Zero Days – Book Review

Title:- Zero Days

Author:- Ruth Ware

Date published:- June 20th 2023

No. of pages:- 356 pages

Genre:- Thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 2/5

Writing:- 3/5

Overall rating:- 2.5/5

Ruth Ware returns with this adrenaline-fueled thriller about a woman in a race against time to clear her name and find her husband’s murderer.

Hired by companies to break into buildings and hack security systems, Jack and her husband, Gabe, are the best penetration specialists in the business. But after a routine assignment goes horribly wrong, Jack arrives home to find her husband dead. To add to her horror, the police are closing in on their suspect—her.

Suddenly on the run and quickly running out of options, Jack must decide who she can trust as she circles closer to the real killer.

I always make a point of reading nearly every single one of Ruth Ware’s books. Unfortunately, this book wasn’t her best book–I would literally say, this might be the worst book I have read from Ruth Ware.

Jack and Gabe are hackers and hired by companies hire them to hack into the rival companies’ computer system. On one of their missions, it went wrong and Jack goes back to the apartment to find Gabe murdered. The police suspect that Jack would have killed her own husband and so begins the cat and mouse chase game with Jack trying to clear her name by finding who the real killer is.

This is not really the typical Ruth Ware thriller book. The reason why I say this is the worst book is because the whole story was unrealistic. Jack gets an injury and her injury gets infected yet she managed to survive till the end seems to be a miracle. The whole story is very predictable which made the whole book less interesting. Although I feel the premise of the story was interesting, nevertheless, I felt the whole story should have been shorter and so many unnecessary scenes are there in the book which is not really necessary in my opinion for the scene. If you however like action packed thrillers, then this book might be the one for you. I found myself skimming through the page. The ending was confusing and I felt the ending was weak as a whole.

Have you read Ruth Wate books before? I highly recommend The Death of Mrs Westaway and Turn of the Key, the two books which made me enjoy thriller and which made me want to read more of Ruth Ware books. But in my honest opinion, I don’t really recommend her latest novels Zero Days.

Nonetheless, I cannot wait for her next novel!

Ruth Ware grew up in Sussex, on the south coast of England. After graduating from Manchester University she moved to Paris, before settling in North London. She has worked as a waitress, a bookseller, a teacher of English as a foreign language and a press officer. She is married with two small children, and In a Dark, Dark Wood is her début thriller.

Find her on twitter at www.twitter.com/ruthwarewriter, on facebook at www.facebook.com/ruthwarewriter or via her website – www.ruthware.com

The Good Lie – Book Review

Title:- The Good Lie

Author:- A.R. Torre

Date published:- July 20th 2021

No. of pages:- 257 pages

Genre:- Psychological Thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 5/5

Writing:- 4/5

Overall rating:- 4.5/5

Six teens murdered. A suspect behind bars. A desperate father. In a case this shadowy, the truth is easy to hide.

Six teenagers dead. Finally, the killer behind bars. But are the games just beginning?

Psychiatrist Dr. Gwen Moore is an expert on killers. She’s spent a decade treating California’s most depraved predators and unlocking their motives—predators much like the notorious Bloody Heart serial killer, whose latest teenage victim escaped and then identified local high school teacher Randall Thompson as his captor. The case against Thompson as the Bloody Heart Killer is damning—and closed, as far as Gwen and the media are concerned. If not for one new development…

Defense attorney Robert Kavin is a still-traumatized father whose own son fell prey to the BH Killer. Convinced of Thompson’s innocence, he steps in to represent him. Now Robert wants Gwen to interview the accused, create a psych profile of the killer and his victims, and help clear his client’s name.

As Gwen and Robert grow closer and she dives deeper into the investigation, grave questions arise. So does Gwen’s suspicion that Robert is hiding something—and that he might not be the only one with a secret.

If you love a good serial killer thriller then I highly recommend this book to you all!

Six teenagers disappeared and then were found murdered with a heart curved on their chests. One teenager escaped and the pointed to a teacher in high school that he was responsible for the murders. The killer is known as Bloody Heart Killer. The killer is behind the bars and everything seemed to be all right.

