I Found You

This would have been a five star book except that it was based on the stupidity of the characters. If one character would have questioned the stupidity of one woman who takes in a man who can't remember who he is, the whole book would have folded. With that said, I was able to put that aside and get caught up in the story.

This is a cleverly written book with characters to care about. An intriguing story that starts with a woman finding a man who lost his memory. Somehow everything that happens from there, which in most author's hands would have been unbelievable, becomes logical and right as we get to know the characters. I read it one sitting and was sorry when I got to the end.

Alice Lake is a single mother barely keeping it together in a small seaside town, when a strange man with amnesia shows up on her beach. In London, a young newlywed’s husband suddenly goes missing, and she is determined to find him. As Alice and this man try to figure out who he is and why he is there, they begin to unravel a secret from the past. All the while, Lily’s investigation into her husband’s disappearance brings her to the very same seaside town. Only together can they fully reconstruct the past and get the answers they all need.

There is so much I enjoyed about this book. The plot was wicked smart. The way each bit was unraveled worked beautifully for me. Going back and forth between past and present, while also jumping between different character perspectives eked out a little bit of information at a time, making me feel like I was getting somewhere while also bringing up more questions. At some point along the way, I suspected some version of what happened, but not the ending. Definitely not the ending.

Alice might have been a bit flaky, but I loved her imperfections, and her willingness to keep trying, to keep doing better. And that she accepts her flaws, and doesn’t obsess about them. Honestly, I detested Lily. I disliked her so much I had a very difficult time feeling badly about her circumstances. I’m not sure how I feel about the relationship between Alice and the amnesiac man, but I suppose stranger things have happened.

I found the story to be clever, properly intense and mysterious, and all around good fun. My first book by Lisa Jewell, certainly won’t be my last.

Note: I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley. I pride myself on writing fair and honest reviews.

3.5★
I very much enjoyed reading this except for the ending. Might be just me - fans will probably love it.

It began well with an interesting format that alternated between times and places. It opens with a man with no idea who he is, where he is, or why he is sitting on a beach in the rain. He’s adopted by Alice, an artistic woman with three kids from different fathers (never married), who’s a bit of a scandal in this seaside village. The kids are less than impressed.

“When he’d gone to bed her children had all turned and looked at her with cold disapproval.

‘What’, Jasmine had managed eventually, ‘are you doing? Mum?’

‘Where’s your compassion?’ she’d said. ‘Poor man. No jacket. No money.’
. . .
‘You’ve got no human decency, have you” What do they teach you at school these days?’

‘Er, about paedophiles and conmen and voyeurs and rapists and—‘

We then meet newlywed Lily, a young Russian girl who met and married her English husband in Kiev, and they’ve just moved to London, where she knows nobody. And today, her husband hasn’t come home – the devoted husband who sends her cloyingly sweet texts during the day and would never abandon her. The police aren’t convinced he’s missing, and she’s distraught.

“She pushes open the door into a vacuum of aloneness. The stillness is appalling. She has never been alone before. Never.”

Then there’s 1993. We have chapters from 20+ years ago about a nice family of four who holiday at this seaside area every year. The kids are now in their teens and starting to want to explore older activities a bit. They’re good mates, but Gray (Graham), 17, is noticing that 15-year-old Kirsty is starting to look grown-up and begins to feel protective.

“She was almost as tall as him now, his sister, all legs and hair, not quite grown into herself but almost there.
. . .
He felt a surge of awful fear rise through him, a strange mix of disgust and tenderness. Disgust at himself for being a man . . .disgust at the knowledge that now men like him would look at his sister . . . And tenderness because she did not know.”

Alice, in spite of herself and her friends, finds herself attracted to “Frank”, as they call him, and the kids slowly warm to him as well, and he to her.

“Whenever he’s with her he finds himself pulled towards her as if the very air around her is cambered.”

But later:

“She is reminded once again that the man she found on the beach last week was not a man at all, just an empty box in which to put whatever she wanted. She’d imbued him with qualities and character traits that suited her.

. . . She’d put her children in danger. She’d put herself in danger.”

It’s a dramatic mystery, and I liked the writing and the alternating format. I'm familiar with Frank's fugue state, because I know someone who's had a much milder form of this.

There were a few things I thought were unlikely, and the last few chapters I found less than satisfying. (View spoiler on Goodreads)

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for an advance review copy. All quotations are from this, so are subject to change.

** I received an advanced readers copy from Atria Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank You!**

I Found You tells the present story of a young bride, a single mom and a man who can't remember who he is. It also tells the story of two teenage siblings from twenty three years earlier. Each story is uniquely its own but intertwined and connected in ways that slowly divulge themselves to the reader as the story goes on.

What I liked most about this book were the characters which was good because this book was very character driven. They were quirky, flawed and not picture perfect. There wasn't a single character that didn't have an annoying or irritating personality trait and I loved that. It made it a lot easier to relate to them. I have to say that I think I enjoyed each character's story equally but Alice, the single mom, was probably my favourite character.

