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‘Betray Her’ by Caroline England ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Best Friends forever.

That’s the pact you made.

You’d do anything for her.

And you have.

She’s always had it all.

If you could take it for yourself….would you?

Thank you to NetGalley, Little, Brown Book Group UK and Caroline England for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

From the moment I began reading I was hooked. Betray Her is a story of friendship, love, secrets, lies and betrayal that exudes nail-biting tension and foreboding throughout.

Jo and Kate have been best friends ever since their first day at St Lukes twenty years ago despite their very different backgrounds. Jo has always felt like the working class girl from a Barnsley Estate who didn’t deserve her place amongst the rich girls at boarding school. Two years ago she lost her husband suddenly leaving her mourning not only him but their dream of having a child. Kate was raised with a silver spoon in her mouth and waited on hand and foot. She has lived a charmed life. She is enjoys a blissful marriage with her rich and successful husband, has a beautiful little girl, and is the epitome of the perfect wife and mother.

Told in the present day with flashbacks to the friends’ time at St Lukes and the years since, we learn that all is not quite as it seems. From the start there are hints that their time at the all-girls boarding school was far from happy and that they never discuss it. Gradually, we learn the truth of those tumultuous years, along with other heart stopping revelations that unveil their closely guarded secrets and change their lives forever.

This was the first book I’d read by Caroline England and she has found herself a new fan. I was on the edge of my seat from the first page right up until the breathtaking finale. The story was fantastically written in such an authentic voice that I vacillated between who I rooted for and who I deemed the villain many times, and was never quite sure what would happen next. The detailed descriptions had me feeling like I was right there alongside the narrator feeling and seeing everything she did. A tantalising book that I would highly recommend.

Out September 24th

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‘And Then You Were Gone’ by R. J. Jacobs ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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How can you save someone else if you can’t save yourself?

After years of learning to manage her bipolar disorder, Emily Firestone finally has it under control.  Even better, her life is coming together: she’s got a great job, her own place, and a boyfriend, Paolo, who adores her. So when Paolo suggests a weekend sailing trip, Emily agrees – wine, water, and the man she loves. What could be better? But when Emily wakes the morning after they set sail, the boat is still adrift…and Paolo is gone.

A strong swimmer, there’s no way Paolo drowned, but Emily is at a loss for any other explanation. Where else could he have gone? And why? As the hours and days pass by, each moment marking Paolo’s disappearance, Emily’s hard-won stability begins to slip.

But when Emily uncovers evidence suggesting Paolo was murdered, the investigation throws her mania into overdrive, even as she becomes a person of interest in her own personal tragedy. To clear her name, Emily must find the truth – but can she hold on to her own sanity in the process?

Thank you to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books and R. J. Jacobs for the chance to read this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Emily Firestone finally has her life together. After years battling to find an even keel she has her bipolar disorder under control and is happy: she is working as a psychologist with children, her own apartment, and is madly in love with her boyfriend, Paolo.

When Paolo suggests a weekend sailing Emily ignores her fears of water and agrees to the trip. After a perfect first night she wakes to find him gone. She alerts the police but is certain that as a strong swimmer he couldn’t have drowned and that he didn’t just up and leave her. When the Police declare Emily the only suspect in his death she knows finding the truth is the only way to clear her name, a task that seems impossible as her life falls apart piece by piece.

But then one of Paolo’s coworkers contacts her saying she has evidence that Paolo was murdered by someone close to him. Increasingly desperate to clear her name, Emily tries to find further proof but finds her mania intruding her thoughts more and more as she races against the clock to not only uncover what really happened to Paolo but to also keep her grip on reality.

This book was a breathtaking roller-coaster ride. R. J. Jacobs has written a compulsive, thrilling and unpredictable debut novel that I couldn’t put down.

Emily was an unreliable protagonist but also one I loved. Seeing her battle against her paranoia was riveting. She herself couldn’t trust the truth and accuracy of her recollection of events or what she was thinking which added an extra layer of uncertainty to whether or not you could believe her version of events, while also making her a character that is interesting to read. The author’s background as a psychologist shines through in these intricate details of Emily’s character and her bipolar II. The expressive language used to describe her thoughts and feelings enabled me to understand her and put myself in her shoes even though I have never lived with her condition. I also found the tidbits of information about how and why the brain works the way it does really interesting and it helped me understand mental health in a new way.

And Then You Were Gone is a fabulous psychological thriller that keeps you guessing as you are never quite sure what to believe. Filled with with surprising twists, turns and revelations this is a book that has you on the edge of your seat until the end. R. J. Jacobs is a talented new voice in fiction and I’m excited to see what he writes next.

Out now.

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book reviews

‘Things In Jars’ by Jess Kidd ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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London, 1863. Bridie Devine, the finest female detective of her age, is taking on her toughest case yet. Reeling from her last job and with her reputation in tatters, a remarkable puzzle has come her way. Christabel Berwick has been kidnapped. But Christabel is no ordinary child. She is not supposed to exist.

As Bridie fights to recover the stolen child she enters a world of fanatical anatomists, crooked surgeons and mercenary showmen. Anomalies are in fashion, curiosities are the thing, and fortunes are won and lost in the name of entertainment. The public love a spectacle and Christabel may well prove the most remarkable spectacle London has ever seen.

Things In Jars is an enchanting Victorian detective novel that explores what it is to be human in inhumane times.