But have they actually found the right killer?

Dr. Gwen Moore is a psychiatrist and is an expert on killers. Robert Kavin is a hot shot lawyer but a traumatized father whose son was murdered by the so called Bloody Heart Killer. Robert then defends Randall Thompson, who is accused of being Bloody Heart Killer. Gwen and the media believe that Randall is guilty and that Gwen thinks Robert is hiding something.

This was actually a fast paced thriller. There were more twists and turns, the chemistry between Gwen and Robert was intense and above all, as a reader you are thrown into a deep loop if Randall Thompson is indeed the serial killer or if someone else is responsible for the murders of those six boys. The story is mainly told in Gwen’s POV but you also get Nita, who is the escaped boy’s mother as she believed that her son might be lying about his escape. There were so many questions and all these questions are answered with a bang towards the end! I have read so many of A.R. Torre’s books and I must say, this book is by far one of her best books I have read. Overall this was a satisfying thriller that will keep you hooked and worth 4.5 stars!

A.R. Torre is a pseudonym of Alessandra Torre and is her dark alter ego. While Alessandra writes spicy romances, A.R. focuses on twisted stories filled with secrets, suspense, drama, and danger.

Alessandra/A.R. is a multi-time Goodreads Choice Nominee. Her books have hit the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Amazon Charts bestseller lists. Over a million readers have enjoyed her novels in more than thirty countries.

In addition to writing, Alessandra teaches online courses to aspiring and published authors via www.alessandratorreink.com. She hosts an annual conference (Inkers Con) and has built a community of over 40,000 authors.

Alessandra is also the CEO of BingeBooks.com

The Golden Couple – Book Review

Title:- The Golden Couple

Author:- Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

Date published:- March 3rd 2022

No. of pages:- 330 pages

Genre:- Psychological Thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 4/5

Writing:- 4/5

Overall rating:- 4/5

The Golden Couple is the next electrifying novel from Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, the #1 New York Times bestselling author duo behind You Are Not Alone, An Anonymous Girl, and The Wife Between Us.

If Avery Chambers can’t fix you in 10 sessions, she won’t take you on as a client. Her successes are phenomenal–she helps people overcome everything from domineering parents to assault–and almost absorb the emptiness she sometimes feels since her husband’s death.

Marissa and Mathew Bishop seem like the golden couple–until Marissa cheats. She wants to repair things, both because she loves her husband and for the sake of their 8-year-old son. After a friend forwards an article about Avery, Marissa takes a chance on this maverick therapist, who lost her license due to controversial methods.

When the Bishops glide through Avery’s door and Marissa reveals her infidelity, all three are set on a collision course. Because the biggest secrets in the room are still hidden, and it’s no longer simply a marriage that’s in danger.

This was one of my most anticipated books this year and so I was able to manage to get my hands on this book. This is the fourth book I have read from the authors and the duo had been my favorite as I enjoyed reading The Wife Between Us and An Anonymous Girl. So I was excited to get my hands on this book.

Avery Chambers is a therapist and if she can’t fix you after ten sessions then she wouldn’t take anyone as a client. She then takes the Bishops couple, Marissa and Matthew as her clients. Marissa and Matthew seem to be the perfect ‘Golden’ couple living in the DC area though Marissa is filled with guilt for cheating behind her husband, prompting her to seek therapy. Avery and the Bishops start working together but as Avery gets closer to the Bishops, she realizes that they are not perfect as they seem from outside…

This is a fast-paced thriller and there were some twists and turns. Avery uses unconventional methods such as stalking the couple and their friends and coworkers so she can get to know the couple better. Marissa seems to be the typical housewife who owns a boutique store named Coco and she has somewhat a misunderstanding relationship with her assistant, Polly. Then you have Matthew who is Marissa’s husband, Natalie, who is Matthew’s ex-girlfriend and Avery’s ex-boyfriend Skip who somehow has connection with the couple. This was actually a page turner and I actually couldn’t put the book down. You have both Avery and Marissa’s POV so you can get into each of the character’s head although you find that both can at times unreliable characters. The chapters were long but because it was fast paced, I didn’t mind the long chapters in this book.

