It has been a long time since a book has kept me up late into the morning simply because I couldn't put it down.

No Exit by Taylor Adams was a tale about a young woman who stumbled across a kidnapping in progress. With each twist and turn, my stomach dropped. I just had to keep reading to find out what would happen next!

At the beginning of the story, we meet Darby, a young woman in college who receives a text from her sister, telling her that their mom has cancer and is in the hospital. As Darby rushes to drive across the mountains to get there before her mother passes, she runs into a nasty snowstorm that strands her at a rest stop with four others; an older man and his female cousin on their way to visit family for the holidays, and two younger men, one of which won't stop talking and another that hardly talks at all.

As Darby fights to find a signal on her dying cellphone, she discovers that in the back of a van in the parking lot, a young girl is locked in a cage. Darby is determined to save the girl, but she has no idea the intensity of the situation that she has stumbled into. The plow trucks are expected to be there in thirteen hours, but will Darby survive until then?

This novel is one of those fast-paced thrillers that will keep you up at night simply because you need to know how things will turn out! I picked it up one evening, and before I knew it, it was 1:30 AM, which is long passed my usual 10:30 PM bedtime!

The original premise of being trapped at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere while desperate to get through the storm on the way back home is terrifying enough. But add in four strangers, a kidnapping, a no cell phone service... Yikes! There were so many twists and turns that I did not see coming. Each time I thought Darby was onto something that would be helpful, my hopes were soon dashed.

I didn't particularly love the main character, Darby, at first, but I was definitely routing for her all along! I loved how persistent and brave she was, no matter what she was facing. I also enjoyed that she kept her sense of humor, even after being put through the ringer. She was so protective of little Jay (the girl who had been kidnapped), and I loved seeing how close the two girls became in such a short time. While facing terrible horrors, they quickly began bantering like sisters.

In order to preserve the tale, I will stop there.

My final thoughts:
If you enjoy thrillers that span a very short amount of time and keep you on the edge of your set, then I highly recommend this one. However, there are bits that are not for the squeamish! One scene in particular made me cringe and groan out of sympathy for the character.