Title: Everything She Forgot: A Novel
Author: Lisa Ballantyne
Publication: October 6, 2015
Publisher: Harper Collins
Genre: Mystery/Thriller/Suspense
Pages: 432
Source: Harper Collins
SYNOPSIS: (From Harper Collins)
They’re calling it the worst pile-up in London history. Driving home, Margaret Holloway has her mind elsewhere—on a troubled student, her daughter’s acting class, the next day’s meeting—when she’s rear-ended and trapped in the wreckage. Just as she begins to panic, a disfigured stranger pulls her from the car just seconds before it’s engulfed in flames. Then he simply disappears.
Though she escapes with minor injuries, Margaret feels that something’s wrong. She’s having trouble concentrating. Her emotions are running wild. More than that, flashbacks to the crash are also dredging up lost associations from her childhood, fragments of events that were wiped from her memory. Whatever happened, she didn’t merely forget—she chose to forget. And somehow, Margaret knows deep down that it’s got something to do with the man who saved her life.
As Margaret uncovers a mystery with chilling implications for her family and her very identity, Everything She Forgot winds through a riveting dual narrative and asks the question: How far would you go to hide the truth—from yourself…?
REVIEW:
**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**
Lisa Ballantyne has every right to be at the top of the list in mystery and thrillers with all the other great writers in the genre. “Everything She Forgot” is yet another piece of proof that she belongs there.
While I wouldn’t label “Everything She Forgot” a suspenseful book, it definitely had mystery dripping from it at every new turn. Margaret Holloway is a teacher, mother, and child advocate for the less loved child. She thinks she can save people through education and a little bit of tender loving care. When she is involved in “the worst pile-up in London history” and survives all thanks to a mystery man covered in scars, she starts to… change. She’s spacey and distracted easily. She cannot seem to get the stranger out of her mind and she seems to be remembering things from a childhood she wiped from her memory.
Intrigued? I was. Holloway is you. She is me. She is the person sitting next to you on the train to work or walking her dog down the street. She is the everyday person. That is what I love about her. She was instantly relatable. Anyone having gone through a tragic ordeal that Holloway did at the beginning of the book would have the same reactions I would imagine. Except she’s not exactly like us. She has a past that was bad enough she made herself forget. Now it seems to be coming back to haunt her, in a way, and it also seems to be tied to the mystery man from the accident. But how? Well, I won’t tell you, but I will say it’s a great story with lots of twists.
The one part I did not like was how the story split between multiple story lines and times. However, I can see how it was pertinent to the overall makeup of the story. In the beginning, these two story lines caused confusion and brought a slow start to the story. As the story progressed, though, I found myself more interested in how these stories would come together and reach a conclusion.
All in all Ballantyne has delivered yet another amazing mystery that will keep you interested and thoroughly entertained. It’s the perfect book for a cold evening in front of the fire this fall/winter.
INFO:
Pick up Lisa Ballantyne’s newest book “Everything She Forgot” from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or your local book store now! Also make sure to add it to your TO READS list on Goodreads!
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Check out Lisa Ballantyne on her website HERE! You can learn more about her other books, where to pick up your copy of “Everything She Forgot”, and learn more about her. Also link to her Facebook where she holds discussions on her books and giveaways!