I enjoyed the book, but why four stars? Because I actually predicted most of the twists and turns and also the ending, which lowered my rating to a four star. The writing however was really great and the authors know how to grip the reader from the beginning.

If you have still not tried any books written by this duo, my suggestion would b read The Wife Between Us which in my opinion was one of the best thrillers ever written by the duo before reading this one. Worth a whopping four stars!

Things We Hide From Light – Book Review

Title:- Things We Hide from The Light (Knockemout series 2)

Author:- Lucy Score

Date published:- February 21st 2023

No. of pages:- 594 pages

Genre:- Romance

Rating:-

Plot:- 3/5

Writing:- 4/5

Overall rating:- 3.5/5

Nash Morgan was always known as the good Morgan brother, with a smile and a wink for everyone. But now, this chief of police is recovering from being shot and his Southern charm has been overshadowed by panic attacks and nightmares. He feels like a broody shell of the man he once was. Nash isn’t about to let anyone in his life know he’s struggling. But his new next-door neighbor, smart and sexy Lina, sees his shadows. As a rule, she’s not a fan of physical contact unless she initiates it, but for some reason Nash’s touch is different. He feels it too. The physical connection between them is incendiary, grounding him and making her wonder if exploring it is worth the risk.

Too bad Lina’s got secrets of her own, and if Nash finds out the real reason she’s in town, he’ll never forgive her. Besides, she doesn’t do relationships. Ever. A hot, short-term fling with a local cop? Absolutely. Sign her up. A relationship with a man who expects her to plant roots? No freaking way. Once she gets what she’s after, she has no intention of sticking around. But Knockemout has a way of getting under people’s skin. And once Nash decides to make Lina his, he’s not about to be dissuaded…even if it means facing the danger that nearly killed him.

This is the second book of the Knockemout series. If you haven’t read the first book yet, you might want to read the first book before reading the second book as it follows about an incident that happened in the first book.

While the first book talked about the love story between Naomi and Knox Morgan, this book talks about the love story between Knox’s brother Nash and Lina. Lina is an insurance agent who comes to the small town to investigate about a stolen car that is related to the incident. Nash Morgan who got shot in the first book is recovering from the incident. Lina doesn’t necessarily tell anyone why she was in the town and Nash and Lina soon start to fall for each other.

Unlike the first book, the spicy scenes started towards the end of the book. It was of course a typical romance book with the love story between a small town cop and an insurance agent, the story was highly predictable but it was way too long that I felt there were too many unnecessary parts in the book. Most of the time, I was skimming through the book because I just wanted to finish off the book. I felt like the story is taking forever to finish. I think I liked the first book more that this one but then I have already gotten the last book of the Knockemout series.

Overall this book worth 3.5 stars.

Lucy Score is an instant #1 New York Times bestselling author. She grew up in a literary family who insisted that the dinner table was for reading and earned a degree in journalism.

She writes full-time from the Pennsylvania home she and Mr. Lucy share with their obnoxious cat, Cleo. When not spending hours crafting heartbreaker heroes and kick-ass heroines, Lucy can be found on the couch, in the kitchen, or at the gym.

She hopes to someday write from a sailboat, oceanfront condo, or tropical island with reliable Wi-Fi.

Sign up for her never annoying newsletter at https://www.lucyscore.net/subscribe-l….

The Housemaid’s Secret – Book Review

Title:- The Housemaid’s Secret

Author:- Frieda McFadden

Date published:- February 20th 2023

Publisher:- Bookouture

No. of pages:- 318 pages

Genre:- Psychological Thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 4/5

Writing:- 4/5

Overall rating:- 4/5

It’s hard to find an employer who doesn’t ask too many questions about my past. So I thank my lucky stars that the Garricks miraculously give me a job, cleaning their stunning penthouse with views across the city and preparing fancy meals in their shiny kitchen. I can work here for a while, stay quiet until I get what I want.

It’s almost perfect. But I still haven’t met Mrs Garrick, or seen inside the guest bedroom. I’m sure I hear her crying. I notice spots of blood around the neck of her white nightgowns when I’m doing laundry. And one day I can’t help but knock on the door. When it gently swings open, what I see inside changes everything….

