Great book.... very unlivable character. The book has a strong plot. I just wish the characters had been written differently. I was hooked from the first page.

I asked to read this book as a departure from what I normally read, and I am glad that I did. The flow of this book is different than I am used to, and takes a bit of getting used too. It's one of those books that tells you the ending first and then starts telling the story from there to fill in all of the blanks. Two girls friends from a young age living in New York City, coming to age. One has a younger brother and the other is an only child. Neither family is what it appears to be. The storyline revolves around a month long summer vacation and why Isa went with her Katie and her family to Montauk, Long Island. What secrets are being kept? What is really going on in Isa's family? Why does it seem like her parents forgot about her? All of these questions will be answered as you read the words. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to review this book. I will look for other books from this author to fill my summer days. Enjoy!

The rating is a 3.5. This book started out so strong with so much potential. I was engrossed throughout the whole beginning, and that is saying a lot given the characters. The characters were frankly, unlikeable. There was not one character save maybe James that I liked one bit. James was somewhat tolerable. I liked the initial suspense the author used. Initially finding out Isa had died, but as the story progressed there was quite a bit of back story revealed.

Normally, having unlikeable characters would totally turn me off, but the beginning was so promising. Katie was a jealous teenager who, I couldn’t pin point if she wanted to BE Isa or be WITH Isa. Louise, her mother was beyond selfish.

It fell flat in the middle. I kept thinking “wait, didn’t I just read this but worded differently?”. It got to be a bit dull. I was waiting for a big turn or events.

Towards the end, there was a big turn of events and we started to learn some truths, but they weren’t all that surprising or twisty. Some things about the story didn’t make sense to me either.

I would recommend this book, however with the caution of lack of likeable characters. I would read another book by this author.

Sarah & Willem are having problems in their marriage. Isa, their 17 year old daughter has been the least of their worries for a while and their ambivalence towards her is grating.

Louise & Peter are (somewhat) happily married. Their daughter Katie and Isa have been best friends since early childhood. Katie’s younger brother James is close with Isa as well.

Sarah & Louise met in Central Park when the girls were young and have stayed close ever since. When Sarah asks Louise if Isa can accompany her family on their annual beach vacation, for some reason Louise can’t pinpoint, she’s hesitant. Louise agrees so Sarah and Willem can work on their marriage alone, but her unease with having Isa tag along soon begins to grow.

When the family arrive at their beach home all seems well, but not for long. Katie and Isa seem to drift further apart while James and Isa are closer. Louise has her own secrets and will soon find out that Isa is involved in that too.


There are so many pieces and moving parts in this book that it just feels a bit much to me. Take away all the unnecessary storylines and over explanations and there’s a gripping story to be found here. While I would not read Someone Else’s Daughter again, I do look forward to reading more from Jennifer Harvey. I have worked on this review for several days now and really just can’t do any better without giving things away and I’m not into spoiler reviews.

Thanks to NetGalley for my Someone Else’s Daughter ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Louise has an uneasy feeling when her friend Sarah sends her only daughter, Isa with them on vacation. Louise believes there is a side to Isa that she cannot trust. Katie and Isa are best friends, but Katie is not overly excited that Isa is coming on vacation but is thinking maybe they could repair their friendship. Isa is manipulative and can use any secrets that your hold as her biggest weapon to destroy you. She has had addictive issues such as men and social media, but she has burned Katie before, and she can do it again if Katie lets her.

When Isa is found dead after a beach party, no one can remember the details leading up to Isa’s disappearance. James, Katie’s brother, is the only one who can remember small pieces of that night and believes he could have saved Isa along with his sister. Told between Katie and Louise, the details surrounding Isa and her death unravel just as quickly as the people who were close to her unravel as well.


This book did peak my interest, but did not keep it, This book is well written but seemed to linger in the middle with details that did not feel like they fit into the storyline

Thank you to Net Galley, Jennifer Harvey and Bookoutuer for allowing me to read this ARC.

