Such a great read. Had me totally gripped from the very start. A brilliant story with some great characters,

I love anything by Lisa Jewell, and this book was no exception! Believable and realistic characters, storyline’s that make you go ‘mmm’ any mysteries and secrets that keep you guessing and turning the pages, Lisa is a master storyteller and I highly recommend ‘I Found You’ to anyone looking for an intelligent clever read.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

Reading books written by Lisa is always a pleasure. I find all of her books so easy to read, instantly gripping and throughly engrossing. Personally I know when I pick up anything written by this author, I’m in for a treat!

Full of fascinating and believable characters, a clever and twisty plotline I Found You is another 5 star from me. I literally couldn’t put this book down.

The wonderful Alice was a breath of fresh air, “Frank” had me guessing and doubting myself throughout and the back story of Gray and Kirsty had my heart pounding with a side order of dread and foreboding.

If you like your stories with intriguing plot lines, mysteries, secrets, thrills and great characters then read one this next.

EXCERPT: He is still there. The man on the beach.

He’s been there all day, since she opened her curtains at seven o’clock this morning: sitting on the damp sand, his arms around his knees, staring and staring out to sea. She’s kept an eye on him, concerned that he might be about to top himself. That had happened once before. A young man, deathly pale in the blue-white moonlight, had left his coat on the beach and just disappeared. Alice is still haunted by the thought of him, three years later.

But this man doesn’t move. He just sits and stares. The air today is cold and blowing in hard, bringing with it a veil of icy droplets from the surface of the sea. But the man is wearing only a shirt and jeans. No jacket. No bag. No hat or scarf. There’s something worrying about him: not quite scruffy enough to be a drifter; not quite strange enough to be a mental health patient from the day-care centre in town. He looks too fit to be a junkie and he hasn’t touched a drop of alcohol. He just looks… Alice searches her mind for the right word and then it comes to her. He looks lost.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: 'How long have you been sitting out here?'
'I got here yesterday.'
'Where did you come from?'
'I have no idea.'

East Yorkshire: Single mum Alice Lake finds a man on the beach outside her house. He has no name, no jacket, no idea what he is doing there. Against her better judgement she invites him in to her home.

Surrey: Twenty-one-year-old Lily Monrose has only been married for three weeks. When her new husband fails to come home from work one night she is left stranded in a new country where she knows no one. Then the police tell her that her husband never existed.

Two women, twenty years of secrets and a man who can't remember lie at the heart of Lisa Jewell's brilliant new novel.

MY THOUGHTS: I honestly thought that, this time, I knew where Lisa Jewell was taking me. Was sure. Dancing around the living room chanting 'gotcha' sure. I was wrong. Again. Lisa, you are welcome to dance around your living room chanting 'gotcha', because you did. Again.

I think I am becoming addicted to this author who never fails to enchant, delight and surprise me. I love her characters, 'crap mum' Alice who has the biggest heart, 'Frank' whom she rescues from the beach while wondering if she is inviting a murderer into her home, and Lily who shows amazing grit and determination when the chips are down. Amazing people. Ordinary people. People I would like to have for friends. These are the characters who people Lisa Jewell's books. Characters who, when you close the cover after the last page, keep a little bit of your heart.

Jewell immerses these 'real' people into situations that are part romance, part suspense and a whole lot of mystery and creates a very plausible, emotionally gripping page turner that, while leaving me totally satisfied, also leaves me wanting more of her wonderful stories.

4.5 brilliant stars

Thank you to Random House UK, Cornerstone Arrow for providing a digital ARC of I Found You by Lisa Jewell for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the 'about' page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system.

This review and others are also published on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...

I really enjoyed this book. Having read all of Lisa Jewell's books I wasn't sure how I'd enjoy her newer darker books, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book that is full of dark twists and turns. Jewell's characters are always believable and have you rooting for them throughout!

Once again a fantastic book with fantastic characters. I couldn't get enough of this book and loved the way the three stories intertwined.

Good start then lost it's way half way through before picking up again. A phenomenal tale of secrets deception.

I am not going to be reviewing this book, but thank you for the approval.

