Return to Blackwater House – ARC Book Review

Lately, I have been having a reading slump and also I was a little bit busy. so I am a bit late posting the reviews!

You can run from your past, but you can’t hide forever…

Rebecca Bray has moved on from a childhood she desperately wants to forget.

She has everything she’s ever wanted – the perfect fiancé, a loving stepdaughter, a career she’s proud of, and now the house of her dreams.

But when the family move to the Cornish village where Rebecca grew up, everything she wanted to bury from those years starts to claw at the surface.

Then, when her stepdaughter goes missing at a New Year’s Eve party, Rebecca must finally face the ghosts of her past – or Ava might never come home safely…

A haunting, atmospheric read full of twists, turns and bumps in the night – perfect for fans of Ruth Ware, Nuala Ellwood and Sophie Draper.

Rebecca Bray returns to her childhood town in Cornwall, after she has inherited a house known as “Blackwater” from Gwen. She remembers all those fond memories of her childhood and teenage years and vowed never return back to the town. She and her fiance Daniel and his daughter Ava seemed to be the perfect family, living in this new house.

But one day, Ava goes missing. And while investigating Ava’s disappearance, Rebecca’s past came back to her tormenting, a past she vowed to forget…

This is really a good book. Though this was actually a thriller, to me, this was actually an emotional roller coaster ride, especially when reading towards the end and you find what Rebecca’s secret and past was, you feel a bit emotional and at times it was heartbreaking.

The story divides between the past–when Rebecca, Daniel and Ava moves into the house to the present, when Ava has disappeared and the police taking part in the case. In the beginning, we see a different picture of this picture perfect family but towards the middle of the book…well let’s just say, it’s not as picture perfect as it seems. The writing was engaging, the author doing a great job making the reader immerse into the story and making the reader feel like they are part of the story as well. I was so engrossed into the book and simply couldn’t put the book down. The characters, particularly Rebecca is broken character and despite being not biological mother and daughter, Rebecca and Ava seem to have a very strong bond with each other.

Nonetheless, the ending left me emotional and it was a bit heartbreaking.

Overall, this was a good thriller, that will make you emotional as well as unputdownable–worth five stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.