Brilliant loved it.This book is gripping with a great plot and characters that grip you from start to finish and deffo one to be re-read 5*

What happened to Shay? That's what I wanted to know. Rachel and David appear to be dedicated parents, and responsible. So, what happened the night of the party? Is Shay a suspect or a victim? And his friends? An injured girl found the night of the party sets alarm bells ringing and Rachel investigating.

The plot hooked me from the prologue and I had shivers running down my spine. The prologue was chilling and the rest of the book was even more so. Gone was twisty, surprising and realistic and also the themes were frighteningly current.

It made me feel an urge to keep going, as I HAD to know what was going to happen. I stayed up late and just wanted to find out what had happened to Shay. I felt for Rachel and David and Shay's brother. Then I was wary of David....Then Shay....Then Shay's friends....

Gone is an emotional rollercoaster and one of the best thrillers of 2023 so far. Ruby Speechley's writing style is so immersive. I really felt part of the search for Shay. The way relationships were shown was realistic and the scenes at school and the teacher's questions bought back memories of times at my own school when people were thought suspects of something.

The book goes deep into feelings and raises a lot of questions and I liked that about it. I felt it was clearer how Rachel and Shay's brother were affected than David. I felt this was intentional on the author's part. I was highly suspicious of David at many points.

Thanks to Ruby Speechley, Boldwood Books and Rachel's Random Resources for my eARC in exchange for an honest and voluntary review.

5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for this eARC.

I thought this was a good book which grabbed my attention from the first page. It is written well and has an array of characters, some I liked and others I loathed. It's one of those reads where most of the characters had secrets and the tension and suspense the author creates certainly me keep guessing and turning the pages. The plot line is very current and all too believable although I felt the ending was in my opinion too rushed. Overall an enjoyable read which lacked the wow factor for me.

3.5 stars

I loved how Gone started out and how the tension was built up with a missing teenager and an injured girl after a rave. I enjoyed the mystery aspect as Rachel tries to find out what happened to her son and how much he was involved. I felt that the ending was a little rushed, but I liked how everything was neatly wrapped up. Overall a good read with some thrills along the way.

First, I want to thank Ruby Speechley, Boldwood Books, NetGalley and Rachel’s Random Resources for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review!

OMG!!! Dang am I going to have a major book hangover in the morning!!! WOW!!! I just could not take my eyes off of Ruby Speechley’s newest thriller Gone!!! I should be sleeping right now as it is 3am but I just had to get all my thoughts down about this book! Ruby states that this is a departure from the books she usually writes! Well my response to that is please don’t stop writing this way! You have a tremendous gift!!

Aaron Munday the cover designer of this book needs to be commended. The cover was very eye-catching and made me want to know what the book was about.

My heart goes out to Ruby who lost one of her oldest and dearest readers. She would like to dedicate Gone to LLoyd Ridgwell. Because of Ruby’s books he rediscovered the love of reading again.

Gone is completely and utterly addicting!!! Ruby hooks you right away with her fast paced storyline. The further you get into the book the storyline gets deeper and becomes insanely intense!

Ruby’s storyline is every parent’s worst nightmare come true!! She went places that many authors have not gone!! The emotions were extremely high during this read so much so that I found myself not only yelling at my Kindle!! I am a proud Auntie and I just wanted to hug my kiddos and not let them go!

Gone deserves way more than 5 stars for Ruby’s incredible storytelling! It is hands down going to be a bestseller that every reader will be raving about! You get this book and put it on the top of your TBR list!! Gone has made my top 5 list for favorite books of the year!!

Nothing was as it seemed from the start, had Shay gone to the party or somewhere else? Did he attack Ruby or was he the target? This book raised more questions than answers and introduced a fair few shady characters from the start, the main one being David. I wasn’t sure about him as soon as he appeared and something just felt off about him. I think Rachel coped extremely well with everything that was thrown at her, and the reasoning behind the missing children seemed to change with each new chapter! Thankfully, everything was tied up at the ending, which was also fast and frantic.

A fast paced unputdownable psychological thriller that kept me guessing.

Loved this one! I’ve never read anything by this author but I will be looking for more books by her. I loved the suspense and the author’s writing style kept me wanting to read more because I HAD to find out what happened!