I found this book very slow moving but at the same time I couldn't tear myself away. I wanted to know what happened and I wanted to figure out the mystery. Was the man with no memory the young brides missing husband? If not, what happened to him? How do the siblings fit into it and what was the connection between all of the stories? Although it wasn't fast paced it gave me enough to keep me turning the pages and it had me finishing it rather quickly.

There was no big "aha" moment for me or shocking twist. I pretty much had it figured out before it was brought to light on the pages. If I'm being completely honest, it was a little anti-climatic in the end. Due to the fact that I was enjoying the different characters I didn't mind that fact as much as I would normally would.

Even though the mystery wasn't overly exciting and a little far fetched, the characters make I Found You a book worth reading. Lisa Jewell is not a new author to me. This is the second book of hers that I have read and it won't be the last. Although I didn't enjoy this one as much as The House We Grew Up In, it proved to me that she is an author that needs to go in my regular rotation.

I Found You,  Lisa Jewell

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre:  General Fiction (Adult)
 
My first book by Lisa Jewell, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. And I got hooked into the story very quickly – had to keep reading til the early hours ( yawn...) just to see what would happen and how it would all pull together.

I loved Alice, a bit scatty, probably ones of those mums labelled “irresponsible” by others, yet she loves her family and has such a big heart. That's what led her into the predicament she finds herself, she just can’t leave the poor guy sitting on the beach all night so invites him home, lets him stay in her studio room that she rents out, but which is currently vacant. Her youngest daughter names him Frank as she feels its a good name for him.
Frank has lost his memeory, he's cinfused, diesn;t jknow where he is, who he is, how he got there...I so felt for him and wanted to know what had happened to get him into this state.
The we meet Lily, 21, Ukrainian new bride of Carl.He’s older – 40 – they’ve had a very whirlwind relationship, and been in UK only 10 days after marrying quickly in Kiev.  She’s deeply in love and very self contained,and when Carl doesn’t come home from work she’s determined to find him even if the police seem to think he’s off with someone else. She’s such a motivated lady and she needs to be strong. I found her difficult to like, she’s such a hidden person and at first when i read it I expected her to be one of those simpering child bride types. She’s not though, she’s independent, and comes across as abrupt at times. That may be the language divide, she’s fluent in English but doesn’t always understand mannerisms and phrases and her response makes her seem aloof.

Those are the main characters in the “now” part of the story, but it also slips back twenty years to when a family where holidaying in the area, where we meet Gray, Kirsty and Mark. Teenagers, and yet from very different backgrounds with a story that develops from their first meeting on the beach.

 I enjoyed the switch from past and all that's happening there, to the current seeing the story from Lily, Alice and Franks viewpoint. I was racing to get to the next chapter of whatever was current – so when I’m with Gray, Kirsty and Mark I wanted to see what was happening next as Lisa stops each section right on a high, at the moment when things are happening. But I’d then get sucked in to what was happening to Alice, Frank and Lily and wondering how all these characters connected. Its a novel that begins with what feels like three very different stories that slower begin to make their way to each other.
I’d guessed a bit but not for a very long while, and though there were a few implausible parts ( I’ve broken bones, even allowing for adrenalin I don’t think all that was possible) I was hooked into reading – as I said – far too late which is why I’m so tired this morning....

Stars: Five,a great read though now I know the story its not a re-reader for me.

ARC supplied by Netgalley and publisher 

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Sandy *The world could end while I was reading and I would never notice* Jones
Sandy *The world could end while I was reading and I would never notice* Jones's Reviews > I Found You
I Found You by Lisa Jewell
I Found You
by Lisa Jewell (Goodreads Author)
30817744
Sandy *The world could end while I was reading and I would never notice* Jones's review Jun 24, 2018 · edit
really liked it
bookshelves: 2018, audio, netgalley-arc, 4-star, contemporary-fiction, family-drama, mystery

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.

What happens when there is a single woman with three children, a man who doesn't know who he is, a newly married woman who just moved to town, and a family who might have a connection to them at some point?

Alice, Lily, and "Frank" are connected but don't know they are.

Alice invited "Frank" inside her home when she saw him sitting on the beach.

Lily's husband has disappeared and has no clue what happened to him or if she even knows who he is.

"Frank" doesn't know who he is.

I FOUND YOU has odd, dysfunctional, and mentally ill characters but flows well and has a story line that grabs you. I liked the back and forth in time and the back and forth between the three main characters.

As you read you know something is wrong all around. Someone just doesn't disappear, end up back where they may have been as a child, or be in some place a crime had taken place.

Ms. Jewell weaved in a great deal of suspense, intrigue, edge-of-your-seat tension, and a whole lot of I don't want to stop reading in I FOUND YOU even though some chapters were literally frightening and became more frightening as the book continued.

The secret of it all led to an ending with a marvelous twist and surprise. 5/5

This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher in return for an honest review.

When Alice finds a mysterious man sitting on the beach outside her house, she has no idea what is in store for her when she takes him in. Lily is a newlywed whose husband has disappeared. She starts digging and finds out that... the man she married doesn't exist. As parts of the past are revealed, the present becomes clearer.

