A fantastic debut thriller
A child is whisked away from a local neighborhood store. The family left in shambles.
Emma and Matt are overwhelmingly devastated when their daughter Grace goes missing. Emma's sister Samantha is right there to help prevent the family from shattering. But just beneath the surface there are hidden secrets and lies that threaten to be exposed as the police search for Grace to bring her home safe and sound.
Tragically, Maggie also lost a granddaughter Zoe years ago. As the news of Graces’ disappearance reaches her, she is forced to relive the pain and loss of having no resolution to Zoe’s abduction. Why is the news of this new abduction hitting her so unusually hard?
Told from multiple points of view, the layers and back-stories are deep and disturbing. At one point I actually had to put the book down to try and put all the pieces together! My heart was pounding and my head was spinning! At that moment all I could say was, Wow!
So cleverly written with shocking twists that are revealed along the way. Absolutely brilliant! Hard to believe this is a debut for this author!
Highly recommend for all thriller fans.

Thank you to Netgalley, Avon Books UK and Elisabeth Carpenter for an ARC to review in exchange for an honest review.

99 Red Balloons is a fantastic debut novel by Elisabeth Carpenter.

8-year old Grace goes missing from a sweet shop on her way home from school. Her parents, Matt and Emma, are frantic. With the support of Emma's sister Stephanie and the half-hearted company of their mother, Matt and Emma unravel.

Meanwhile, Maggie becomes obsessed with Grace's disappearance. To the point of purchasing multiple copies of the same newspaper. Why? Because her 5-year-old granddaughter, Zoe, was kidnapped under similar circumstances 30-years ago.

There are some things I love about this book and some that were just plain mediocre.

Let's start with the love. 99 Red Balloons had one major twist that truly made me go "Woah!" I woah'd a little more than half way through the book, and it changed my entire perception of the characters. That's always a good thing for me.

Elisabeth Carpenter wrote 99 Red Balloons in the first person from multiple points of view. Maggie and Emma's sister, Stephanie, are the prominent points of view. Then there are the unnamed first persons, who provide a little drama and tension. Many folks are not into multiple points of view. However, I prefer it.

There are a few things I wish the book had included. First, I was expecting a little more family drama between Matt, Emma, and Stephanie. There's plenty of drama with the girls' mother. But for some reason, I thought there was going to be more drama between the "kids." So I was a little disappointed with that.

Last, while I enjoyed the ending well enough, I would have loved to see another major twist.

All in all, I give Elisabeth Carpenter's 99 Red Balloons 4-stars.

Thank you Netgalley, Avon Books UK, and Elisabeth Carpenter for providing an advanced copy of 99 Red Balloons for review. All opinions are solely my own.

I was sent a copy of this book in return for my independent honest review. What can I say but Wow. My favourite psychological thriller of 2017 so far.
There are several key narrators whose different perspectives are what,in my opinion keeps the reader guessing what is happening. Just when you think you have worked it out, wow you haven't.
An eight year old girl Grace is abducted on her way home from school. Similarly decades earlier Zoe is also abducted in very similar circumstances ! The plot follows the lives of the families after these tragedies.
The characters are well formed and evoke an emotional response from the reader, even when they are not all likeable. I just couldn't put this book down.
This is the first book I have read by this author and it certainly won't be the last.
A must read.

I enjoyed the storyline but I wasn't keen on the format going from one character to another told in first person. I found it quite confusing and it didn't flow as I would have liked.

Every so often a book comes along with a twist that really knocks you for six. 99 Red Balloons by Elisabeth Carpenter is one of those books. It is a psychological thriller that is filled with suspense from the first page and the writing and the characters keep you turning the pages. I’m sure that this book will be a big hit this summer.

Two girls go missing, decades apart, what if your daughter was one of them? Eight-year-old Grace Harper disappears outside a sweet shop in her hometown of Lincoln. When ageing widow, Maggie Taylor hears about Grace’s disappearance on the news she is immediately taken back to the time of her own granddaughter’s kidnapping more than thirty years ago. Is it possible that the two cases are connected?

I really enjoyed reading this book. It’s one of those books that you just have to keep reading until you turn the final page, there was a great use of tension throughout the book and then Elisabeth delivered that twist. I love those moments when you’re just totally taken aback by what you just read that you have to put the book down for a bit to process it. The author really did surprise me. I’ll be telling everyone I know to read it just so that I can discuss it with them.