Thank you to NetGalley, Canongate Books and Jess Kidd for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This mesmerising novel took me completely by surprise. Ms Kidd is a remarkable writer who has woven an emotive and sorrowful tale alongside one full of mystery, charm and suspense.

It begins with a mysterious and chilling prologue that details Christabel Berwick’s abduction. A child who is beautiful yet repulsive. and who evokes strange feelings and fear in those who come into contact with her. All her short life she has been hidden away and constrained, seeing the stars for the first time as she’s taken from her Father’s house that night.

Bridie Devine, a renowned female detective in an era where it was still seen as a job for men. She is asked to take on an urgent case: the kidnapping of Sir Edmund Athelstan Berwick’s six-year-old daughter Christabel who was taken the night before. The baronet is thought to be childless and his representative reveals that Christabel was secretly kept in a wing in the house because of her “uniqueness”. Her nurse, who is one of only four people that know the child exists, is also missing. Did she have something to do with the kidnapping or is she another innocent victim in danger?

In an era where curiosities and abnormalities are collected there’s a high price to be found for a unique child and Bridie’s investigation draws her deeper into the murky world of curiosities, abnormalities, greed and corruption. But will she be able to find Christabel before she’s lost to the highest bidder?

Bridie Devine was a fantastic character and protagonist. She is a woman who refuses to conform to the rules and restrictions of the Victorian era and has carved out an independent life for herself doing something she seems to have been born to do. I loved her witt and no nonsense attitude, her love for those deemed unlovable and her determination to help those in need. Her conversations with the ghost of a dead boxer, Ruby, who claims to have known her when he was alive, gave the book some of it’s funniest and most emotional moments. This was a book filled with an array of colourful and interesting characters, along with some evil and despicable ones too. Christabel was a complex and cryptic character: an amalgamation of the beauty and sorrow of the mermaid yet also a terrifying and malevolent creature, and a mix of many opposing traits all inside one little girl. She was brilliantly written and genuinely scared me many times.

I’ve read some great book so far this year but this was by far one of the best. I loved that the language was raw and witty yet poetic and beguiling and the way folklore is combined with crime in a way you don’t hesitate to believe. This was my first book by this author but she’s become an instant favourite. I will definitely be reading what she writes next. Things In Jars is a magnificent, captivating and unforgettable novel that touches your soul. I can’t recommend it enough.

Out April 4th.

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Book Review – ‘In Bloom’ by C J Skuse ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Thank you to NetGalley, HQ Stories and CJ Skuse for the chance to read an arc of this novel.

Rhiannon’s back and killing for two…

“If only they knew the real truth. It should be my face on those front pages. My headlines. I did those things, not him. I just want to stand on that doorstep and scream: IT WAS ME. ME. ME. ME!

After her carefully plotted plan to frame her cheating fiance Craig for the murders she has committed was successful, pregnant Rhiannon Lewis is now finding she’s not as happy as she thought she’d be. While Craig languishes in jail for her crimes, she’s living with his parents on the coast and dealing with early pregnancy, journalists vying for her story and that urge to kill haunting her every thought. Then there’s the unexpected complication of the little voice inside her telling her to stop fulfilling her murderess urges or else!  She is frustrated, bored and miserable. Without killing who is she? What is there to make her happy in life? Can Rhiannon give up the thrill of violence and be happy as your run of the mill suburban mum? Can she evade suspicion for her crimes and stop her life crumbling around her as the pressure mounts? Will she ever bond with her baby and is he or she even safe with her as their mother

In Bloom, the fantastic sequel to the book that everyone’s talking about, jumps straight in where Sweetpea left off.  I’d been slightly apprehensive before reading and wondered could it really live up to such a spectacular debut? I needn’t have worried. While there isn’t the shock factor of not having read anything like it this time around, there is again instant tension and dark humour as Rhiannon tries to avoid being caught red handed as the police look for clues against her fiance. I loved being back with this character and even though it was a few short weeks since I read book one I found I’d missed reading her unique, caustic, crude and  witty prose

One of the things I’ve enjoyed about these books is the cultural references that are thrown in at random and regular moments such as “….it’s back like Backstreet”. For me they add to the relatability of the character and make many moments even more hilarious. Putting Rhiannon in the extremely uncomfortable situations of living with Craig’s parents, being pregnant and trying to curb her thirst to kill made it an interesting read that was totally different to Sweetpea, where she’d been in the comfort of her own home, in a job she could do with her eyes closed and in control of who and when she killed. Seeing her become increasingly desperate and overwhelmed as she grappled with where she is now in life, particularly her struggle to bond with her baby and fears about motherhood, humanised her even more. We may not all be serial killers but any mother can recognise that urge to protect your child and worry that you won’t be good enough.  The moments of true emotional anguish and turmoil were another unexpected dimension to her character and a flair of brilliance from the author

This book surpassed expectations. It was hilarious, bloody, heartfelt, scathing, emotional and intoxicating. Rhiannon is the best character I’ve read in years. She’s someone you should really loathe and despise, but instead you find yourself drawn to her and rooting for her. She is the friend with the sharp, quick wit that you’d love to have, bar the murderous tendencies of course. The ending was even more electrifying than in the first book. Now I just have to face the long, arduous wait for book 3 to see what Rhiannon does next….

Out now.