Review and Giveaway: Finding Emma by Steena Holmes

Title: Finding Emma
Author: Steena Holmes
Publication Date: April 1, 2012

From Goodreads:


Megan sees her daughter Emma everywhere. She's the little girl standing in the supermarket, the child waiting for the swings at the playground, the girl with ice cream dripping down her face. But it's never Emma.

Emma's been missing for two years.

Unable to handle the constant heartache of all the false sightings, Megan's husband threatens to walk away unless Megan can agree to accept Emma is gone. Megan's life and marriage is crumbling all around her and she realizes she may have to do the thing she dreads most: move on.

When Megan takes a photo of a little girl with an elderly couple at the town fair, she believes it to be her missing daughter. Unable to let go, she sets in motion a sequence of events that could destroy both families lives.

My Thoughts:

Megan and Peter are living every parent's worst nightmare. Their three-year-old daughter, Emma, has disappeared. It has been two years without Emma and it has taken a massive toll on their family. Megan thinks she sees Emma constantly and Peter is pulling away from her. Their other two daughters, Alexis and Hannah, are also struggling in their own way. The whole family is in danger of coming apart and Peter has given Megan an ultimatum: either finally put this behind them and concentrate on the now, or he is leaving.

Struggling with Peter's demands, Megan knows she has to make the right choice and be there for her family, all the way there. She needs to be an active parent and be there for the two girls she has left. And she is going to, but then she comes across a small girl at a fair and believes beyond a shadow of a doubt that she is Emma.  Now Megan has to make a choice: let it go and move on, or go against Peter and find out the truth.

Finding Emma is an emotional, heart wrenching story. I started it while sitting in the waiting room at an appointment and only made it about twenty pages in. I couldn't wait to finally get home and pick it back up. In fact, I was so hooked even after those few pages that when I did sit back down, I didn't get back up until I had finished the whole book.

Each character in this story was so believable and engaging, especially Megan and Jack, an old man struggling with his wife's onset of dementia and trying to raise his granddaughter. I could feel their pain through the pages and I wanted desperately to ease it for them. The author did an incredible job of making each character feel human and their struggles real.

The story is told from three different angles and because of this, the author does an incredible job of keeping you in suspense. Just when you think you are about to figure something out, the next chapter starts from a different point of view. Although alternating points of views can sometimes turn readers off, it is done expertly in Finding Emma. The pacing of the story is perfect and each smaller story is just as interesting as the main plot.

The only issue I had with Finding Emma was the God talk. I am not a religious person and although I don't mind reading about semi-religious characters, I like to know ahead of time if there is going to be a lot of time spent on church or God. There was no mention of either in the synopsis or in any reviews I had read. In fact, for the first half of the book there was little none at all. But about halfway through it took a turn and I feared that the book was becoming too preachy for me and that I was going to have to put it down. Thankfully though, the story quickly picked back up without it and I was able to move past it. Although it did continue, it was not enough to disconnect me from the story. Once again, these are just my own personal feelings and it has nothing to do with the author or story, just me.

Overall, I truly enjoyed Finding Emma. It is a story that we unfortunately hear all too often around the world, but unless you are living it, no one can really understand just what the disappearance of a child can do to your family. But not only is this the story of one family's crisis, we also meet another couple who are struggling just the same. Their story is also one not to be missed.

Because I had been desperate to get my hands on this story and hadn't heard back about receiving a review copy, I bought my own. Well to my surprise, a review copy landed on my door at the same time as the one I bought. So since I enjoyed this book so much and I have an extra copy, I thought I would share it with you! Unfortunately, this will be open to the US only since I am paying for shipping myself. Just fill out the handy dandy Rafflecopter below!
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