Twenty-two years ago, Claire Campbell’s older sister, Natalie, disappeared shortly after her eighteenth birthday. Days later, her blood was found in a car, a man was arrested, and the case was swiftly closed. In the decades since, Claire has attempted to forget her traumatic past by moving to the city and climbing the ranks as an investigative journalist...until an unexpected call from her father forces her to come back home and face it all anew.

With the entire summer now looming ahead—a summer spent with nothing to do in her childhood home, with her estranged mother—Claire decides on a whim to accept a seasonal job at Galloway Farm, a muscadine vineyard in coastal South Carolina less than an hour away from where she grew up. At first glance, Galloway is an idyllic escape for Claire. A scenic retreat full of slow-paced nostalgia, as well as a place where her sister seemed truly happy in that last summer before she vanished, it feels like the perfect plan to pass the time. However, as soon as Claire starts to settle in, she stumbles across an old diary written by one of the vineyard’s owners, and what at first seems like a story of young rebellion and love turns into something much more sinister as it begins to describe details of various unsolved crimes. As the days stretch on, Claire finds herself becoming more and more secluded as she starts to obsess over the diary’s contents…as well as the lingering feeling that her own sister’s disappearance may be somehow tied to it all.

Galloway was supposed to be a place to help her move forward, but instead, Claire quickly finds herself immersed in her own dark and dangerous past.

If, like me, you’ve ever daydreamed of running away from your problems to a small coastal vineyard, Stacy Willingham’s Forget Me Not might make you rethink your plans. From cults to missing sisters to a mysterious diary, Willingham’s latest book manages to make even a sunny garden feel ominous and threatening.

At the start of the story, we are introduced to Claire Campbell, a journalist in New York who is between jobs and unsure of where her life is going. When she gets a call from her father saying her mother is injured, she reluctantly returns to the South Carolina home of her childhood, unearthing memories of her long-missing older sister. Picking up a job at a vineyard to escape the awkwardness of existing alongside her estranged mother, Claire finds a hidden diary in the vents and soon realizes that her sister's past may be tied to something much bigger.

Forget Me Not ties together the past and present, creating a tale that spans generations, yet feels grippingly urgent. Willingham weaves a story that left me feeling like I was working together with Claire to solve the mystery, the two of us piecing the information together as long-buried secrets came to light. If you’re looking for a heart-pounding thriller that will have you seeing danger in every peaceful field and flower garden, Forget Me Not might just be your favorite read of the summer.