5 of 5 stars
https://lynns-books.com/2025/08/18/review-forget-me-not-by-stacy-willingham/
My Five Word TL:DR Review: Willingham’s Best Book to Date

Stacy Willingham has swiftly become one of my ‘go to’ authors and Forget Me Not is my favourite so far. I found this so easy to sink into. To be fair, the start of the story takes a little time to find it’s feet but even with this slightly slow kick off I found myself totally absorbed. I think the writing style and the narrator worked really well, there was tension, fear, mystery and twists that I absolutely did not see coming. In fact, apart from a little nagging voice at the back of my head that kept trying to insinuate itself regarding one specific element, I had this all wrong. Well done SW.

Claire Campbell is a journalist, living in New York since she graduated. She left her traumatic past behind and never looked back but a combination of poor work outcomes and her mother having a bad fall have finally forced her hand. Twenty two years ago Claire’s older sister Natalie went missing. The family fractured and Claire has had very little contact with her parents since. To say her return isn’t lovingly embraced is an understatement and soon enough Claire finds herself taking up a strange offer of work, with accommodation, that promises to help tide her over.

I’m not going to elaborate further on the story because it would be so easy to give away spoilers and this book has such a lot of secrets to deliver that I don’t want to be the one who gives the game away.

What I really liked.

Seriously, I loved the writing. It just worked for me, perhaps I was in the right headspace for this type of mystery, but I loved reading this and even with the little bit of set up – which be patient because it is all necessary – I couldn’t read this quickly enough.

The setting was really good. South Carolina, the sweltering heat, the hazy days and then the setting of Galloway Farm with its isolation and strange and secretive inhabitants. The place pretty soon begins to give off unsettling vibes, as do the people living there and added to that is a secret diary that Claire has discovered and is adding to her already enhanced (journalist) curiosity. I will say that there was one particular part of the story that I felt like throttling Claire as she was taking such terrible risks and my heart was in my throat! And, pretty much from that point forward the tension was palpable.

I also really enjoyed that we jump back and forth in history as Claire delves into the secret diary she discovered. I am a sucker for this form of storytelling so particularly enjoyed this element.

Overall, this was well written and atmospheric, I liked the main character who was intelligent and plucky (and scared me with her risks), I loved the story and the way it twists unexpectedly and the ending has definitely stayed with me since I put the book down.

I really enjoyed this.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

Another 5 star read from Stacy Willingham. Stacy has been my auto buy ever since her debut. No one does thrillers like her.

Loved this one. The book also has underlying themes like grief, love, family, dysfunction, loss and its impact, ambition, that makes it an interesting read. I also love how the book uses location to its advantage. The sinister and scare levels jump out of the pages and keep you on the edge of your seat as the lead navigates. I also like how the supporting characters move the plot ahead and are integral.

Special mention to the climax. I must say that the book also made me feel for the characters. The twists are crazy good and a definite rollercoaster. Some you will never see coming. Also loved the title and how it connects with the plot. Definitely one of my favourite reads for the year. Pick this if you haven't yet.

Thank you HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction and NetGalley for this e-arc in exchange of my unbiased review.

Struggled to rate this definitively.
Had high hopes - the premise was good, sister went missing 22 years ago, body never found but man charged with her murder. Sister wants to try and find out more about what happened and goes back to the farm where she was last known to frequent. Hints of a cult style community. It’s ticking a lot of boxes.
However, quite a slow burn, a LOT of scene setting. It really did take a while to get going. I can see why people DNF but if I’m reading an ARC I do like to push through.
The pace picked up around 70% (so a long way in!) and there followed a few twists. It would’ve been nice to find out what happened to the FLC after she did what she did at the end, it seemed to get wrapped up pretty quickly.
I didn’t love this book, but it was ok.
Many thanks to Harper Collins UK and NetGalley Uk for the ARC.

Forget Me Not brims with psychological suspense, secrets and lies, and was an addicting read.

