Penguin

Review: Foul Is Fair by Hannah Capin

May 19, 2020 Yvonne Leave a Comment

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.

51608699. SX318 SY475 1 - Review: Foul Is Fair by Hannah Capin

Foul is Fair by Hannah Capin
Published by Penguin on February 18, 2020
ISBN: 9781250239556
Genres: Young Adult Fiction, Thrillers & Suspense, Girls & Women, Social Themes, Violence
Pages: 336
Format: ARC, eBook
Source: NetGalley, Publisher
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one star - Review: Foul Is Fair by Hannah Capin

Hannah Capin's Foul is Fair is a bloody, thrilling revenge fantasy for the girls who have had enough. Perfect for fans of Karen M. McManus and A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. Golden boys beware: something wicked this way comes.
Jade and her friends Jenny, Mads, and Summer rule their glittering LA circle. Untouchable, they have the kind of power other girls only dream of. Every party is theirs and the world is at their feet. Until the night of Jade's sweet sixteen, when they crash a St. Andrew’s Prep party. The night the golden boys choose Jade as their next target.
They picked the wrong girl.
Sworn to vengeance, Jade transfers to St. Andrew’s Prep. She plots to destroy each boy, one by one. She'll take their power, their lives, and their control of the prep school's hierarchy. And she and her coven have the perfect way in: a boy named Mack, whose ambition could turn deadly.

Where do I begin with Foul is Fair? The premise of the story was one that had intrigued me wholeheartedly. A revenge thriller with a feministic twist. A classic retelling based upon Macbeth that became darker and darker the further you travelled through its pages. I want to include a trigger warning about the book before I go any further – It is a revenge tale after a sexual assault. The premise is one that I would have expected to grab me and hold me hostage but the preceding emotion it left me with is an uncontrollable anger – the narrative within the story could be quite dangerous.

It unfortunately, was not what I was expecting. I had hoped for a read that would leave me feeling empowered, a sense of strength pulsating from within but it fell flat, and the actions carried out were unnecessary and brutal. Foul Is Fair was written in such a way that the survival of sexual assault and trauma should be retaliated in actions that were wholly unhealthy and catapults the victim to a level that is on par with the perpetrator. This book was not enjoyable. The way in which sexual assault is handled by everyone close to Jade/Elle is quite frankly repulsive.

The one true thing that galls me the most. The one aspect I could not look past if I tried, is the fact that her parents were told about the assault and they did nothing. NOTHING. I mean as a parent isn’t it your job/responsibility to do what is best for your child whether they ask you not to do something or not. I would want the scum to put behind bars the minute I found out. The parents seem to be an influential aspect (definitely not a positive one) into why she takes this course of action over reporting it – they seem standoffish and there social standing being of more import than the serious situation slapping them about the face.

Just for one minute imagine a young adult reading this book and taking the very wrong decision not to report a serious sexual assault. She was a child and she was seriously let down but those that supposed to care for her.

Revenge as imagined in Foul Is Fair seems to be without consequence. Murder a bunch of people and not be afflicted with the human emotion of guilt or remorse…once again what does this say about the way she has been brought up? Revenge hardly ever benefits anyone. Murder is still murder. It hurts those around you, it maims you psychologically and this book just left bewildered and deeply angry.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

17092556 - Review: Foul Is Fair by Hannah Capin

hannah capin wrote her first “novel” when she was 11. it starred a girl detective and a brilliant villain seeking revenge on her enemies in the FBI.

thousands of pages later, she’s still writing about smart girls and vengeance. THE DEAD QUEENS CLUB is out now and FOUL IS FAIR comes out in february 2020 from wednesday books.

when she isn’t working on her next manuscript, you can find her sailing, singing, or scheming with her friends. she holds degrees from columbia university and the indiana university jacobs school of music, and she lives in tidewater virginia.

Hannah Capin

Blog Tour: Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis

May 2, 2020 Yvonne 1 Comment

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.