The book is told from multiple perspectives and I really liked the unique voices that Elisabeth gave to everyone of her characters, particularly to Stephanie and Emma, I found it interesting to see how their relationship as sisters played out in the wake of Grace’s disappearance, particularly as I didn’t like their mother at all. I really liked how Elisabeth constructed her plot which I thought was really clever which is why I won’t say anything more about it here.

A brilliant debut novel, Elisabeth Carpenter has created an intriguing and suspenseful read. I’ll be keeping an eye out to see what she does next. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with a copy to read.

Told from alternating viewpoints, it took me a minute to figure out all the players in this psychological thriller.

An eight year old girl doesn't come home from school. As her family frantically try and figure out who did this and why.

Not far away, Maggie has already lost her husband, dear friends and her daughter and is still not over the abduction of her granddaughter. When she sees a picture of Grace in the news, she feels a strong connection.

This was a very twisty tale full of secrets, crimes and stolen children. Will they get Grace back? Is this family even a family?

There was quite a bit of tension in the story, as one would expect when a child goes missing. It was a good story. I just felt there was a lot more that could have been said about the individual characters.

Would I read it again? No. But give it a try and let me know what you think!

Netgalley/Avon August 24th Release.

I really enjoyed this book. All the twists n turns kept me reading until the very end. This story is about a family with so many secrets; it results in a child being kidnapped. But who did it & why?? You have to read it to find out.

After 8 year old Grace gets kidnapped you're taken on a roller coaster ride that her parents go through. While they wait for news of their daughter, lies that were told years ago come to the surface. Will it mend or break them? Is the kidnapper hurting Grace? Will she come back alive?
Meanwhile in another town after reading about the case in the paper, pensioner Maggie Taylor has an empathy with the parents. She had a granddaughter who was also kidnapped many years ago. What is it about this child that makes Maggie want to learn all she can?
I have read many books of this nature but have to say this was the most beautiful book to date. You're drawn in to the story and can almost feel the up's and down's the family are going through, as though it's your own child.
I would certainly recommend this book and will be looking out for more by this author.

I am a big fan of thrillers, especially those with a twist ending. 99 Red Balloons by Elisabeth Carpenter did not disappoint. From the very beginning I began to feel sympathy towards the characters and wanted to know what each one was hiding. At the beginning of the story, 8 year old Grace goes missing after a visit to the sweet store down the road. When Maggie reads about this in the newspaper, she is gripped by the parallels of a disappearance decades earlier, when her own granddaughter goes missing, never to be found again. I never found the shifting narrative to be a distraction and the only frustration I felt was with Maggie´s inactivity at times. After a spate of reading incredibly violent thrillers, I was thrilled to discover that this book had no scenes of gore and though there was violence, it wasn´t gratuitous at any point. I would definitely enjoy reading future novels by Elisabeth Carpenter.

Fantastic debut, couldn't put it down and read it in a few hours, great story and characters, looking forward to more by this author.

Wow that's all I can say. Seriously this is a book and a half and more!!! I totally ate it up and wanted seconds, I wished for another chapter after the end, would have been nice to see how it went, but alas there wasn't one 😭

So cannot say too much but this book will blow you away, I read a lot of this genre and I had nooooooo idea that the twist was what it was and who the culprit was (the first culprit anyway).

I felt so bad for Maggie and how anyone could endure such tragedy and sadness and continue I'll never know. I though the characters were well rounded and I liked Steph though struggled with Emma even though her child was missing (in a bad person I know I just didn't gel with her don't judge me lol....)

Anyway you gotta get this book it's one of the best I've read in years and the twist will blow you away!!!

Please write another book soon!!!

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

This book intrigued and annoyed me in equal measure, it felt like the two narratives were never going to come together and reveal the connection.
Many of the characters including Emma, Jamie and even David and Scott felt wooly and lacked any real depth. It also would have been better to have a final chapter or epilogue instead of the unfinished conclusion.

I love it when I accidentally stumble across a book that is EXACTLY the type of novel I love reading – and that keeps me up all night because I get so engrossed in it that I can’t put it down. It was the title that first attracted me to 99 Red Balloons, because I remember singing this song in the car with my sisters when we were growing up – Nena was a big name in those days! Plus, I can never resist a story about missing children even though as a parent they are pretty harrowing. My advice to readers is to go into this story blindly to make the most of the author’s brilliant plotting – so I am going to hide the rest of my review under the spoiler tag as I don’t want to be responsible for giving anything away.