I kept thinking I knew what was happening, with this one, but I was so wrong. You are given bits and pieces as uncovered from the characters' point of views, but how trust worthy are those clues? Each character has a distinct voice and sees things from their skewed advantage. That all adds to the mystery. 'Frank' sees Alice in a completely different light than she sees herself, but how trustworthy is the opinion of someone who has no idea who they are? Lily thought she scored the perfect husband, until she starts to question all those nagging inconsistencies.

Past and present are intertwined in a story that will have you guessing right up until the very end.

I received an advance copy from the publisher, via NetGalley.

There was something lacking in this book for me. I liked the book but did not love it. It was lacking in the WOW factor for me. Although I liked some of the characters I really didn't feel for any of them. The mystery was okay but not great. I think the biggest problem with enjoying this book more for me was the fact that I have read some amazing mysteries this year which took me by surprise and blew me away and this book failed to do that.

One positive for this book is that I felt it was well written and I enjoyed how the Author moved from the present day to the past effortlessly in order to tell the two plot lines. There is a lot happening in this book: a young bride with a missing husband, a man with amnesia sitting alone on a beach and a single mother with a generous heart. The Author does tell all of their tales with ease but unfortunately she didn't make me love any of them.

Alice Lake finds a man sitting on the beach outside of her home. When he hasn't moved for hours and it begins to rain she brings him warmer clothing and offers him a place to stay. The man has no idea who he is or why he is sitting on the beach. He accepts her offer and stays in her back room and meets her children.

In London, Lily Monroe has reported her husband missing. They have recently married and it is out of character for him not to come home. Her worry turns to shock as she learns her husband was not who he said he was. Not knowing her husband's true identity leaves her with more questions than answers.

Then the Author takes us to the past, to Kitty and Gary - teenage siblings - on their yearly trip to the quiet British seaside town. Their summer is pretty uneventful until they meet a mysterious young man who changes their lives.

Sounds great on paper but again, this just failed to grab me. I liked the book. I think this makes for a good plane or beach read. It did't wow me but it wasn't bad either.

Alice Lake is a frazzled single mother of three children. One day she spots a man on the beach; he is alone and getting drenched in the rain. Despite her better judgement, Alice goes to talk to him. He has no memory of who he is or where he came from. Alice is drawn to him, and she invites him to stay in the shed on her property. Her young daughter dubs him "Frank." Meanwhile, in Surrey, Lily reports her husband missing. Married for less than a month, Lily cannot believe that her husband would simply abandon her: they are madly in love. She hasn't been in the country for long, though, and soon Lily learns that the name on her husband's passport was fake: he never truly existed. Cut to more than twenty years ago: teenagers Gray and Kirsty are (reluctantly) on vacation with their parents. While on the beach, they meet a young man who clearly has eyes for fifteen-year-old Kirsty. He charms their parents, but quickly rubs Gray the wrong way. Together, these characters combine for Jewell's latest.

This was a rather spellbinding novel for me, even if it requires you to sort of check your rational thought at the front door when beginning it. Alice is a bit of an odd duck--a loner mom with three children by three different fathers who doesn't really play by the rules. The fact that she so easily invites a complete stranger, with no history or backstory, to stay with her family is rather bizarre. As is everyone's reluctance to not just report Frank missing (found?), to say, the police. But we're led to believe that this is rather par for the course for the eccentric Alice and if you can just go along with that, the story falls into place fairly easily. This novel probably came along at a good point for me: I'd just finished a big project at work and needed something for a quick escape. I FOUND YOU is perfect for that: I blew through it in about 24 hours and while I basically had things figured out, it kept me guessing the entire time, wondering if I was right.

I was never truly attached to any of Jewell's characters - Alice is a bit flighty, Lily a tad remote, and Gray and Kirsty a little young. If anything, I was almost more drawn to "Frank" and his predicament. Still, I enjoyed how the story unfolded in bits and pieces, slowly letting the reader in on the past, while still giving us points of view from Lily, Alice, and Frank in the present. As I said, I was never quite sure if I was on the right track with the story, which kept me compulsively reading. Many of the characters' decisions are a bit bizarre, but I still found this to be a fun, quick read for a bit of an escape. Overall, 3.5+ stars. Great for a vacation or an airplane ride.

Last year I was introduced to Lisa Jewell's writing when I read and reviewed "The Girls in the Garden". I was very impressed and I anticipated a good read with this book. What I didn't expect was that "I found you" was even better than "The Girls in the Garden"!

"Two decades of secrets, a missing husband, and a man with no memory are at the heart of this brilliant new novel."

The present day narrative features Alice Lake, a single mum. She has had a rather colorful past and her three children reflect it. She calls them her Benetton family. An artist, Alice lives with her children and three dogs in a small cottage near the seashore in Ridinghouse Bay, Yorkshire. She makes a living making art out of old maps. Her one friend, Derry Dynes sees through Alice's rather brusque manner and looks out for her in a supportive (though bossy) way.

