I enjoyed it ... I found it very enticing and couldn't wait to return to the story.

Towards the end, the Catholic Church and Catholic beliefs gets woven into the storyline, which honestly seemed to come out of nowhere, which made me wonder if it was supposed to be a "Catholic Suspense" novel or something. The mentioning of the Catholic Church and Catholic beliefs ruined the story for me ... it was just so out of nowhere.

Adrianne ( )

Had I realized that this was a continuation of a story, I probably would have bypassed My Lost Daughter. It would have saved me the time it took for me to speed read through this rather blah story. There is something about a character who has survived being raped, two divorces, murdering the wrong man, the murder of her ex-husband, and the politics to get a seat on the Superior Court of Ventura County that is more than unbelievable; it becomes a bit unbearable as well.

The story itself is extremely repetitive. Told in two parts - Lily's and Shana's experiences - Ms. Rosenberg flashes back to all the evils done to Lily and Shana and then some. Not only that but she then revisits these flashbacks by continually mentioning them. This does nothing but bog down the story while doing nothing to further it. Lily's story consists of nothing more than her memories of the past, worries about Shana, and fretting about her relationship with her fiance.

Shana's story is only slightly better. Her experiences in the mental hospital are truly awful but a bit too awful. While there is no doubt that such places do exist solely to cheat the insurance companies, one gets the impression that Ms. Rosenberg was trying to drive home the point a bit too forcefully. Not to mention the fact that the entire storyline is rather predictable. Even the sloppiest of readers will be able to discern how the book will end well before the ending.

My Lost Daughter remains one book that was better left unread. Lily and Shana are not the most impressive of characters. They are both whiny, self-centered, and just plain stupid about their decisions. The story itself is poor and poorly written with too many repetitive scenes and phrases to provide the much-needed continuity good mysteries need. While the message about our health care system is an important one, the entire story is too heavy-handed to be effective, unfortunately.

This story holds your attention. Shana Forrester is imprisoned in a mental health hospital against her will. Her Mother, Lily, a Ventura judge is unable to reach her. The story takes you along winding themes and stories. The writing contains many familiar lines and the sex is added for the effect and plays little into the story. While I read with interest and enjoyed, I would not place on my must read again list. ( )

The story of My Lost Daughter is a frightening one. Following Lily's attempts to ensure that she is a good mother, she commits her daughter Shana to a facility that appears reputable and helpful, only to find that Lily's best efforts to stay in contact with her daughter are futile as the center in which Shana is committed to is from every patient's nightmare -- doctors that issue medications that don't really serve to help, only to confuse, other facility workers who seemingly have no ethics, and patients who may or may not need to be in the hospital, all while Shana seems to spiral down in a maze of drugs that she is powerless to stop. To top it all off, there is a sick and twisted killer somewhere in the facility, and he's definitely got his eyes on the new patient. Both Lily and her daughter Shana have a serious past that also contends with who they are today, as they were both raped by the same man one fateful night. They've come out of that horrific night only to be trapped in another nightmare.

I received this copy from PR by the Book, and was happy to review My Lost Daughter as it was written by an author that I hadn't experienced before. Although this isn't the first book in this series, rest assured that it can be absorbed without needing to be familiar with the characters previously. There are enough flashbacks that do an excellent job of securing a strong foothold to understand the reasons for the character's emotions amidst the turmoil of the events that they are trapped in. Nancy Taylor Rosenberg crafts an effective thriller that her fans will enjoy, one in which the recurring theme of a strong female lead with a tortured past continues on. Twists and turns abound, a bit more at times than necessary, but readers of Ms. Rosenberg's work will not be disappointed by this new installment in the series, and new readers will be able to jump into the fray without confusion.

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