Review: The Fallout by Rebecca Thornton

March 7, 2020

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This book may be unsuitable for people under 17 years of age due to its use of sexual content, drug and alcohol use, and/or violence.

the fallout by rebecca thornton - Review: The Fallout by Rebecca Thornton

The Fallout by Rebecca Thornton
Published by HarperCollins on December 5, 2019
ISBN: 9780008373146
Genres: Fiction, Thrillers, Domestic, Psychological, Family Life, Marriage & Divorce, Women, Friendship, General, Suspense
Pages: 432
Format: ARC, eBook
Source: NetGalley, Publisher
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads

two stars - Review: The Fallout by Rebecca Thornton

The accident. The lie. The fallout will be huge . . .
When Liza’s little boy has an accident at the local health club, it’s all anyone can talk about.
Was nobody watching him? Where was his mother? Who’s to blame?
The rumours, the finger-pointing, the whispers – they’re everywhere. And Liza’s best friend, Sarah, desperately needs it to stop.
Because Sarah was there when it happened. It was all her fault. And if she’s caught out on the lie, everything will fall apart . . .
‘A fizzing, unputdownable, gripping read’ Elizabeth Day
‘The perfect page-turner’ Susan Lewis
‘Secrets, lies, suspicion and betrayal: THE FALLOUT has it all – and then some’ T M Logan

What would you do if your five-year-old son fell and got injured on your watch. Your best friend tells you they checked on him before the accident happens. He was safe and happy. You would trust that, wouldn’t you? The Fallout examines the chain of events this accident triggers; they are catastrophic, and no one’s lives will ever be the same again. Friendships should be filled with trust and compassion to what ends will the threads that hold them together snap. The Fallout examines the confines and limits of friendships and the parenting circles of school age children. The two-faced sides of mothers that spend all their time professing kindness but are entirely judgemental at every turn.

I mulled over how to review The Fallout and generally how I felt about it. It was a premise that was topically relevant but in a lot of ways it fell a bit flat. You are fully aware that these things take place. The WhatsApp groups between parents, the snippy behaviour, the envious behaviour of parents that are placed on a pedestal and you can’t help but want their life. These things are going to take place in such a technologically advanced era.

The biggest flaw in The Fallout, for me wasn’t the really the story itself. The characters didn’t connect with me nor were they very nice people. Sarah, although been through an incredibly traumatic event some of her actions were dubious at best and damaging at worst. She seemed to be more concerned about her incredibly dangerous obsession with Ella and her life rather than the safety of a child. Her actions through-out the story just pushed the dominoes over and they kept catapulting to a dangerous climax. She was naive and seemed to be lost within herself.

Liza is a woman that is still in that new-born phase of losing themselves to being a mother to a fully demanding infant. It’s hard to juggle being attentive to the baby’s needs and also being fully present to a five-year-old. It’s a very difficult balance to have successfully. The part of Liza that I just couldn’t cope with was how she let her husband, Gav railroad her into parenting decisions. He has taken the decision to separate from her but refuses to move out of the marital home, WTF is all that about? The way he talks to her is abhorrent, claiming that he needs to keep an eye on her.

Ella is the woman that seems to have it all. She knew Sarah and Liza when they were all expecting their five-year olds at the NCT workshops. She then ghosted them all and has always been the object of Sarah’s obsession. Her money, her house, her beautiful children. What is she hiding and why has she now come into their lives again. Is everything as perfect as it seems?

The Fallout is told in Sarah and Eliza’s perspectives and the viciousness that can be yummy mummies. An accident that leads to Sarah telling a lie that leads to her subsequent guilt. The mummies and their children and their exclusive fitness club was anything but my cup of tea. They all seemed so far removed from the real world. The ending, in my opinion was more of an anti-climax. The story could have been great but the execution of it didn’t work.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rebecca Thornton’s third novel – THE FALLOUT – will be published in April 2020, with a Kindle release on December 5th 2019.
Twitter: @RThorntonwriter
Insta: Rebecca_Thornton_writer