One evening while walking her dogs on the beach, Alice comes across a man sitting on the shingle in the rain. He has been there for hours and is drenched through. Against her better instincts she invites him to her cottage to dry out. This act of compassionate kindness will forever change her life.

The man has no memory. He finds it difficult to assimilate information and make decisions. Alice Googles his condition and discovers that he is in a 'fugue state' which is usually caused by emotional trauma. Because they have to call him something, her tiny daughter names him Frank. As the days pass, Alice becomes more and more drawn to this man but is wary of becoming involved. She fears that doing so would further complicate her already arduous and lonely life. She is a very sexual person, but her sexual desires have landed her in trouble many times in her life and she does not want to duplicate her previous mistakes. Alice fears that when 'Frank' regains his memories she will lose this man whom she has come to love dearly...

Lily Monrose is a newlywed. A Ukrainian, she has just moved to suburban London after a whirlwind courtship. Her husband, Carl Monrose, is devoted to her and she to him. The time Carl is at work is very lonely for Lily as she knows no one in England and finds British ways strange from what she is familiar with.

When, just ten days into their new life together, Carl does not return home after work, Lily becomes distraught. She reports him missing to the police. When she gives the police his passport to aid in their investigation, they find that Carl Monrose does not exist! The passport is fake. With little money, Lily enlists strangers to help her find the love of her life.

"She looks about the flat, as she's done a hundred times since Carl didn't come home on Tuesday night. At first all she'd seen was Carl's absence. Now she sees his deceit."

Then we meet the Ross Family in the summer of 1993.

Pam, Tony and their two teenage children Kirsty and Gray Ross are on holiday in the small seaside town of Ridinghouse Bay, Yorkshire.

The family encounters a young man named Mark Tate. Mark is attracted to their daughter Kirsty, and is quite intense. Gray is very suspicious of him and wonders why nineteen year old Mark would be interested in his naive and innocent fifteen year old sister. Mark invites the entire family to his aunt's house, a huge manor on the headland. He insinuate's himself into Kirsty's life and invites her to a party at his Aunt's house. Gray goes to the party - partly to keep an eye on his sister, and partly because he is attracted to one of the girls that he knows will be there. The scenes at the party reminded me of the old Three Dog Night song: "Momma told me not to come". Mark's involvement with the Ross family is catastrophic to them all.

The three narratives alternate between chapters. Just about half way through this novel I thought I had 'Frank's' identity worked out. I was wrong. The stories of Alice, Frank, Lily and Gray are skillfully bound together with clever plotting in an atmospheric setting.

The entire novel makes for some very compelling reading. So much so that I found myself being rather grumpy when my reading was interrupted. "I found you" was a very cleverly plotted, character-rich, suspenseful, literary thriller. Highly recommended!

Last year I read my first Lisa Jewell book, Girls in the Garden, and while it was ok I wasn’t particularly fond of it. When I saw I Found You for review there was something that made me request it and I am so glad I did. I really loved this one more than I would have expected.

Looking out of her bedroom window Alice sees a man on the beach. He is just sitting there, in the rain, for hours and she finds out he has no memories. In a London suburb, Lily’s new husband has gone missing and she finds out from the police that he actually never existed. Twenty three years before siblings Gray and Kirsty were on vacation when a guy interested in Kirsty sets of alarm bells for them both. A man with no memory, a missing husband, and a two decade old incident all collide in this well-crafted mystery.

As the summary alludes to the story is told through three different points of view – one from Alice and the man with no memory who they call Frank, one from Lily who is new to the country and husband is missing and one of Gray and Kirsty from years ago. As the story goes on these different threads start to come together and make sense of all the mysteries and secrets.

My favorite parts were that with Alice and Frank. I thought Alice was definitely a little weird but I liked her and her family. She had three kids and three dogs and seems to be someone who wanted to care for all the things. Still she took care of things but everything was not all perfect – her house was a mess, her kids teacher thought she wasn’t taking the best care of them, and she needed help with some basic things from her best friend. Still, I had a soft spot for her. There was a connection with her and Frank. I liked watching him try and figure out who he was and what happened. He was also great with Alice, her kids and her dogs.

Lily wasn’t super likable and I didn’t enjoy her parts as much, though they were integral to the story. I did like getting the flashbacks to Gray and Kirsty and the events around that summer. They shed a lot of light on the mystery and were really suspenseful.

While I started to piece some things together towards the end there were other things I didn’t see coming. Even still I couldn’t put this one down. It wasn’t super fast paced but kept me turning the pages. If more of her books are like this one I will definitely be picking them up in the future.

Scrappymags 3-word review: Solid, entertaining mystery

Shortest summary ever: Alice, a single mom, notices a man sitting on the beach in the pounding. Turns out he has no idea who he is nor where he comes from, has no money and no ID. Alice befriends him and tries to help him recover his memories. Meanwhile, in London, Lily is a foreigner in a strange land whose new husband has gone missing. The police inform her that her husband’s identity is fake. Whaaaaaaaa??? Interlaced story begins…

What’s good under the hood: Quite simply, if you’re a mystery lover, you’ll likely enjoy this plot line that had all the twists and turns (squeeeee!). I (smugly) felt smart figuring out some aspects only to be shocked in other places. Loved that “you got me!” feeling that I seldom experience in the genre. I was engaged from the dedication to the acknowledgements. Well-written characters along with a crazy, “what-is-going-on” plot made this tough to put down and I eagerly read this quickly.

