Book Review: Then She Was Gone

OMG! Talk about a good book! I read this book as part of a buddy read with some close friends and we flew through it in about 3 days! This book was called Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell and it is not one to miss!

Synopsis:
THEN
She was fifteen, her mother’s golden girl. She had her whole life ahead of her. And then, in the blink of an eye, Ellie was gone. 

NOW 
It’s been ten years since Ellie disappeared, but Laurel has never given up hope of finding her daughter.

And then one day a charming and charismatic stranger called Floyd walks into a café and sweeps Laurel off her feet. 

Before too long she’s staying the night at this house and being introduced to his nine year old daughter. 

Poppy is precocious and pretty – and meeting her completely takes Laurel’s breath away. 

Because Poppy is the spitting image of Ellie when she was that age. And now all those unanswered questions that have haunted Laurel come flooding back. 

What happened to Ellie? Where did she go? Who still has secrets to hide?

All I can say is Wow! This was my first time picking up a thriller book by Lisa Jewell and I can gladly say that I will be reading more by this author.

This book had me pulled in from start to finish and I found myself wanting to jump back into it every time I had to put the book down to do other things. I felt so many emotions through this book and was so drawn in with it.

It was done really well by telling the story from the perspectives of Ellie and Laurel. You get to see the grieving mother trying to find her daughter and the daughter’s perspective of what is happening to her.

I did kind of call what was going to happen because my mind is dark and I was kind of joking when I said it but then it turned out to be what happened which was even creepier. That only made the book better for me because I have found an author that will go to those dark places and make the thrillers they right that much more scary.

I really look forward to picking up another book by Lisa and can’t wait to see what thriller she has next for me!

Book Rating: 5/5

You can buy this book on Amazon and find it on Goodreads.

Disclaimer: I read this book because I wanted to and was in no way compensated for my review.


An author and friend of mine recently released another book that you should check out. It is called The Little Breadwinner: War and Survival in the Salvadoran Heartland by Lucia Mann.

The Little Breadwinner - Front 3D Cover

Synopsis: FROM 1980 TO 1992, A TURBULENT CIVIL WAR ravaged the Central American state of El Salvador, claiming the lives of approximately 75,000 Salvadorans. The Little Breadwinner is a story of tyrannized, frightened families—mostly poor peasants, indigenous peoples, and child farm workers—whose lives signified nothing to the military death squads.

Lucia Mann, who was in El Salvador at the time, recalls this vivid historical portrait of human rights violations during and after the “dirty” war between the military-led government and left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front. This brutal conflict was backed politically, economically, and militarily by the United States with CIA involvement.

Throughout these pages, you will experience intense trials of courageous survival with unforgettable characters who yearn for peace, justice, and normalcy. One of the brave women you will meet is Estella Godwin Lozano (a Waorani tribe descendant of the Amazon rain forest), who suffered terribly before her brutal demise in Laredo, Texas in 2019. She was a “little person” who became traumatically affected by the abuse perpetrated by National Guard soldiers outside her pueblo home. She heroically joined the Sandinistas (Cuban-backed guerillas) to seek revenge upon the villains of her country.

Buy the book on Amazon!



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I created an original book tag and am super excited about it! I present to you the Barking Bout Books Tag!! My dog Max recently passed away and I decided to make this book tag in remembrance of him. I would love to see your renditions of this tag! Let me know in the comments below what you think of the tag. Check out the video below: