A very odd set of characters awaits the reader in THEN SHE WAS GONE.

Two families are the main focus and somehow they become blended by a chance meeting.

Laurel’s family has been mourning their daughter Ellie’s death for ten years, and then her body is found. Meanwhile the family has fallen apart - a divorce for Paul and Laurel and sort of an estrangement between their children. Floyd‘s family has a precocious daughter, Poppy, who looks like Ellie and a sister that is quite different.

The more time Laurel spends with Poppy, the more confused she becomes about her personality, her outlook on life, and how Laurel sees her dead daughter in Poppy.

Laurel finds clues that seem to connect Floyd and Poppy to Ellie.

THEN SHE WAS GONE had an undercurrent of doom and sinister things lurking. The sinister thing seemed to be the tie to all of the heartache the characters were experiencing both present and past.

THEN SHE WAS GONE kept my interest, but I can't say it was a thriller until the past was coming into the picture and the book went back in time to tell us the story of how Ellie went missing. It was more of a study of personalities and families as well as lies.

If you enjoy a turn-around, revealing ending with a few creepy characters, you will enjoy THEN SHE WAS GONE. 4/5

This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher and NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Twisted yet brilliant novel!! Young girl goes missing, then 10 years later pieces of the puzzle start to fall into place, especially once the mother meets a little girl with a striking resemblance to her missing daughter. Put time aside for this one, is hard to put down!!

Three members of the book rated it a 4 out of 5 and two members rated it a 3 out of 5. Unbeknownst to many of us, the author originally wrote a different ending, but on the advice of her editor, she rewrote the ending. Betty shared the original ending with us, and all of us agreed that the second ending was best! Tammy encouraged people to listen to the original ending of the book as she felt it was very well done. She really liked the different accents of the characters. Another thing we noted was the use of four different narrative voices.

Laurel Hack has three children, a loving husband and a somewhat normal life. But she loves her 15 year old daughter Ellie the most. Laurel's life falls apart when her daughter disappears. She gets some final closure when remains are discovered which support the theory that her daughter ran away and died. But when Laurel meets Floyd and his daughter Poppy, she is disturbed because Poppy is identical to her daughter Ellie. As she gets to know Floyd and fall in love, there are little incidents that feed into her discontent and she starts to investigate Poppy's absent mother, who was also Ellie's tutor. What happened to her and what part did Floyd play in the disappearance of her daughter?

This book is unsettling but adictive. There is definitely athread of creepiness woven throughout. Each character will make your arm hair stand on end at some point.

really 3.5
I enjoyed this book. It was an easy read. I agree it was predictable, however you want to keep reading to know WHY it is predictable. And although you suspect something is off with one of the characters, you don't really know why until the end and its not exactly what I suspected.
well worth the read.

Of the four Lisa Jewell books I’ve read, THEN SHE WAS GONE may be the best. She calls the story "bizarre," herself.

Laurel and her husband Paul were in their 40s when their daughter Ellie went missing. Ten years later some of her bones are found. So they know she is dead, but for how long? And how did she die? Was she abducted or did she go willingly?

By this time, Laurel and Paul are divorced. Paul has gone on with his life, but Laurel cannot. Then she meets Floyd. As the two spend more and more time together, you should be on alert for too many coincidences. Laurel notices them and, before long, she puts two and two together, to her shock and dismay.

I won’t say more to spoil a good read except to remind you that Jewell calls this story bizarre.

I loved this book soooo much! I couldnâ??t put it down. I loved the twists and turns and hearing Noelle’s perspective on everything that happened and not just Laurel’s.

I thought the book was predictable from the start but it still kept me interested enough to read it rather quickly and to learn the final details of what happened to Ellie Mack. The writing style (switching between first, second, third person) was confusing at times. Also, where did the part written by Noelle come in? Was it a letter to Floyd? Did he know all of those exact details from her perspective? I have a lot of questions when it comes to Floyd’s character and what information he actually knew.

Suspenseful! I could guess a little of what what going to happen but the ending still turned out to be a surprise! Good choice! Sorry I couldn’t make the meeting, I work Tuesday nights unusually ????

The ending of the book was amazing! It took me a little while to get through though! But it was worth it to continue reading