Just having turned the last page, I am still reeling from the sheer brilliance of this book. It was just sooooooo good! Told in alternating chapters from the perspective of multiple characters, the book tells the harrowing tale of a family who are living through one of the worst nightmares a parent can ever imagine – the abduction of their daughter Grace. Each and every one of the characters in this amazing story has their own unique voice, and carries their own baggage, making for a rich cast of sympathetic, intriguing characters I couldn’t get enough of. There is Emma, the girl’s mother whose own childhood is still shrouded in mystery but hints of neglect and trauma. Stephanie, her adoptive sister and aunt to Grace, is trying to support her sister but has been keeping some information from her that is still haunting her because she fears it could have a connection to Grace’s disappearance. Matt, the father, is angry and confused and not knowing where to turn. And then there is Maggie, a stranger to the family, whose own granddaughter Zoe has been missing for thirty years, and who follows Grace’s story on the news, reflecting on how Zoe’s abduction has destroyed her own family and cast a dark shadow over her entire life. I am not going to say any more about the story or the other narrators for fear of giving away spoilers, except that the story held some amazing surprises in store that even my seasoned (and sometimes jaded) mystery lover’s nose did not sniff out. I love to be floored by unexpected developments!

There were some harrowing moments in the book, and it was a very emotional read for me. Maggie’s story simply broke my heart as I imagined the pain and loss she had experienced as a result of her granddaughter’s disappearance. As a parent, I can imagine few things worse than not knowing what has happened to your child, and to feel guilty for not having been able to keep them safe. I particularly liked the way the author focused on the story from the family’s perspective, and only revealed details of the police investigation as they were being shared with family members. It added mystery and depth to the story, giving a hint of the fear and frustration the family would be feeling in that situation, thinking the police were keeping information from them.

If you are looking for a brilliantly plotted multi-layered mystery that will surprise and shock you, look no further than 99 Red Balloons. Brimming with intriguing characters, this emotional read will take you straight into a parent’s worst nightmare and keep you guessing throughout. It is definitely on my list of favourite mysteries for 2017 and I can’t wait to read more from this author. Loved it and can’t recommend it highly enough!

A well earned 5 stars for this book.
Kept me hooked right from the first page up until the very last. An absolute must read for any fan of this genre. Quite easily one of the best books of this year so far.

Devious Brain Candy

Usually when a book says it’s got a huge twist, I either find that the twist is so obvious that it hits you in the face long before the official reveal or I find myself finishing the book wondering what the twist was.

This has twists – multiple. A few little ones you’ll see coming, but there were two that left me with my mouth gaping open. I simply didn’t see them coming.

This is a wonderfully twisty thriller. I was very wrong about quite a few things and I loved the fact that the author surprised me. Add to that characters I actually cared for and this was one of those books that I simply didn’t want to stop reading.

Is it a beach read? Absolutely. But it’s that kind of delicious brain candy beach reads that is simply a pleasure.

Very, very enjoyable!

Enjoyable story. Well written. You think you're being given details about Grace, only to have a slight plot twist. Very believable characters.

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley. This book was really good! It had a lot of twists and turns and I did not expect the ending at all! I always say a book is great if I can't figure out the ending as I am reading it and I didn't. I was really impressed--great story, characters, suspense, changes in the plot. Loved it so much! Highly recommend!

An excellent read that keeps you guessing. Whilst not having a massive OMG twist I was constantly wrong footed, thinking I knew exactly what was going on and being way off. Two missing girls, years apart, how could they possibly be connected? More of a family drama than a crime novel I did feel it lacked slightly as the reader is completely unaware of the police investigation and suddenly a character is arrested out of nowhere but that's my personal preference for crime over drama. A good holiday beach read.

A gripping thriller with a plot with many twists and turns to keep the reader guessing. Very good book.

I think this is the fourth book in a row to get 5 stars. All of them have been stellar reads. I don't know if I am just lucky or what in my selections. I cannot believe this is a debut novel. It has a maturity in the writing and a patience while the story builds. I know that it is all the rage to have a "twist" in the novel. This one, however, does the twist with perfection. When it was revealed I had to go back and read it again just to make sure that I understood what was happening. I am adding Elisabeth Carpenter to my fav list.