51058400. SY475 - Blog Tour: Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis

Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis
Published by Penguin on July 9 2020
ISBN: 9781984814548
Genres: Young Adult Fiction, Horror, Thrillers & Suspense, Paranormal, Occult & Supernatural
Pages: 304
Format: ARC, eBook
Source: NetGalley, Publisher
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Goodreads

four stars - Blog Tour: Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis

A can't-put-down, creepy thriller about the daughter of a horror film director who's not afraid of anything--until she gets to Harrow Lake.
Things I know about Harrow Lake:1. It's where my father shot his most disturbing slasher film.2. There's something not right about this town.
Lola Nox is the daughter of a celebrated horror filmmaker--she thinks nothing can scare her.
But when her father is brutally attacked in their New York apartment, she's quickly packed off to live with a grandmother she's never met in Harrow Lake, the eerie town where her father's most iconic horror movie was shot. The locals are weirdly obsessed with the film that put their town on the map--and there are strange disappearances, which the police seem determined to explain away.
And there's someone--or something--stalking her every move.
The more Lola discovers about the town, the more terrifying it becomes. Because Lola's got secrets of her own. And if she can't find a way out of Harrow Lake, they might just be the death of her.

Wow. Upon delving into Harrow Lake I’m not ashamed to admit I didn’t fully appreciate what I was getting into. I thought it was going to be a plain sailing horror novel, a similar story but a story that was inevitable none the less. WRONG. I should have dug deeper just by one singular word used in the title – Harrow. This story has the capability to encase your heart in ice, its harrowing and captivating and pushes ice cold water through your veins. Be prepared for the author to give you a remarkably unique journey through your worst fears and leave you rocking in the corner by the closing of the final page.

A daughter of a film director, Nolan Nox. He came to fame with the release of his classic film, Nightjar. It catapulted Nolan, Lola’s mother and the creepy little town it was filmed in into crazy levels of fame. Reading the scenes based in this little town started to set off those blaringly loud red alerts sounding off in my head. Reading it was akin to looking through steamed up glasses – I can see shadows, but they quickly disappear from my peripheral vision. What was I experiencing?

Lola finds herself temporarily staying in this town after her father is injured. It certainly isn’t her first choice but as it is contained within her fathers will (he isn’t dead) and there isn’t anyone else to care for her, she has no choice. She is with her grandmother that she doesn’t know – no friendly faces, nothing familiar around her and things very quickly go awry. In this situation how can a young girl swim through the murky waters of a bone deep terror that will be unleashed on Lola in an unrelenting fashion. I loved this take on a child navigating fear as I usually indulge in adult horror. Harrow Lake consumed me, and I allowed it to swallow me whole. I wasn’t disappointed.

Harrow Lake indulges all your nightmares, thrown into a formula of every other horrific thing you can imagine and mixed together in order to stop your heart immediately. The town had my brain trying to fight against the scrambled feeling. It’s the kind of place you constantly have to look over your shoulder at. It is immersed in gothic legends and none as terrifying as Mr Jitters. I’m not spoiling that one for any potential readers!

Initially I had a bit of a hard time connecting with Lola. After a period of reflection, I came to the conclusion that it was due to how the author wrote her. She wasn’t really allowed to have a multi-faceted personality. Her father had a very domineering presence in her life and for whatever reason he had, it impacted how she presented herself to the world. No make-up, no phone and no laptop, and you can certainly expect her not to have social media. When she escaped that is when she more or less became a butterfly. She shed the chrysalis and became more.

Harrow Lake is a spectacular read. Kat Ellis has done a sublime job of creating an fully immersive imagery and invoking real emotion from her readers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

0fe541985078e494694a89e33ff9334f - Blog Tour: Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis

Kat Ellis is the author of young adult novels Purge, Breaker, and Blackfin Sky, as well as a novella within the Three Strikes collection titled The Twins of Blackfin. Her next novel, Harrow Lake, will be published by Penguin Random House Children’s (Puffin/Kathy Dawson Books) in summer 2020.

Kat studied English with Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University before going on to work in local government communications and IT… and then writing took over.

When she is not writing, Kat can usually be found exploring ruins and cemeteries with her camera. She is an active blogger, instagrammer and tweeter, and is represented by Molly Ker Hawn at The Bent Agency.

