Title:I Found You
Author:Lisa Jewell
Published:April 2017, Atria Books
Format:ARC E-book, 352 pages
Source:Netgalley via Publisher
A young bride, a lonely single mother, and an amnesiac man of dubious origin lie at the heart of New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell’s next suspenseful drama that will appeal to fans of Liane Moriarty and Paula Hawkins.
In
a windswept British seaside town, single mom Alice Lake finds a man
sitting on the beach outside her house. He has no name, no jacket, and
no idea how he got there. Against her better judgment, she invites him
inside.Meanwhile, in a suburb of London, 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.Twenty-three years earlier, Gray and
Kirsty are teenagers on a summer holiday with their parents. Their
annual trip to the quaint seaside town is passing by uneventfully, until
an enigmatic young man starts paying extra attention to Kirsty.
Something about him makes Gray uncomfortable—and it’s not just that he’s
playing the role of protective older brother.Two decades of
secrets, a missing husband, and a man with no memory are at the heart of
this brilliant new novel, filled with the “beautiful writing,
believable characters, pacey narrative, and dark secrets” (London Daily Mail) that make Lisa Jewell so beloved by audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.
My thoughts:I just love Lisa Jewell’s books. They are so engrossing and filled with the most wonderfully drawn and complex characters that you can’t get enough of. This one had such a great mystery to it – it was slow and drawn-out, but kept you captivated as it was laid out and had you guessing as to which way it would go.
I loved the way this story was told. There are multiple points of view and yet it never gets confusing. It’s almost as if there are three different stories going on – and as the book progresses you are wondering if and when they are going to intersect. What is it that could possibly be the common thread to tie these stories together?
There isn’t a lot of action in this book, rather it is a deep and moving character-study of all the players we meet. Yes, some rather major incidents do occur and these events do propel the story, but still, it is the characters themselves that drive the book. And as the events and the secrets become untangled, the book takes you in directions you never thought possible.
This book kept me engrossed and engaged the whole way through. It’s an emotional read, that builds with suspense and a sense of dread, too. You know something bad has happened, but you just don’t know what or how and until you get there and it’s all laid out, it’s like waiting with baited breath. And even once you do – your heart is still beating a mile a minute! I still haven’t stopped thinking of this book and it’s characters – it’s that good!
Lisa Jewell is definitely a go-to author for me – I’ve enjoyed every book I’ve picked up by her and cannot wait until her next one. I do have a few of her back-list books sitting on my shelf that I need to read soon and certainly will. Do you have a favorite of hers?
This sounds so good. This author keeps getting better.
This was my first and only one that I have read of hers and was just rereading my review and thinking how good the story was. I have a few more of hers sitting on the shelves.