Claires story, and that of the ‘girls’ really got under my skin. Her return to her home town began to feel like ripples of her own loss and trauma, fanning out to consume others around her. The southern farm setting really sold it for me. The cloying and simmering heat made the atmosphere feel suffocating and inescapable, and I felt Claire’s claustrophobia and indecision right to my bones.

This is my first of Willingham’s books, and I look forward to picking up their others. The writing style was compelling and haunting, making for a compulsive reading experience. There’s a strong sense of not knowing who to trust. Willingham planted just enough clues to make guessing some of the twists enjoyable, while others I never saw coming. The ending was satisfying and neatly wrapped up the mess of threads Claire had uncovered.

I’d highly recommend this to anyone looking for a binge-worthy, suspenseful, and atmospheric psychological suspense.

Thank you to the publishers for this advance reader copy. Opinions expressed are my own.

Layer by Layer, Truth by Truth

From the sultry backroads of Louisiana in A Flicker in the Dark, to the sleepless, shadowed streets of Savannah in All the Dangerous Things, to the intoxicating, dangerous friendships of Only If You’re Lucky, Stacy Willingham has proven herself a master of psychological suspense. Her novels are steeped in atmosphere—often rooted in the heat and intimacy of the American South—where past and present collide in ways that keep readers breathless. With immersive first-person narration, morally complex women, and twists that land like a gut punch, Willingham crafts stories that linger long after the final page.

Her work blends psychological acuity with an atmospheric tension that sinks under the skin. She draws readers deep into her narrators’ minds, often blurring the line between perception and reality, using sensory-rich details that heighten suspense—you can almost feel the oppressive humidity, smell the stale smoke, or hear the hum of fluorescent lights at midnight. Paired with an intimate, introspective voice, her prose mirrors her characters’ states of mind—sharp and clipped in moments of anxiety, unhurried when reflecting—while motifs of memory, perception, and buried trauma echo through her work. Her characters, often morally ambiguous women haunted by the past, are flawed yet sympathetic, and her supporting cast is equally layered, their true motives hidden until the final pages.

Willingham’s thrillers are masterclasses in the slow burn. She doesn’t rush her reveals, instead building tension layer by layer until the final act bursts open with twists. While I generally gravitate toward fast-paced thrillers, her measured storytelling is utterly captivating—every detail intentional, every scene a carefully placed thread in a larger weave.

Forget Me Not is no exception—though here, her prose feels slightly tighter, more urgent, without losing the depth and atmosphere that define her work. Sun-bleached streets, faint scents, and subtle background noises create a cinematic sense of place. Told primarily through Claire’s steady, grounded perspective, with Marcia’s vulnerable and emotionally open diary entries woven in through Claire’s voice, the novel builds a dual-layered narrative of memory, trust, and the past’s relentless grip. Mitch’s charisma hides uncertain loyalties, keeping tension high, while Liam’s quiet warmth offers stability—though, as with most Willingham characters, there’s an undercurrent suggesting more beneath the surface.

The pacing is a slow burn done masterfully—tension builds through character interaction, unease, and unanswered questions, then accelerates between the 55% - 80% mark, carrying sharper turns and emotional punches through to a finale that feels both inevitable and surprising. The suspense is deeply psychological, driven by shifting perceptions and unreliable truths. While still rooted in the emotional intimacy of her Southern-set novels, Forget Me Not focuses more on emotional climate than geographical identity, yet retains that familiar heat and claustrophobia.

From the first page, Forget Me Not is magnetic—atmospheric, eerie, and impossible to put down. The unravelling, layer by layer, is brilliant, and the interplay of past and present perspectives is executed with precision. The characters are well-developed, the twists are fantastic and satisfying, and the final act rewards the careful build-up in classic Willingham fashion.

This is an easy ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ from me. I highly recommend adding it to your TBR. Forget Me Not releases August 26 in the USA and August 28 in the UK.

Thank you to Stacy Willingham, HarperCollins UK, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Another brilliant novel by Stacy Willingham who can do no wrong in my eyes.

Thrilling, twisty and keeps you turning the pages to find out the truth .

Highly recommended to all

Very well written and enjoyable. I wasn’t sure whether to trust Liam or not. I really liked the diary and also forgot about the photographs! I wasn’t sure if we were going to find out about Natalie. Very mysterious and plenty going on. I wasn’t sure holding my breath when Mitchell came back and claire was hiding!

Twenty-two years after her sister’s disappearance and likely murder, Claire Campbell is still haunted. Her job as a journalist following murder cases only exacerbates her trauma and she is spiralling after quitting her steady job to go freelance. When her father calls to say her mother has had an accident, Claire decides it’s finally time to go home.

However, after a frosty reception from her Mum and a chance encounter at the farm her sister used to work at, Claire ends up taking a job for a month at Galloway Farm vineyard, living on site.

There is something distinctly odd about Martha and Mitchell – the couple that own the farm – and Claire becomes increasingly worried about Martha.

When she finds Martha’s old diary hidden in the guestworker accommodation, she is struck by both the cult-like environment and Mitchell’s controlling nature and the similarity with her own sister’s disappearance.

Will solving Martha’s mystery appease her own or will Claire end up in greater danger?

Another great thriller from Stacy Willingham.

Almost twenty years ago, Claire Campbell's older sister Natalie goes missing. However, there was a suspect in Natalie's case named Jeffrey who was charged with Natalie's disappearance and was sentenced to prison. Claire is now a journalist working in New York but returns back to her home town in South Carolina, where she is originally from. While going through Natalie's stuff, Claire discovers a not developed film roll among Natalie's belongings. Going through pictures in Natalie's belongings lead her to visit Galloway Farm where Natalie supposedly worked. While in the farm, Claire meets Liam and also meets Mitchell the owner of the farm and his wife Marcia who looked as if she didn't belong in the farm. Claire then while working comes across a diary written by Marcia dated somewhere in 1983. As Claire reads the diary, she finds out that Marcia was listed as a missing woman by her parents. Soon she come across another missing woman connected to the farm.

I enjoyed reading Stacy Willingham's debut novel, A Flicker in the Dark and so I was super excited when I got my hands on her latest novel. This was a good thriller, and it was well written. Although the pacing of the story started a little slow in my opinion, the story started to get more twists and turns as well as interesting and intriguing. Reading this book gives you faint glimpses of life in the South of the USA particularly in a small town. Claire is ridden with guilt that she couldn't stop Natalie from disappearing and her determination to find what really happened to Natalie was courageous. I also liked how unpredictable the whole book was and the tense and complex atmosphere in the plot made the story more interesting to read. I didn't expect the ending however--it was completely unpredictable and unexpected twist at the end.

Overall, I actually enjoyed reading this book. This was the fourth book I have read from this author and I am looking forward to read more from the author! Overall it is worth 4 stars.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

A potentially promising premise about loss, grief and familial estrangement. This is a moderately competently-told story, essentially related via the main character's / narrator's backstory. It's an irony that backstories, once considered anathema by publishers, now appear to be downright fashionable. Practically every new novel I read these days is written this way. Instead of revealing the backstory organically through plot development, spilling it out almost like a report feels like a lazy 'cop-out' on the part of the author.

Many thanks to the publishers and to Netgalley for the ARC.

After quitting her job in New York as investigative journalist Claire Campbell decides to return home after twenty-two years to her mother. After a call from her father saying that her mother needs help after a fall.
She returns home to her mother but after overhearing other on the phone that she is not wanted there. She decides to leave and take up a seasonal job at Galloway Farm. The same place that her sister Natalie went missing 22 years ago, and there was blood found in car and a man was arrested for her murder. Her body was never found. When she finds a diary about another girl that went missing, Claire put her journalist hat on and go and find out what happened to the missing girl which she might find the answers what happened to her sister.
This is the third book from the author that I have read. I found it to be a different writing style than her previous novels. I usually find her books a tense gripping read. But this was a bit more of a slow burn and only got my full attention to the latter quarter of the book. It does have a strong storyline and well-developed characters and is worth the read but I was just expecting a bit more. 4 stars from me.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for the arc!

🌟🌟🌟✨️/5

I find thriller reviews a bit difficult to write, so I don't have a whole lot to say about this one:

'Forget Me Not' took much longer (around the 40% mark) than most thrillers for me to become invested in the story but once it did, I couldn't put it down. The setting was atmospheric and the right amount of creepy. The plot twist was pretty great, actually, and the author didn't leave any plot holes. I loved how the two mysteries separated by two decades came together in the end. Some parts were repetitive and the pacing wasn't entirely perfect, and the diary as a plot device didn't completely make sense, which is why I can't give this a 4. Overall, I found 'Forget Me Not' to be a fun time and would recommend this to thriller lovers.

I always enjoy immersing myself in Stacy Willingham’s novels, so I was beyond excited to receive an ARC of Forget Me Not. From the very first page, I felt completely drawn into Claire’s story.

Stacy has such an intriguing and captivating style of writing that it’s impossible not to want to keep turning the pages, desperate to unearth the truth. She masterfully layers the suspense, creating an atmosphere where you’re constantly questioning who to trust. And just when you think you’ve figured things out, she throws in a few unexpected twists and turns that keep you on your toes.

Forget Me Not is another compelling, well-crafted thriller from Stacy Willingham — a perfect pick if you enjoy psychological suspense that keeps you guessing until the end.

I found this book to be a pain to get through.
Sometimes slower pace thrillers still work for me. But sadly here it made it harder for me to sink my teeth into it.
The plot itself had promise but didn't grab me in the end.

Forget Me Not follows Claire, a journalist who lives in New York, who has to return to South Carolina to look after her mother following an accident. This brings to the forefront the mystery of her sister Natalie's disappearance 22 years ago. She decides to visit Galloway Farm, a vineyard where Natalie worked the summer she disappeared.

Claire decides to accept a seasonal job working at the farm. She discovers a diary which raises questions about the people who own the farm. There are a lot of twists and turns along the way leading to a satisfying conclusion.

I love Stacy Willinghams novels and while this isn't my favourite I would highly recommend it.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #HarperCollinsUK for the book #ForgetMeNot by #StacyWillingham. This book is just amazing. I loved all the secrets, lies and suspense surrounding Claire. She has recently quit her job and moved back home to take care of her mother, who has broken her leg. But as her mother is stubborn and doesn’t want her there, she takes a job on a farm, free room and board, which coincidentally is where her sister worked before disappearing years ago. She is hoping to find out more about her sister, but gets more than she bargained for. Can she solve her sister’s disappearance before she is out in danger?

#ForgetMeNot #NetGalley
Twenty-two years ago, Claire Campbell’s older sister, Natalie, disappeared shortly after her eighteenth birthday. Days later, her blood was found in a car, a man was arrested, and the case was swiftly closed. In the decades since, Claire has attempted to forget her traumatic past by moving to the city and climbing the ranks as an investigative journalist... until an unexpected call from her father forces her to come back home and face it all anew. With the entire summer now looming ahead—a summer spent with nothing to do in her childhood home, with her estranged mother—Claire decides on a whim to accept a seasonal job at Galloway Farm, a muscadine vineyard in coastal South Carolina less than an hour away from where she grew up. At first glance, Galloway is an idyllic escape for Claire. A scenic retreat full of slow-paced nostalgia, as well as a place where her sister seemed truly happy in that last summer before she vanished, it feels like the perfect plan to pass the time. However, as soon as Claire starts to settle in, she stumbles across an old diary written by one of the vineyard's owners, and what at first seems like a story of young rebellion and love turns into something much more sinister as it begins to describe details of various unsolved crimes. As the days stretch on, Claire finds herself becoming more and more secluded as she starts to obsess over the diary's contents… as well as the lingering feeling that her own sister's disappearance may be somehow tied to it all. Galloway was supposed to be a place to help her move forward, but instead, Claire quickly finds herself immersed in her own dark and dangerous past.
Thanks to Harper Collins UK Harper Fiction for giving me an advance copy.

