DON’T LOOK FOR ME by Wendy Walker

 

To me this book was like taking a hike on a steep mountain that is very new to you. You walk briskly and take each twist and turn with careful steps. You watch out for anything and everything. So many things that are there in your way. Possibly it will never end. Just when you think it will go straight another huge curve is thrown at you. The twists are plenty. You are so out of breath by the time you finish you are not sure it really happened. But it did...

A few excerpts from the story: 

Please let me go. Let me walk away. I feel the words in my head like a prayer. Please, they whisper. Don't look for me.

My beloved family, I am so very sorry. I couldn't make it home, and they I thought maybe you are better off without me. 

But for now, for right now, as she drove away, there was just one thought. I'm not going home. Not without my mother.

And when a series of actions come together to create a tragedy, that's what it's called-an accident.

It never goes away. God, help me. It never leaves. I'm sorry, John, for falling off the scale. For being unworthy of you.

I feel it. The truth. The fight is coming.

This is the story of a mother. A mother and daughter. The things that happen between them. The things they will do for each other. What they each will sacrifice for the other. The fights between them. The sorry that drives a wedge between them. Then what they each do for the other. One to find the other and one to keep the other out of harms way. Mothers will do anything for their daughters. Most will. Even give up their own lives.

Molly goes to hell and back in this book. She's a mother and a wife. She loves her children more than life. She has three children and no one can say any different. One died. One died at Molly's hands. She ran over her own daughter. Now her life will never be the same. She doesn't believe she deserves any kind of happiness. She needs to pay for what she did.

Nicole/Nik, Molly's oldest daughter, has guilt of her own. She lives in a life of degrading herself with vodka and men. Once an ace student on her way to bigger and better things. Then the accident that caused her sister's death. Nicole blames herself. If she would have been different maybe Annie would still be alive. Maybe her mother would not have run over her. If only. Now Nicole drowns herself in vodka and sleeps with men she doesn't know. Trying to fill that void. 

On a stormy night on a deserted highway Molly runs out of gas. Her nightmare is just beginning. She thinks it's best for everyone if she just walks away and they never see her again. She has no idea what that thinking is going to do to the ones she is leaving behind. Her husband, her son and her oldest daughter. Each has done some pretty awful things to Molly since that awful day. Each has turned their back on her in every way possible. Her mind can't take it anymore. The loss of a child broke her. 

This story is going to take you into what happened to Molly. To who took her and why. To a child that needs a mother and a man who is totally insane. There are many characters in this story and each is likable. Each one seems to have a reason or chance to have taken Molly. But only one does. You may figure out who but you will never see each twist that comes. Each turn. Each reason for what is happening. What does Molly's daughter have to do with any of it. Nicole never believed her mother just walked away. She knew how much she had hurt her mom and also knew how much her mom loved each of them. She didn't just walk away. Nicole made it her mission to find her mother. She made a promise to her brother, Evan, that she would not stop until she found their mother. 

So many twists and turns that your head will spin. But it's easy to follow also. This is one of the best, if not the best, thrillers I have read. EVER! I did not see many things coming. Many of the things that happen near the end will leave you holding your breath for sure. The depths that a mother will go to protect her daughter and that a daughter will go to find her mother. That love is so strong. Unbreakable. Perfect.

Thank you #NetGalley, #WendyWalker, #StMartin'sPress for this arc. This is my own true review.

5/5 stars and a very high recommendation to all!