Amazon:
Lauren’s daughter Zara witnessed a terrible crime. But speaking up comes with a price, and when Zara’s identity is revealed online, it puts a target on her back.
The only choice is to disappear.
To keep Zara safe, Lauren will give up everything and everyone she loves, even her husband.
There will be no goodbyes. Their pasts will be rewritten. New names, new home, new lives.
The rules are strict for a reason. They are being hunted. One mistake – a text, an Instagram like – could bring their old lives crashing into the new.
They can never assume someone isn’t watching, waiting.
As Lauren will learn, disappearing is easy. Staying hidden is harder . . .
My reading experience:
I would like to thank the author, publisher and Netgalley for my free ARC.
I would like to start by saying that this has been a refreshing read, (as dark as the subject matter may be ), and I would highly recommend this book by Gillian McAllister. I would like to say that any parent experiencing or has experienced the sweet nuances of teenage children with often misguided loyalties, a definite lack of the understanding of consequences coupled with the regular vituperative responses to ‘good morning’, will fully affiliate themselves to the undercurrent of this story. Also, anyone who hasn’t yet managed to put blinds up at windows and looks out at night to find themselves staring at their own reflection, beware.
“Her soul is overly mated.” Not only is this just one of the special moments for me as the reader, but it tells you about the heady mix of beautiful prose and a compelling plot. Meet Lauren, over sharer, totally transparent, in the moment and struggling like a lot of mothers, with guilt. I’m not sure I particularly like her if I’m honest, but that just makes her all the more interesting to me. Lauren is a single mother to Zara, married to a single Dad, Aiden, father to Poppy. Their whole delicate sand castle of a family is about to come crumbling down.
Consider this – What is your identity?
This story was full of pleasant surprises in that it was unique for me. Rather glibly I would describe it as a page turner and most certainly I could not put this down, however, it is so much more than that. There are emotional layers, hidden pockets of other encounters, making the reader consider what conversations continue when you have left the room. There are physical layers, familiar and new experiences, and there is both nostalgia and very much the here and now.
Pour the wine dear reader, and hunker down because you will not be satisfied until this is finished!
Appletree Books 