What’s bad or made me mad: Alice annoyed me a bit. I love that she’s a “free spirit” of sorts, but she also comes across as desperate. Partly it’s her desperation that irked me, but there is also an air of unreal (ahem….stooooooopid). I can buy that someone would be a Good Samaritan, but I can’t buy not running to the police. Or a hospital. I merely couldn’t rationalize that away in Alice’s character unless she’s supposed to be intensely stupid, in which case, I don’t do dumb and that’s worth a point deduction. She also seems to have little self-respect and confidence. However these minor issues didn’t quell my enjoyment of the novel, and it turned into a quick read, one I looked forward to picking up all day.

Recommend to:

beach-type mystery readers,
Not comparing or inferring any expectation but I’d say this novel is in the vein of Paul’s Hawkins, Chevy Stevens and maybe a little Mary Kubica if you enjoy those authors.
Do Not Recommend to:

If you get majorly irked by my criticisms above, you might get past it. I know many of my readers can’t tolerate actions that make no sense.
Thanks to NetGalley and Atria books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review and a lovely day of reading!

I Found You took me on a suspenseful, emotional roller coaster ride as an harrowing secret, buried for 22 years, is uncovered.

Three main stories comprise the narrative: A man who has repressed such an awful memory for 22 years that it has put him in a fugue state. A newlywed bride living in a foreign country whose husband has disappeared. And the story of a brother and sister on vacation in 1993. These stories are bound by a common thread, but it takes time for this thread to be revealed.

Alice, an artist and single mother of three, is known for making bad decisions. It’s no surprise that when she spies a man sitting on the beach in the pouring rain, that she tries to help him. This man appears to have amnesia and cannot remember who he is or what his name is. Alice takes him and calls him “Frank.” Alice is determined to help Frank retrieve his memories, but the more she gets to know him the more she falls for him and begins to wonder if maybe it’s best he doesn’t remember who he is, where he is from, and what he might have done to block his memories.

At the same time in London, Lily, a young bride from Kiev, is searching for her husband. Only married for a few weeks, Lily believes that only grave danger would have taken her husband Carl away from her. The more she searches for him, the more she realizes that she doesn’t know him as well as she thinks.

Flashback to 1993, and the story of Gray and his 15 year old sister, Kirsty who are on a two week beach vacation with their parents, is at the forefront. Kirsty starts dating a slimy older guy named Mark. Gray recognizes that something isn’t right about Mark, but whether or not he can keep him away from Kirsty remains to be seen.

I love Lisa Jewell books because I never know what I am going to get from her; her books always take me in a different direction than I anticipated. I Found You is filled with suspense, so much so that I developed a sense of dread while I was reading, as I knew something bad was going to happen. I found the characters to be well developed and I was surprised by how emotional the ending made me.. I recommend this one for a solid, thrilling read!

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review

I Found You is a standalone suspense/mystery/thriller. The book is divided into 4 parts. There are 3 stories being told.

Alice is a 3rd person narrator. Lily is a 3rd person narrator. And the book also has a bunch of chapters that take place in 1993.

Alice is a single mom of three kids. She lives in a British seaside town. Alice finds a man ("Frank") on the beach in front of her house.

Lily is 21 and from the Ukraine. She now lives in a suburb of London. Her 40 year old husband Carl has disappeared.

We also have 17 year old Gray's POV from 1993. His sister Kirsty is 15 years old. They are on vacation for 2 weeks in 1993. A boy named Mark enters their lives.

There is lots of back and forth between the present and 1993. I am not really a big fan of this back and forth in time. Yes, the stuff that happened in 1993 is relevant to the story. But there are already 2 other POVs. So for me it was just a bit too much.

It is an interesting story. It is especially fascinating to see how things might be connected. But I didn't love going back and forth from one POV, to the other, to the third. I definitely preferred later on in the book when everything was more straight forward.

I felt like the set-up was meant for the reader to draw certain conclusions. The thing about a suspense mystery is that I don't want to have the story figured out before the reveal. I try not to overthink these types of stories because I prefer to be surprised. Unfortunately I figured this one out and it sort of downplayed the reveals.

I think my favorite part of the book was later on in the story once there wasn't so much back and forth.

There were definitely a couple of other reveals that were quite interesting. I really liked learning more about Frank's life and what happened to lead him to be on that beach. I also really loved Alice. She was such an interesting character.

Overall this was a very British story. It was compelling. If you enjoy suspense/thrillers then this one was pretty good.

Thanks to Simon Schuster Canada for providing me with a copy of this book.