That’s when I make a promise. After all, I’ve done this before. I can protect Mrs. Garrick while keeping my own secrets locked up safe.

Douglas Garrick has done wrong. He is going to pay. It’s simply a question of how far I’m willing to go….

After enjoying reading the first book of the Housemaid series, I am so happy I got the second book of the same series–Millie returns once again!

This time, Millie is trying to stay low and once again back as a cleaner working for the Garricks family who live in a penthouse in Manhattan. Douglas Garrick seems to be a nice man, being the CEO of a reputed company and his only request–his wife Wendy is sick and prefers to live in her bedroom always. Millie let go as it is but one day, she sees a trail of blood from the bathroom to the room and realizing that Wendy has been abused by Douglas. Millie then tries to save Wendy from Douglas.

This is a fast-paced thriller and is quite unputdownable. The story is told in Millie’s POV and like the previous book the other female character in this case Wendy’s POV so we would know why she did that and I have to say, just like the first book, this was a page turner. The ending was unexpected, and it was an unexpected twist just like the first book. However, there are certain things in the second book that lowered my rating from a five star reading to a four star reading.

— I didn’t really like the way Millie was treating her boyfriend Brock–she didn’t exactly tell him the whole story when she should have.

–I felt there were some repetitions that actually tarnished the tory.

Despite the flip side, Freida McFadden has become one of my favorite thriller authors and I have gotten some more of her books!

However, overall, I simply couldn’t put this book down and the third book of the series is coming soon next year which I can’t wait! Overall worth four stars!

Suggestion–read the first book before reading the second book although I feel the storyline in the second book does not really follow up from the first book.

#1 Amazon bestselling author Freida McFadden is a practicing physician specializing in brain injury who has penned multiple Kindle bestselling psychological thrillers and medical humor novels. She lives with her family and black cat in a centuries-old three-story home overlooking the ocean, with staircases that creak and moan with each step, and nobody could hear you if you scream. Unless you scream really loudly, maybe.

Brother – Book Review

Title:- Brother

Author:- Ania Ahlborn

Date published:- September 29th 2015

No. of pages:- 315 pages

Genre:- Horror/ Psychological Thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 4/5

Writing:- 3/5

Overall rating:- 3.5/5

Brotherfollows a teenager determined to break from his family’s unconventional—and deeply disturbing—traditions.

Deep in the heart of Appalachia stands a crooked farmhouse miles from any road. The Morrows keep to themselves, and it’s served them well so far. When girls go missing off the side of the highway, the cops don’t knock on their door. Which is a good thing, seeing as to what’s buried in the Morrows’ backyard.

But nineteen-year-old Michael Morrow isn’t like the rest of his family. He doesn’t take pleasure in the screams that echo through the trees. Michael pines for normalcy, and he’s sure that someday he’ll see the world beyond West Virginia. When he meets Alice, a pretty girl working at a record shop in the small nearby town of Dahlia, he’s immediately smitten. For a moment, he nearly forgets about the monster he’s become. But his brother, Rebel, is all too eager to remind Michael of his place…

If you have watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre and LOVED it, then I would highly recommend this book.

Trigger Warning–Rape, Cannibalism, Sexual Assault, Murder, Abductions

This book is one of the most disturbing books I have read. Michael Morrow is a teenage boy. His family lives in a secluded farmhouse, away from the civilization and his family has a weird but disturbing tradition. They kidnap the women, and Michael’s mother would torture and then kill them. Michael and his brother Reb goes into the town to look for their latest prey and Michael meets Alice who is working in a record store. Michael dreams of leaving his family and move to New York to start a whole new life.

There is so much graphic details in the book which maybe disturbing to some readers. The story is told in the POVs of two brothers, Reb and Michael dividing between past and present so we could get what the brother are really up to and trying to do. I found the book disturbing to read but at the same time, I really did feel like I was watching a slasher movie while reading this book. However, the ending I felt was a bit rush and I wish the author kind of expanded the ending a little.

