Last month three books stood out in my mind and, when I grouped them together, I realised that they had a common thread. All three of them had protagonists you don’t often see represented in crime fiction and it was this diversity that pulled me to them (as well as the exceptional stories, of course). In Ali Harper’s The Runaway, we have two Northern , working class women, one of whom is gay and black. In Kia Abdullah’s Take It Back we have a disabled girl and a Muslim female lawyer and in D.E. White’s, The Forgotten Child, the main character Holly is struggling to maintain a distance from her family’s criminal past, whilst coping with a controlling ex-husband and being a single parent.

I would love to hear what reads you loved in September and why. Why not leave a recommendation at the bottom. #Lovebooks #LoveReading!

The Forgotten Child by D.E. White is all about secrets and past events. After Holly has a car accident and finds another child sitting beside her own son in the back seat, she finds herself drawn to the child. From there, secrets from Holly’s past, the return of a familiar face and shocking news all converge as she, with the help of a friend tries to discover the child’s identity whilst being determined not to return to her old life, despite pressure. Gangsters, unidentified children, threats and family secrets make this a must read. This is an explosive read, with enough red herrings and twists to keep you on your toes. Loved it!

I really liked the cover. It is very appealing designed. The writing style is pleasant and very fluently to read. The characters are very well described and look well thought out and consistently interesting. The tension is always present. The descriptions of surroundings, feelings and scenes were also very good. The story is told pleasant and it succeeds from the first pages to dive directly into the story. The storyline as a whole is very coherent and it seems very understandable and authentic. A very fascinating story that you won't like to stop reading.

This book was not something I expected from the synopsis. The synopsis pulled me in and I was so excited to read it. Unfortunately, the dialogues in the book were not organic and had no natural flow to it. It felt forced and stilted. I liked the story, the premise and how the plot progressed. I didn't expect the twists or turns that came in the book. I didn't like Holly's character and at times the author's intention for her character didn't match who she is in the book. The overall enjoyability was heavily affected by the dialogues and the style of it. I gave the book a 3-stars rating.

EXCERPT: Holly cut through the last bit of rope as (he) finished his call. She bunched her legs under her, arranging the rope around her wrists and ankles, ready for a moment when she could attack him. She was fairly confident that if he came close she would be able to tackle him before he pulled a gun. If he had a knife he might have a chance to use it, but she didn't care. She knew she would fight to the death as much as the boys were going to have to, for her son.

This was going to be it, her last fight. Without ropes or referees, without gloves or timers, she was going to fight not just for her life, but for all of them. Her muscles quivered, but she arranged her face into an expression of passive terror and let her old instincts rise.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: Holly Kendal is trying to put her painful past and broken marriage behind her and focus on her beloved son, Milo. But while driving him home on a dark February night, Holly loses control on the rain-slicked tarmac, and her car spirals off the road.

When Holly regains consciousness, everything is silent and in the dark, she can’t see Milo. Desperately, she claws her way out of the car and forces the back door open.

To her relief, Milo is where she left him, injured but breathing – but then she sees something that makes her heart stop.

Milo isn't the only child in the car. Next to him is another little boy, unharmed but unconscious.

And Holly has absolutely no idea who he is.

MY THOUGHTS: I was expecting more of a psychological thriller than what I got, which was a very action based story of a family and community who thrive on the proceeds from drug dealing and human trafficking.

There were no characters that I particularly liked, except perhaps Devril, or Devil as Milo calls him. No, not even Holly.

It is, in parts, very repetitive. There were a couple of times that I almost threw in the towel. I felt no suspense, no sense of being thrilled at any point during the read and, on reflection, I am unsure why I bothered to finish it. The whole thing felt sordid and grubby. The cover, which I like, is the most atmospheric thing in the book,

Not my usual reading fare and not an experience that I am planning to repeat.

Reading is a personal and subjective experience, and what appeals to one may not please another. So if you enjoyed the excerpt from The Forgotten Child, and the plot outline appeals, please do go ahead and read it.

😖😖

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Daisy White is the best-selling author of The Ruby Baker Seaside Mysteries, set in 1960’s Brighton and published by Joffe Books.
Her new psychological thriller ‘Remember Me’, published by HQ Digital (HarperCollins), is out Feb 2019, with another, Blindsided’ to follow in July 2019.

She lives on the Sussex coast and has two children, both of whom are bookworms, so it must run in the family!

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to HQ Digital via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Forgotten Child by D.E. White for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system, please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon and my webpage https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...

An okay read I wish the book had more to do with the child then the mob but overall it was a fine read with some good moments of suspense and twists just not my favourite

Wow, that was intense! I thoroughly enjoyed it: the writing style, the characters and the plot. Everything came together really well. It was unpredictable, and the best thing was that the main characters were not perfect; they were real and relatable, making it easy to empathise with them.

Holly wakes up after a terrible car crash and discovers another child in the car along with her young son. Hmmm this additional child wasn’t there before the accident, so what’s going on? What could have been a really good psychological thriller veers off into an organized crime story which came as a surprise to me.

