Lost You
by Haylen Beck
A provocative novel of psychological suspense about two women locked in a desperate fight over a child each believes is rightfully hers
“Deliciously twisty and seriously dark . . . I couldn’t put it down.”—Natasha Bell, author of His Perfect Wife
Libby needs a break. Three years ago her husband split, leaving her to raise their infant son Ethan alone as she struggled to launch her writing career. Now for the first time in years, things are looking up. She's just sold her first novel, and she and Ethan are going on a much-needed vacation. Everything seems to be going their way, so why can't she stop looking over her shoulder or panicking every time Ethan wanders out of view? Is it because of what happened when Ethan was born? Except Libby's never told anyone the full story of what happened, and there's no way anyone could find her and Ethan at a faraway resort . . . right?
But three days into their vacation, Libby's fears prove justified. In a moment of inattention, Ethan wanders into an elevator before Libby can reach him. When the elevator stops and the doors open, Ethan is gone. Hotel security scours the building and finds no trace of him, but when CCTV footage is found of an adult finding the child wandering alone and leading him away by the hand, the police are called in. The search intensifies, a lost child case turning into a possible abduction. Hours later, a child is seen with a woman stepping through an emergency exit. Libby and the police track the woman down and corner her, but she refuses to release Ethan. Asked who she is, the woman replies:
"I'm his mother."
What follows is one of the most shocking, twist-y, and provocative works of psychological suspense ever written. A story of stolen identity, of surrogacy gone horribly wrong, and of two women whose insistence that each is the "real" mother puts them at deadly cross-purposes, Lost You is sure to be one of 2019's most buzzed-about novels.
Momma Says: 3 stars⭐⭐⭐
Lost You starts with a good pace as Ethan disappears, and I was all ready to settle in for a gripping thriller. Then the story moves into the past and everything that led up to the disappearance and one woman's claim that young Ethan is her child. That's where it started losing me. The pace slows down considerably, and parts of felt like a little too much of the mundane. There are elements of a thriller here, but most of the book is more domestic suspense or drama. The story does get very dark and one part in particular disturbed me to no end, but other than those few and fleeting moments, there wasn't much in the way of the gripping story I was hoping for. As far as the story itself, neither of these women are particularly likable nor are they what most would consider stable, which does lend itself to the suspense. The conclusion was about what I expected, but kind of fell flat for me. I suppose that tidy little bow that ties everything up was just a little bit too tidy if you know what I mean. In the end, this one comes in somewhere in the middle. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either.
Lost You starts with a good pace as Ethan disappears, and I was all ready to settle in for a gripping thriller. Then the story moves into the past and everything that led up to the disappearance and one woman's claim that young Ethan is her child. That's where it started losing me. The pace slows down considerably, and parts of felt like a little too much of the mundane. There are elements of a thriller here, but most of the book is more domestic suspense or drama. The story does get very dark and one part in particular disturbed me to no end, but other than those few and fleeting moments, there wasn't much in the way of the gripping story I was hoping for. As far as the story itself, neither of these women are particularly likable nor are they what most would consider stable, which does lend itself to the suspense. The conclusion was about what I expected, but kind of fell flat for me. I suppose that tidy little bow that ties everything up was just a little bit too tidy if you know what I mean. In the end, this one comes in somewhere in the middle. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either.
❃❃ARC provided by NetGalley and Crown Publishing
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