Isa is dead. The book begins with the death of seventeen-year old Isa. Sarah and Wilhem have sent their daughter, Isa to Long Island for the summer in the care of Louise and Peter, parents of Isa's friend, Katie. Sarah has asked her friend, Louise to take Isa on their summer vacation. Sarah and her husband are having marital issues and need to take a trip on their own. Louise has reservations, but feels she needs to take Isa. Unfortunately, for the past few months, Isa has been extremely troubled. She's been engaging in some unhealthy behaviors that are affecting her emotionally. So much that it has caused a rift between her and Katie. Katie isn't thrilled to find out that Isa is going along. But, she hopes the trip can help them work things out. The entire trip does not go well for anyone. Fast forward to the end of the trip. Big party on the beach at night. Isa doesn't return home. The book continues with the aftermath. Everyone considers how much they are to blame for Isa's death and what more they could have and should have done to save her.
This was a good book overall. I was a bit bothered by the NY girls speaking, at times, as though they were from England. (Perhaps the author is from a British country.)

This book is nicely written with a decent enough storyline but I couldn’t connect with it fully,

The problem is the characters. They are all terribly flawed and unlikeable. Louise is judgemental, Katie is jealous, James is weak, Isa is manipulative and Sarah and Willem are selfish. Peter is so bland that he may as well not have been included. If there had been one character that behaved well, that I could root for, then this could have been a very successful story.

A good idea, poorly executed. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my copy of this book.

I was a little nervous about reading this book given some of the other feedback I had read but I'm glad I stuck with it. The book is from multiple points of view and has an interesting feel to it as you read, almost as if the characters are remembering the events at times. The story focuses on Louise and Katie and how one summer away at the beach with wild child Isa changes their lives. The story starts out strong with the family arriving at the beach with Isa, Katie's best friend, and how they settle into a routine filled with days by the water and hanging out. The reader gets to learn snippets of how the events of the previous year all lead to a tragic event at the end of the summer. We get to see how decisions made all lead us to that pivotal moment and that moment negatively effects things in the future.

I felt that at times the book was a little slow, especially during the middle and as someone else pointed out some of the language was very British which made it confusing at times, since the book was set in New York. Despite that though I found this book to be a good read and one I would recommend.


I think the publishers and net galley for the advance copy of this book.

Louise was looking forward to their family holiday with her husband and two children.
Her friend Sarah has asked if her daughter Isa can go with them on holiday so that she and her husband can sort our their problems.
Louise’s daughter Katie is friends with Isa and despite her reservations she decides to take the girl with them.
Isa is a troubled teenager and is looking for excitement and adventure.
A slow moving story with characters that I found hard to relate to.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

That was a Debut novel???? Wow, sooooo many emotions with this outstanding book. I literally felt like I was in Montauk watching the story unfold. Awesome, Gripping, Frustrating, Heartbreaking!!! Please write another novel Jennifer Harvey. Thank you Bookouture and Net Galley for an early copy of this Riveting book.

I believe it's not possible to know someone completely. Everybody has small (or sometimes not so small) things they want to keep to themselves and honestly I think that's fine. As long as you don't hurt anyone in the process of course.

When it's about children, parents should try their best to show interest or it will go from bad to worse when the young adults feel abandoned.

When you decide to leave your child in the hands of someone else though it's important to inform them about the child's behaviour and mindset so they can act accordingly, but when this is neglected the consequences can be very harsh.

Some people will be able to deal with it after a while, others never will.

This is a story about guilt and blaming others, about delving in your memories in order to reveal the missing pieces, about keeping silent when it benefits you, about betrayal and pain.

The book starts with a devastating scene. Then the author takes us from the present to the past and back in order to fill us in. The middle part is a bit slower paced, but I did not mind that. It gave me plenty of time trying (and failing obviously once again) to figure out what actually happened. Afterwards, hold on tight because we are coming into a mealstrom.

I was captivated the whole time. A very enjoyable read. 5 stars.

Thank you, Jennifer Harvey and Bookouture

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and highly recommend it! I was hooked since the beginning and couldn’t put it down! It was very well written, and Jennifer Harvey perfectly portrayed how each of the individuals thought and felt. The characters were well developed, and I felt like I could understand them, relate to them in some ways, and even felt like I knew them on a personal level. The emotions (and resulting actions) of the characters was just as important as the plot and tragic event. The realistic emphasis on emotions is part of what made the book so great! Jennifer Harvey’s ability to bring the characters to life, and let you feel what they felt, is incredible! I think other readers would especially enjoy this book because many people would be able to relate to the “what if” scenario. What if you allowed one of your child’s friends to go somewhere with you, and the results were tragic? People without children would enjoy this book due to Harvey’s excellent storytelling ability and plot. Readers with children could relate on a very personal level because it’s common to allow our children to go with friends or have friends join them so it is something we can relate to as parents.

