Sandysbookaday 's Reviews > I Found You

EXCERPT: He is still there. The man on the beach.

He’s been there all day, since she opened her curtains at seven o’clock this morning: sitting on the damp sand, his arms around his knees, staring and staring out to sea. She’s kept an eye on him, concerned that he might be about to top himself. That had happened once before. A young man, deathly pale in the blue-white moonlight, had left his coat on the beach and just disappeared. Alice is still haunted by the thought of him, three years later.

But this man doesn’t move. He just sits and stares. The air today is cold and blowing in hard, bringing with it a veil of icy droplets from the surface of the sea. But the man is wearing only a shirt and jeans. No jacket. No bag. No hat or scarf. There’s something worrying about him: not quite scruffy enough to be a drifter; not quite strange enough to be a mental health patient from the day-care centre in town. He looks too fit to be a junkie and he hasn’t touched a drop of alcohol. He just looks… Alice searches her mind for the right word and then it comes to her. He looks lost.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: 'How long have you been sitting out here?'
'I got here yesterday.'
'Where did you come from?'
'I have no idea.'

East Yorkshire: Single mum Alice Lake finds a man on the beach outside her house. He has no name, no jacket, no idea what he is doing there. Against her better judgement she invites him in to her home.

Surrey: Twenty-one-year-old Lily Monrose has only been married for three weeks. When her new husband fails to come home from work one night she is left stranded in a new country where she knows no one. Then the police tell her that her husband never existed.

Two women, twenty years of secrets and a man who can't remember lie at the heart of Lisa Jewell's brilliant new novel.

MY THOUGHTS: I honestly thought that, this time, I knew where Lisa Jewell was taking me. Was sure. Dancing around the living room chanting 'gotcha' sure. I was wrong. Again. Lisa, you are welcome to dance around your living room chanting 'gotcha', because you did. Again.

I think I am becoming addicted to this author who never fails to enchant, delight and surprise me. I love her characters, 'crap mum' Alice who has the biggest heart, 'Frank' whom she rescues from the beach while wondering if she is inviting a murderer into her home, and Lily who shows amazing grit and determination when the chips are down. Amazing people. Ordinary people. People I would like to have for friends. These are the characters who people Lisa Jewell's books. Characters who, when you close the cover after the last page, keep a little bit of your heart.

Jewell immerses these 'real' people into situations that are part romance, part suspense and a whole lot of mystery and creates a very plausible, emotionally gripping page turner that, while leaving me totally satisfied, also leaves me wanting more of her wonderful stories.

4.5 brilliant stars

Thank you to Random House UK, Cornerstone Arrow for providing a digital ARC of I Found You by Lisa Jewell for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

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