The Snakes by Sadie Jones

February 23, 2020 Yvonne 1 Comment

The Snakes by Sadie Jones
Published by Penguin on June 25, 2019
ISBN: 9780062897046
Genres: Fiction, Literary, Thrillers, Suspense, Horror
Pages: 448
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
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two stars - The Snakes by Sadie Jones

“The Snakes is many things—a parable and an ancient drama where a father’s greed devours his children, a police procedural, an avid take on tabloid venality, and a bitter comedy, superbly observed, where behind a woman’s eyes she is ‘all movement inside herself, like a wasp in a glass.’ I admit that I’m still shaken by parts of this novel. Sadie Jones writes with pitiless aplomb and corrosive intelligence.”—Louise Erdrich
A chilling page-turner and impossible to put down, THE SNAKES is Sadie Jones at her best: breathtakingly powerful, brilliantly incisive, and utterly devastating.
The new novel by Sadie Jones tells the tense and violent story of the Adamsons, a dysfunctional English family, with exceptional wealth, whose darkest secrets come back to bite them. Set mostly in rural France during contemporary times, THE SNAKES is an all-consuming read and a devastating portrait of how money corrupts, and how chance can deal a deadly hand.
THE SNAKES exposes the damage wreaked by parents on children as observed by a new member of the family, Dan, a mixed-race man from Peckham who marries Bea, the daughter who refuses to take any of her father’s filthy money. But when Bea’s brother Alex (who runs a shabby hotel in Paligny, France) dies suddenly in unexplained circumstances, the confusion and suspicion which arise bring other dark family secrets—and violence—to the surface. And none of the family, even the good members, go untouched.

This book turned into a real disappointment. It wasn’t like I struggled to get through the book. From page one I was loving the journey, loving the complexity of every character. Appreciating their role, their intricacies, their pain and the road that each decided to take. The book for me, was a five-star read right up until the last two chapters. The writing was engaging, and it had my attention so rapturously, I felt like I was contained within a vice. It was intense and emotional, and I craved to know what the ending would deliver. It was flat and completely separate from what was building. I was disappointed.

The majority of the book was exceptional. The Snakes is a story about the complexity of money and the power that corrupts within. Families can either be destroyed by it or brought together. This story is unfortunately the former. We get a glimpse of how money and the type of wealth that is astronomical can borne a childhood of at worst abuse and at best indifference.

The Snakes allows us a fly on the wall view of a personal family tragedy. A death that is not completely unexpected but raw and grievous all the same. The family is dysfunctional. Abuse always creeping at the edges of our vision, shocked by the behaviour and the actions of those that are meant to be there to protect no matter what. The language and the tone in which the father, Griff addresses his children is standoffish and brutal like they are mere business transactions. The death is the catalyst to the band aid being truly ripped off. Secrets will finally come to the fore.

The book has a very depressing and melancholy dissonance resonating throughout its pages. It’s thought provoking and makes you think about the fragility of life and the glue that keeps families together. This story really highlights the old adage that money is the root of all evil. This is where Sadie Jones comes into her own. Her characters are so impeccably constructed from the conflict to the love and security. The atmospheric world building was so bang on the nail for creepy, threatening shadow that threatened to engulf them all. The Snakes in the attic seemed like the perfect symbol for dread that the hotel had opened up. Money and secrets a dreadful cocktail to sip from.

And then the impressive build up seemed to evaporate in front of the readers eyes. It took an unsuspected and strange turn. I don’t mean in the form of a shocking twist. I mean that the ending didn’t make any sense. It felt like the author rushed the ending and didn’t listen to her character’s personalities, their inner voices. It was a mess.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sadie Jones is a novelist and screenwriter. Her first novel, The Outcast (‘Devastatingly good’, Daily Mail) won the Costa First Novel Award in 2008 and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize. It was also a Richard and Judy Summer Reads number one bestseller and adapted for BBC Television. Her second novel, Small Wars (‘Outstanding’, The Times; ‘One of the best books about the English at war ever’, Joel Morris), was published in 2009, and longlisted for the Orange Prize. Her third, in 2012, was The Uninvited Guests (‘A shimmering comedy of manners and disturbing commentary on class… a brilliant novel’, Ann Patchett) followed by Fallout in 2014 (‘Intoxicating and immersive’, The Sunday Times).

Sadie Jones

Blog Tour: Safe House by Jo Jakeman

October 31, 2019 Yvonne Leave a Comment

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.

safe house by jo jakeman - Blog Tour: Safe House by Jo Jakeman

Safe House by Jo Jakeman
Published by Penguin on March 10, 2020
ISBN: 9781984802101
Genres: Fiction, Thrillers, Psychological, Suspense, Women
Pages: 352
Format: Hardcover
Source: Publisher
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four stars - Blog Tour: Safe House by Jo Jakeman