This book is not for faint-hearted but if you do and don’t mind reading about gory and horror book with disturbing detail, then this book is for you–worth 3.5 stars

Born in Ciechanow Poland, Ania has always been drawn to the darker, mysterious, and sometimes morbid sides of life. Her earliest childhood memory is of crawling through a hole in the chain link fence that separated her family home from the large wooded cemetery next door. She’d spend hours among the headstones, breaking up bouquets of silk flowers so that everyone had their equal share.

Author of nine novels, Ania’s books have been lauded by the likes of Publisher’s Weekly, The New York Daily News, and The New York Times. Some titles have been optioned for film.

Hailing from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Ania currently lives in Greenville, South Carolina.

For more from Ania, visit her site, or connect via social media on Facebook and Twitter.

Web: http://www.aniaahlborn.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aniaahlborn
Twitter: @aniaahlborn 

The Pact – Book Review

Title:- The Pact

Author:- Sharon Bolton

Date published:- May 1st 2021

No. of pages:- 335 pages

Genre:- Psychological Thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 4/5

Writing:- 5/5

Overall rating:- 4.5/5

A golden summer, and six talented teenagers are looking forward to the brightest of futures – until a daredevil game goes horribly wrong, leaving three strangers dead.

18-year-old Megan takes the blame for the crime, leaving her friends to get on with their lives. In return, they each agree to a ‘favour’, payable on her release from prison.

Twenty years later Megan is free.
It is payback time.
And her friends start disappearing, one by one . . .

This was recommended to me on the Bookstagram and was labeled as one of the twisty and fast paced thrillers. So I got this book and actually, I wasn’t disappointed at all!

The story starts with six friends, Megan, Felix, Talitha, Amber, Xav and Daniel who are all waiting eagerly for their A’level examination results. However, one of their road games ended up killing a mother with two children. Daniel was the one who was driving and Megan decided to take the blame for what happened. She expected her friends to support her and visit her while she was in prison, as she was putting a trust on them. And Megan goes to prison but the other five remaining friends decided to go on their own ways

Twenty years later, Megan is released from prison and she contacts her friends. It was payback time and soon her friends start to disappear one by one.

This was a fast paced thriller. There were so many twists and turns and the story actually talks about the loyalty and friendship and of course betrayal. Most of the characters here are unlikable as I found all her friends to be spoilt and selfish when their friend took the blame by ruining her own life in prison. Megan probably is the only character that I actually had sympathy towards her. Also the whole story was well written and the writing was gripping and tense and the author did a good job of making the reader feel like they are on the edge. I was on the point of giving five stars but the ending to me wasn’t that great and I felt that it was rushed a little. It was a bit confusing as well.

Nonetheless, I manage to finish this book really quick and I actually enjoyed reading this book. This is the first time I have been reading from this author and I am looking forward to reading more of her books! Worth 4.5 stars!

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow – Book Review

Title:- Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Author:- Gabrielle Zevin

Date published:- July 5th 2022

No. of pages:- 401 pages

Genre:- Literary Fiction

Rating:-

Plot:- 3/5

Writing:- 3/5

Overall rating:- 3/5

In this exhilarating novel, two friends–often in love, but never lovers–come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn’t heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won’t protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.

This book is one of the most hyped books last year and I have always wanted to read this book because of the five star rating on Goodreads. So I was happy when I got a copy of this book and started reading on this one.

I have to say, I was slightly disappointed with the book and did not understand the hype on this book.

The story talks about two friends, Sadie and Sam who meet each other in the hospital and they both share their liking in video games Many years later, Sam and Sadie meet each other again at the university and the two pair up together to form the bestselling video games. And this book literally talks about their friendship and the ups and downs they had with their friendship.

The writing was really great and even though I didn’t really enjoy this book as much as I hoped I would, I think I will try out her other books. The first few pages were bit boring, then it got a little better and then it was not so good. I didn’t enjoy any of the main characters at all. To me, all the characters in the book seemed to be immature and does not respect each other at all. The only character I kind of liked was Marx who is Sam’s roommate and later on Sadie’s love interest. If I have to list out the things that I don’t like, I might give away spoilers so let’s just say, the characters did not appeal to me and I found the friendship between Sadie and Sam to be toxic.

