Wow, I can tell you the honest truth about how much I loved this book in just a few words.. I didn’t realise I hadn’t wrote up this review by accident, however it’s an easy write because it has been almost a year now since I read this book and I remember almost all of it! It made that much of an impression on me!

This is the story of two woman, who by chance meet at a desperate time in their lives, Cery’s lived a very comfortable life where she was so deeply unhappy that she lay down in a hillside in winter after burning her car to the ground, hoping that she would fade away to the cold. When she wakes again, she finds herself in the path of another woman, in a very different situation. Lily is a mother, she’s one who is trying to do everything to keep her child safe when she meets Cery’s. The two woman are going to need to work together to help each other in ways no others can. Can they do it without showing too much of their secrets?


I found myself quickly immersed in this book. The whole thing is riveting. I simply couldn’t put it down. It’s very well written and the events are portrayed in great detail, with just enough information being fed to the read to satisfy the need to know more in all the right places. The book is quite fast paced and is a great read. I loved all the huge twists despite seeing one or two coming, several still took me by surprise.

I do feel I need to add a trigger warning of talk about suicide, domestic violence, abuse and guns.

If these triggers aren’t an issue this is a great suspenseful novel with a little romance thrown in too. It was fantastic!

Brilliant book
Loved it from the first page till the last
With many subjects some are difficult but wrote really well
Thanks NetGalley

I loved the twists and turns and was definitely kept on my toes for the majority of the book. The ending was a little convenient but didn't detract from the overall experience. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced copy.

One day Cerys walks out of her comfortable life, never to return. Standing on a hillside at night with no phone and no possessions, watching her car set alight, she believes this is the end. And then Lily walks into her life.

Lily is desperate for a new start for herself and her child. More than that, she knows she has to disappear in order to keep them both safe.

What A Ride!... blew me away… The narrative grabs the reader by the throat and doesn't let you breathe until the end…

THANKS TO NETGALLEY FOR THIS REVIEW COPY IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.

“You're right - women shouldn't compete over their pain. It's enough that we hurt.”

This book is about Motherhood and being a woman. Cerys doesn't who she is if not a mother and feeling helpless after her kids moved away and don't have time for her. She is in depression and wants to end her miserable life. Lily, on the other hand, doesn't know how to be a mother. Motherly instinct doesn't come naturally to her and she felt terrible for it. One day their paths bring them together and both need each other for survival but they both are strange to each other so it isn't smart to share personal details too soon.

“We all think we're useless. We all break down and we all realize how weak we are in the face of the magnitude of looking after a little person whose whole life and spirit is so dependent on us.”

I like the way story was written and the characters were developed. Readers can easily connect with both of them and their struggles. The flow of the story was really good and all the other characters contributed enough to the story rather than acting as fillers. I still didn't feel bad for Cerys's children. Overall, it was different and highlighted many important topics.

Disappeared by Laura Jarratt.
Let it burn. Let everything burn.
One day Cerys walks out of her comfortable life, never to return. Standing on a hillside at night with no phone and no possessions, watching her car set alight, she believes this is the end. And then Lily walks into her life.Lily is desperate for a new start for herself and her child. More than that, she knows she has to disappear in order to keep them both safe.The two women strike a fierce bond, and are both running from things that soon threaten to catch up with them. Can these two women keep each other safe... Can they trust each other ? Or are the pasts they've escaped too much for either of them to bear?
A very good read with good characters. I did like the story. 4*.

In a Nutshell: This surprised me. It’s a well-written and well-paced drama with many thoughtful lines, memorable characters and difficult situations. Worth reading when you are looking for a book to prickle your mind and tickle your heart.

Story:
Cerys has decided that she has had enough of her life. She drives away to a remote spot, sets her car afire, and waits on the hillside to die. But life has other plans for her and instead of meeting death, she ends up bumping into Lily and her four year old, who also seem to be escaping something. The two women form an immediate bond. But how far can a bond be strengthened if it is based on incomplete facts and constant threats from the past? Will the two ever be able to trust each other and leave their earlier lives behind? Read and find out.
The book is written in a third person narration mainly from the points of view of Cerys and Lily.

Where the book worked well for me:
✔ The highlight of the story has got to be the complex human emotions and interconnections it depicts. Not every relationship is what it appears to be. Not every person is what he/she are supposed to be. Sometimes, it is the person who is at fault, and sometimes our expectations of that person. The author throws light on all these aspects without being biased towards either gender. I especially appreciate her portrayal of Cerys. Even while providing a satisfactory ending to her story, it is not a typical ending.

✔ Another special aspect of the story is how it shows that family isn’t the be-all and end-all of everything. Many a time, it is family who ends up damaging you and friends or strangers-turned-friends who prove themselves angels in disguise. This book highlights this fact very well.