She's paid the price for giving her ex a false alibi, and now she's moved to a seaside village to escape her past--but more than her lie follows her there in this chilling and twisty psychological thriller from the author of the acclaimed The Exes' Revenge.
One day, a woman turns up in a remote coastal village. She's bought a crumbling, long-vacant cottage and calls herself Charlie Miller. Charlie keeps to herself, reluctant to integrate with the locals. If they ever find out who she really is, and what she's done, she'll lose what little she has left.
Charlie served two years in prison for providing a false alibi for a murderer. It was the mistake of a woman in love, a woman who couldn't believe her boyfriend was guilty--or lying to her. All she desperately wants now is a fresh start.
As Charlie slowly lets down her guard and becomes friendly with her neighbors, she can't shake the feeling that someone is watching her, someone who knows what she did. When one of her new friends suddenly disappears, Charlie's worst fears are confirmed. She must confront her past head-on, but as she knows all too well, everything is far more dangerous than how it appears.

My huge thanks to Mia Quibell-Smith for my spot on the blog tour and for my copy of the book, It’s a stunner! All thoughts are my own. Safe House examines the ramifications of loving and protecting the wrong man. Should love bend irrefutably? It makes the connection of just how far you’d be willing to go for the one you love. If you are a fan of dark humour you are going to be in for a treat. Safety doesn’t happen by accident.

Being an avid psychological Thriller fan, I get extremely excited about the premise of a new, fresh idea. I’ve read hundreds in this genre, so I can end up feeling jaded when I pick up a new one and it doesn’t take me long to decide if it’s for me. The prologue swallowed me whole and ensured I had fastened my seatbelt for the rollercoaster ride that lay ahead of me.

Jo Jakeman is a new author for me and I haven’t had the pleasure of reading her other story, Sticks and Stones. I will rectify that immediately. She is purveyor of bone chilling dread, she has created the anti- hero. A girl you feel you shouldn’t like very much due to the severe consequences her actions have led to, but her skill flicks a switch and you struggle to not like her. Not feel gut wrenching emotion for her. Not wanting her to continue suffering. As the saying goes, love is blind. There is never a truer saying than that. We want to be able to trust our own instincts. We all believe we are impeccable judges of character, we all want to see the best in people. No-one wants to accept that we are living with the monster, no dark alleyways but an evil figure lurking just behind you. They don’t just reside in your home, but they make a bed in your head…can you escape it? The eerie undertones contained within this gem of a book not only had me looking over my shoulder but checking my door was locked also. It may be more a case that I’m a bit of a masochist when it comes to the thrillers I typically enjoy reading but this emitted all the emotions and fear that I need to feel in order to LOVE a book. I love that it had me gasping, questioning human emotion and making a completely relatable character. Is it really such a stretch that love would have us making misinformed choices? The human condition doesn’t just fit nice and neatly into a box, it’s stretched, it’s torn but most of all its complex.

A psychological thriller is only as strong as its main character. Charlie, or should I say Steffi Finn Loved beyond measure, she thought nothing could separate her and Lee. She loved him without question. So, when asked to provide an alibi for Lee on the night of the murder of a woman she did so. Even though he treated her appallingly. Even though he didn’t feel half of what she did for him. Even though he used and abused her. No matter what she stood by her man. Now, I know what you’re thinking, why on earth would you lie for him? She was a manipulated woman; would you want to believe that your fiancé was a murdering piece of shit. She had no reason to believe he was lying. The police were only trying to fit him up, right? WRONG!! How wrong can you be? Wrong enough to allow another murder to take place and you ending up with a ten-month prison sentence to just nail it home.

We meet Steffi as she completes her sentence. She’s navigated the harsh conditions in prison, she’s struggling with guilt. Her parents have both died whilst she was inside, friends have moved on and the community have a long memory. She has no-one. I have to admit I struggled to warm to her at this point. She was involved with the actions of her fiancé, she enabled him to kill again. I didn’t have a lot of sympathy for her. Could she turn it around? Could a fresh start help her move forward?

Oh yeah, even though she needs a fresh start, there are people that believe she doesn’t deserve it, people that would be more than happy to make her very sorry for her part to play in the murders.

The narrative in this novel was simply dynamite. It was hard hitting, with its multi POV’s, both from the past and the future. The dark humour etched within the story was also a great touch and kept me captivated from page 1 until the end. The newspaper articles gave an unreliable narrative some edge to what she was going through, it was real and raw, and I loved it. My head constantly felt as though it was on red alert. You had Steffi’s feelings and emotions, you had Ben’s (wait until you meet that twisted individual) and you had the newspapers squiffing it all up, giving you a distorted view of the events. This psychological thriller has dialled up the paranoia metre up to 100. Steffi was living her life looking over her shoulder, and boy with good reason.