I’m glad I read the reviews of this book after I had finished it as I thought I had missed the point of the story going off the blurb whilst in fact I don’t think whoever wrote the blurb had read more than the first chapter or two.
It was gripping at the start and I thought I was going to love it but then some mafia family crime plot took over and I was glad to get to the end.
If you enjoy Martina Cole books I think this would be a great author for you to read and I certainly didn’t guess “ who done it”.

First of all I would say to anyone considering buying this book to ignore the early less than favourable reviews that have been posted. There was an original blurb written for this book which I don't think did it any favours. I read the book and expected one type of story but got something quite different, and I think it is this that has led to some lower star reviewers. I understand it has now been amended to a better description for the book. Holly had a difficult start in life, being the daughter of one of the criminal families who ran the Seaview Estate where drugs and crime were rife. After the unsolved death of her mother and then the disappearance of her brother when his girlfriend and baby were murdered, she took her life in a completely different direction and tried to leave the past behind. Although different, ultimately things were not really much better for her, and now she finds herself living nearby and once more trying to make a new life for herself and her young son. One night the are involved in a car accident but on regaining consciousness she finds an extra child in the wrecked car. With no idea who he is or where he came from, she finds herself thrown back into the past she so desperately wanted to forget and has to fight to keep hold of those she cares about whilst never knowing who she can trust anymore. Although the child in the title is important, this is really a story about rival family gangs and the competition between them on a run down drug infested estate, involving some members who want to break free of this lifestyle and others who want to immerse themselves fully and become top dogs. It was sad to read how most of the people who disliked the lifestyle were still not brave enough to try to do something to stop it, preferring to simply accept that's how things are or run away instead. Well written, the book had a slowish start, with a lot of characters to get familiar with, and for a while it was hard to see where the story was going. However the strands did later all start to weave together to reveal the truth, and the action at the end made up for it as all questions were finally answered and things made sense at last!

I hate to write a review that is more negative than positive. Like other reviewers, I would not have chosen this book except for the synopsis about the car wreck and the extra boy in the car. The first few pages of the book were definitely engaging and I didn’t want to put the book down. But then the story took a turn. It was no longer about a mysterious boy in a car. There were pages and pages of dialogue. The story got more and more unrealistic. Definitely not my kind of book. Thanks to NetGallery and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an edge of your seat book. Very different that it was based on drug kingpins and a feud between them. Showed how they are people with problems just like everyone else. Stayed on the edge of my seat trying to figure it all out and guess what was what, but the twist at the end was not something I expected. Very good book.

I’ve read a number of D.E White’s (she’s also published under the name Daisy White) novels over the years so when I hear she has a new book out, it’s always a must read for me.

Holly Kendal is a single mum, trying her hardest to put her ex husband and troubled past behind her. She’s driving home with her son Milo when she skids off the road, crashing her car.

When she wakes up, she finds not only her son but another boy. Who is this child and where did he come from? Unable to rest until Holly knows who the boy is, she must look into her past and confront the secrets that lie there.

The Forgotten Child is a tense and intriguing thriller with a cast of fascinating characters.

Holly is a great character that you really can’t help rooting for. She’s worked hard to escape from her gangland past and built a new life for her and her son, working in call centre for the ambulance services, yet she still has an edge of toughness about her. Ugh and her ex husband, how she deals with him is beyond me!

The book was billed as a psychological thriller but it felt like it was edging more into a gangland thriller territory. This type of novel is not usually my cup of tea but D.E White’s writing draws me in every time!

I did feel that the boy who Holly finds in her car, the whole incident that starts the story, got a little forgotten in the overall story but of course that’s just my opinion.

The Forgotten Child is a gritty and intense read that’s packed with tension from that very first page.

Wow this book really starts with an adrenaline pumping introduction. As Holly is driving in the night she is being bombarded with hateful texts and is being tailgated by a van on a dark lonely road. The inevitable crash knocks her out for a while and when she wakes up there is a strange child in the car with her son. Where did this child come from? How and why is he unconscious in her car?

The mysteries continue to add up as secrets from the past come back to haunt not only Holly but her friends and family.

The characters develop well over the course of the book and I loved getting to know Holly and the other characters. I like how the story and the histories of each character meshed perfectly with the story making this a riveting read that I couldn't put down.

The story itself is intriguing it had me hooked from the beginning and there are numerous twists and turns throughout to keep the reader's interest. I thought I had worked it out several times but then the story twisted again and I had to rethink.

A brilliant book with a lot going on all the way through I loved it. 5 stars from me.

It is late at night and recently separated mom Holly is driving her son home. There is a car following too closely, there are horrible texts coming in on her phone, then a deer jumps out in front of them and the crash is imminent. When Holly wakes up, she is in her car, and looking for her son Milo. She finds him unconscious in the back seat, but he isn't alone. There is another little boy in her back seat as well. But who is he and why is he in her backseat next to her son?

