Lisa Jewell | Book Chatter

The Night She Disappeared
By Lisa Jewel
Atria Books, 9781982137366, September 2021, 416pp.

The Short of It:

Jewel does it again. I love her books and every time I picked this one up I was immensely happy to do so.

The Rest of It:

Tallulah and Zach are young parents. Only nineteen with their entire lives ahead of them, but they are both trying to do right by their young son so they live with Tallulah’s mom. While Zach works to create a nest egg for them, Tallulah attends her college courses hoping to one day be a social worker but the lure of someone from her past, the unpredictable Scarlett, surrounded by her wealth and her crowd of followers is too much for Tallulah. She finds herself fascinated by Scarlett and then one day, when Zach and Tallulah head to Scarlett’s place after some drinks at the pub, something goes terribly wrong and the two disappear.

This was a great, suspenseful read. The story of Tallulah and Zach’s disappearance keeps you guessing. Scarlett’s backstory and the other people involved, including a young couple living on the school grounds who take an interest in the case, given that one of them writes detective stories for a living, really added to the complexity of the story.

Recommend. It’s not high lit fiction but it was good, and juicy and and I enjoyed it a lot.

Source: Copy won in a Goodreads Giveaway.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Watching You
By Lisa Jewell
Atria Books, 9781501190087, August 2019, 352pp.

The Short of It:

Twisty and full of surprises.

The Rest of It:

Melville Heights is one of those pristine English neighborhoods with brightly painted houses and manicured landscaping. Newly married Joey Mullen and her husband are invited to move in with her brother and his wife. Her brother and wife are expecting their first baby and could probably use the help down the line. Although Joey loves being close to her brother, she also feels like their company is not wanted and feels out of place at times.

In the same neighborhood is a good looking man who happens to be the head at the local school. Tom Fitzwilliams has this sure way of carrying himself and Joey finds herself looking forward to their run-ins as innocent as they seem, until they aren’t so innocent anymore and she can’t ignore this feeling of being watched. Tom has his own family but Joey doesn’t know much about them except that his son spends a lot of time at home and doesn’t seem to have many friends of his own.

Then, there is a murder. A woman is found dead and the details of the event slowly unfold and become more complicated as various parts of the story are revealed. There is so much more to this story than just the murder. The dynamics of family, teens, married couples and the past all collide in a satisfying way. At times I could see where the story was headed, but in the end, there are surprises that I did not see and it made for a very enjoyable read.

I’ve read four other books by Jewell, see below, but this is probably my favorite of the ones I’ve read.

Invisible Girl
The Family Upstairs
The Girls in the Garden
Then She Was Gone

Source: Purchased
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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