11 | March | 2017 | By Hook Or By Book

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Thanks to Penguin’s First To Read for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: April 18th, 2017

Synopsis: Hannah Monroe’s boyfriend, Matt, is gone. His belongings have disappeared from their house. Every call she ever made to him, every text she ever sent, every photo of him and any sign of him on social media have vanished. It’s as though their last four years together never happened.

As Hannah struggles to get through the next few days with humiliation and recrimination whirring through her head, she knows that she’ll do whatever it takes to find him again and get answers. But as soon as her search starts, she realizes she is being led into a maze of madness and obsession. Step by suspenseful step, Hannah discovers her only way out is to come face o face with the shocking truth…

Can you imagine coming home from work one day to fine the person you love and have lived with for the past four years gone? And not only that but he’s erased every sign that he existed in your life. It’s because of this premise that I was so excited to be approved for Gone Without A Trace. I spent the first part of the book dying to know why Matt would do this. Was it willingly, or was he forced into it? And my heart ached for Hannah who was left devastated but determined to find out what happened. The story is told in her first person POV which makes it even more personal. But then I started running into a few roadblocks. First, Hannah frantically running around on her own trying to find Matt went on much too long. Making things worse, the more I read, the more I started to dislike her. I understand the effect of the trauma and emotional toll of something like this can have on someone, but Hannah had no thoughts, concern, or empathy for anyone else in her life. Not that any of the other characters were likable either. The only one I really felt any sympathy for at the end was Hannah’s mother. So, obviously there has to be more to this story, right? Well, there is a huge twist in the latter half of the book that turns everything upside down. Unfortunately, for me anyway, I had already started to suspect what this big revelation was so it wasn’t a huge surprise. I was going to only give this 3 stars, but the author brings up an important social issue that is seldom talked or written about, so I’m giving her an extra 1/2 point for that. Gone Without A Trace isn’t a bad story. It’s just one that I personally was hoping more from. However, if enjoy suspense and mysteries with sketchy characters, then I still recommend you give this a try!