Review | EMILY GONE by Bette Lee Crosby

A missing child sets the lives of three women on a collision course in this powerful and compelling novel by USA Today bestselling author Bette Lee Crosby.

1971.

When a music festival rolls through the sleepy town of Hesterville, Georgia, the Dixon family’s lives are forever changed. On the final night, a storm muffles the sound of the blaring music, and Rachel tucks her baby into bed before falling into a deep sleep. So deep, she doesn’t hear the kitchen door opening. When she and her husband wake up in the morning, the crib is empty. Emily is gone.

Vicki Robart is one of the thousands at the festival, but she’s not feeling the music. She’s feeling the emptiness over the loss of her own baby several months before. When she leaves the festival and is faced with an opportunity to fill that void, she is driven to an act of desperation that will forever bind the lives of three women.

When the truth of what actually happened that fateful night is finally exposed, shattering the lives they’ve built, will they be able to pick up the pieces to put their families back together again?

How can this be? Where have I been? Thinking under a rock since this is the first book that I read by this author. I am a member of multiple Facebook book groups and according to so many positive comments about her books, this is her 21st book, and many rave reviews for this book, which was the reason I chose to read it.

As the synopsis states the final day of a music festival, Emily Dixon, 6 months old, was kidnapped, taken from her crib while her parents slept. Vicki Robart, attended the festival, but due to drugs and depression of losing her own child, a stillborn, months before, she believes Emily is her Lara.

Emily’s parents, Rachel and George, never gave up hope that someday she would be returned to them but as each year passed that possibility seemed it was not to be. Every day, the “what ifs” were torturous to this couple.

In the beginning, Rachel is so broken that getting up each day is a feat in itself. Her mother-in-law, Helen a bitter lady due to the loss of her own husband and her son getting married and leaving their home, suddenly has a change of heart, and becomes a loving and influential person in Rachel’s life.

The characters were lifelike to the point that I felt that I was also a participant in their lives. The story and writing style flowed so smoothly that I felt I was transported to Hesterville, GA. I felt every emotion of the characters, the profound grief of losing a child, the anger, grief, despair, sadness, guilt, despondency Most of all, the love of a mother and the hope that Emily was being loved by the person who took her. And what surprised me was the emotions I felt towards the kidnapper (vague to not include spoiler).

Do wishes come true? What about fate? Is there anything stronger than a mother’s love? And would one be able to forgive after such a horrific act?

Do I recommend this book? I say that you HAVE and NEED to read this book!!! But have a box or 2 of tissues nearby!

And I have a lot of Bette Lee Crosby reading to do!!!!!!

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