Rebecca Thornton

Audio Blog Tour: The Wreckage by Robin Morgan-Bentley

February 20, 2020

The Wreckage by Robin Morgan-Bentley
Published by Orion Publishing Group on February 6, 2020
ISBN: 9781409194187
Genres: Family & Relationships, Abuse, Domestic Partner Abuse, Fiction, Thrillers, Crime, Psychological, Family Life, Marriage & Divorce
Pages: 304
Format: Audiobook
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads

five stars - Audio Blog Tour: The Wreckage by Robin Morgan-Bentley

One fatal crash. Two colliding worlds. Three wrecked lives.
Ben is driving on the motorway, on his usual commute to the school where he works.
A day like any other...
Except for one man who, in a final despairing act, jumps in front of Ben's car, turning the teacher's world upside down in a single horrifying instant...
Wracked with guilt and desperate to clear his conscience, he develops a friendship with Alice, the dead man's wife, and her 7-year-old son Max.
But as he tries to escape the trauma of the wreckage, could he go too far in trying to make amends?
How would you cope, knowing you'd caused someone's death? And are the dynamics of this friendship exactly what they seem?

The Wreckage– it’s clear from the offset the tone this story is going to take. A car wreck. Speeding towards an end goal that destroys lives. Whiplash that leaves you feeling pained and distraught. It’s a real play on the title and the deeper meaning behind it is poetic brilliance. This book hits you in the feels like a ten-tonne truck to the chest. You need to escape from the wrecked car, you’re injured, your disorientated and you have to drag yourself to safety. It’s pitch black and your senses have left you. You need to stumble from one event to the other – this book is the direct correlation to this.

As a debut I didn’t know what to expect. Let me tell you this – rarely have I read such a fully immersive, compelling and eye popping read such as The Wreckage. Robin Morgan-Bentley knows just how to lead his readers down a maze, blindfolded and panicky. A Suicide. A Grieving family. A driver left with an incredible responsibility. A mysterious note.

In mere hours Alice’s world is turned upside down. A stay at home mother to her cherished son, Max. she loves a wine or two but tell me what mother doesn’t? Was she expecting the news on that fateful day? What would drive someone to make the decision to throw themselves in front of a moving car on the motorway? I was in my element reading the alternating POV’s in The Wreckage – both Alice’s and Ben’s narrative was emotive and heart-wrenching. It left me with an extreme sense of urgency and it was compelling to have the POV of someone that had been driving the car as opposed to the usual fallout from the victim’s family.

Both Alice and Ben were victims. It was as clear as the nose on your face. Ben really struggled with the feelings of guilt and seemed to only want to do right for his perceived wrong. Alice was left to raise an eight-year-old boy who had his father and her husband wrenched from their lives. There was secrets, lies and a sense of foreboding that kept creeping into my peripheral vision. They are both trying to navigate their own versions of the highway to hell.

I found Ben to be the more interesting character. The Inspectorates proclaimed country’s best school teacher. He has a solid routine that he sticks to, doesn’t drive recklessly, the patience of a saint – the accident hits him very hard. It is also the catalyst that sends him down a destructive and obsessive path. Imagine dominoes – once that first one gets sent on its way, there is no stopping the wave of destruction. This book gave me such an addictive need to find out what happens next – I raced to the finish. The author gave me such a need to work out why Ben, Alice and Adam behaved in the way they did.

In all honesty, I really struggled with Alice. Yes, she was struggling with the death of her husband, but she presented as a bit reckless and irresponsible. She seemed to be so focussed and lost in her own grief that she seemed to lose sight of the most important person – Max. she drank too much and couldn’t acknowledge help when offered. You can tell that her world has turned grey, but she has to be strong for her son. I think the author wrote the character in such a way that you feel conflicted in how she behaves and her motives. Is wrong vs. right so obvious in this story?

The Wreckage is a tightly weaved plot that could cut your oxygen. The story left me guessing right until the end. I doubted every character and felt conflicted around every corner. Be prepared to be catapulted onto a lake of ice, you will need to navigate the thin ice without falling into the cold depths below.

The audio was beautiful. It packed a powerful punch. It heightened the alarming amount of anticipation I was experiencing. It resonated with the fear, the grief, the panic. The Multiple authors hit that sweet spot. We were living the extremes of two forever changed characters and the loss the narrators catapulted into the story made it, in my opinion. The audiobook was inhaled in a matter of hours. It became a living, breathing entity.

Thanks to Alex @ Orion Books for a copy of the Audiobook for review purposes.

