Tag: Books On Tour

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.

I’m kind of in a quandary here.

On the one hand, I’ve really enjoyed this author in the past (Little Whispers). So, I was looking forward to this one.

Plus, the blurb/tagline certainly drew my attention. I mean, who wouldn’t be hooked by a woman marrying the man who killed her son?

Where I’m a bit confused is how everything was followed to the end. I really don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll try and give a spoiler-free explanation.

The set-up was very clear. The author did a great job of showing the connections between each of the characters (and there were quite a few to keep straight). But it was all well-plotted and I wasn’t confused at all.

There was also a good build up through the first part of the book. While it may seem simplistic to some readers, I thought it was smart.

The first half does not read as a thriller as such. It’s more of a matter of fact “here’s what’s going on and you better pay attention because things are going to get crazy soon” intro that sets the stage for the second half.

And that’s where it kind of fell apart for me. Not entirely, because there were some good twists, but it felt predictable, and I wasn’t really surprised by anything.

I don’t know if there was too much set-up so it seemed anticlimactic, or if there was too much to try to wrap up so nothing got the full attention that maybe it should have? It’s hard to put my finger on it.

I also thought that things that were supposed to be shocking weren’t so very much. I can’t fault the author for that though. We now live in a world where sordid and salacious soundbites are considered “news.”

We’re also programmed to accept any type of family as “realistic” and/or acceptable. While that’s fine, I think it actually took some of the teeth out of the “jaw-dropping twists” of this book.

And that’s as close as I am going to get to a spoiler.

The end seemed to drag, as if the author was trying to reach a page count – this could also be why it seemed like the second half didn’t live up to the first half. It probably would have benefitted from 50 fewer pages or so.

In spite of all of that, I did like the book and pretty much read it in one seating. If you’re looking for a quick read that doesn’t take a lot of brain power and allows you to just go along for the ride, this is a good choice.

Author Bio:

For many years, Kim sent her work out to literary agents but never made it off the slush pile. At the age of 40 she went back to Nottingham Trent University and now has an MA in Creative Writing.

Before graduating, she received five offers of representation from London literary agents which was, as Kim says, ‘a fairytale … at the end of a very long road!’

Kim is a full-time writer and lives in Nottingham with her husband, Mac.

This psych thriller had some good and bad points.

The good: some truly tense moments, great interspersed third-party perspectives, and a few unforeseen twists.

The bad: there were long passages where not a lot happened other than characters fretting about what was going on.

I suppose in hindsight, that’s not really a bad thing, but some of them seemed to be more inward based (ie a character worrying about something) and that did nothing to propel the plot.

I knew right from the start that something wasn’t right about the whole event that kicks off the book. I think that was the point.

The author did throw in enough red herrings that I found myself suspecting pretty much every character at one point or another. I like when an author can keep me guessing.

I thought that there was some unevenness with the way the story was told. For example, there were times that we got to see a text message that a character received and other times we were just told that one had been received.

I think it might have been more effective if every text message had been relayed in the same manner.

As far as the main characters, I felt most sympathetic towards Jill. She didn’t do a lot to help herself, but it seemed as if a lot of her actions were based in the grief of having lost her husband and being at loose ends.

I did think that a few of the things she did seemed out of character, even for what we knew of her, but given the ending, I understand why the author chose for them to happen.

I actually didn’t like Claire. I thought she was pretty self-centered. I mean, I know she was worried about her kid, but she really didn’t come across as if she would have been nice even before the events of the book.

And I certainly didn’t get the attraction of Ollie. Of the main characters, I think he was the least clear to me. This wasn’t great because apparently, he was quite the man (given how the book all wraps up).

I just didn’t see anything that showed me he was as amazing as he was made out to be.

All of that being said, the book did keep me guessing and the author smartly wrapped up all of the plot threads and red herrings in a believable manner. And there is a decent twist at the end. So, I would recommend this book.

Author Bio:
Shalini lives in Dorset, England with her husband, two children and Jess their cheeky terrier cross. Before kids, she was signed to Universal Music Publishing as a singer songwriter, but now she spends her days writing suspense thrillers (in between school runs and hanging out endless baskets of laundry).