Harlan Coben never disappoints and certainly didn’t with this book. Great characters, a brilliant plot and a nice twist at the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and unbiased opinion.

As always I enjoyed Harlen Coben's writing but this wasn't as good as previous novels. It is still a good book. The first half had so much scene-setting I wasn't sure if there was a plot. The second 50% of the book was far better. Although there is a nominal amount of violence in the book, it is kept to a minimum. Coben gives his strong heroes brains as well as brawn. From the ending I assume there will be another book with the character, Wilde as he never followed up the information as to his background. I look forward to it.

Harlan is my ride or die. I will read everything he writes from books, to New York Times articles to Instagram posts.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Boy from the Woods. I loved getting to know and understand Hester, a character we’ve met before, better. I loved meeting new characters such as Wilde and I’m hopeful that we’ll get to meet him again in future books.

As ever Harlan kept me guessing throughout and even left me with questions once I was done reading which I think is new.

Thank you Harlan for another <I>Wilde</I> ride. I can’t wait for the next.

I’ve never read a book by Harlan coben that hasn’t instantly drawn me in and I’ve devoured, and this is no exception. Great plot, twists and turns, fab characters, loved it

This book is a prime example of why Harlan Coben is considered a master of the crime thriller genre. As well as a compelling plot he adds great characters who tend to spill over into other books, some humorous moments and even a little romance. It is no surprise that this is an addictive read with plot twists to the very last line.

I am a great fan of Harlan Coben, and I have read most of his books. In all honesty, I did not think this one was one of his best. There were some good points in it, but unfortunately, this is not his best work.

I'm a Harlan Coben fan and this is a solid book from an author who regularly delivers. 4 stars from me as a little predictable but well written and an enjoyable read.

Compare to The Stranger (5 stars from me) and you get a feel for what the author is capable of.

Worth a read!

Wilde is a man who lives in the woods. He was found as a boy living there and has an affinity to natural living. His "nephew" asks him for help when his school friends goes missing. A whole can of worms opens up and Wilde investigates a pair of teenagers on the run. Good paced book with a few surprises.

Despite being a ridiculously crazy avid reader I had never read a Harlen Coben book in my life. After watching a mini-series on UK TV that was based on one of his books (The Stranger) when I saw this was up for review I thought it must be a winner.

Sadly this wasn't the case for me.

I was very surprised at the slowness of the plot in this book. I mean S.L.O.W..

By 50% literally hardly anything had happened and yet I could see how it could have been so fantastic and exciting based on the actual story being told. This baffled me. Were all his books like this or just this one? I might have to try another (feel free to recommend a good one). It felt like a lot of "filling-in" but the first half of a book shouldn't read that way. For what should be a dynamic novel with a psychological edge and a lot of thrills it just wasn't. Nowhere near. I almost sensed Coben being bored himself writing it.

I felt many of the characters were very one-dimensional except for Wilde who by far was the most interesting character, but the problem with Wilde? No realism around him. A boy who is found living in the woods and brought into society, a mystery child, sound great right? But the author described things he did whilst in the woods that were SO unrealistic and I felt added nothing to credibility. As a grown man everyone in town knows his name and where he came from. I wish that he had been given a place in this book with real pace and action.

All other characters for me just were background noise and whispers. I found the whole book incredibly dull and meh. It seems I am not alone looking at mixed reviews.

A couple of storylines are running along at the same time and I felt this really distracted from the core plot idea. If the focus had remained on that and really fleshed out it would have been a brilliant read. Some of the sub-plots just bored me to bits. They jumped all over the place and the politically focused distraction was just a waste of space. That really lost me as a reader.

I really had high hopes for this book and author but was so surprised at the mediocrity of the writing, plot delivery and overall pace. I shall remain open-minded but this missed the mark by a mile.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for my review copy of this novel. All opinions are my own and totally unbiased.

I enjoyed this book but found the writing to be a little forced at times. Not my favourite by Coven, but still enjoyable.

Well if you already love Harlan Coben books you won't be disappointed with this new one.

Good characters that you don't want to leave at the end. Good plot as always. Holds your attention and chapters run smoothly into the next

Roll on the hext HC novel. Write quicker!!

I absolutely love the Harlan Coben books and this one did not disappoint at all!

Wilde (perfect name for this character!) was discovered in the woods as a young boy. Nobody knew where he came from and how he was able to survive. Wilde himself has no knowledge of a family.
It is no years later and a young girl goes missing. Wilde is contacted by Hester Crimstein to look into this. Then another teenager disappears and soon he uncovered more than what he bargained for.

I loved all the characters and especially Hester! I love her humour and her badass personality. This is a stand-alone but I really hope we will see more of these characters. Another brilliant read Mr Coben!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

What you'd expect from a best-selling author, this book kept me quickly turning pages until the very end. There was a lot to digest, so set some time aside to really get into the book. Corben has created a fascinating main character in Wilde and I'm sure this won't be his only appearance in Corben's catalogue. The story slowed a little in the middle but then rocketed towards its conclusion. A very entertaining read.

Harlen Coben doesn’t disappoint- a long standing favourite author of mine who can deliver every time.

Imagine being a feral child with no discernible understanding of who you are and having to live with a label of a Tarzan-Esque creature for your entire life into adulthood. Finally finding a family and love but still your greatest love is nature - it’s your calling. Helpful, too, that that calling helps you to find a lost child and uncover the secrets of the wealthy that they though were long since buried and forgotten.

