The Girl Who Never Came Home by Nicole Trope is my second novel by this author after reading and thoroughly enjoying The Nowhere Girl.
16 yr old Zoe Bloom is on a weekend school camping trip and goes missing. A search party later finds her dead from a fall. Told from the points of view of many characters, details are revealed leading up to the tragedy.
This is a gut wrenching drama that is extremely well-written. A riveting tale of how a traumatic event can affect the lives of so many. A difficult subject written with great sensitivity.
Highly Recommended!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for an arc of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to Bookoture and NetGalley for this amazing book. 

My nail beds are bleeding due to profusely biting through them while reading this book. You’ll not put this book down. And when you finally do, you’ll wish that this book had never ended.

This book will have you reaching for the tissues many times. Every mothers worst nightmare with so many 'what ifs?'  Heartbreaking but so many lessons to be learned from and by teenagers.

EXCERPT: They find her body after twenty-three hours of searching.

She is lying at the bottom of a small outcrop of grey-brown rock. The rock is covered in a slippery green moss and one of the searchers, a woman named Adelaide, almost loses her footing as she peers over the edge despite being a resident of the mountains and a keen hiker. She attributes her near slip to the tears clouding her view. It is a terrible thing to see. The girl lies with one leg slightly angled and her arms above her head, her eyes closed and her arms above her head, her eyes closed and her blonde hair tangled around her face, a sprinkling of freckles across her cheeks. Her phone is lying in one hand, the screen unbroken.

Unlike her.

ABOUT 'THE GIRL WHO NEVER CAME HOME': Nothing tests your faith like being a mother. The first time your children walk to school alone, their first sleepover, when they finally fly the nest. As a parent, you have to believe that everything will be OK.

It’s why, when Lydia’s sixteen-year-old daughter Zoe goes on a school camping trip, she has no idea of the horrors that will unfold. It’s why, when Lydia gets a call saying that her daughter has disappeared, she refuses to give up.

As she searches the mountains, her voice hoarse from calling Zoe’s name, she imagines finding her. She envisions being flooded with relief as she throws her arms around her child, saying, ‘you gave us such a scare’. She pictures her precious girl safely tucked in bed that evening.

It’s why, when they find Zoe’s body, Lydia can barely believe it. It is unthinkable. Her little girl has gone.

Something terrible happened, she is sure of it. Something made Zoe get out of her sleeping bag in the middle of the night, walk out of the warmth and safety of the cabin, into the darkness of the mountains. Driven by the memory of her youngest child, Lydia needs to find out the truth. What kind of mother would she be if she didn’t?

MY THOUGHTS: I always look forward to a new Nicole Trope book, and 'The Girl Who Never Came Home' is no exception. Trope manages to combine an interesting and realistic storyline that will wrench your heartstrings, particularly if you are a parent, with wonderfully relatable characters.

Having a child go missing is every parent's worst nightmare. Somehow, when you send your child off to school camp, you expect to get that child back. Trope explores what happens when that child doesn't come back, when that child is found dead, and what happens when a death that initially looks accidental, becomes something else. She explores the complicated relationships between teenage girls, between them and their families, between them and the people they 'meet' on social media. She explores the disparity between the the actuality of these girls and the image that they present to the world, the competition between and pecking order in friendships.

The Girl Who Never Came Home is a delicious, sad, emotional, exciting read, one that will have you glued to the pages as the possible identity of Zoe's killer becomes numerous as secrets are revealed and lies exposed.

The story is told from the viewpoints of Lydia, Zoe's mother; Shayna, Zoe's best friend; Bernadette, the teacher; and Jessie, Zoe's sister. Detectives Gold and Holland are the lead investigators and the tragedy takes place just outside Leura in the Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia. I have been there and it is spectacularly beautiful, but it would also be extremely easy to get lost, especially in the middle of the night if you were alone. But it seems that Zoe wasn't alone . . .

