Review: Follow Me Back by Nicci Cloke

There was no sign of a struggle, they whisper to each other. She took her phone but left her laptop behind.
Apparently, she'd met someone online, they write to each other in class, phones buzzing.
She ran away. She was taken.

The first time Aiden Kendrick hears about Lizzie Summersall's disappearance is when the police appear at his front door. He and Lizzie used to be friends; they aren't anymore. And when Aiden finds out that Lizzie had been talking to strangers on Facebook; that the police think she went to meet one of them, he begins to wonder how well he ever really knew her, and Aiden doesn't know it yet, but with Lizzie's disappearance his life is about to take a twisted and desperate turn.

Follow Me Back had an amazing premise which I thought I would really enjoy. unfortunately, whilst the story is there, inconsistencies and lack of good pacing made this a bit of a flat read for me. I made it to the end, but I had to motivate myself to get even that far.

The book starts off well. Aiden finds out Lizzie, an old friend/girlfriend/something in between,  has gone missing. He begins to investigate into the disappearance as many secrets and rumours come to light. That was a great start, but around 15% in I started to lost interest and it barely peaked through the rest of the book. Running parallel to the story of Lizzie's disappearance is the story of how Lizzie and Aiden met, became close and then fell apart. It could be interesting, but the writing made it feel much slower than it actually was.

As well as that, I read an eBook review copy - I'm not sure if it was the final eBook version as the formatting was wonky on my kindle. That won't affect my review, but it did affect my enjoyment of the book.

There are quite a few twists at the end. Twists that should have made the book shocking and psychological but instead brought out a lot of inconsistencies in a certain character's behaviours earlier in the book. It seemed like a twist added on in the end and to me, showed a lack in forward planning.

Overall, Follow Me Back was disappointing for me. I wanted psychological mystery, suspense and secrets. Instead I got something that seemed together for some kids idea of an episode of Without a Trace.

Book released 4th February by Hot key Books

Book received from the publisher/author in exchange for an honest review