Another reviewer mentioned that the story is pretentious and I completely agree with that. The wordings used in the book to me sound pretentious to me. I am not very familiar with video games as much and so the terms used in this book is all Greek to me. The content warnings of this book is sexism, racism, homophobia. However, the events that are happening in the book sounded a bit realistic to me.

Does this book worth the hype? I don’t think so. This book wasn’t great as the people labeled out to be but it wasn’t bad either. Overall this book worth three stars.

GABRIELLE ZEVIN is a New York Times best-selling novelist whose books have been translated into forty languages.

Her tenth novel, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow was published by Knopf in July of 2022 and was an instant New York Times Best Seller, a Sunday Times Best Seller, a USA Today Best Seller, a #1 National Indie Best Seller, and a selection of the Tonight Show’s Fallon Book Club. Maureen Corrigan of NPR’s Fresh Air called it, “a big beautifully written novel…that succeeds in being both serious art and immersive entertainment.” Following a twenty-five-bidder auction, the feature film rights to Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow were acquired by Temple Hill and Paramount Studios. She is currently writing the screenplay.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry spent many months on the New York Times Best Seller List, reached #1 on the National Indie Best Seller List, was a USA Today Best Seller, and has been a best seller all around the world. A.J. Fikry was honored with the Southern California Independent Booksellers Award for Fiction, the Japan Booksellers’ Prize, and was long listed for the International Dublin Literary Award, among other honors. To date, the book has sold over five-million copies worldwide. It is now a feature film with a screenplay by Zevin. Young Jane Young won the Southern Book Prize and was one of the Washington Post’s Fifty Notable Works of Fiction.

She is the screenwriter of Conversations with Other Women (Helena Bonham Carter) for which she received an Independent Spirit Award Nomination for Best First Screenplay. She has occasionally written criticism for the New York Times Book Review and NPR’s All Things Considered, and she began her writing career, at age fourteen, as a music critic for the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. Zevin is a graduate of Harvard University. She lives in Los Angeles.

NOTE: Apologies, but Gabrielle doesn’t reply to messages on Goodreads. 

Don’t Let Her Stay – Book Review

Title:- Don’t Let Her Stay

Author:- Nicola Sanders

Date published:- February 9th 2023

No. of pages:- 283 pages

Genre:- Psychological Thriller

Rating:-

Plot:- 5/5

Writing:- 4/5

Overall rating:- 4.5/5

Someone inside your house wants you dead, but no one believes you…

Joanne knows how lucky she is. Richard is a wonderful husband, Evie is the most gorgeous baby girl, they live in a beautiful house… Life couldn’t be better.

Until Richard’s twenty-year-old daughter Chloe turns up. Chloe hasn’t spoken to her father since the day he married Joanne two years ago. But Chloe wants to make peace. She’ll even move in for a few weeks to help Joanne with the new baby.

It sounds perfect, but when things happen that make Joanne feel like she’s losing her mind, she begins to wonder: Is Chloe really here to help? Or has Joanne made a terrible mistake by letting her move in?

And is it too late to ask her to leave?

Perfect for fans of Frieda McFadden, Sue Watson and Shalini Boland, Don’t Let Her Stay is a totally addictive psychological thriller with a twist that will shock you!

In one of the Instagram posts, this book was recommended as one of the best thrillers and so I decided to get this book on Kindle. And to my surprise, I actually enjoyed reading this book!

Joanne and Richard are happily married with a baby Evie. However, Richard’s twenty-year-old daughter Chloe suddenly comes to live with them. Joanne wanted to get along with Chloe but it seems that Chloe has other ideas in her head, which involves breaking Joanne’s relationship with Richard and possibly chasing Joanne out of the house. Joanne knows that something is wrong with Chloe even though no one wants to believe her because of her family history on depression.

