wonderful review, Shalini.
This sounds like such an emotional read but also one that would keep me turning the pages. Great review 🙂
Thank you so much ❤️
Great review, Shalini! A read that made you lose sleep over… amazing!
This was heart touching and a bit scary as the boy was completely brainwashed by the father
Ooooo, this one sounds really good. A kidnapped child, every parent’s nightmare. The return should be joyful, but maybe not always. Wonderful review, Shalini.
EEK! One of those I looked at, but can’t do the missing child thing. Still really loved your review!
I know… Here the child came back and he was different 🙈
I know this is fiction, but I want to scream: “I don’t want it to be this way.” Parental kidnapping is so sad, and this tale seems to go way beyond that.
I was literally scared. The child had no emotions post returning. Father had brainwashed him completely
Great review Shalini!
Thank you so much Chloe❤️
Thank you so much ❤️ just saw your comment. It was on spam. Gosh!!