I loved the way we get catapulted into Steffi’s anxious psyche. Let’s be honest, it isn’t a healthy place to be. She’s on edge, she’s paranoid, she reads small details to be significant. Surely nothing is a coincidence anymore? She’s a hard character to fully support, I mean you lived with the guy, how couldn’t you have known he was murdering scum? But the dark, cold truth is…anyone of us could be Steffi. It’s an uncomfortable realisation to make, but it’s there all the same, love is blind, but love can also be uncomfortable.

I can’t ruin the delicious twists and turns but just know that the author has lain treasure for you to uncover, how far you dig for that treasure is up to you. The author has penned a different and authentically unique take on the genre and that takes guts and a magician’s wand…luckily the author has both. The slow burn makes it all the more satisfying and just rest assured you are in good hands with Jo Jakeman who delivers a cold and heart rendering tale of deceit, love and a price to pay. Trust no-one not even yourself.

JO JAKEMAN was the winner of the Friday Night Live 2016 competition
at the York Festival of Writing. Born in Cyprus, she worked for many years
in the City of London before moving to Derbyshire with her husband and twin boys. Safe House is her second
novel and Sticks and Stones was her debut thriller.

Buy Safe House Now. It’s only 99p through-out November on amazon.

Review: The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

June 16, 2019 coycaterpillar 5 Comments

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher
Published by Penguin on 2017
ISBN: 9780399185793
Genres: Biography
Pages: 257
Format: Paperback
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Goodreads

three half stars - Review: The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

This last book from beloved Hollywood icon Carrie Fisher is the crown jewel of ideal Star Wars gifts. The Princess Diarist is an intimate, hilarious, and revealing recollection of what happened behind the scenes on one of the most famous film sets of all time.
When Carrie Fisher discovered the journals she kept during the filming of the first Star Wars movie, she was astonished to see what they had preserved--plaintive love poems, unbridled musings with youthful naiveté, and a vulnerability that she barely recognized. Before her passing, her fame as an author, actress, and pop-culture icon was indisputable, but in 1977, Carrie Fisher was just a teenager with an all-consuming crush on her costar, Harrison Ford.
With these excerpts from her handwritten notebooks, The Princess Diarist is Fisher's intimate and revealing recollection of what happened on one of the most famous film sets of all time--and what developed behind the scenes. Fisher also ponders the joys and insanity of celebrity, and the absurdity of a life spawned by Hollywood royalty, only to be surpassed by her own outer-space royalty. Laugh-out-loud hilarious and endlessly quotable, The Princess Diarist brims with the candor and introspection of a diary while offering shrewd insight into one of Hollywood's most beloved stars.

This autobiography revolves around her unreleased journal entries during her time filming the first Star Wars film, in which she was a fresh faced nineteen year old girl. She was cast as the ever memorable Princess Leia. The memoir is a combination of witticisms, cringe worthy feelings and gut wrenching sadness.

Carrie was no stranger to relative fame. Her mother was the actress Debbie Reynolds and her father was singer, Eddie Fisher. She realised how fickle the show business industry could be when her father left her mother for Elizabeth Taylor, causing a scandal and upset in her world. She was absolutely positive that she didn’t want to get stuck in the same rut. She more or less walked into the audition for Star Wars blind to what would become of her privacy, she had no idea how to handle her newly skyrocketed fame.

I had never been Princess Leia before and now I would be her forever. I would never not be Princess Leia. I had no idea how profoundly true that was and how long forever was.

This partial memoir examines her life during the Star wars years from her profound introduction to stardom at the tender age of nineteen, through her experience being part of Carison (her affair with Harrison Ford) and the significant effect it had on her.

The big bombshell that comes out of this memoir is the affair with Harrison Ford. This information hadn’t been public knowledge mainly due to, I think her shame at doing something her own father had done. In my eyes, Harrison’s behaviour was extremely dubious and although she goes very easy on him, the picture she paints is one of a man that says very little, does very little and realises very little. He seduces her in the back of a taxi whilst she is extremely drunk. A man of his age should of realised how wrong this was (not to mention the fact he was a married man with two children). The fact that he refused to acknowledge or talk about the situation between is surely not normal? This was for sure a bone of contention for Carrie and a trigger for several bouts of poor mental health.