⭐⭐⭐⭐.4

#TheGirlWhoNeverCameHome #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: Nicole Trope went to university to study Law but realised the error of her ways when she did very badly on her first law essay because-as her professor pointed out- ‘It’s not meant to be a story.’ She studied teaching instead and used her holidays to work on her writing career and complete a Masters’ degree in Children’s Literature. After the birth of her first child she stayed home full time to write and raise children, renovate houses and build a business with her husband.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Bookouture via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Girl Who Never Came Home by Nicole Trope for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

16 year old Zoe goes on a school camping trip and ends up dead. Was it an accident or intentional? Zoe is the type of girl everybody wants to be like, but she was also a girl disliked by many. 

I really enjoyed The Nowhere Girl by Nicole Trope, so I had high hopes for this one. I just didn't care for any of the characters. I also guessed who was responsible for her death pretty early on. I also did not feel an ounce of sympathy for Zoe. Granted, she didn't deserve to die, but she was downright horrible. I know teenagers can be difficult and sometimes cruel, but she was just mean. Her mother was just as much to blame, she acknowledged that she had spoiled Zoe. It's like she knew how bad her daughter was but just refused to accept it, even at the end. If I felt bad for anyone, it was Jessie and Mrs. Fischer. I also thought Gabriel was a saint!

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC of this book.

There was some very clever plotting in this book. 
It starts with a tragedy and then follows family and friends of the victim as they come to grips with the aftermath. 
I thought it was interesting to get the perspectives from the people who knew Zoe (the victim). The author did a great job in illustrating how the perceptions we have of a person can be completely different depending on our relationship to them. 
For example, Zoe’s mom, Lydia, remembers her daughter as any mom would – with affection, but with regret for the times she was harsh with Zoe. This does not jibe with the image of Zoe as related by her best friend, Shayna. 
She remembers Zoe as someone who had changed recently and not necessarily for the better. Through Shayna’s eyes, we see that Zoe herself was a chameleon, putting on a different persona depending on who she was dealing with at the time. 
I also found Bernadette’s (the teacher) view of Zoe to be interesting. As a former teacher, I could relate to how she felt about Zoe. Teachers often see sides of kids that the parents never do. That being said, Bernadette wasn’t all on the level either. 
And then there’s the older sister, Jessie. Lydia has a difficult time being around her for various reasons, but Jessie has her own set of demons to deal with, especially as Lydia rejects her. 
Of course, there’s also the question of what really happened to Zoe the night she disappeared and ended up dead. 
All of this works together to make a compelling read. There were times that I felt it skewed young because of how much it dealt with teenage relationships and feelings, but I guess that was to be expected when the central character is a teenager. 
This unflinching look at the masks we wear even with people we know best should not be missed.

Favorite Quotes:

I have a bit of a soft spot for Leeanne, for how awkward the poor girl is, with her perpetually hunched shoulders and the glasses that slip to the tip of her nose as soon as she moves her head, for how dreadful her skin is, for how she makes me see myself at sixteen. Leeanne is, as I was, the smartest girl in the year… I have often told her that as long as she sticks with her dream, she will one day be able to look back at her school years and see them as a growth opportunity rather than a trial to be endured.

I was incandescent with rage…

Guilt weighs me down, slows my steps, steals my sleep and my appetite. Guilt is the only emotion I deserve to feel. 


My Review:

I argue that justice was not served by the end result as the punishment was too severe and not at all deserved, and I’m referencing the true victim in this piece - and just to be clear – I’m not talking about the dead girl.  There were many victims in this tale as the recently deceased teen, Zoe, was quite the heinous little madam.  Zoe was vile and vicious and a monster of her mother’s creation by a lifetime of overindulgence.  I despised the bratty she-devil while I deeply resented her shortsighted mother, but I had overflowing buckets of empathy for everyone else.  

The storylines were taut with tension, well-crafted intrigue, and tantalizingly slow revelations. I thoroughly enjoyed the insights reaped from the multiple points of view and although there appeared to be an unending plethora of fractured and wounded people to keep up with who had been brutalized in some manner by the cruelty or repercussions of Zoe’s selfish schemes and reprehensible behaviors, it was easily done once the characters were semi-established.  I found it highly interesting how they all suffered from guilt by their limited knowledge of and inactions leading up to and during the main event.  This was my second foray into the sly and artful deception and cunning word-stylings of Nicole Trope and I can only hope for many more such unscrupulous outings.