What a great read!
Strong, interesting characters, confident writing and a good, tight plot which dips in and out of time changes, but remains accessible to the reader with no loose ends left hanging at the end.
The story starts with Alice in her cottage by the sea looking up from her work at her window to spy a man sitting on the beach...and sitting...and sitting. Finally taking pity on him in the cold, wet weather, Alice takes the stranger into her home, and on learning that he has lost all memory of who he is and why he is on the beach, Alice names him Frank and makes it her mission to help him find himself again.
Enter Lilijana, a young Eastern European, recently married and living in the UK, whose husband has mysteriously gone missing; enter Kirsty and Gray, siblings aged 15 and 18 respectively, on their annual holiday at Rabbit Cottage, Ridinghouse Bay in East Yorkshire with their parents; and enter Mark Yates, a young man with a dark obsession.
Over 20 years their lives become inextricably linked, secrets are revealed and the tension builds as the actions of the past finally catch up.
I give this book full marks!

Whenever I start a book by Lisa Jewel, I know that it will be a good read. I’ve read several of her books now, and even if the book is not what I expect in terms of plot or genre, I know that it will be well written, carefully constructed and honestly observed. I recently read & reviewed The Girls on this blog.I recently read & reviewed The Girls on this blog.

So when I saw this new one on Netgalley (free ebook version for an honest review) I was very excited. It’s out 9th March and I am glad Jewel has a decent pace of writing.

And as always, I got a sumptious and satisfying read, which switched between POV (a technique I really like) and was swept along with the mystery of who our stranger on the beach really is. What’s great is that we learn things a little before all the characters, which makes the reader feel a bit clever – and then the smugness is taken away when you realise how well Jewell pushes you into certain ways of thinkgin, only to reveal another clue to show you were wrong.

So the story is about our mysterious stranger on the beach, but it also tells the story of various other characters, those who find him, those who may have lost him, and a little of the story of the place he is found. Jewel often gives importance to places and buildings in her stories.

I still can’t quite decide which of these two covers I prefer. Both are clever, the beach one bringing out the empty aspect of losing one’s memory (identity, personality, life) whilst the fairground envokes the creepier aspect of what may have happened to make someone lose it in the first place.

The book is definitely creepy in places, and a crime is solved, but I wouldn’t call it a crime novel. Maybe because although Jewell seems to be moving more towards (and marketed as, from these covers) mystery / crime with a bit of romance thrown in, from how I started reading her, from more a ‘deep chicklit’ angle. Things that happen in parts are shocking and hard to read, but they’re done well.

I made no notes or marks at all whilst reading this, which is very unusual. I think as i was swept away knowing I would enjoy myself!

So – as part of the British Books Challenge 2017, it was fun to have an excuse to write about another Lisa Jewell book! Qualifies by being set in Britain (although a fictional seaside town) by a British author. I highly recommend this book, or anything else by this writer!

I enjoyed Lisa Jewell’s I Found You and found myself rushing through it, wanting to know what happened next. The book has a little bit of everything – mystery, murder (or was it?), romance and suspense. Alice, warm, big-hearted and artistic, finds a mystery man on the beach. Despite the fact he’s completely lost his memory and has no idea who he is, she invites him to stay. We then learn about the disappearance of Carl. He is married to Lily, new to the UK from the Ukraine, and she’s devastated. He’s always been loving, attentive and home on time from work. The story moves between these present day mysteries and events from the ’90s. Mark, a horribly creepy young man, inveigles his way into a family’s holiday in 1993. The family is staying in East Yorkshire – and the holiday ends tragically. I was constantly trying to piece it all together and work out who the mystery beach man could be. Despite it becoming more and more apparent that the man with no memories has something to hide, Alice lets him stay on at her home and get close to her children. I’m obviously not going to tell you whether or not this proves to be a big mistake! This was my first read by Lisa Jewell. I found it an easy read, and thoroughly enjoyed her characters. Many thanks to The Book Club (TBC) for the opportunity to read this book!

I really enjoyed this one. It kept me guessing, although I had some of the story figured out, I was still surprised by other revelations. Once things started happening, I didn’t want to put it down. In fact, I found myself staying up way later than I normally do to finish it.

I love when a book goes back and forth between the past and present, dropping clues until the pieces of the puzzle start to come together. And although I wasn’t keen on some of the characters, the author’s writing definitely won me over and had me anxious to pick it up every chance I got.

BOTTOM LINE

Fast-paced with some unexpected surprises – a very enjoyable mystery that will most likely find it’s way onto everyone’s reading list this year.