✔ Though I wasn’t in the mood for an intense book, this story still ended up captivating me. The narrative moves ahead steadily, and at just the right pace to allow you to understand Cerys and Lily and their rationale for leaving their earlier lives behind.

✔ The story is set in Wales and it makes excellent use of the locale.

✔ Cerys and Lily are both complex characters and the author portrays them in a well-layered and realistic way, rather than painting them as 100% pure or good. They also act as per their age (53 and 22 respectively), which is even more satisfying to me after my earlier novel where a 50 year old behaved like a 20 year old. Some of the secondary characters are more unidimensional in comparison but most of them are also impactful.

✔ It took me a little while to get used to the writing style. There are very quick changes in perspective across Cerys and Lily and sometimes, other characters. This happens not with every new chapter but even within a chapter. Once I got attuned to this methodology, the shifts in viewpoints seemed to work perfectly for the story and I enjoyed the exercise. (My copy of the book wasn’t formatted properly, so things did get a little confusing at times. I am sure the final published version won’t have these issues.)

✔ The third person pov works excellently for the story. I applaud the author for not succumbing to the popular trend and having the narration in first person, or worse, having the two characters narrated in two different grammatical voices. This is a story that works well because of the third person pov.

✔ There are many beautiful and thoughtful lines throughout the story that just made me pause and ponder. One of my favourite ones was, “Women shouldn't compete over their pain. It's enough that we hurt.” If only everyone remembered this!


Where the book could have worked better for me:
❌ The prologue was really pointless. I hate it when a prologue is taken from a key scene towards the end just to create a kind of curiosity at the start. A prologue is meant to give a kind of background to the story, or maybe to establish why things are happening. When it just rehashes an action sequence up to a suspenseful point and then goes into the bland background story, it makes me feel as if it is catering to those readers who check out the first few pages of a book to decide whether to buy it or not.

❌ There are a lot of convenient coincidences towards the end. While they were handled well, they were still too serendipitous.


Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot more than I had expected. I am glad I didn’t remember the fact that this is tagged as a complex thriller on GoodReads. While there are some thrilling bits towards the end, the book is primarily a contemporary drama. And if you go into it expecting a thriller, you are bound to be disappointed.

Definitely recommended to fans of well-written dramatic fiction with some thrilling scenes and some emotional moments.

My thanks to Orion Publishing Group and NetGalley for the DRC of “Disappeared”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

An emotional bonding, beautifully written book.
Thank you Netgalley, laura Jarred for giving me an advanced copy of this book.

After reading and absolutely loving Mother by Laura Jarratt last year, I was very excited to see a new release by this author. But while Disappeared draws on many of the same themes, it's also very different.

Less of a gripping thriller, Disappeared is more of a touching drama with elements of crime. If it was a thriller, I would have been disappointing by the somewhat coincidental and more straightforward developments, but I had to get out of that mindset as it is only centred around a crime.

So as a domestic drama, Disappeared is a complex and emotional story that opens up some brilliant discussions around two major themes: motherhood and womanhood.

I found the conversations around motherhood incredibly relatable. With one character experiencing the difficulties of early motherhood and another feeling abandoned now that her children have left home, it made me really appreciate being in the middle of these two extremes, not having so much pressure of a little one's constant need for attention but having them still need and ask for my love and support.

"We all think we're useless. We all break down and we all realise how weak we are in the face of the magnitude of looking after a little person whose whole life and spirit is so dependent on us."

But it also strikes you how difficult motherhood can be, because you spend so much of your life dedicated to another being, that I can't even begin to imagine a time when my boys won't need me in the same way.

We then meet a third female character who has chosen not to have children, as the conversation moves to the pressure of the choice or lack of choice that have as women about whether or not we even want children. I found her point of view incredibly moving, as she comments that we shouldn't compare our situations because we all have our own pain and that's enough to bind us together.

"You're right - women shouldn't compete over their pain. It's enough that we hurt."

There are also many conversations around menopause which I think is incredibly important to include, especially as the author takes the time to detail the many side effects of menopause that women are still having trouble getting diagnosed with even today. Society still has a long way to go with how it deals with the issue of menopause, and Jarratt does a brilliant job of opening up about how life-altering the changes can be.

Disappeared may not have had the gripping or twisty qualities that I was expecting from a book by Jarratt, but it does have a lot to say and I really admire Jarratt's focus on such powerful discussions.

I have never read any books by Laura Jarratt but i will def read more from her in the future. Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review really enjoyed this

The formatting of the Kindle version made it really hard to distinguish between voices so I'll wait until I can get a hard copy to read before I can review it

4.2 Stars

One-Liner: Gripping, emotional, and HEA.

