B.A. Paris is a name I am starting to really rely on for a good solid pscyhological suspense read. I read Behind Closed Doors probably about a year ago and really enjoyed it. Then I was on to The Breakdown (read my review here), which I read on its pub date this past summer, after a recommendation from Mary Kubica at an event for her most recent book, Every Last Lie (review here).
Oh the tangled literary webs we weave.
So of course I was thrilled to get access to her newest book through Netgalley, due out May 19, 2018, Bring Me Back.
I follow B.A. Paris on Twitter and she just seems like the nicest person. She is always so gracious to her fans. She was a busy mom to 5 girls and started writing when she was 50. Hello, superhero! Definitely gives those of us who know our time will come again some hope. And I even read that she didn’t even tell some of her closest friends when she began writing. I get that. I still haven’t told a lot of people about this blog!
So, without further ado…
From the Publisher:
A young British couple are driving through France on holiday when they stop for gas. He runs in to pay, she stays in the car. When he returns her car door has been left open, but she’s not inside. No one ever sees her again.
Ten years later he’s engaged to be married; he’s happy, and his past is only a tiny part his life now. Until he comes home from work and finds his new wife-to-be is sitting on their sofa. She’s turning something over in her fingers, holding it up to the light. Something that would have no worth to anyone else, something only he and she would know about because his wife is the sister of his missing first love.
As more and more questions are raised, their marriage becomes strained. Has his first love somehow come back to him after all this time? Or is the person who took her playing games with his mind?
My Review:
When the book opens, things just don’t look good for Finn and Layla.She has vanished without a trace. Finn seems to be kind of an average guy, nothing too special. But Layla, she is the kind of quirky, silly, cool girl who that is confident and vulnerable all at the same time. Think Drew Barrymore in Mad Love or Baby in Dirty Dancing. Just something special. And Finn knows it.
So when she goes missing, he seems to accept that the bright shining center of his life will never return. And so…years later, he cuts his losses and settles down with her older sister, Ellen. Still a beauty. But a quiet one. She has brown hair, not fiery red like Layla, and their life is comfortable, but lacks both the ups and downs of Finn and Layla’s relationship.
Bring Me Back definitely leaves the reader guessing. Finn alludes several times in the beginning of the book that he knows Layla isn’t coming back. Something sinister lurking? Then, the plot thickens as we learn more about Finn’s back story and specifics of both relationships.
Bring Me Back is another page-turner. I loved the story, the mystery and the setting (a quaint town in rural Ireland). It’s one of those stories that makes you question one character’s motives, then another character’s sanity, then everyone’s motives AND sanity until you finally get your resolution.
I highly recommend this book to fans of B.A. Paris and other books of psychological suspense. It will keep you guessing! I also appreciated that the loose ends were tied up quite well in the end. Happy ending? No spoilers here, you’ll have to see for yourself.
Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for a free e-galley in exchange for my honest review.
Get your copy:
Women in Trouble Book Blog 
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