Books Read: Harriet Evans - Not Without You

If you don’t learn from history . . .

You’re destined to repeat it Not without you, she’d said. And I’d let her down…

Hollywood, 1961: when beautiful, much-loved movie star Eve Noel vanishes at the height of her fame, no-one knows where, much less why.

Fifty years later, another young British actress, Sophie Leigh, lives in Eve’s house high in the Hollywood Hills. Eve Noel was her inspiration and Sophie, disenchanted with her life in LA, finds herself becoming increasingly obsessed with the mystery of her idol's disappearance. And the more she finds out, the more she realises Eve’s life is linked with her own.

As Eve’s tragic past and the present start to collide, Sophie needs to unravel the truth to save them both – but is she already too late? Becoming increasingly entangled in Eve’s world, Sophie must decide whose life she is really living...

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Having read and enjoyed several other Harriet Evans books in the past I was looking forward to reading Not Without You but I have to confess that I really struggled with this one.  It's been started and put down several times over the last year and it's only because of my NetGalley blitz this week that I've decided to bite the bullet and finish reading it.

The story features Sophie Leigh,  an up-and-coming actress, who is obsessed with a glamorous actress from the 1950s, Eve Noel, who disappeared at the height of her career without a trace.  Following a success in a budget movie Sophie achieves her dream of moving to Hollywood and decides to follow in her idol's footsteps and rents Eve's old house and sets out to try and solve the mystery behind Eve's disappearance..

Told through a dual timeframe we get to retrace Eve's steps and see the real story behind who she was and her disappearance, and also follow Sophie on her journey to become a successful actress and her desire to follow in Eve's footsteps and solve the mystery of her disappearance.

I loved the concept of the storyline and it had great potential but sadly it just didn't grab my attention enough to enjoy reading it which is a shame.