I was intrigued by the blurb and I thought that more of the story would be about the child and finding out who he was. The story took a bit of an odd turn when we found out who the child was fairly early on but Holly's own child was kidnapped from her home. Holly grew up in a crime family and there were no shortage of possible suspects, her ex husband, his new girlfriend, an ex boyfriend of hers, her father, other crime bosses from the area, her "dead but not really" brother, so many choices. I was trying to figure it out and really did not figure it out until I read who it was. So that being said, kudos to the author for making me suspect everyone and then really throwing me for a loop with who it was and why.

My frustration lies in the title and in the blurb. They really have very little to do with the story. The car crash with random child in the car and the title are both very far from the main storyline. They are almost just a side note and not really a part of the story at all.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the book to review. This is my honest review.

I received this book from Netgalley as an ARC. I wasn’t overly impressed with this book. I mean, it was ok, but as a mystery novel, I would have expected it to have been fast-paced and suspense building. I was a little disappointed with the book as it did not live up to other mystery novels I have read.

Whilst the story was ok, but not incredible, and there was a plot that all got wrapped up within the final chapters, I was not gripped by the story. I felt like I was plodding through story. I personally feel like the title and the blurb gripped me more than the rest of the story did.

The mystery was more predictable than I thought it would be and, as a result, there were no twists or surprises throughout. You could tell what was happening, even if the characters didn’t.

Whilst I don’t think it is a bad book, I don’t think it’s the book for me. I’m quite a picky reader and unfortunately have super high expectations when it comes to mystery novels. I personally would have like to have seen more suspense and for the mystery atmosphere to have been present throughout. It would be a useful book to introduce someone to the genre as it is a good segue.

Like others have said, this book didn't match the synopsis at all. I was really intrigued by the storyline of a random boy showing up in Holly's car after an accident, and the book started that way, but that piece was resolved quickly and the whole rest of it was focused on the organized crime turf wars affecting Holly and her friends/family, a genre that I have zero interest in.

Assuming you like this genre, the book was pretty good- it moved quickly and tied up loose ends for the most part. I didn't necessarily think that the author did a great job of getting you to know/care about the person who turns out to be the primary "bad guy" in the end- it felt like a bit of a stretch,.

But overall, if you are interested in organized crime thrillers versus psychological thrillers, it is a decent read.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Holly Kendal left her husband when she discovered he was cheating, but Tom is furious that Holly took their son Milo with her. One rainy evening, Holly and Milo are involved in a car accident in which Holly blacks out. When she comes to, her relief that Milo is okay turns to confusion when she notices another young boy she has never seen before sitting in the back seat next to her son. This event is just the beginning of the danger Holly faces, but she will do whatever it takes to keep her son safe.

The premise of this book is so intriguing. Unfortunately, the mystery of the boy in Holly's car is answered early on. The book mainly focuses on Holly's secrets and her past and present dealings with organized crime. There are too many "bad guys" to keep track of and the story is full of violence and strong language and is not the domestic thriller I was hoping for. However, I read all types of mysteries and may have enjoyed it more if the story had been told differently. Except for the conversations between Holly and her best friend Cathryn, much of the dialogue is stilted and the narrative is often confusing. The book also includes letters written by an unknown boy to his father that further detract from the story.

The book starts strong, gets really slow in the middle, and has a tense, violent showdown between the main players in this drama towards the end. I was pleasantly surprised when things wrap up on a hopeful note at the very end. I wish I had known what this book was really like before I had begun so I wouldn't have been disappointed by the direction the story took. Holly is a memorable character, but this book wasn't really for me.

I received this book from NetGalley through the courtesy of HQ Digital. The book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of those books where the synopsis is nothing at all like the actual book. It wasn’t a psychological thriller, it was more of a crime book about gangs in the local area. It wasn’t bad, but it just wasn’t what I expected. Personally I’m not a big crime fan, and I only requested it as I thought it was a psychological thriller. So it wasn’t for me as it’s a genre I don’t really enjoy that often. A prime example of a book that isn’t bad necessarily, but was just badly marketed and missold, meaning it reached an audience that maybe wasn’t its target.

Protagonist gets into a wreck and wakes up with an extra kid in her car. She only has one son, so who is this other child? It didn't stick to blurb like I thought it would, it had more to do with local smallish organized crime and less to do with the mystery of the child. Still held my interest, although I thought it could be substantially shorter as parts of it - especially the struggle with the cocaine addicted ex husband - dragged on and got lost in itself. Still a worthy and entertaining read.

Marketed as a psychological thriller this was more of a gang/organised crime book familiar to readers of Martina Cole and the like. There were a lot of characters to unpick from the different gangs and I often found my attention wandering. I think my reaction to the book would have been more positive if it had been marketed more logically. Sometimes this book felt over complicated and confusing. I may give this another read when I'm in the mood for this type of book and see whether or not mg opinion of it changes.