Blurb
“I have a sister. But we haven’t spoken in years”
That’s what I told everyone. I lied.

My sister’s been missing for 22 years, her body never found.
Her disappearance has haunted me ever since.

After quitting her job as a NYC journalist, Claire Campbell heads home to South Carolina, planning to finally face her past.

But unable to face her mother’s melancholy and the eerie stillness of her childhood home, she seeks refuge at Galloway Farm. In exchange for free room and board, she agrees to work the summer harvest.

But as she gets to know the farm's other inhabitants – an illusive elderly couple and a young man named Liam – Claire begins to realise that she isn’t the only one with a mysterious past. And Galloway Farm has secrets of its own...

This was such a great one. I read a few books by this author, and they were all great. You can't go wrong with Willingham. This one was no exception.
The book is an easy written one. The characters are well described and believable. It had different timelines and is very eery and gripping. As soon as you start reading, you know there is a lot going on you don't know about, but you're gonna find out... you WANT to find out.
A story about secrets, buried truths and family drama. Building towards the end twist.

A novel you want to read...
Pub Date 28th of August

Claire Campbell moved to New York after graduation to become a journalist. She works in the true crime genre. She now finds her career has stagnated and leaves her job in the hopes to make it as a freelance journalist. And her father called to let her know that her mother has been injured and requires someone to look after her. Claire no she needs to go home, but isn’t sure how she feels about going.

When Claire was 11, her older sister Natalie went missing and was presumed dead, her older boyfriend at the time, was imprisoned for the crime. Claire reluctantly returns home but soon discovers her mother doesn’t really want her help. Now that Claire has rented out her apartment for three months, she’s I’m not sure where to go and what to do. She ends up in her sister‘s room going through my sister‘s belonging reminiscing when she finds a picture of her sister, smiling when she worked at Galloway Farms where she works the summer before her death.

Claire finds herself driving towards Galloway Farms thinking she’ll feel close to her sister there. When she arrives, she is mistaken as someone looking for seasonal work; when she discovers the job comes with free room and board she applies for the job and gets it. Claire thinks it’ll be nice to be somewhere that her sister enjoyed so much. Meeting with the owner, Mitchell, leaves her at first feeling like he understands her.

However, soon after getting settled, Claire discovered it not all is not as it seems at Galloway Farms. The mysterious owners, Mitchell and Marsha are quiet and leave her feeling unsettled. Clearer than discovers an old diary which she believes belongs to Marsha and finds herself staying up late at night reading it delving into the strange history of this couple. Claire starts to wonder if her sister’s disappearance has anything to do with a strange couple or the farm.

This was an enjoyable read. The story was well told, and I really enjoyed the main character of Claire. There were a few twists that surprised me.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishing house, and the author for the opportunity to read a complimentary copy of this book in return for review based upon my honest opinion .

Summer 2025 is serving thriller after thriller—and this one might just be the best of the bunch 🤯

Coming at the end of next month, Forget Me Not by Stacy Willingham is a chilling, slow-burn Southern thriller that had me glued to the pages and wide awake way past my bedtime 🥱

Here’s the skinny 🔎Twenty-two years ago, Claire’s sister vanished just after her 18th birthday. A man was arrested, the case closed… but now, a call from her estranged father pulls Claire back home. She takes a seasonal job at a vineyard, hoping for distraction—but instead, she finds an old diary, a string of unsolved crimes, and unsettling clues that suggest her sister’s disappearance might not be solved after all 🫣

It’s eerie, twisty, emotionally tense, and full of that creeping dread Willingham does so well.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me.

Highly recommend if you’re into buried secrets, troubled families, and thrillers with a dark Southern Gothic vibe. Add this one to your August TBR—you won’t regret it.