I love this author’s books, but I must admit that this particular story left me feeling a little bit off.
The plot starts relatively straightforward, but the reader soon gets hints that not everything is as it seems. There are allusions to an incident that happened before Darcy’s husband’s death, and it is a bit into the story before we find out how he died in the first place. There are enough veiled references that I was kept guessing that it might have been something nefarious. (Not saying if I was right or not).
I’m going to be brutally honest and say that there are so many twists and turns that I have typed and deleted multiple sentences of this review because they ultimately referenced events and could be considered spoilers. So, I’m going to go very broad.
Darcy has a touchy relationship with her in-laws, and they may or may not have her best interests in mind. She enters into a relationship with a doctor who may or may not be who he says he is. Even Darcy’s backstory and “truth” is up for guessing. There are family members, servants, and seemingly secondary characters who may or may not be important in the grander scheme of things.
I have several notes in the book that range from “no way!” to “WTAF?!?!?” That’s the type of roller coaster this book becomes about mid-way through. There were a few points where I had to stop reading just so my brain could keep up with the amount of information and “truth” that was coming out.
I will say that there were also a few moments where I thought the twists were more manipulative than practical. I appreciate a good “no way” moment, but I don’t like feeling that there was nothing more behind it than an “aha, gotcha!”
I did not guess most of the twists, so kudos to the author for keeping me on my toes. And the ending was just as twisted as the rest of the book, but it all made sense in the same odd way that the other plot points did. I liked it a lot and would recommend it, but I think I was not expecting it to be as absolutely crazy towns as it was. It was still an enjoyable, and very twisted, read.
Author Bio
Kim is the million-copy bestselling author of nine standalone psychological crime thrillers. SINGLE, her new thriller, is published November 2019.
Order of publication:
SAFE WITH ME (2016)
BLINK (2017)
LIAR (2017)
THE MISTAKE (2017)
THE VISITOR (2018)
THE SECRET (2018)
CLOSER (2018)
FINDING GRACE (2019)
THE SILENT ONES (2019)
SINGLE (2019)
THE APARTMENT – AN AUDIBLE ORIGINAL PRODUCTION (2019)
Her titles are published in eBook by Bookouture and in paperback by Sphere (UK) and Grand Central (USA).
For many years, Kim sent her work out to literary agents and collected an impressive stack of rejection slips. At the age of 40 she went back to Nottingham Trent University and now has an MA in Creative Writing.
Before graduating in 2012, she gained literary agent representation and a book deal. As Kim says, ‘it was a fairytale … at the end of a very long road!’
Kim is a full-time writer. She has one daughter, two stepsons and lives with her husband in Nottingham.