Liked this one a lot! Now, it did take me a little while to get into, but not too long, and once I did....WOW!  Couldn't put it down! The story begins with Zoe going missing from a camping trip and turning up dead. This is told from 4 perspectives- Lydia, the missing girl's Mom,  a sister, friend and a teacher. All characters are written very well and I enjoyed the character of Lydia the best. I feel the author did an excellent job of conveying her emotions and determination to not rest without knowing what happened to her daughter. I can't recommend this one enough and will look for more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley, Nicole Troupe and Bookouture for this ARC!

This emotionally charged thriller is written in chapters that alternated between four,vivid female characters Jessie (Zoe's sister) Lydia (Zoe's Mother) Shayna (one of Zoe's best friends) and Bernadette (the teacher who was in charge of the camp on the night that Zoe disappeared. Three of them were harbouring secrets and feelings of guilt about events on that fateful Friday night when Zoe disappeared, secrets that they were reluctant to reveal for their own personal reasons. The character I felt a lot of sympathy for was poor Jessie, she had lost her father at a young age,had just lost her sister and after she revealed her personal secret she received no support from Lydia, who just seemed to be wallowing in her own grief with no thought for how much Jessie and her step father Gabriel were also suffering. I understand that she had just lost her perfect, beautiful daughter (a daughter who was not the angel her mother thought she was) but I thought she was quite selfish and self absorbed at times but then,I suppose grief affects different people in different ways. I can't say that I liked Bernadette very much but I didnt think that the way that she was treated by the school was very fair considering the fact that she wasn't the only teacher at the camp,the word scapegoat sprang into my mind. They say that your school days are the best days of your life, I loved school, it got me away from my mother. Way back when I was at school, if you were bullied, once you got home,you could forget about the name calling and teasing until the next day. But now in the days of the internet and smart phones, victims can be bullied at any hour of the night or day and the bullying has reached a whole new level of nastiness and can even be degrading. It is far too easy for unscrupulous people to hid behind fake identities and victimize their chosen victim from behind the unanimity of their chosen screen. Interspersed throughout the book and written in italics were chapters that narrated by a character who definitely didn't like Zoe very much and had devised a plan to teach her a lesson but who was that person and why did they dislike Zoe so much. The teenage characters were a realistic mix of teenage angst,hormones, bullying, backstabbing,young love, disagreements, ghosting and support. But what had happened to Zoe on the fatal Friday night? Was her death an accident or murder? Did she get lost in the dark and fall to her death or is there a murderer hiding in plain sight?

This is a extremely well written, captivating story that causes the reader to experience a wide range of emotions, I was almost in tears at one point. I hooked into this enthralling story from the first page, drawn into the lives of the author's vivid character's and their fictional but realistic world. The twists and turns of the plot kept me guessing and frantically turning the pages, I would have read the whole book in one sitting if my brain and eyes had been cooperating.I absolutely loved this brilliant book, worth far more than five stars and very very highly recommended.

I was completely pulled into this one by the cover. It raised a lot of questions and made me completely intrigued and keen to pick it up and find out what happened to the girl who never came home.

Zoe was on a school trip when she went missing. She was staying in a cabin with her two best friends, Shayna and Becca, and another girl called Leanne as there was no other space for her in another cabin. They say no-one heard her leave the small cabin in the dead of night, but can they really be telling the truth?

Zoe is found dead around 24 hours later. The police do not know what happened to Zoe. They have to consider a number of options – murder, manslaughter, suicide or accidental death. In order for the police to find out, a number of secrets and lies will have to be uncovered…

I was totally gripped by this one. The characters are complex and it was interesting to hear from a few different perspectives, otherwise I think the narrative could have become overloaded because there were quite a few characters to get your head around.

Nothing is quite what it seems with this one and it quickly becomes clear that there are quite a few suspects as Zoe isn’t as well liked or popular as we first thought.

Nicole carefully and slowly reveals key plot points that put lots of suspects into the mix without fully giving anything away. The plot is carefully and cleverly engineered allowing the reader to be pulled in and make their own conclusions, before revealing what really happened to Zoe in a series of crazy twists!