The entire story is told in Joanne’s POV and as a reader you do feel sympathy towards Joanne. Is Joanne delusional about her thought on Chloe or is she right? Chloe seems to be vindictive and manipulative girl who seemed to get whatever she wanted and who would do anything to pain Joanne in the bad light thus severing her relationship with Richard. The constant fight between Joanne and Chloe seems to be typical for a stepmother and daughter but then, this is different. The story itself is quiet a page turner and the author does a good job of making the reader feel like they don’t want to put the book down. The ending was, what I felt like I was watching a movie that will keep me on the edge. In fact, I almost stayed up all night, wanting to know what was going to happen in the end. There was a small cliffhanger towards ending with the words “Don’t Let Her Stay,

If you like a page turning domestic thriller, then I will definitely recommend this book. This book will keep you up all night long! Worth 4.5 stars.

Such a Loving Couple – Blog Tour – Book Review

Title:- Such A Loving Couple

Author:- Hayley Smith

Date published:- November 8th 2023

Publisher:- Bookouture

No. of pages:- 345 pages

Genre:- Psychological Thriller

Rating:-

Plot: 5/5

Writing:- 5/5

Overall rating:- 5/5

I blink open my eyes, taking in bright lights and a white room. A man smiles warmly at me from the end of my bed. ‘Honey, I’ve been so worried,’ he says gently. ‘Do you remember me? I’m your husband.’ My blood runs cold. I don’t know where I am, or who I am. All I know is I’ve never seen this man before…

As he packs my things, the nurses tell me Freddie hasn’t left my bedside since the accident I was in days ago. They tell me I’m lucky. We seem like the perfect couple, and together we’ll figure out what happened. So I go home to a beautiful house with a fancy marble kitchen and manicured garden that is supposedly ours. But deep down I know something isn’t right. Even though my memories are gone, this doesn’t feel like my life.

Slowly, flashes of memory come back. First the accident – the pouring rain, a swerving car, a sudden scream. Somebody whispering, ‘ I’ll love you forever ’. But most heartbreaking of all are the haunting memories of a blue-eyed little girl. Is she my little girl? Was she in the accident too? Or is she in terrible danger?

Freddie is determined to keep me safe and hide me from the world. But I can’t shake the feeling that we aren’t the loving couple he wants us to be, and that beyond this house a precious child needs me now more than ever. So why am I here? What does Freddie want? And how far will I have to go, to discover the truth?

An utterly gripping and page-turning psychological thriller filled with dark secrets and deadly obsessions. Perfect for fans of The Housemaid , The Family Upstairs , and The Serial Killer’s Wife .

This is the second book I have read from this author and I feel like this book is better than her debut book in general.

Becka wakes up in the hospital with no memory of what happened to her. A man who calls himself as Freddie is beside her, telling her that she had an accident and that she and Freddie are dating. Becka is trying to relive the memories before the accident but the more she tries to relive the memories, more she realizes that something is amiss as she starts regaining her memories. Is Becka who she really is? Why is Freddie trying to protect and save her?

The pacing of the story was really good. This story kind of reminded me of Before I Go to Sleep and the whole story as a whole made the reader feel like they are at the edge of the seat while reading the book. There are multiple POVs in the book and most of these characters are unreliable narrators. But there are twists and turns along the way, Though it started a little slow at the beginning, it started to become fast paced by the middle of the book. The ending was really great and unexpected and overall, this book worth five stars!

Many thanks to Bookouture for inviting me to be a part of the blog tour. Many thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

Hayley Smith is married with three children and lives in a north Derbyshire village. She has worked as a graphic designer, youth worker and musician, and has been involved for many years in organising music festivals and gigs. She studied English Language and Creative Writing with the Open University and is an avid reader of psychological fiction. Having a penchant for all things alternative, she often dips into the counter-culture scene for writing inspiration, producing quirky rough-edged characters and dark, unpredictable twists, turns and moral dilemmas.

Sign up to be the first to hear about new releases from Hayley Smith here: https://www.bookouture.com/subscribe/hayley-smith/

Buy Link:

Amazon:  https://geni.us/B0CGB1RZBHsocial

You can sign up for all the best Bookouture deals you’ll love at: http://ow.ly/Fkiz30lnzdo