Tag: Bookouture

This psych thriller was good in many ways, but ultimately didn’t entirely deliver on the build-up. It was still a book that had me turning pages – I read it in one sitting, which is no easy feat these days – and I would definitely recommend it.  

I could tell from the beginning (well, and the title) that the house was going to be its own character in the book. It’s a focal point for many reasons.

Carly and Mark have built quite the empire, with their home being a platform for a television show…aptly titled The Forever Home. They renovated the house Carly inherited from her mom and turned it into a business.

Mark is the face of the television show and now travels all over the country to renovate old houses. Well, that’s the cover story anyway.

As Carly finds out at her 25^th wedding anniversary party, not everything is as it seems. She’s known for several years what kind of man her husband actually is, but she is fairly blindsided by revelations at the party.

What follows is a harrowing account of what really occurred behind the scenes over the previous 25 years.

The story fully belongs to Carly. It’s from her perspective, with her opinions coloring the entire narrative. This was both impactful and telling. The reader was able to really get into her mind as she justifies both her actions and those of Mark.

And boy, does she spin the justifications.

Ostensibly, it’s because Mark has some big secret on her (that’s not a spoiler – it’s to be assumed that there are good reasons for her to put up with everything). I personally didn’t find that revelation to be as big of a deal as it maybe should have been. I actually expected it to be way worse.

Mark was…interesting. From the descriptions, I kept picturing Paul Hollywood (he’s pretty much the only British Silver Fox I could think of), but I hope my Paul wouldn’t act the way Mark did. He was truly despicable.

There are lies galore, hidden motivations, questionable characters, eerie occurrences, and red herrings…everything that makes a psych thriller great.

I think there is one area where the narrative bogs down and that is in Carly’s justifications and mental narratives. There are long, often repeated sections of Carly explaining why she stayed, why she forgave, why she continued on, why she did just about everything.

It became redundant at times, and I found myself wishing that it was written that way to build to some mind twist. Not so much.

As mentioned, there were a few red herrings, including one character who I was sure was guilty. But then I second guessed myself because it was so obvious.

The big climax isn’t as big as it could have been and was frankly a long time coming. It seemed like there were a lot of hints around it and the groundwork was laid early but then it all happened quickly. But characters do get their just desserts. So, that was good.

Probably the thing I liked most though was Carly’s consistency. Her mantra from beginning to end was that she did everything for her kids. And that certainly is the case. I appreciate that level of consistent messaging even in the face of everything else.

I would recommend the book, especially if you are a fan of descriptive internal monologues (and an evil Paul Hollywood 😊 ).

For other reviews of this author’s books: The Empty Nest, The Sister-In-Law, and First Date,

Author Bio:

Sue Watson was a journalist on national magazines and newspapers before becoming a TV producer with the BBC. 

Now a USA Today bestselling author, Sue explores the darker side of life, writing psychological thrillers with big twists.

Originally from Manchester, she now lives with her family in leafy Worcestershire where much of her day is spent writing – and procrastinating. Her hobby is eating cake while watching diet and exercise programmes from the sofa, a skill she’s perfected after many years of practice.

http://www.suewatsonbooks.com/

There is good and bad to be found in this book.

Let me get the bad out of the way first. The story takes a loooong time to get going. There are a lot of random occurrences and character mentions that seem to have absolutely nothing to do with each other.

It’s obvious that the author is laying the groundwork for what is to come, but it takes quite a while to do so. And there are a lot of internal monologues or passages where the character is thinking something. In other words, a lot of thinking and not doing.

That all changes roughly halfway through the book when the pieces start to drop into place. At that point, you can actually see what the author was doing in the first part.

It soon becomes apparent that neither of the two main characters, Dani and Adele, are honest about who they are and how their pasts have influenced the present situation.

The author was clever in allowing the reader to see glimpses into the reality of each character, although sometimes it was so subtle that it was more “blink-and-you’ll-miss-it.”

I actually didn’t care for Dani too much. Her attitude and actions were sometimes irresponsible and frankly annoying. I had to remind myself that she was a very young mother. That was an important point.

I had a difficult time getting a feel for Adele. By the end of the book, it was obvious why that was the case. But in the reading of it, I never really got a grasp for – at least until the author wanted her to be fully understood.

There were plenty of red herrings and twists that were thrown in to distract. In that case, it was much like what was happening to Dani, so that was effective.

And at about 75%, the book really took off with non-stop action. Suffice to say that if you thought you had the main twist figured out, you probably didn’t.

In some regards the book felt unbalanced because the first half was so slow, and the second half sped right along. But in retrospect, the first part is meant to lull the reader and lay the foundation for the good stuff that happens in the second part.

Stick with this one. The payoff is definitely worth it.

Author Bio:

Victoria Jenkins lives with her husband and daughter in South Wales, where her series of crime novels featuring Detectives King and Lane is based. Her debut novel The Girls in the Water is an Amazon UK top 30 bestseller, and top 5 bestseller in the Amazon US chart.

Her first psychological thriller, The Divorce, was published in July 2019. The second, The Argument, was published December 10^th 2019 and The Accusation was published June 9th 2020. Her latest novel, The Playdate is out now.