A great domestic suspense fiction novel from another brilliant Bookouture author!

First, I want to thank Nicole Troupe, Bookouture and NetGalley for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review.

Nicole Troupe brings you every parents worst nightmare to reality in The Girl Who Never Came Home. You trust your 16 year teenager at school camp to be protected and kept safe. Only to find out she went missing. 

Immediately, Nicole dives right into this intense, powerful, drama filled and fast paced beginning. I was immediately drawn into the story and needed to know what happened to Zoe. 

Nicole told the story from Zoe’s Mom and Stepdad’s angle to the story, 
Her sister reminisced about the lack of bond they shared with one another. That she regretted not being closer. Plus, her friend's relationship with her too. 

I loved seeing the human interest side that you don't get to see on the news or in the headlines. 

There is a very interesting section all about guilt and being guilty in the book. It is very interesting on how it relates to this incident.

The investigation into what happened to Zoe was a very interesting part of the book. 

Nicole picked out some out of the box creative character names that I adored.

This is every parent – and teacher’s – nightmare, when a teenager goes missing whilst on a school camping trip. Zoe Bloom is Lydia’s youngest daughter . . . . what made her leave the cabin she shared with three other girls? When Zoe’s body is found, Lydia is desperate to discover what happened to her but that search for the truth will prove very revealing and have so many surprise revelations along the way.

Zoe is seen through the eyes of her peers, her family, her teachers and friends in this moving story. She’s a bright, able and pretty sixteen year old, attractive, popular, somewhat spoiled, but she’s also mean, a bully and downright nasty when she doesn’t get her own way. Unsurprisingly, not everyone even likes her – but does someone hate her enough to kill her? Everyone connected to her seems to have secrets that are slowly revealed as the police investigation into her death continues and the tensions escalate between the potential suspects.

The story is told from multiple points of view, revealing the thoughts, actions and reactions of those who knew Zoe to the unfolding investigations and helping the reader get to know this multi-faceted young lady. This is a tragic but moving story that isn’t just a murder mystery or detective story. It also a story which shows the impact of such a tragedy on the lives of those who survive her, including her family, friends and teachers. It is a dark story with plenty of twists to keep you guessing and I didn’t want to put it down until I’d finished it and discovered what really happened to Zoe – and why. I have no hesitation in highly recommending this book.

Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for my copy of this book which I have voluntarily read and honestly reviewed.

The Girl Who Never Came Home by Nicole Trope is such an unputdownable book, full of suspense and, oh, such an emotional journey. A story that begins with the discovery of teenage Zoe's body after she went missing from a cabin on a school camping trip. What events happened to make Zoe get out of bed and never return? Her beloved mother is determined to discover what happened, no matter what!
I am a mother and although I can empathise, I can't truly know what Lydia is going through. I felt the emotions that the author managed to convey, and heart broken doesn't not do it justice, us mothers will defend our young to the death we have such strong, raw and powerful emotions around out children.This emotional story allows the suspense to slowly appear on the horizon, building with every different persons view of Zoe. Her best friend, her mum, her teacher and her sister all uncovering the different sides of Zoe and showing her to be as flawed as anyone can be. Is Lydia, her mum, ready for these pieces of the puzzle to be fitted together? Will this answer her questions about her youngest childs death?
Wow! I was wrung out of emotions  by the time I got to the end of this book. I was just as eager as Lydia to know what happened to Zoe, resulting in an almost smoking Kindle! I read it that fast!
I cannot express how much the author managed to affect me with her writing throughout this story. Highly recommended read for me.
Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for the copy of the book for my review today.

Zoe is the epitome of the teenaged girl you love to hate in high school... skinny, pretty, popular, and a total terror to those not in her inner circle, although she doesn't really treat anybody well at all. When she is found dead during a weekend camping trip with her school, everyone assumes she tried going to find the restroom and got lost in the dark, but it would not have been a good story if that was the end.
This book follows around all the people involved in the aftermath of this tragedy, her mom, stepdad, sister, her best friends, her teachers, her ex-boyfriend, and the girl who is usually the main target of her bullying. There is laughter, tears, and some suspense (not much by my standards), but overall it was a thoroughly enjoyable book. It did not take long to figure out who was involved and what happened that fateful night and after awhile, I started to see the good things about Zoe and why she was loved regardless of the character she portrayed. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to leave an honest review for this book.

