Almost Missed You by Jessica Strawser

Almost Missed You by Jessica Strawser
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Violet and Finn were “meant to be,” said everyone, always. They ended up together by the hands of fate aligning things just so. Three years into their marriage, they have a wonderful little boy, and as the three of them embark on their first vacation as a family, Violet can’t help thinking that she can’t believe her luck. Life is good.

So no one is more surprised than she when Finn leaves her at the beach—just packs up the hotel room and disappears. And takes their son with him. Violet is suddenly in her own worst nightmare, and faced with the knowledge that the man she’s shared her life with, she never really knew at all.

Caitlin and Finn have been best friends since way back when, but when Finn shows up on Caitlin’s doorstep with the son he’s wanted for kidnapping, demands that she hide them from the authorities, and threatens to reveal a secret that could destroy her own family if she doesn’t, Caitlin faces an impossible choice.

Told through alternating viewpoints of Violet, Finn and Caitlin, Almost Missed You is a powerful story of a mother’s love, a husband’s betrayal, connections that maybe should have been missed, secrets that perhaps shouldn’t have been kept, and spaces between what’s meant to be and what might have been.

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Almost Missed You is the kind of book that has a great intriguing start and then when the answers start to come slowly loses some of its appeals. I loved the mystery of why Finn kidnapped his own son when he is apparently in a happy marriage to Bear's mother Violet. It was such a great start, wondering why Finn would do a thing like that. However, the answer to that question made me dislike Finn quite badly. To be totally honest did I want to bitch slap him a couple of times through the book. His decision, his secrets, well it annoyed the crap out of me. Thankfully Violet and Caitlin made the book bearable. Both women are in my opinion victims in this story. Violet who is left with no explanations to why her husband has left her and taken their son with them and Caitlin who is being blackmailed into helping Finn.

Almost Missed You did not turn out to be as good as I thought it would be when I started reading it. I liked the writing, but I did not like Finn's actions and that made the book a bit hard to read. For one thing, I just couldn't understand why Finn never told Violet about certain aspects of his past? Come clean about what happened those two years that it took for them to meet again after the first meeting. That Caitlin and her husband George didn't insist that Finn should tell Violet felt also a bit weird. There are a lot of other things that bothered me, but I don't want to spoil the story, but there are a lot of secrets in this book and those secrets are dragged into the light. 

Almost Missed You may not have made my day. However, it was not all bad, I did like the writing and I wouldn't mind reading more from Jessica Strawser. I also have to admit, despite my dislike of Finn did when I read the ending hope that there would be a bright future for the characters.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!