Here’s another on the fence book review. Baby Doll by Hollie Overton had some decent ups and downs, but it didn’t have that ‘wow’ factor that I look for in a mystery/thriller. It is a solid ‘meh’ from me.

Lily has been held captive for eight years; she’s been raped, abused and tortured. While enslaved, Lily had a daughter, Sky, fathered by her abductor. One day, the most unbelievable thing happens, the door is unlocked. While uneasy, Lily and her daughter escape the confines she has been imprisoned in for eight years.

On what would seem like a glorious miracle for her family to have their daughter back, Lily finds things have drastically changed in her absence. Her disappearance tore the family apart. While Lily was facing her own demons while being held captive, her family too had their own. From addiction, depression, and alcoholism — her family couldn’t cope.

This book is told in multiple POVs and while there are interesting ones, I lost interest in other chunks that seems to drag on forever. I honestly didn’t realise this book would concentrate so much on her return home and trying to re-join her family. I think by making this book so much about her integration back home, it was more of a drama and less of a mystery/thriller. I wanted more of the years Lily was held captive. Maybe it is all the other thrillers and suspense novels I’ve read, but it would have been darker, and more twisted to have had flashback of the time she was with the captor. I think Overton built up the start of this book on Lily’s captivity and then once she escaped it all went rather flat. It had so much potential to be a real thriller had we had more of the abduction, captivity and training that was referenced in the beginning.

That being said, Overton has an interesting way of writing. The flow of the dialogue and even the multiple POVs held my interest at times. The beginning of this book had my heart racing, eager for more dark, sinister twists, but then the middle was drawn out, and slow at times, but all of a sudden the ending hits you in the face like a ton of bricks. I mean, it is a sandwich, with phenomenal bread at the top and bottom, but filled with disgusting tuna in the middle. I am writing this while being hungry, but you get what I mean. To have a fantastic start and finish, but lacking in the middle, Overton is lucky I kept reading to get to that ending!

As long as you’re not looking for a dark, sinister psychological thriller, Baby Doll by Hollie Overton is for you. If you’re looking for an easy, slow read with little build up and no suspense, this book is defitely for you! While I enjoyed reading this, especially being given a free cop by the author, I’m not screaming recommendations of this one any time soon!

Thank you to the publisher and Hollie Overton for my ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.