Elijah has lived in the Memory Wood for as long as he can remember. It’s the only home he’s ever known.

Elissa has only just arrived. And she’ll do everything she can to escape.

When Elijah stumbles across thirteen-year-old Elissa, in the woods where her abductor is hiding her, he refuses to alert the police. Because in his twelve years, Elijah has never had a proper friend. And he doesn’t want Elissa to leave.

Not only that, Elijah knows how this can end. After all, Elissa isn’t the first girl he’s found inside the Memory Wood.

As her abductor’s behaviour grows more erratic, Elissa realises that outwitting strange, lonely Elijah is her only hope of survival. Their cat-and-mouse game of deception and betrayal will determine both their fates, and whether either of them will ever leave the Memory Wood . . .

What did I think of this book? Wow...no make that WOW!!

I had no idea what to expect from this book. I hadn’t read any reviews, actually I hadn’t even heard of it or the author before, I just picked it thinking it would be an abduction tale, the kind that’s been done so many times before with varying degrees of success. Oh how wrong I was…

This...IMHO…is anything BUT the usual abduction tale, in fact it's not the usual anything. I’m not going to go into the whys & wherefores as I REALLY don’t want to let the slightest teensy weensy spoiler slip, just trust me when I say that this book will have you hooked from the start & boy is it hard to put down (I picked it up late at night & was finished by noon next day). Knowing that Elissa was going to be abducted but not how, when or by whom had the tension building until it was palpable &, when it did happen, it was terrifying with it’s simple realism. As to the reaction of poor Elissa’s mum on her daughter’s disappearance….well that was simply heartbreaking & so believable.

It's dark & creepy, twisty & twisted. You may think you’ve got things sussed…well, I can pretty much guarantee that there’ll still be a few surprises in store for you. It’s a very cleverly constructed story which kept me engrossed & guessing to the end, an ending, which I’m not ashamed to admit, I arrived at with tears in my eyes.

I’m not one to get all gushy about books but in this case I can make an exception. I loved it & highly recommend it. Read it…as soon as possible….

Bookring "Rules" & Posting Order

Please journal the book when you receive it then we know it's arrived safely....
..... then read it!

Please aim to send on within 4 - 6 weeks & journal it again when you've read it to let us know what you thought of it.

Please PM the next on the list for an address. If you don't hear from them or they appear to be inactive, please let me know. Please use the posting order here as it will be adjusted if anyone new is added or someone needs moving further down the list.

Please journal the date it's posted, keeping within 6 weeks of receiving it. However...please don't get stressed out about how long you take to read it, if you need to keep it longer just make a JE to let us know -just don't forget about it completely!

Finally, I hope you all enjoy this book as much as I did.

POSTING ORDER

penelopewanders(c/o UK)
Bookworm-lady (Spain)
Icila (France)

....anyone else?!
.....& home to me

Packed up ready to send to penelopewanders sometime next week - hope you enjoy the book as much as I did !

This ring came to my daughter’s place in London (with a number of other great books, thanks so much!!). I look forward to reading this one soon. Hope everyone is well and enjoying their summer!
Thanks for making this available.

Here as a ring, I had registered that this was an excellent book, but didn't really pay attention beyond that. For that reason I really had no idea what it was about. Currently recovering from COVID, I did have to take a few breaks and read more cheery fare in between, but on the whole I found it a very intriguing story with plenty of twists and turns.
It may be a bit before I can get to the post office to send it on, but hopefully it won't be too long.
Thanks so much for making it available.

This now leaves central France and heads down to Spain. Enjoy!

And here it is!
Thanks for sending it with a very "classy" postcard.
I will try to move it on as soon as possible; looking forward to reading it. :)

Currently reading it. :)

Wow! I have to agree with Plum, this is a real page-turner... though in my case, I did not find the first 2 pages appealing... I'm glad I continued reading, as everything made perfect sense later on...
Full of unexpected twists and turns, even for seasoned readers like us... Just like Plum, I don't want to give anything away... I will just say that I did not see them coming! And after those revelations, maybe the last 50 pages or so seemed to drag on a little...
I loved Elissa as a character, although sometimes she seemed too mature for her age... maybe being a chess pro made her like that... In any case, her thought processes were very interesting to follow.
And the policewoman is also a believable and real-life character... well, at least the way we would all like police staff to be! I liked the balance between personal life and work, and felt sorry for her tragedy in the former and her success in the latter, the final scenes were really moving.
It is really, really difficult to comment this novel without using spoilers!
An impressive first novel, I will include any other books by this author in my WishList.
Thanks for sharing this book, Plum, it made for some hypnotic reading, I'm glad I followed your recommendation.
And thanks for your patience, Icila, the book will be on its way to you in my next batch for the post office.

Sent today to Icila, who is next in the bookring.
Enjoy! :)

Just found in my mailbox. Thank you very much !

Just finished and WOW what a roller-caster ! You are right, I couldn't put it down.
Thank you for sharing Plum-crazy.

I'm very happy to send this excellent book to my BC friend in NZ.
Enjoy !

Thank you Icila, I've been looking forward to reading this for some time. A well travelled book and good recommendations from Bookcrossers with similar tastes to my own :)