That's Not My Name Paperback – December 26, 2023

Wow, I could not be more impressed with this thriller story! I adore the characters, as they are written superbly! I cannot say it enough, the writing is SUPERB! Each page pulls you deeper into the story, where the pace never stops, as the story flows with intense suspense.Again, the characters are top notch, cream of the crop fabulous!How it started: Two highschool teens, Drew and Lola, have a big fight, Lola jumps out of Drew’s car angry and storms off. Shortly after, Lola goes missing. Enter awesome characters, and the couple’s best friends, Max and Summer to help solve the case.This YA thriller story is OUTSTANDING and the audible book is in a league of its own. Listening was an incredibly great experience for me. It is some of the best narration I’ve heard to date.I am so impressed with the storytelling, it left me wanting more, in fact, I still want more, and I finished the book many hours ago. The suspense had me listening at a high speed, and that last twist had me gasping and yelling at my phone! My family laughs! 😁🎧 A MUST listen/read! I HIGHLY recommend that you listen and/or read this book! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVO!🔥🔥READ IT🔥🔥I’m super excited to read more from this author.Amazing buddy read, it is truly the perfect buddy read! 😎⚠️Be sure to read the trigger warnings⚠️

A girl wakes up in a ditch beaten and bruised and gets found on the road by a police officer. She has no memory of anything about herself, not even her name. When a man shows up claiming to be her father, with seemingly good proof, the cop lets her go with him. The pov in this book goes back and forth between, “Mary” and her experience with her “father” and getting her memories back and Drew who is the boyfriend of a missing girl who everyone in his small town thinks he had something to do with her disappearance. It takes you on an eerie journey of her flashes of memories not adding up to what Wayne is telling her is her life and Drew doing everything he possibly can to find and save his girlfriend Lola. Even though the story didn’t end how Drew wanted it to, he was brave and saved a girl he now knows as Madison. He was one girl too late to save Lola. this story was a quick read that kept my attention and was a good story.

Megan Lally's "That's Not My Name" is an absolute banger of a YA thriller! The narrative grabs you immediately and refuses to let go, propelled by a relentless pace that had me flipping pages at lightning speed, especially when rooting for Drew. Lally expertly crafts a plot brimming with unexpected twists that genuinely left me speechless. The emotional depth of the story is also remarkable. I found myself laughing one minute, frustrated with the characters the next (in a way that fueled the tension!), and ultimately, deeply moved by the poignant epilogue. While there was a minor plot point that felt slightly underdeveloped, the overall impact of this gripping and twisty narrative is undeniable. Lally writes with a confidence and skill that delivers a truly captivating story that will undoubtedly appeal to readers beyond the YA genre. If you're looking for a fast-paced, emotionally charged thriller that will keep you guessing until the very end, look no further.

Sigh, I wavered between 3.5-4 ⭐️ rating for a few reasons. First of all, this book is very much a YA read. The author is definitely a liberal. And some of the characters were quite annoying. Trying to be funny when they were anything but. Okay, so those are the things I didn’t like about the book. I did very much like the mystery though. The author redeemed herself by the way she dropped breadcrumbs of the twist at the end. In addition, I’m a mother of two teen girls. I can’t even begin to imagine what a parent(s) would be going through should something this catastrophic happens to their child. She even brought me to tears twice and I’m not a crier. Oh how I wish the book ended differently (as I’m a sucker for a HEA) however it did give some hope and relief. The story begins with a girl waking up in a ditch near a deserted road in the middle of the night. She’s bruised up and bloody. Has no idea how she ended up there and worse no idea who she is. A cop finds her and calls an ambulance. Yet she refuses to go the hospital…..why? That didn’t make a stitch of sense. Especially since she didn’t know who she was. The officer brings her to the station and tries to research who she might be but comes up blank. An older man comes running into the precinct to claim his daughter as missing when he sees her. He claims she is his missing teen daughter Mary who was in a car accident. The officer takes every precaution and insists the man must show proof, which he (Wayne) has no issue with and even allows the officer back to his cabin in the woods to check it out and make sure Mary is who Wayne claims she is. But there are many odd things that don’t make sense. Like Mary doesn’t have any clothing, they can’t locate Mary’s vehicle and Wayne is ridiculously possessive of her. She has a feeling her name isn’t Mary but Wayne has all this evidence that she is. So she waits for her memory to return. Then there is Drew, Max and Autumn. These are friends of a girl named Lola that has been missing over a month. Drew is Lola’s boyfriend and being blamed for her disappearance- which in a way he is. He’s annoying at best. So are the other two, however you feel for Drew bc he is being painted this awful person by people he’s known his entire life. He has to find Lola to clear his name but also bc he still cares about her. After pointless chapters of bickering, the three of them finally pool their heads together and begin to play detectives to track down Lola when a lead comes in (that Autumn’s dad (who is the towns sheriff) chooses to ignore bc he wants Drew to be the prime suspect). Sadly, there are good police officers and bad ones. Autumn’s dad is not one of the good ones. The savvy teens end up in the same town Lola was last seen…..do they find her before it’s too late?? Does Mary get her memories back? Why does Wayne want to keep a girl as his daughter if she’s really not?? All these questions and then some get answered. And the best part is the author tells you the answers the entire time throughout the book. You just have to connect the dots…….,

I really enjoyed this story! It’s very suspenseful and I couldn’t put it down. Lola goes missing and the town sheriff thinks it’s her boyfriend but it isn’t. Because the sheriff is such a piece of garbage I was enraged with him. As Lola’s friends look for her and the mystery unravels this book gets even better. The ending I didn’t see coming was disappointing and yet somehow this author made it better, ending the book on a high note. Four stars