Blog Tour: Bad Seed by Jessica Eames

November 8, 2019

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

bad seed by jessica eames - Blog Tour: Bad Seed by Jessica Eames

Bad Seed by Jessica Eames
Published by Orion Publishing Group on October 31, 2019
ISBN: 9781409189770
Genres: Fiction, Thrillers, Domestic, Mystery & Detective, Women Sleuths, Family Life, Marriage & Divorce
Pages: 304
Format: ARC, eBook
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads

four stars - Blog Tour: Bad Seed by Jessica Eames

For fans of Adele Parks and Clare Mackintosh
'Deceptively clever... Bad Seed is a chilling portrayal of how family can go terribly wrong.' - SHARI LAPENA, bestselling author of The Couple Next Door
'I LOVED Bad Seed. Twisty, wonderfully written, genuinely gripping, shocking and compelling. Impossible to put down!' - KAREN HAMILTON, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Perfect Girlfriend
Nicola is going to die. Just like her husband did.
Nicola thought she'd gotten away with it.
Since her husband died, life has been getting back on track. She has a new boyfriend, Phil. A new home, living next door to her brother-in-law, his wife and their children. She is closer than ever with her daughter, Sarah. She even likes her job at the local shop, though she's had some time off recently with illness. The doctor says its menopause, that it's nothing to worry about. As if he could know how she's feeling.
Nicola is finally moving on with her life.
But then she receives the note. Someone knows what she did. They know the secret she doesn't even think about when she is alone.
And they want revenge.
A gripping domestic thriller told from the points of view of three women from the same family, each with their own heart-wrenching revelation.
'I raced through this brilliantly twisty tale of family secrets and betrayals which kept me guessing at every turn. Clever and creepy and difficult to put down.' Phoebe Locke, author of The Tall Man and The July GirlsReaders LOVE Bad Seed:'I loved this book! Chilling, gripping and compelling' - Amazon reviewer, 5 stars'Fast paced and totally engrossing' - Amazon reviewer'Couldn't put it down!' - Amazon reviewer

Thanks to Tracey at Compulsive Readers and the publisher for my spot on the blog tour and a copy of the book. My review is unbiased and honest. Today I bring to you my review of Bad Seed by Jessica Eames. When I received the invitation from Tracey, I just couldn’t say no. The plotline of family betrayal is one I love, and this twisty and complex story compelled me from page one and endlessly turning each page until the wee hours. This is Jessica Eames debut novel and let me tell you…she has a new fan in me. I will from this moment on read anything this woman pens.

At first glance the synopsis promises a lot…a death, a tragic past and a family secret. Does she deliver? Too bloody right she does. We all know that we can’t chose our families, unfortunately for some of us, right? I have a difficult relationship with some members of my family, but I can’t imagine having the problems that some of the characters in this book experience. Its far-fetched, except, it’s not. Nicola is a widow, she’s struggling. She’s trying to piece her life back together after the most traumatic experience of her life. She’s finding it damn hard. What could make this situation ten times harder? Her deceased husband leaving her in financial difficulties. The situation has forced her to make a difficult decision. She now has to live in the annex in the garden of her brother-in-law’s home. She is very slowly moving forward, getting some normalcy back in her life and she has started dating once again. They say that you also marry the family – well how true this is for Nicola.

Things take a turn for the worse when Nicola begins to feel unwell. A visit to the GP deems fruitless when they put it down to symptoms of the menopause. Is she unwell or is there something darker at play here? Nicola is sure things in her home have been moved or tampered with. At every turn we have the feeling of creeping ominous shadows. It made me want to be constantly checking over my shoulder. Has events just caught up with Nicola and the craziness is creeping in or is someone out to get her? Things build up to a crescendo.

I constantly had an odd feeling. The characters around Nicola were false and seemed difficult to read. I wanted to strip back the layers that were between their falseness and the real them. There was more to this, you just had to delve between the lines. The story is told from three alternating viewpoints – Nicola, her daughter Sarah and Fiona, the Brother-in-law’s wife. Its clever and mysterious and although I had worked out relatively quickly who committed the crime, the narrative did have me question my thoughts too often. Secrets are exposed, family ties are broken, the twists feels relative to falling from a cliff, you the grounds going to meet you-you just don’t know how quickly. The family was creepy, there was always something off about them. The paranoia and fear of Nicola was frightening, and I could all too easily imagine myself in her shoes.

I inhaled this book in one sitting. The creeping uneasiness, the anger that you should be able to trust your family and the multiple threads happening to bring the story to life was fantastic. The writing was addictive and suffocating all at once. Family can mean love, but the wrong family can be toxic.