Once I started reading this book there was no way I could leave it until I found out what happened to the missing teenage boy. A completely engrossing read from start to finish. Rachel, the mother of the missing boy, Shay, is understandably frantic and her search to find her son is relentless.. I can't say much about the intriguing and gripping plot for fear of giving away spoilers. Highly recommend Gone.

The story follows Rachel who is confronted with the disappearance of her son. While searching for him, she uncovers a few secrets she didn't know about her son and her partner that may be connected.
I had high hopes for this thriller based on the cover and synopsis. First of all, I didn't particularly like our main character. She seemed quite naive and her thought process and actions frustrated me at times.
Although there were a few elements that seemed hard to believe, the story still piqued my interest.
I liked the first half of the thriller better than the second. I was quite surprised where the story went, the ending seemed a bit rushed.
All in all it was a 3.5 star book with an interesting plot.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books!

Rachel wakes up to find her son Shay had gone missing. He was supposed to be grounded but instead he snuck out the house to attend a party in the local woods and hasn’t been seen since. On top of that a young woman has been taken to hospital with a serious head injury, she was also at the woods, with the police suspecting Shay could somehow be involved his disappearance isn’t helping matters.

Unbeknown to Rachel her partner David knew Shay had gone out, in fact he helped Shay out by leaving the bedroom window unlocked enabling Shay to make his bid for freedom. With few leads on Shays disappearance and more kids from the woods going missing the police up their searches however there is little to go on.

Rachel then begins to receive items of Shays on her door step and is asked for ransom money. Every time Rachel thinks things cannot get any worse, they do.

What I loved about Gone is that it is a very original thriller, when I first downloaded this book I expected it to be similar to abduction thrillers or other thrillers where kids go didn’t. This one was very unique and unlike anything I had read before. I found myself picking up my kindle at every available moment I had .

The best part of this book for me was the ending. Never in my wildest dreams did I see that coming. I had a theory the whole way through this book but I couldn’t have been more wrong.

An absolutely fantastic read I love Ruby Speechly’s books and would like to say thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an advance copy of this amazing book. If I could give more than 5 stars, I would.

Gone is such a tense thriller by Ruby Speechley. This is a book that I did not want to put down, and I was desperate to find out what was going to happen. We meet Rachel, who is facing every parent’s worst nightmare, when her son Shay, is nowhere to be found. But what is even more disturbing, as the police become involved, it maybe the case that Shay himself could’ve been involved in a crime, an attack on a young girl, and this is something Rachel can’t believe her son is capable of.

This is a very dark book and the tension is there on every single page. I could feel the stress and anxiety that Rachel was feeling as she tried to get to the bottom of what had happened to her son, and as she gets closer to the truth, the book gets even darker. I thought it was really clever how Ruby Speechley put all the final pieces of the jigsaw together. There are some real bombshell moments as Rachel desperately searches for her son. I could sense the time ticking down in the background, and Ruby Speechley makes it clear to the reader, that every passing hour means there’s less of a chance of Shay coming home alive.

I felt I couldn’t trust anyone who Rachel knew in her life, apart from her other son, who is desperate to have his brother back as well. This adds to the tension so well in the book, and it made me sure that there were people, who Rachel knew, who were keeping secrets from her. I felt really frustrated for her as I could see the pain she was going through and how desperate she was to have Shay home. The mystery of Shay’s disappearance and what he was involved in before he went missing kept me utterly gripped. This is definitely a book that will keep you reading well into the early hours of the morning.

Gone is definitely the type of book I would love to see as a television series. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Last night my son, Shay, sneaked out of the house and didn't come home. He promised not to go to the illegal party in the woods. But someone's been attacked, and Shay has gone missing. The police want to know if he saw what happened. I'm worried he could be involved. After all the trouble he's been in lately, mixing with the wrong crowd, coming home beaten up and scared. I thought we'd put it all behind us. Trouble is, Shay resents me moving my new boyfriend into the family home. I found all sorts on his laptop, including a half-written email warning me not to trust David. What does he know that I don't.

