Jackie’s Reading Corner

SYNOPSIS

She only looked away for a second…..

Anne White only looked away for a second, that’s all it took to lose sight of her daughter.

But seven years later, Abigail is found.

And as Anne struggles to connect with her teenage daughter, she begins to question how much Abigail remembers about the day she disappeared….

MY REVIEW

How do you cope when your daughter goes missing at 8 years old? How do you manage when sh turns up at a police station at 15 years old? But she wasn’t asking for you, she was returning another young child of a similar age that she was when taken. You get the call to say she is alive.

Anne and Lillian are sisters, Lillian has always been the more do,I ant one, she’s always told you what to do, you always go to her for advice. You both had daughters within two weeks of each other, those daughters were inseparable growing up. Until Anne’s daughter went missing at 8 years old. Lillian’s daughter Jess, has been waiting for the day her cousin comes home, waiting for that closeness that they had before to be magically there still, after 7 years. They are still close, but Abigail has changed how could she not have?

Back at home with her mum Anne, her step-father Robert and the twins Sam and Laurie who were only nine months old when Abigail disappeared. Abigail doesn’t trust her mum, she let her down,

But what secrets do Anne, Lillian, and Lillian’s husband,Fraser, hold? That even Robert doesn’t know, he has blamed himself for losing Abigail.

This is a really engrossing story, engaging you from the start, the story is mainly told from two points of view, alternating chapters between Anne and Jess and going first gradually through the days, then starting on the 27th May through until 27th September when the trial takes place. Both seem to think that Abigail is the same girl as she was when she was 8, but how could she be? She had been held against her will, as hard as they both try, it seems they have difficulty reaching Abigail. What has her captor told her? I was trying to work out what the little white lies were, were they more than little white lies? As we know small lies can lead to bigger lies!

As the trial gets closer the tension ramps up, as Abigail asks Jess to talk to her parents and aunt and uncle to allow her to be there for the verdict. You literally have no idea where this is leading. With still more to come afterwards, your heart is pounding as you wonder what is happening.

This is one fantastic read, that I found so engaging, the characters were believable although I found Lillian to be extremely annoying, and Anne really needed to stand up to her sister. It was like Lillian was a puppet master to everyone a very dominant character. She liked to be in full control. But at some stage in her life Anne had let this happen, even her husband didn’t seem able to stand up to his wife. But there are relationships like that where one member is more dominant. Which made it more relatable.

I would give this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ a well crafted. Cleverly written story. Keeping you guessing until the end.

I would like to thank #netgalley and #HQ for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest, fair and unbiased review.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Phillipa East works as a clinical Psychologist and therapist. She lives in Lincolnshire with her husband and her cat. Phillip A’s prize-winning short stories have been published in various literary journals and Little White Lies is her debut novel.