This book goes back and forth, primarily between the mother (Louise) and daughter (Katie); however, they clearly express how the other characters felt and acted so that you are able to get a full perspective from all of the characters.

Plot: Louise, her husband, their teenage son and daughter (James and Katie) have plans for their summer vacation trip to a beach house. They’ve been going there for so many summers that Katie has even become friends with some of the others kids who go there too (although she secretly wishes one of her male friends was more than just a friend). It’s the perfect escape from theIr hectic lifestyles in NYC. Isa, Katie’s questionable friend, will be joining them this summer for the month because Isa’s parents feel a desperate need to have a dramatic “second honeymoon” as an attempt to save their marriage, and ask if Isa can go with Katie’s family. Despite Louise’s Initial hesitations, she agrees to allow Isa come because the mothers and daughters have known each other since the girls were toddlers.

Isa is the girl who you love, and also the girl who you love to hate. Katie has known Isa since they were young, and hopes that the vacation will allow them to become close again. Isa’s charm and wit keeps Katie hanging on and feeling desperate to be best friends again. She feels hurt over their on again, off again status as best friends, and genuinely hopes they’ll be able to reconnect and put the past behind them. She knows Isa can inflict just as much hurt and pain as she can kindness and care though.

From the moment they get to the beach house Katie is instantly put into the position of making a sacrifice in order to please Isa. Despite being inwardly upset, she does though because she misses her best friend. Regardless of the special meaning of it being a gift from Louise, Katie readily hands it over to Isa. Katie’s on the edge of doing nearly anything to have the shared closeness that they used to have. Katie feels her own self worth is less than Isa’s because how can anyone compare to Isa? Isa knows how cruel she is sometime, and considers it a powerful ability to gain whatever she wants at all costs. Isa doesn’t care who gets hurt in the wake of her actions. Katie has just accepted that that’s just how Isa is, and is determined to not take it personally. It seems as if their friendship is as good as ever before, but are all of their feelings and actions real or just for show? Is the friendship more one sided now, and if so why? The problems of their past are in the past now, so have both girls truly gotten over it? What caused such a huge rift in their friendship to begin with? Isa acts as if nothing bad ever happened between the two of them, and Katie certainly doesn’t talk about the thing they dont talk about, so maybe things have improved. Isa was eager and excited about spending the month with them, and Katie was desperately hopeful. Is Isa really as bad as Katie makes her out to be, or is Katie secretly more vindictive than she lets on?

After Isa’s tragic death, how well did anyone really know her? Louise, Katie’s mom, says she saw a completely different side to Isa throughout their vacation and that she wasn’t as sweet and innocent as she previously thought. What was it that alerted her to the Isa she had not known before? Is she trying to hide something that happened over the vacation? Isa’s parents, understandably grief stricken at the death of their only child, claim that Isa was a completely different girl than who Louise says she had come to know. Do they really believe that, or was their more to the story that they should have told Louise about before going on the trip? James, Katie’s younger teenage brother, seemed slightly infatuated with Isa, and has fallen apart as a result of her death. Is he covering something up, or is he just struggling with the reality of losing someone he cared for? He babbles nonsense and no one can understand how deep his grief is or why he is blaming himself as much as he is. Katie is lost in her own grief, and calls Isa’s phone with regularity just to be able to hear her voice again on her voicemail, but she’s doing her best trying to hold herself together. Is she really the girl who had seemed so sincere about being best friends again, or is there another side of her that no one else has seen? Louise feels constant guilt that she didn’t keep Isa safe, and can hardly see past It. Is she reveling in her self inflicted guilt over not having paid more attention to Isa, or over something she did? What is it that caused Katie and Isa to have such a falling out of their friendship to begin with, and why are they so adamant not to talk about it - to anyone?
Thank you Jennifer Harvey, Bookouture, and Netgalley for allowing me the privilege of reading Someone Else’s Daughter. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinions.

