"Don't try to find me." With those words, fourteen year-old Marley sets off every parents' worst nightmare -- your child running away from home, vanishing without a trace. The only clues are how thoroughly Marley has covered her tracks, including erasing her tablet and clearing out messages from her e-mail in- box, cell phone and her social media accounts. Marley doesn't have a clue what she is getting into until it is too late. This nightmare is real for Marley's parents, Rachel and Paul use social media to start a site named FindMarley.com. I still can't believe DON'T TRY TO FIND ME is Holly Brown's debut novel!!

If you like to be kept on the edge of your seat, don't miss reading DON'T TRY TO FIND ME. It was a quick read, but very intense. It could even be called a thriller. Holly Brown does a fantastic job in building the tension. We know that Marley saw something happen with her mother, and it was enough to make her doubt anything Rachel says. We also know that Rachel is hiding something - or a few somethings and that those secrets have impacted not just her relationship with her daughter but also her relationship with her husband, and even her job. I felt bad for Marley's parents and the anguish they are going through, but they are kind of naive and I kept wanting to smack some sense into them!

While Holly Brown knows how to deliver suspense, DON'T TRY TO FIND ME is so much more than that. Ms. Brown masterfully dives into the complexities of mother-daughter relationships, love, betrayal, and how easy it is to unconsciously take our loved ones for granted. As a mother of two girls, one a teenager, this book scares me quite a bit. Talk to your kids, be honest with them, trust them but monitor them and teach them that social media can be a bad thing.

I don't want to give away the plot, but let me just say that I did not want to put DON'T TRY TO FIND ME down. I was hooked from the very first page and had to know what was going to happen. Ms. Brown sure knows how to keep a reader flipping the pages like crazy! The questions of just how well you can and should know your children and what you can and should know about their friends (both in real life and on-line) will linger with you long after the final page is turned. I look forward to reading many more of Holly Brown's books!

Book Summary

When a fourteen-year-old runs away, her parents turn to social media to find her—launching a public campaign that will expose their darkest secrets and change their family forever, in this suspenseful and gripping debut for fans of Reconstructing Amelia and Gone Girl.

Don’t try to find me. Though the message on the kitchen white board is written in Marley’s hand, her mother Rachel knows there has to be some other explanation. Marley would never run away.

As the days pass and it sinks in that the impossible has occurred, Rachel and her husband Paul are informed that the police have “limited resources.” If they want their fourteen-year-old daughter back, they will have to find her themselves. Desperation becomes determination when Paul turns to Facebook and Twitter, and launches FindMarley.com.

But Marley isn’t the only one with secrets.

With public exposure comes scrutiny, and when Rachel blows a television interview, the dirty speculation begins. Now, the blogosphere is convinced Rachel is hiding something. It’s not what they think; Rachel would never hurt Marley. Not intentionally, anyway. But when it’s discovered that she’s lied, even to the police, the devoted mother becomes a suspect in Marley’s disappearance.

Is Marley out there somewhere, watching it all happen, or is the truth something far worse?