I really struggled with this book. I just found it very hard to read, long drawn out and boring with not much happening. It was a bit far fetched and unbelievable. Not for me I'm afraid

I was really looking forward to this , the plot is a good one . Abigail is abducted and years later walks into a police station with another younger girl . It's a difficult readjustment for her family . The book is told from Abigail's mum and cousins pov . I really struggled to engage with the book , I found it slow and just wasn't for me

Anne’s daughter Abigail was abducted when she was 8, now 7 years later Abigail has walked into a police station. Relief that Abigail is home her family want to move on but something is holding them back. Jess, Abigail’s cousin is trying her best to help but people are lying. Told from Anne and Jess’s POV, this is a brilliant story of lies, loss and pain. I really enjoyed this.
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

This book had the power to be something so good and clever. But unfortunately it just never gripped me. No matter what I did I just could not get sucked into the story which is a shame as it just wasnt what I was expecting.

Look away for a minute, distracted by your babies and lose your daughter forever- or have you? Abigail, lost for years suddenly appears at a police station and returns herself to her family. Conditioned by the man who took her she struggles to fit back in to family life and seems torn as to whether she did the right thing escaping at all.

The relationships between Abigail and her parents and siblings and her close knit cousin and Aunt and Uncle are well told and it seems that they will help bring her back whole again as the police narrow in on her abductor.
however cracks appear in the story of how Abigail was snatched and guilt from many directions rises to the fore.

Full of twisted relationships, manipulations, secrets and lies this was a great read- keeps the pages turning well into the night and at the end you still don't feel completely at ease with the result.

There was something about this book and I couldn’t put my finger on what it was - but I was hooked as soon as I picked it up.
The story is told through the eyes of Anne White who’s daughter Abigail was abducted 7 years ago - and Jess Brady - Anne’s niece and best friend. The story starts sort of back to front - Abigail has been found - she’s coming home. But where has she been? Who has she been with? What does she remember? Hat exactly is it that DS Macarthy can’t quite put his finger on?
A really gripping book with a bunch of twists and turns that I didn’t see coming. A great read.

I really enjoyed this book but found a few things defied belief. Mainly as at least one other reviewer says that Abigail was returned to her family by the police with no in-depth assessment or psychological counseling Also the issue of how her education was up to date with no schooling. The book was about relationships. Lilian was a strong manipulative person who dominated her more indecisive sister and to a certain extent her (Lilian's) husband. Jess wanted Abigail to be exactly the same person she was before she was taken and obviously Abigail's experiences had changed her. Abigail struggled to fit back into her family as she couldn't understand certain things that didn't ring true. All in all it was a complex story that I found gripping.

Gripping the further into the book you get the tighter the hold on you all I wanted to do was to continue reading every spare moment became time with this book. This would be a one day read if I was able to not do anything else. Tears were shed at a few points in the book. A family struggles with a trauma no one should ever experience too many what ifs, too many questions how do they get through and survive the trauma and aftermath but there is light at the end of the tunnel an ending unexpected but perfect

I enjoyed this book right up until the ending really.

Abigail is found very close to the start of the book, so there is no secret there. However, when she returns to live with her family, she seems a very different person to how she was before. This seemed obvious to me - it had been 7 years. Abigails mother annoyed me as she seemed a complete wimp, I felt like giving her a good talking to and telling her to buck her ideas up!

I thought that Abigail had Stockholm Syndrome - indeed it is never explained why Abigail says at the beginning 'he needs me' - nor is it explained why the kidnapper takes another child.

I felt there were a lot of loose ends in the book and the explanation of what happened to Abigail wasn't really satisfactpry - not for me anyway.

I would like to thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this book, unfortunately it wasn't really what I thought it would be, it had potential that I didn't feel it quite achieved.

I was intrigued by this novel as it sounded similar to the BBC One drama Thirteen, which I enjoyed. However I found this book hard to get into and didn't really engage with any of the characters at all - which is a shame. The plot is perhaps unneccessarily convoluted with red herrings and twists, and a shock ending. It took awhile to get going also and so I lost interest at times. A shame - and maybe I'm just an inpatient reader.