This is my first read by this author. It was okay, initially it was a good read but in the middle it seemed to slow right down and made it difficult for me to continue. I did battle on and finished it but it left me feeling “meh”.

I'm sure this will be a hit for the beach read crowd this summer but it's failed to really grab my attention.

Sarah and William are married with problems. They have a teenage daughter, Isa. Louisa is the mother is Isa's best friend Katie. Isa spends the summer with Katie's family - and by the end of summer - Isa's dead.

This...is okay. I think I just couldn't connect.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I neither loved it or hated it. Isa's character was really cruel and insensitive but you could see why as her parents dumped her with her friend's family to go off on a second honeymoon and even before that didn't seem to parent her very well and had no idea what she got up to. Katie seemed to let Isa walk all over her. I didn't feel that any one of the characters was likeable.

I will tell you straightaway that the only reason I am not giving this book five stars is because the vocabulary was off for everyone at various times. I suspected very early on that the author is from the UK, based on random phrases, and sure enough when I took a look, I was correct. The author is from Scotland. I love Scotland, it is my fave country in the whole world. But teenagers from NYC hanging out on Long Island for the summer should speak like teenagers from NYC, not from the UK. It honestly got very distracting, and this is coming from someone who is a bonafied Anglophile. I am not sure why these words and phrases were overlooked throughout the book, there are so many instances of them occurring and I wish now I had documented them all. There were quite a lot and an editor should have made the changes, or the story should have taken place in the UK.

Now, onto the good stuff, because this was a really great story and I didn't want to put it down.

Louise and Peter have two high schoolers, Katie and James. Each summer the family heads to their beach house for some relaxation. However, this year Isa is joining them, Katie's best friend. This worries Lousie from the start, though she can't exactly say what it is about Isa that she feels is so dangerous. Even Katie was not enthusiastic about Isa coming along, but along she goes anyway, and does not return home alive.

Isa is not meant to be likable. None of the main characters - Louise, Katie, Isa - are actually very unlikable, truth be told. But that is the draw, they are all human and flawed in one way or another. The story is told from alternating view points of mother and daughter. Louise wondering how to protect her family from whatever trouble Isa will bring, and Katie constantly living in the shadow of her gorgeous best friend.

Both Isa and Louise have secrets. I really thought this would play into the story on a much bigger level than it did. So, this book wins the prize for stumping me. Louise was there the night Isa died, but not directly involved. That's all I can really say without giving more away.

Despite not being likable, it was easy to see that Isa was really just a lost little girl who needed her mom and dad to actually be parents, to pay attention to her and give her the love she needed and craved. All of Isa's behaviors stemmed from the dysfunction at home, her father's affair, her parents blindness to Isa's behaviors as they planned their second honeymoon and dumped their only child off on another family. Isa might have been a spoiled brat, but she deserved better than the ending she came to, drowning just feet from the end of summer bash at the beach where she had partied all season.

This book would be a full five stars if not for the language issues mentioned at the beginning. Highly recommended.

I haven't read any novels by this author, but I do feel that she did a good job. Her characters were developed well and it flowed well. The middle was a little slow and dragged a bit, but other than that it was well-written well-developed with a good plot. The whole book centers around a summer break on Long Island for a family that lives in Manhattan. The family takes their daughter's 17 year old teenage friend, who just happens to be the daughter of friends of theirs. This couple are having marital issues and are taking time off for a second honeymoon to try and save their marriage.

Unfortunately their daughter's friend, Isa has many addictions: emotional, drugs, alcohol and social media. Sadly, there's a big beach party and Isa doesn't return back from it alive. What results are different versions of what may have happened. It's an interesting book with a good beginning and ending. It had strong parts and weak parts but overall, a good solid book. I do recommend.

I would like to thank Jennifer Harvey, Bookouture and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

At times this was really well written, god dialogue was right and the author seemed to have direction. Yet other elements were lacking sadly, in using some of the phrasing

Enjoyed this book. It was full of surprises! A bit emotional & sad but the suspense kept me interested😊

This was an okay read. There were some parts where I had to force myself to continue because it was so much slower than the books I have been reading.
It started with the death of Isa (which I found hard to accept as anything other than a high yield Savings account!) I also found it hard to follow at times. I wouldn’t describe it as a thriller, as it was fairly predictable - and I wasn’t a massive fan of the characters either.