I so love converging storylines, I like trying to figure out how they’ll all end up being connected and intertwined. You have three separate stories here; Alice is a single mom of three children who sees a man sitting for hours in a storm outside her house. He has no idea who he is or where he came from. Meanwhile Lily is a young woman who was recently married. Her husband never returns home from work one evening which is completely out of character for him. Then, we flashback to 1993 to a family on vacation. This may sound like a little bit too much going on, but trust me, it’s not confusing at all when you’re actually reading it.

Jewell’s writing really draws the reader in, I was totally hooked and captivated by the plot and the characters. I adored Alice and loved her openness and honesty. She’s far from perfect and she’s not afraid to admit it. Whenever I want to befriend a book character, I know I’ve found a winning book. Lily is so very different from Alice, she’s only twenty one and from the Ukraine and has no one besides her now missing husband in the U.K. Even though I thought I knew exactly how their stories would merge, I was wrong. The additional story from over twenty years ago added an extra layer of mystery and intrigue as well as even more fantastic characters. Gray and his sister Kirsty are on a vacation with their parents. They are just an average, normal family and I was so curious as to how they would all fit into everything.

This is yet another book that I would recommend going into blind, so I won’t be delving too far into the plot. I’m fascinated by the thought of amnesia and found myself thinking how terrifying it would be not to know anything about my life. This book has a little bit of everything, there is mystery, suspense, romance and family drama. I really didn’t want to put it down anytime I had to, it was that fantastic.

I really enjoyed I Found You! A mystery that kept me glued to the pages with tension that intensified with each chapter.

You’re basically just thrown into the story when Alice, mother of three discovers a man outside her seaside cottage with no memory. Alice can’t help herself, and offers him a place to stay all the while they try and piece together the mystery of his life. “Frank” as Alice begins to call him starts having flashes of memory, jogged by places in Alice’s town, and soon it becomes apparent that something terrible happened.

We also have alternating chapters of a twenty-one year old new bride, Lily. After three weeks of wedded bliss and passion, her new husband fails to come home and she’s alone in a foreign country. And chapters from the past, 1993, centered on a family vacationing on the beach. At first I was wondering how these three POVs connected, but with every page I got a little more light shed on the situation. I could sense a tragedy coming, impending doom and I wanted to know how it all turned out!

I was pleasantly surprised by how addictive and interesting I Found You was! I think it’s best to say as little as possible with a mystery, but as someone who has read loads of mystery books I was pleased with the reveal, even though I had guessed at a lot of it, it didn’t spoil my enjoyment. I wanted to know the particulars, and how it all turned out in the end. There was some romance, just enough to satisfy this romance junkie here. I’ll be keeping an eye out for any other Lisa Jewell books now.

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.

My Thoughts: Almost immediately, I was caught up into the life of Alice Lake and the man she finds on the beach. She is drawn to him, even though her best friend Derry warns her that he could be dangerous. But Alice, an artist, and someone who doesn’t necessarily follow a conventional path, is willing to take the risk. She feels something special in this man.

The children are wary at first, but soon, even the dogs have befriended him. They call him Frank.

Meanwhile, in alternating chapters, we watch as a woman named Lily, a newly-wed in a London suburb, desperately tries to find Carl, her missing husband.

Flashing back to 1993, a story unfolds involving Gray and Kirsty Ross, and a handsome rich boy named Mark Tate, who quickly turns from charming to frightening. Each time we flash back, more of the mysterious puzzle pieces fit together.

What is the connection, if any, between these seemingly unrelated characters? Are the events in the present day a surreal coincidence, or might there be a tie between them?

I Found You: A Novel was a riveting tale that kept me engaged, and even as I thought I had figured out the mysteries and the connections, I was only partially correct. I liked the ending, which felt hopeful. 5 stars.

Lisa Jewell is a brilliant storyteller, creating suspenseful plots with complex characters and compelling stories. She keeps getting better and hits a new high with new novel, I FOUND YOU (Atria).
Present day: Alice Lake is a lonely single mother in England, who finds a man with amnesia outside her beach house. He doesn’t have any identification or idea of why he’s there. She does what one is never supposed do, invite him inside her home. In London, Ukrainian bride, twenty-one year-old, Lily Monrose’s new husband has gone missing and she’s left stranded. She turns to police for help only to learn “Carl Monrose” has never existed.
Twenty-three years earlier: Gray and Kirsty are teenagers on holiday with their parents. Their seaside vacation is uneventful until a young man shows up and proceeds to show too much attention to Kirsty. It makes Gray more uncomfortable that just being an overly protective brother.
Two decades of secrets, a young bride and a man with amnesia are at the heart of I FOUND YOU. In addition to Jewell’s lovely prose, steady pacing and interesting characters keep readers engrossed, while the tension gradually builds to a satisfying conclusion. I FOUND YOU is a beach read with a murky film over it. You can’t help but feel as if something sinister is going to happen on the next page, or perhaps, the next sentence. I’m already looking forward to Lisa Jewell’s next novel.

Ha! This was an amazing read. From the beginning, I was charmed by its innocence and then as the pages rolled along I was cast into a storyline filled with amazing characters that filled out this story. It was a story brilliantly told, a story where we had to peek back in time to see where the story originated to find the root of its evil and when it all came together, it was a masterpiece. I truly loved it! My first novel by Lisa Jewell but it will definitely not be my last.