16 year old Zoe goes on a school camping trip with her 2 best friends. When her mom, Lydia, gets a phone call that Zoe is missing is when everything starts unraveling in this book. Zoe is not a nice person and even bullies her own friends. Treats boys like crap and other teens seem to be afraid of her.
Lydia is out in the mountains calling her daughter's name with so many other rescue helpers. But when they find Zoe's body is when Lydia just can't cope. Lydia had lost her husband many years ago and she is now remarried to a wonderful guy, Gabrielle. She also has an older daughter who is also hiding things about that night.
I was thinking all kinds of things and thinking of different people who would want to hurt Zoe. This book opened up so much about Zoe that you know she didn't deserve to die but she did deserve to be punished for her behavior.

This story took a bit to hook me into the story. Once I was hooked I found it very difficult to put the book down. So many views and perspectives on one single night. It was an intriguing story and I did not figure out the mystery til almost the very end. I would definitely recommend this book.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley. I voluntarily read and any opinions shared are my own.

The Girl Who Never Came Home by Nicole Trope 

I Loved this book. 

Zoe Bloom is a sixteen-year-old girl who goes on a camping trip with her class and goes missing. Unfortunately, she is not found alive.

Zoe’s death has a ripple effect that touches her family, friends and teaches and this book is told from their perspectives.

I am so glad that we find out what actually happened to Zoe and that we are not kept wondering  

I was so happy to be get my hands on the latest Nicole Trope book, I have only read a few of Nicole’s books and I think they are wonderful, thought provoking and go straight to your heart. I love that Nicole Trope is an Australian author.

I would like to thank Net Galley and Bookouture for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Lydia is determined to find out why her teenage daughter disappeared at a camping trip, especially due to the fact that her body was found after an extensive search. How could the school's organizers let a teen leave the campsite, and who is responsible for her daughter's death? Lydia wants answers and will not stop until she unravels things.

As things begin to unfold in this thrilling book, Lydia's search for answers come with heartbreak. There were things about her daughter Zoe, things that she was unaware of until her untimely death. I love that this book grabbed my attention early on, especially as twists and turns change the course of Lydia's thinking and emotions, leaving her even more bereft.

The way this story is told - Lydia's search for answers, and events leading up to Zoe's death - made this book very intriguing, and most certainly, quite sad. As a mother and a grandmother, it hurt to put myself in Lydia's shoes, so I credit Nicole Trope for the emotional devastation I felt while reading.

When I read I want to feel connected, and that is what this book did. While greatly saddened over Zoe's death, especially as things about her slowly came to light, my heart was with Lydia the entire time. This is my third book by this author, and just like the previous two books I read by her, this one was an excellent read.

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Zoe is just sixteen when she went on a school camping trip, but she goes missing. She had had an argument with her two best friends the previous night and she's still not returned.  A search party is formed and it's not long before they find her body. The police are trying to work out what had happened. Her mother is also wanting answers. 

You can't help but feel for every single character in this beautifully written book. It's every parents worst nightmare, the 5hought of one of their children going missing. The story is told from multiple points of view. Zoe is your average popular teenager but she's mean and nasty too. Everyone, including Zoe, had secrets. The pace is steady as the suspense grows. There's plenty of twists in this heartbreaking story which covers some complex issues. 

I would like to thank #NetGalley, #Bookouture and the author #NicoleTrope for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the heartbreaking story of Zoe, who goes missing whilst on a school trip. 

I enjoyed the story for the fact it was hard to put together what had happened, and the circumstances around her disappearance. There were so many theories that came to mind as the story unfolded and it was good how the author had weaved these stories to make you think you knew what had happened. The author actually makes you wait right until the end of the book so it keeps you guessing. 

Although it was quite a good read, unfortunately it didn't grip me in the way that I thought it would. I didn't connect with any of the characters which was disappointing. 

The book did flow well though and was was an easy book to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for allowing me to read this book.