The Book Tour Stops Here: A Review of "I Found You" by Lisa Jewell (+ Book Giveaway!)

On today's TLC Book Tour stop I am reviewing the dark and suspenseful new mystery/thriller I Found You by Lisa Jewel and there is a giveaway for a chance to win a copy of your own. 

Publisher's Blurb:

A young bride, a lonely single mother, and an amnesiac man of dubious origin lie at the heart of New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell’s next suspenseful drama that will appeal to fans of Liane Moriarty and Paula Hawkins.

In a windswept British seaside town, single mom Alice Lake finds a man sitting on the beach outside her house. He has no name, no jacket, and no idea how he got there. Against her better judgment, she invites him inside.

Meanwhile, in a suburb of London, 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.

Twenty-three years earlier, Gray and Kirsty are teenagers on a summer holiday with their parents. Their annual trip to the quaint seaside town is passing by uneventfully, until an enigmatic young man starts paying extra attention to Kirsty. Something about him makes Gray uncomfortable—and it’s not just that he’s playing the role of protective older brother.

Two decades of secrets, a missing husband, and a man with no memory are at the heart of this brilliant new novel, filled with the “beautiful writing, believable characters, pacey narrative, and dark secrets” (Daily Mail, London) that make Lisa Jewell so beloved by audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.

Hardcover: 352 pages

Publisher: Atria Books (April 25, 2017)

My Review:

I Found You is my first book by Lisa Jewel but after reading it, I know that it definitely will not be my last. Even though I started it during an extremely busy week finishing up work projects in order to leave for a week to visit family and I finished the final few chapters on the plane to Oregon, it was difficult to pry it from my hands and put it down when I needed to. I was immediately caught up in the three interwoven stories, the characters and the mysteries surrounding them--so when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it. Had it been a less interesting, less involving book, I would have skimmed through it quickly and not cared, but I found myself a bit frustrated with not being able to give it my usual time and attention.  

I don't want to say much about the details of the story--besides what is in the blurb because this is a book that is best left to unfold with the different stories coming together at the end. I liked that the characters were not perfect but were likable and real enough that I cared what happened to them while still sometimes questioning their judgement and life choices. Alice for example is the single mother to two teenagers and a young daughter and three dogs but takes in a man she finds sitting on the beach and allows him to stay in her guest cottage out back which seems more than a bit risky. Lily has some rough edges and is not particularly 'warm' but much of that is cultural and you can't help but feel sympathy for her when the only person she knows in London, her husband, doesn't come home. The third strand of the story is set in 1993 and Jewell crafts a feeling of menace almost from the start, so I felt uncomfortable along with Gray as the young man his family meets on the beach starts paying too much attention to his sister. Figuring out how these stories link together and finding out who Frank is absorbing and compelling. Although I had parts of the answer, there were still some good twists and turns and I was anxious to find out the whole picture right up to the end. As it is set near the sea, I Found You is perfect for your beach bag, or add it to your carry on bag for the plane as I did if you want a good thriller with dark edges that will keep you turning the pages.  

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Author Notes: Lisa Jewell was born and raised in north London, where she lives with her husband and two daughters. She is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA TODAY bestselling author of twelve novels, including The House We Grew Up In and The Third Wife.

Lisa can be reached via her website, Facebook, and Twitter

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Food Inspiration:  

Although not a foodie book, there was certainly food in I Found You. Some examples included: spaghetti, a ham sandwich, bread and pate, cauliflower cheese, curry and pizza. There was eggs and farmers toast, mentions of cake--including a Victoria sponge, cola cubes (a sweet), cans of Heinz soups, breakfast cereal, cockles out of a paper cup on the beach, shrimp scampi and minute steak, bacon and eggs, focaccia toast with butter, croissants, a burger, Asian Prawn salad with noodles, tuna sashimi, fish & chips, rib of meat and gravy, mashed potato, sausage and onion, basmati rice with butter, Yorkshire puddings, doughnuts, biscuits, chocolate spread, roast potatoes, bacon rolls, a chocolate muffin and a pan au chocolat, various packaged foods, sandwiches and jacket potatoes and lasagna. To drink there was Coke, Sprite, coffee, beer, Scotch, milky coffee, cider, Prosecco, and being set in the U.K.,there was plenty of tea (Earl Grey, green tea) and biscuits and an afternoon "cream tea" with cakes, tea sandwiches and scones with jam and clotted cream. 

I feel bad that my lack of time and rush to finish work projects before my trip got in the way of cooking my normal book-inspired dish for this novel. I liked the part where "Frank" the man on the beach that Alice takes in, makes breakfast for her young daughter Romaine who likes bagels spread with peanut butter. With his memory loss, he tries to toast the entire bagel in the toaster until Romain 'teaches' him what to do. I was was going to make a healthier peanut butter spread and top a bagel with it, but alas time ran out.

Instead of a recipe, I bring you a collage of photos of what I ate while reading or writing the review of this book which was quite an assortment and not at all book-related. Milk chocolate sea salt truffles, Asian-inspired mushroom and pesto udon noodles and a glass of wine on the plane, delicious cookies my sister Phyllis made (oatmeal with chocolate chips and sea salt and chocolate with caramel chips with sea salt--or something like that) with coffee and the avocado toast with spicy garlic-Sriracha mayo that I made my sister Linda for breakfast.
 

I'm linking this post up to the Weekend Cooking event at Beth Fish Reads, a weekly event that is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share. For more information, see the welcome post.

 

Note: A review copy of the "I Found You" was provided to me by the publisher and TLC Book Tours. I was not compensated for this review and as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own.

You can see the stops for the rest of this TLC Book Tour and what other reviewers thought about the book here.

***Giveaway***

There's a Rafflecopter giveaway hosted by the publisher for a chance to win one of three final copies of I Found You. Enter below for a chance to win! Good Luck!

  a Rafflecopter giveaway