He couldn’t remember his past but he was drawn to the ocean and this particular section of it. Alice, a single mother notices the man sitting on the beach, just staring out into the ocean. As it starts to rain, he continues to sit and stare, not moving, just staring out into the water. His name nor what he is doing, he cannot remember yet Alice decides to take him home where she lives with her three children. Lily had married Carl ten days ago, and he just started back to work after their honeymoon. It’s been twenty-four hours and Carl still is not home from work, Lily can file a missing person’s report but she realizes she doesn’t know much about Carl. Are these two stories even related? It’s 1993, (about 20 years earlier) the Rabbit Cottage is being rented by Tony and Pam and their two children Kristy and Gray. They do this every year but this year they will met Mark who is staying with his aunt. There is no turning back now as this story has me in its grips.

I received a copy of this novel from NetGalley and Atria Books in exchange for an honest review. (less)

Alice finds him sitting on her beach. It's raining, he has no jacket, and doesn't
know his name, how he got there, where he came from. Alice takes in strays
..usually dogs, but this time she's going against her gut feeling and inviting
him to stay with her and her children.

Many miles away, Lily is feeling abandoned. She's been married for 2 weeks and
her new husband has been missing for several days. He doesn't answer his phone,
he's not shown up at work. And when she finally goes to the police, she finds
that her husband doesn't even exist.

Twenty-three years ago, siblings Gray and Kirsty are teenagers spending the
summer on holiday with their parents. Another visiting teen has his eye on
Kirsty. Gray is getting really bad feelings about this new guy, and he fears
for her safety.

Alternating chapters are in the voices of Alice, Lily, and Gray. I thought I
had it all figured out...but surprise! I didn't. It became something more
..more sinister...more dangerous...filled with dark secrets that have been
hiding for decades.

This is a well-written psychological with solidly built characters. I have read
several of this author's books and she has never disappointed.

Many thanks to the author / Arrow Books / Netgalley for the digital copy of I
FOUND YOU. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

This was my first book by British author Lisa Jewell. I enjoyed it so much, I've decided I need to check out her previous ones that I've missed.
I Found You gradually converges three intriguing and puzzling storylines:
Single Mum, Alice, finds a man in a fugue state on the beach near her house in East Yorkshire and decides to offer him a place to stay until they can figure out who he is.
Meanwhile, in London, newly-wed Lily, who is originally from the Ukraine, reports her husband, Carl, missing. He disappeared on his way home from work.
The third storyline goes back twenty odd years to 1993 when the Ross family spent their annual vacation at Ridinghouse Bay where teenagers Kristy and Graham meet 19-year-old Mark who is spending the summer with his Aunt, Kitty.
I was fully engaged in this from start to finish. The style was to the point, the dialogue realistic, and most of the characters were likable. Alice, in particular, with her rather unconventional household and her plain-speaking ways, was an appealing character. I had different theories how the puzzle would slot together as the story progressed and was still proved wrong in the end. While there were certainly moments where I couldn't help wondering whether people would really act in the way these characters did, it didn't stop me from enjoying this story.

In a beachside British village Alice Lake finds a man sitting by himself in the pouring rain. Alice knows her three kids and best friend will disapprove of her nosing around but dangerous or not, she cannot abandon this lonely man in the storm. His unkempt appearance, lack of identification and apparent amnesia do not match the kind look in his eyes, in his sweet face. She happens to have a spare room and decides to bring him in and help him find his true identity. In London, a young wife, new to the country finds herself alone. Her beautiful husband has not returned home from work. She is scared, lost and the police are not buying her story. And decades ago there was a tragedy involving an argument, a mysterious mansion and a suspicious drowning on this very same rocky beach. A teenage brother and sister on vacation found themselves wrapped up in a drama they were not equipped to navigate. These three stories collide on this blustery day with Alice in the center, stay at home mom/artist - finding herself as the lead detective. Always love author Lisa Jewell, storyteller extraordinaire. Highly recommend this suspenseful novel with a little romance, and just enough twists and turns to keep the pages turning. Perfect #SummerRead #addtothelist

I Found You was a relatively slow paced novel that slowly ratcheted up the suspense until I literally could not put it down.

We approach the story from three directions. One from two decades in the past telling the story of seasonal vacationers and their two teen children Gray and Kirsty. And the others from the vantage points of two women in the current time period – One a more mature single mom and the other a young newly married foreigner.

All of these characters are wonderfully flawed. I can’t say that I fell in love with any of them but I could understand and/or respect a lot of their decisions after getting to know them all a bit better. And Alice’s love of dogs won me over from the beginning.

I loved getting the varying viewpoints and trying to guess as it all went along to figure out the answers. Who is this man on the beach that Alice has “found”? Is it Lily’s missing husband? Is it a grown up Gray? And just what is it that he can’t remember?

There is also just a hint of romance and I think that is perfect for what this novel attempts to accomplish.

Completely addicting, I Found You by Lisa Jewell is a must read for lovers of mystery and suspense.