I had no problem delving into the story, understanding the smell of the woods and how he lived, how he could undermine the state forces when he needed to and get the mutual trust and respect to work together on solving the case. Each character is so believable and the story flowed effortlessly.

Was this a case of someone crying wolf or was there something more sinister that high-school pranks? A brilliant read...

A good story, with lots of twists and turns but deceptively long. Without it being compelling enough, I got easily distracted.

Wilde was found living in the woods as a young boy. He has no memory of his life before, other than a vague recollection of a dark house, and screams.

Matthew is worried about a schoolfriend, Naomi, who is missing after being relentlessly teased and bullied at school. He asks his grandma, Hester, for help, and she in turn, recruits Wilde to help her solve the missing girl case. Whilst it initially looks like a game gone wrong, the girl goes missing again, alongside another of her classmates, Crash Maynard. The Maynard family are rich and powerful, and friends with a presidential candidate, Rusty Eggers. But what are they hiding? Why has their son been kidnapped?

A suspenseful and easy to read thriller.

Contrary to the book's title 'The Boy from the Woods' the book is not entirely centred around the person in question but it certainly piqued my interest.

Wilde was found over 30 years ago living in the woods, abandoned by his parents with no recollection of his life before. 30 years later he is still living an off the road lifestyle but he is soon dragged back to community life when he is asked to investigate the disappearance of local school girl Naomi Pine. Working alongside the formidable Hester Crimstein they must navigate their way through the very scarce clues to find out what happened to Naomi and why several weeks later her bully Crash Maynard disappeared also.

This book explores issues of politics, bribery, bullying and crime. We meet several characters whose motives remain a mystery - in particular local politician Saul Strauss and ex tv presenter Rusty Eggers. How will their dealings with the Maynard family have an impact on the disappearances?

Overall I enjoyed reading 'The Boy from the Woods' especially the final half of the book when the pace increased significantly. The only thing I would have liked to have seen was a bit more about Wilde's background - here's hoping he might appear at a later stage in another book.

Harlan Coben’s latest standalone thriller is one of the most addictive and gripping thrillers I’ve read in a long time. The Boy From The Woods is PACKED full with amazing characters, political scandal, teenage angst, school bullying, a missing teenager, a kidnapper teenager and let’s not forget the child who was found living wild in the woods 30 years ago who is now a security expert and tasked with finding the missing kids.

Firstly we NEED to talk about the two main characters. Hester Crimstein is now possibly one of my favourite female fictional characters EVER and needs her own TV series immediately! Hester is widowed, in her 70’s, a straight talking Criminal Attorney with her own TV show Crimstein on Crime and it’s almost impossible not to fall in love with her instantly. She is funny, brave, caring and doesn’t take sh*t from anyone. Her favourite son (her words not mine) David was killed in a car crash ten years ago and she has never been able to move on or accept his death, but her devotion to his widowed wife and their grandson Matthew is touching and emotional to read. When Matthew asks her to help find his missing friend she goes that extra mile.

Wilde is the other main character. Now in his thirties he was “The Boy From The Woods”, found aged 5 or 6 living alone and surviving by sneaking into people’s houses for food and warmth, yet no-one has ever claimed him so he spent his childhood in a foster family. As a former soldier and now a security expert living off the grid he is approached by Hester to help find the missing kids. Throughout the book the relationship between Hester and Wilde is revealed slowly and the dynamics and obvious affection between these two is wonderful to follow.

Never has a book been so suited for a TV series – so hurry up Netflix or Amazon Prime and get casting NOW.

7.5/10

I've had a Coben hiatus of late after growing tired of his repetitive style, unknowing if I'd read one of his stories from the blurb or not until halfway through the book. This popped up on NetGalley and I thought why not give him another shot after some time away and it turned out to be an enjoyable enough read and I think the break helped.

The style is the usually breezy thriller with some light hearted back and forth's and the occasional cliffhanger chapter points to tie you into reading another chapter to see if you can find out what happened. It's not any different from his usual style but I'd had long enough away for it not to grate on me. Although there were a few nods to Win from the Myron Bolitar series which reminded me how ridiculous that all turned out.

I read this in 4 days making it a quick read and easy to pick up. It's not going to rival Dickens or other literature classics (not that I'm massively keen to pick them up!) but then again this was the perfect type of read for the current situation. I won't be totally put off Coben books again but I'll stick to his standalone novels and spread them out over years not months.

In this latest stand-alone thriller from Harlan Coben, there are several threads which quickly draw the reader in & keep you guessing till the very end of the book. One of the main characters is Wilde, found as a young boy living feral in the woods, his whole backstory remains a mystery thirty years later. Wilde a former soldier & sometime private investigator lives in an eco-capsule in the woods. He shares a connection with famous TV lawyer Hester Crimstein, the mother of his best friend who was killed in a tragic car accident. Hester is approached by her grandson Matthew to help trace a missing school friend, the unpopular, Naomi. Hester calls on Wilde for help & here the story really begins. Although it seems like it will be a fairly routine enquiry, it quickly escalates. There are so many strands to the story, politics, bribery, bullying with a little romance thrown in & a lot of dramatic action. Thank you to netgalley for the opportunity to read & review this book. It’s exactly what you’d expect from a Harlan Coben book, good entertainment.