It’s not nice being inside my head. It’s a nice place to visit but I don’t want to live in here. It’s too crowded; too many traps and pitfalls.

Carrie’s diary entries are self depreciating and rather cringe worthy, unfortunately. They ramble on and come across as quite repetitive. I think from these entries that she has struggled with her mental health and this come through in her writing. The truly sad note to these memoirs is how she feels towards her character, Princess Leia. She feels that it’s a job that she can never be fired from nor leave. It’s what she will forever be remembered for. It was a love hate relationship, she never expected this little film to be anything big. She will forever be immortalised in the super franchise that is Star Wars.

The Never List by Koethi Zan

June 2, 2019 Yvonne 7 Comments

The Never List by Koethi Zan
Published by Penguin on June 24, 2014
ISBN: 9780143125587
Genres: Fiction, Thrillers, Suspense, Crime
Pages: 303
Format: Paperback
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three half stars - The Never List by Koethi Zan

“Psychological thriller writing at its best. Cancel appointments and give up on sleep. It’s that kind of book.” —Jeffery Deaver
For years, Sarah Farber and her best friend, Jennifer, kept what they called the Never List: a list of actions to be avoided at all costs, for safety’s sake. But one night, against their best instincts, they accept a cab ride—one with grave, everlasting consequences. For the next three years, they are held captive with two other girls in a dungeon-like cellar by a connoisseur of sadism. Ten years later, Sarah’s abductor is up for parole and she can no longer ignore the twisted letters he sends to her from prison. But when Sarah decides to confront her phobias and reconnect with the other survivors she begins unraveling a mystery more horrifying than even she could have imagined.
A blazingly fast read with eerie similarities to the recent kidnapping case in Cleveland, The Never List is a smart, riveting, and bold pageturner that will leave readers awake all night with the lights on.

I enjoy a good messed up psychological thriller as much as the next person and this didn’t disapoint. The story follows the main character Sarah Farber, now being referred to as Caroline Morrow. It opens up on her flashbacks of being held captive in a cellar in her captors house, one Jack Derber. Jack by all accounts is an incredibly intelligent man but boy is he scarily dangerous.

Sarah now lives her life in a very OCD and controlled way. She never goes outside, she works from home and her concierge of her apartment block never lets anyone near her door unless he has her prior consent. Everything changes when her ex captor is up for his parole hearing and the victims keep receiving letters from him. Jim, the investigating FBI officer talks her into being a witness in his hearing alongside Tracey, another victim. These two have no relationship and Tracey refuses to be in the same room as her. Intriguing? Sarah finds out that Tracey also has received letters and makes the connection that the cryptic information included within could solve some of her questions she contacts Tracey to try and get her on board.

Sarah’s friend, Jennifer was killed during their time in captivity and Sarah hasn’t been able to find peace, is this her opportunity to uncover the truth? Where did he bury her?

Sarah and Tracey discover that whilst in jail, Jack has married a girl called Sylvia and Sarah travels back to try and make contact with her, however, she has dissapeared without a trace. They discover that she was a part of a religious cult. Sarah meets with the leader of said cult, Noah. Another interesting character. Tracey and Sarah go on a road trip of acceptance, intrigue and terror, they meet characters along the way that not only confuse their track to discovering the real driving force behind Jack’s motivations but cement their suspicions.

The first half of the book had me hooked, I enjoyed the narrative of the past and the future. You can feel the very terror of their situation and was edge of your seat reading. However, it fell a bit flat in places for me personally. Jack Derber was this big terrifying figure that had plagued and tortured the women for years and yet within this book there was no appearance from him, no scene with him and I did feel completely dissapointed with that. The terror would have been more relatable if we had some scenes with him.

The other issue I had with the narrative was how readily Tracey seemed to be willing to accept what Sarah offered as way of an explanation and then they just got on with things like they were best buddies. In a real life scenario there would have been far more questioning and relationship building – It was a major event after all.

It was a page turner for sure, you wanted to find outcome to the story and although the ending was a bit shocking I don’t think it was fully out there in terms of endings. However, I would have like to find out what happened explained instead of just skimmed over, therefore I’m rating this book

Penguin

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Harrow Lake is a spectacular read. Kat Ellis has done a sublime job of creating an fully immersive imagery and invoking real emotion from her readers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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