Cerys leaves her family one day and vows never to return. She sets the car ablaze after reaching the hillside that was her home. But she realizes that life has other plans for her as she meets Lily and Sammy, Lily’s four-year-old.
Lily is running from her life and is desperate to keep her child safe. Bogged down by insecurities and vulnerabilities, she finds comfort and strength in Cerys. The two women forge a bond and have a fresh start in a small Welsh town. They still have their secrets and cannot reveal them.
Moreover, the past is never behind. They know they can’t ignore it for long. Sooner or later, their pasts will catch up with them. Are Cerys and Lily strong enough to face the past and build new lives? What do they have to sacrifice in return?

My Observations:
• The story is fast-paced even when it moves between characters and their pasts. The story is told in limited third person POV of both the women, Cerys and Lily. This gives us enough info into their thoughts and background.
• Cerys and Lily are vulnerable and likable. I could empathize with their situations and kept rooting for them. Lily, in particular, had my heart, poor girl.
• The side characters like Dilys and Gavin were just as interesting. While Kate and Matt were pretty much one-dimensional, they served the purpose.
• Dilys is a favorite. I like independent, grumpy old characters with a wise head and a soft heart. They are the best. Dilys added a lot of warmth and depth to the story.
• Danny is your typical narcissist. While I’m glad that his brutality wasn’t explicitly described, I did want to see more of his dark side. The manipulations could’ve been shown better.
• Rhys’ track seemed a little too quick given what Lily went through. I’d have liked it more if the pacing was slower for this.
• The bonding between Cerys, Lily, Dilys, and Sammy is beautiful to read. It feels real and tangible. This is probably the highlight of the book.
• While some of their decisions don’t make sense, I could empathize with them and understand their reasons. Moreover, I didn’t have to linger on it for long, thanks to the steady pace.
• The book ends on a happy note, which is always a plus for me. My only grouse is that I couldn’t know what happened to Danny. I so wanted him to suffer (a lot).

The book is marked as women’s fiction but has the word ‘thriller’ in the blurb. It’s more of a drama with some elements of thriller included. Luckily for me, it worked out because I liked the main characters.
My ARC seemed like an uncorrected proof copy, though it doesn’t say that anywhere. The formatting was haywire and made it hard to understand the sudden shifts in POV, past, and present. I hope the final copy has the necessary formatting to make this easier.

To sum up, Disappeared is an emotional and gripping story about two women who find each other in odd circumstances and build a strong bond.

Thank you, NetGalley and Orion Publishing, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Disappeared follows the story of two women who want to disappear for very different reasons.

I enjoyed this book from start to finish. Yes it covers some difficult subjects but it’s written with such a warmth that even the parts that bring anguish are handled sensitively adding a depth to the novel. This novel is emotional, complex and will take you on a rollercoaster. It’s certainly worthy of five stars. Thank you to NetGalley, Orion Publishing Group and the author for the chance to review.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters were very likeable and I could relate to them so much. The story was excellent with just the right amount of tension. I miss the characters in this book and would love to follow up on their lives.

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

A good read overall. It took me a while to get into it, but I was gripped once I did! Well written with an intruiging plot line.

After an unsuccessful attempt at taking her own life, Cerys meets Lily. Lily is a single mother escaping her life and Cerys can help her and the two women form a bond. I found this a quick and gripping read.

I really enjoyed this novel and I will really miss these characters now I’ve finished it which to me is one of the marks of a great book. I had one major gripe though, that in the early chapters the author belabours several obvious points, that the women were escaping their lives, that they weren’t being honest with each other being the main two. We readers know this, the first is the plot of the novel so we didn’t need reminding and we can remember that it was explained to us in the previous chapter.
That said, the author’s skills in character development and scene setting were fabulous and they were more important in the end. I thought both women were so likeable and three dimensional. I may not have acted the way they did or made the same decisions at some points but I could truly empathise and understand their motivations. The peripheral characters like Dilys, Angharad, Rhys and Gavin were also engaging and likeable.
The setting in the Welsh hills was wonderful and with Jarratt’s skills of atmosphere creating I could see and feel the mist on the hills and the warmth of Dilys’ fire.
The plot was a lovely combination of quiet domesticity with the build up of a thrilling denouement. I thought the ending was perfect.

This was such a good read. It was well written with an intriguing astory and good characters. I liked the level of unpredictability and I really related to the characters. Overall a great read.

#Disappeared #NetGalley
I loved it.
Cerys walks out of her comfortable life, never to return. Standing on a hillside at night with no phone and no possessions, watching her car set alight, she believes this is the end. And then Lily walks into her life. Lily is desperate for a new start for herself and her child. More than that, she knows she has to disappear in order to keep them both safe. The two women strike a fierce bond, and are both running from things that soon threaten to catch up with them. Can these two women keep each other safe... Can they trust each other ? Or are the pasts they've escaped too much for either of them to bear?
I really loved this book. It was much better than her previous.
Thanks to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group for giving me an advance copy.