Hide and Seek by Andrea Mara @AndreaMaraBooks @TransworldBooks

Book Description:

Close your eyes.
The game of hide and seek is over, but little Lily Murphy hasn’t been found. Her parents try to stay positive, but they know this peaceful Dublin suburb will never be the same again.

Count to ten.
Years later, Joanna moves into a new house. It seems perfect in every way, until she learns that Lily Murphy used to live here.

And when you open them, your child is gone.
Because Joanna thinks she knows what really happened to Lily – and if the truth gets out, it might be her undoing…

My Thoughts:

Having recently moved house, Joanna is looking forward to making her stamp on their new family home. That is until she finds out that the previous owner’s daughter, three year old Lily, went missing years before and was never found. The story alternates between chapters in present day as well as to 1985, the lead up to Lily going missing. Some chapters are relatively short and a word to the wise, you will soon become so addicted to this book that you won’t be able to stop at just one more chapter!

Joanne becomes like a dog with a bone when it comes to Lily’s disappearance. Not only does she fear for the safety of her own children but there is something from her past that she is determined to get to the bottom of. My mind was going into overdrive as to what had happened in both Joanna’s past as well as what actually happened to Lily. A lot of the residents from when Lily went missing still live in the idyllic Irish suburb and whilst visually it appeared lovely, I couldn’t help feeling a chill running down my spine.

With this story you never really know what to believe. Being a small community, a lot is hearsay and gossip but you can’t help but get caught up in this story and casting doubt on certain characters and speculating if they were capable of taking a small child and to what they had done with her. Never before have I ever been tempted to sneak a peak at the last few pages to see what the outcome was as I was so desperate to find out. Thankfully with reading on my Kindle, it isn’t that straight forwarded so I resisted temptation.

Hide and Seek was extremely addictive! Oh my days the further into it I got the more hooked I became. There are so many secrets and lies of which some came as a complete shock as they basically slapped me in the face as I had been so oblivious to them even being a possibility. I felt completely high on adrenaline after finishing this book because it was so good. A compulsive page-turner that will leave your heart racing!