Publishers Weekly
01/04/2016
This adrenaline-fueled thriller from Drake (The Dead Place) lacks nuance and verisimilitude. When Jill and David Lassiter’s three-year-old daughter, Sophia, disappears from the park one afternoon, and then turns up just outside the park 40 minutes later with a mark on her arm, Jill fears foul play. David, on the other hand, believes she simply wandered off and got a bug bite. Blood tests come back clean, so Jill lets the matter drop. Three months pass and Sophia vanishes again, this time in the middle of the night from the family’s suburban Pittsburgh home. Evidence implicates the Lassiters, and the police seem disinclined to look for other suspects, so Jill launches her own investigation. Jill is a fully realized character whose grief and fear are palpable, but everyone else is a caricature; thus, little of the interpersonal conflict rings true. Drake leans too heavily on her premise’s inherent tension to drive the narrative, most of the plot twists are telegraphed or unearned, and a preposterous denouement robs the tale of impact. Agent: Rachel Eckstrom, Irene Goodman Agency. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
"Making her hardcover debut, Drake has written a gripping domestic thriller about a parent's worst fear... a must for fans of Harlan Coben and Lisa Gardner."—Library Journal, starred review
“Drake generates enormous tension in this fast-paced story… The novel makes a solid addition to the suburban-thriller genre, made popular by Harlan Coben.” –Booklist
"[An] adrenaline-fueled thriller... Jill is a fully realized character whose grief and fear are palpable."—Publishers Weekly
"[A] dark psychological thriller... Drake builds suspense slowly and methodically."—Kirkus Reviews
“Only Ever You is a twisty, compelling, and harrowing thriller that will hook and leave you breathless from the first to the final page. Rebecca Drake ratchets up the suspense with each hairpin turn while offering a nuanced mosaic of voices, deftly exploring that wrenching, powerful love between mother and child.”-Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling author of Crazy Love You
“If you can put this novel down once you've started reading it, you are stronger than I am! The twisty-turny storyline and sympathetic protagonist will keep you turning pages late into the night.”-Diane Chamberlain, USA Today Bestselling author of Pretending to Dance
“The very definition of page-turner! The talented Rebecca Drake has mastered the domestic thriller—and her chilling and cinematic debut is taut, tense and completely terrifying. Clear your calendar—you won't want to put this down.” —Hank Phillippi Ryan Agatha, Anthony and Mary Higgins Clark Award winning author
“Drake's harrowing novel skillfully weaves a world both familiar and fragile, then rips the bottom out. Innocence is a weak defense and good intentions can't keep terror at bay as tension builds with every twist and turn toward a smashing conclusion.” —Sophie Littlefield, New York Times bestselling author
“Rebecca Drake's Only Ever You is a heart-wrenching, smartly written thriller. A Gone Girl for parents.” —Reed Farrel Coleman, New York Times Bestselling author of Robert B. Parker's The Devil Wins
“How far will grief drive a mother to go is the question that propels Rebecca Drake's intensely riveting domestic thriller, Only Ever You, which pits a woman against nearly insurmountable odds in order to save her child, her marriage, and even herself—while battling her own shattered dreams and hopes.”-Carla Buckley, author of The Good Goodbye
“Rebecca Drake's hardcover debut, Only Ever You, is a haunting tale that twists and turns on itself even as its message of loss weaves a powerful spell. Marriage, duplicity, and the innocence of childhood combine in a frothy brew that forces readers to glimpse their worst fears—while they race through pages to reach the satisfying end.”-Jenny Milchman, author of As Night Falls
Library Journal
★ 02/15/2016
A three-year-old girl named Sophia vanishes from a playground for about 45 minutes, frantically worrying her mother, Jill. Everything appears fine, and life moves on until about three months later when the child vanishes again, this time from her bed in the middle of the night. Jill immediately becomes the prime suspect in Sophia's murder, though there is no body. Frustrated by the police's lack of motivation to find the truth, Jill investigates on her own, digging into secrets that should have stayed buried. Can she prove her innocence and save her daughter? VERDICT Making her hardcover debut, Drake (The Dead Place) has written a gripping domestic thriller about a parent's worst fear. Jill's persistence and patience will resound with readers, and the payoff only adds to the overall reading experience that is a must for fans of Harlan Coben and Lisa Gardner.—Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L.
Kirkus Reviews
2016-01-10
A Pittsburgh woman finds she's the prime suspect when her daughter's kidnapped in Drake's dark psychological thriller. In July 2013, 3-year-old Sophia Lassiter disappears from a park where she's playing only to show up a short time later unharmed except for a small mark on her arm that her mother believes might have been an injection site. Frightened, Sophia's parents—professional photographer Jill and successful lawyer David—watch their child even more closely than usual. But despite their vigilance, one morning they climb out of bed and find that Sophia's once again gone missing. While the police focus more and more on the beleaguered parents, a woman named Bea Walsh has been perfecting her evil plan to steal Sophia and see that Jill and David take the fall for her disappearance and faked death; her plan seems to be working. Meanwhile, the author flashes back to a journal written by an unknown woman to an unknown man, dissecting their affair and ultimate breakup. Drake builds suspense slowly and methodically, but many readers won't stick around long enough to care: Jill's a judgmental snob, Bea's cruel and unhinged, David's a detached social climber, and even Sophia, the toddler, comes across as a brat. Additionally, the series of events surrounding Sophia's disappearance come across as contrived and implausible, with an over-the-top villain, a cop that dresses like a hooker, another cop who practically sneers his questions, and a hypercritical protagonist with a superiority complex. Unlikable people and unlikely situations redeemed by decent writing and the only truly appealing character in the book: a little dog named Cosmo.