This is a well written, fast-paced domestic thriller. I was gripped instantly, needing to know what had happened and how it was going to unfold as more of shay's friends disappeared. There were parts of the story where nothing really happened. There are also a few suspicious characters to pick and choose from. This is a very twisted read. The characters are well rounded. I liked the authors writing style. There was quite a lot going on in the book, but it wasn't confusing.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #BoldwoodBooks and the author #Rubyspeechley for my ARC of #Gone in exchange for an honest review.

I received an E-ARC with a request for my honest review.

This gritty crime thriller follows Rachel as she tries to find her son Shay, when he doesn’t return from a party he wasn’t even supposed to be attending.

When the party site becomes a crime scene after a girl is attacked, and more local children start to disappear Rachel becomes more desperate to locate her son.

With shocking possibilities coming to light, she turns to dangerous routes to try and track him down.

Will Rachel find her son? Will the other children be discovered?

This crime thriller is very current and shocking, I must admit having a child who is getting closer to being a teenager it really scared me. There are so many ways in which children can now be manipulated and groomed even from their own bedrooms.

The storyline was gritty and suspenseful as the search continues and Rachel tries to find out answers.

I’m not sure I would have been as brave as Rachel in her search but until you are in the situation of your child being missing, I don’t think you would ever know what you could become capable of doing.

Overall, a gritty crime thriller where the search is on to find a group of missing teenagers.

Review
Love love love Ruby’s books.

Each and every book of hers I've read have had me gripped and wanting to know what happens. With each of her books you don't find out til the very end who has done what and why. This book was no exception.

I did have guess correctly which I'm pleased with as I'm usually so rubbish!

Brilliant from start to finish ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I have been gripped by this story from the beginning! It's such an easy read, while also being an emotional topic. The tension just takes hold of you and you want to keep on reading. I love that it has short chapters, because that always makes me read more and longer in one sitting because of the many small cliffhangers you get.

There were parts in the story that I found a little unbelievable. I had this feeling, for example, in the way the conversations between Rachel and the police were written. I can't really explain why, but I felt they were insensitive sometimes and felt too rushed.

Overall I loved this story and especially couldn't put it down in the last 100 pages!

First time reading this Author and wow! I need more of this, it starts off straight to the point a kid is missing. Then they start to notice others are as well and it all seems to lead back to a computer game they all play with a certain member ‘Red 99’. Shay’s parents want to pay the ransom but the others do not. When the mothers first trip to drop the money off doesn’t go well the ransoms goes up and they try again to pay it though at the drop of when she goes to locate her son as she was told to we wasn’t there but there is a recording of his voice. The mother no longer knows who to trust and what to do from here she just wants her son back. This book kept me entertained all throughout and guessing at all the angles this could take but I still was surprised.

Thanks to Netgalley & Boldwood books for providing me with this ARC.

Fast paced domestic thriller with lots of sketchy characters. Kept me guessing & entertained.

WOW - didn't see that coming! I really loved this book - I had no idea where this was going and I didn't expect the ending! It isn't like any other book that I have read and I couldn't put it down. I didn't like David from the start and never trusted him. Shay is a 16 year old boy who has fallen in with a bad crowd and didn't come home... did he run away? Was he mad that his mom's new boyfriend moved into their house? Did his new "friends" do something to him... this book had me guessing! And I didn't know who to trust!

Overall I enjoyed this book. I liked the main character Rachel and her drive to find her son. The story was slightly predictable in certain aspects but it held my interest and I wanted to know how the story ended.

This is a classic tale of a rich woman who meets a new boyfriend (he's a doctor!) and starts putting his needs above her children. When her son goes missing she also relies on the boyfriend to help her find him. It is really weird that a lot of the kids friends parents are calling and texting him, this childless doctor boyfriend. Okay one is someone he knows from work but still - that is so weird. And our girl, the life coach, isn't looking at this the way I would. The things she is sharing with the boyfriend are weird too. Why not show the laptop to your kids dad? That's who I would go to. David is sketchy as hell.
I love that she is a life coach but her own life is so messy!
I did enjoy seeing how maybe things in other countries aren't better than here.

This made me want to feel all the paranoid feelings us moms of teens feel anyway. I am going to put an air tag in my kids' hair.
Bravo.