Abigail is restored to her family after going missing when she was eight. She is now 15 and has lots of baggage. The story is told from her mum's and her cousin's viewpoints, each having alternate chapters. There are secrets connected with how she disappeared which made it impossible for me to stop reading.
I found it difficult to identify with Abigail, perhaps the distress she suffered was underplayed, her cousin Jess was also not well portrayed and the ending was abrupt but I did enjoy the book.

Don’t want to be negative about this book which will appeal to readers of the “little... lying” genre but it’s not my sort of thing. Missing child turns up several years after disappearing. Cast of thousand (multi generational to appeal to a range of audiences?) all of whom have back story evidence or something murky in their past. At times read like one of my students essays with strange and unusual imagery which seemed unnatural and forced. But as earlier stated, not my genre.

I thought the idea behind the book was good, but it all seemed rather unbelievable. Abigail is not a convincing character, and I really can't see how she has managed to keep up her studies while she was not going to school. No-one seems particularly bothered about Abigail's ordeal, especially the police. The ending was over-dramatic, and sadly the book wasn't as gripping as it promised to be.

I received a copy to review from Netgalley

Here is the blurb

"Anne White only looked away for a second, but that’s all it took to lose sight of her young daughter.

But seven years later, Abigail is found.

And as Anne struggles to connect with her teenage daughter, she begins to question how much Abigail remembers about the day she disappeared…"

The story switches between 2 different perspectives, Anne the mum and Jess the cousin. I really enoyed this approach. All the way through the story it hints that things are not all they seem on the day Abigail disappeared and this kept me hooked and wanting to read on to find out what the big secret is. I found the big reveal about the day she disappeared a bit disappointing if I am honest and felt a bit like "is that it?" However, I did like how the book dealt with the story line and the complexity of the feelings of the characters involved. I did feel the book didn't need the bit at the end to sell the story as I felt it was more a story about relationships rather than cliffhangers but that is only my opinion. Overall, a good read that keeps you wanting to read on.

I liked nearly everything about this apart from the bog-standard title. Please, enough with the “Lies” titles, now, publishers!

Anyway, Little White Lies *sigh* has an original premise: Abigail, who disappeared seven years ago when she was just eight years old, is back, walking into a police station one day holding another, younger missing child by the hand. The now fifteen year old Abigail is returned to her family - mum Anne, stepdad Robert and her young twin brothers - but of course it’s not all plain sailing. Abigail isn’t the girl she was, and Anne in particular seems strangely disconnected from her daughter, although Abigail’s return is all she’s dreamed of.

Although we know Abigail has been held captive for seven years, it’s a long time before we learn much at all about what happened during that time. The focus is on her return and its impact on her and those around her, told through the eyes of mum Anne and cousin Jess. Clearly, there are things the adults are not telling, and Abigail’s confusion, anger, fear and deeply conflicted feelings about her captor (powerfully expressed by the “victim impact statement” she tries and fails to write) are very well rendered. I really felt for her.

Missing child thrillers are ten a penny at the moment (rather like books with “lies” in the title) but I haven’t read one quite like this before, which starts with Abigail being found, and remains in that time frame - there are none of those ubiquitous flashbacks/dual time-frame narratives which are so popular now, and this was strangely refreshing. As I said above, the focus is firmly on the present and how things play out after Abigail returns... ultimately coming to a frightening head.

The premise of this book held promise but there was just too much missing to make it believable. If a daughter had been abducted for 7 years, would a mother not talk to her in depth to find out not only what happened for those seven years, but how her daughter now felt. Wouldn't Abigail have had to have intense therapy to cope with life? How did she manage to be educated to GCSE standard? I'm sorry but I just wasn't convinced.

Really enjoyed this!!! It kept me guessing until the last second. My loyalties changed from chapter to chapter with each character and I was gripped!

Well written and intriguing. Kept me guessing right until the end and I really didn’t see the final twists coming. I felt it’s portrayal of a child reunited after being abducted from her family was sadly realistic. The return full of problems and complexities and not just a ‘happy ever after’ scenario. A great read.

This was a 'heart in your mouth' read from page one. My loyalties towards characters changed from chapter to chapter and it was an emotional rollercoaster of emotions.. An incredible portrayal of a damaged family, a brutal and twisted abduction but with a warmth of feeling towards parents and family members who had just made a split second wrong decision. Any mother who has ever been to the depths of despair will want to read this book. 5 stars.