NOTE: Review copy from publisher, all thoughts and opinions my own

Lisa Jewell is one of those authors who never disappoints. And this is no exception!

Living in Yorkshire, single mom, Alice looks out her window to find a man sitting on the beach staring into the sea. He hasn't moved. At all. Even when the rain started. He has no idea how he got here or even who he is. But Alice takes him in the same way she takes in homeless dogs. With no husband and 3 kids to care for, she should be a little more cautious bringing strange men into her house, but that's not Alice.

At the same time 21 year old Lily Monrose has been married to her adoring husband for only a few weeks when he just doesn't come home one night. Lily knows no one in this foreign place. When she goes to the police she finds out her husband doesn't exist.

Told from alternating points of view and time, the book is a thrill ride from beginning to end. There were so many twists and turns and odd characters. Most lovable but some not so much.

Will 'Frank' get his memory back? Will Lily find her husband? And what connects them all? I must admit I cried like a baby in the end.

I would have no problem recommending this book!

I loved this book! Alice finds a man just sitting on the beach in the back of her house. She goes by her window several times and still, he's just sitting there. It starts raining and still he's just sitting there looking out at the water. She gives him a coat left from an old tenant who rented her little cabin in the back. After talking to him, she finds out he has lost his memory and invites him inside.

Meanwhile, the author has several other plots going on in the book. While reading, your not sure how or where everything fits. However, when it all comes together, oh my gosh. I am getting goose pimples writing this and thinking about how it all tumbled out in the end.

This is an amazing read with lots of suspense. The characters are well developed and unforgettable. There is evil in here too. Evil you cannot even believe. This was not my first book by Lisa Jewell, I've read several and she has not failed me yet. Once again, an awesome read that I highly recommend.

Thanks to Atria Books for approving my request and Net Galley for the free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Alice Lake is a single mom raising three children, all from different fathers. She has moved the family to a seaside home in Ridinghouse Bay. Alice supports herself and her three children while making customized art of old maps.

On a cold and windy day, Alice finds a man who is sitting on the beach who is soaked to the skin and staring out at the ocean. Alice decides to check on him and finds out that the man does not know his name, where he is from, and what he does.

The man and Alice develop a lasting bond when she goes out to give him a warm coat. Soon he will occupy a place in Alice's heart even though her best friend has warned her not to.

The man, called "Frank" by one of Alice's children, begins to have flashbacks and starts to remember some of his past. Alice tries not to get too involved with him but finds that her heart wants to do otherwise.

"I Found You" is a great read. Full of suspense and secrets.

What a great read!
Strong, interesting characters, confident writing and a good, tight plot which dips in and out of time changes, but remains accessible to the reader with no loose ends left hanging at the end.
The story starts with Alice in her cottage by the sea looking up from her work at her window to spy a man sitting on the beach...and sitting...and sitting. Finally taking pity on him in the cold, wet weather, Alice takes the stranger into her home, and on learning that he has lost all memory of who he is and why he is on the beach, Alice names him Frank and makes it her mission to help him find himself again.
Enter Lilijana, a young Eastern European, recently married and living in the UK, whose husband has mysteriously gone missing; enter Kirsty and Gray, siblings aged 15 and 18 respectively, on their annual holiday at Rabbit Cottage, Ridinghouse Bay in East Yorkshire with their parents; and enter Mark Yates, a young man with a dark obsession.
Over 20 years their lives become inextricably linked, secrets are revealed and the tension builds as the actions of the past finally catch up.
I give this book full marks!

I might never have discovered this book except that I received an advance copy of the book back in February while in NYC--I finally had time to curl up with it this weekend and am glad I did. I've read several best-selling books within the largely female-led suspense genre in the last several months (and years), and this was by far my favorite. The character development, revelations, and story lines all proceeded at such a great pace that, unlike with the others, I was engrossed throughout and never skipped ahead a paragraph or page or two here and there. It's also the first one within this general genre that didn't leave me feeling at least a little disappointed, deflated, or unsatisfied at the end.

The subtly-crafted suspense story takes place in the UK and begins with a handsome and mysterious man-with-no-memory found at the beach by Alice, a woman with a topsy-turvy, scattered life who lives in a homey old cottage nearby with her children. The story then proceeds in chapters told by three different narrators at two different points in time: Alice and another narrator, Lily, who are each telling two narratives in current time, and Gray, a teenager recounting the story of a family holiday in 1993. The main characters are all complicated or flawed but in very relatable or believable ways, for the most part, such as Alice vacillating between wariness toward the stranger and hungering for his company as an antidote to her loneliness. Kudos especially to the author for her development of the mysterious stranger, and I say this from the perspective of someone who has suffered a concussion that caused memory loss that created social awkwardness and was followed by the return of memories in fits and bursts, much as they are depicted in the book.

I don't want to spoil the suspense or ending, but will give a minor spoiler alert here: the stories of the three narrators do come together in the end, as you will expect early on, but the climax and revelations that tie the pieces together are more powerful than I was expecting, facilitated by the arrival or development of a couple new characters later in the story.