Silent Lies by Kathryn Croft

Synopsis:

Five years rebuilding your life. Five words will destroy it again.

Mia Hamilton lived the perfect life with her husband, university teacher Zach, and their two-year-old daughter. But everything changed when Zach committed suicide on the same night one of his students vanished. 

Five years later, just when Mia is beginning to heal, stranger Alison walks into her life, saying her husband didn’t kill himself. 

Fragile, slight Alison leads Mia on a path into Zach’s past, and Mia begins to think she never really knew her own husband. As the secrets revealed get darker, Alison becomes harder to read, and Mia starts to wonder – why is Alison so keen to help?

And then a piece of the puzzle appears in an impossible place, and Mia has to ask, is she losing her mind, or should she be afraid for her life?

Review:

Mia has moved on from the awful event that change her and her daughter’s live. Zach is gone, betraying them both. But life is on the up. She has someone who cares about her, someone she can trust. Freya is now 7 years old and thriving.

Until Alison knocks on the door with claims that Zach didn’t kill himself, which set Mia off onto a path of searching for the truth. This book keep going and is a quick read once the story grips you. I really enjoyed the timelines swap between Mia and Josie, it brought authenticity to the story.

There are a couple of unexpected turns and I must say I was surprised by the ending which is fab as it’s far too often now that we guess the ending and I certainly didn’t with this one.

Any fan of a psychological thriller will enjoy this book – give it a go.

Thank you to Netgalley for this book.

Rating: 4/5

Available from:

Amazon UK

Moonstone by Laura Purcell

Synopsis:

From award-winning bestseller Laura Purcell comes her YA debut, MOONSTONE, a sparkling, chilling gothic romance with real bite… Following a scandal at Vauxhall pleasure gardens, Camille is sent away to her reclusive godmother, who keeps a strict watch over her and her own sickly daughter, Lucy.

Camille must stay away from everything she has known until the scandal is forgotten, keeping strictly to the small farmhouse in the woods. Away from the corsetry and curtsies of polite society, Camille finds herself surprisingly…free. She is also strangely drawn to Lucy, a pale, fragile girl who dreams of stars, but has never left the farm.

Yet as Camille and Lucy grow close and cross forbidden boundaries, the fine balance of their woodland home begins to death stalks between the trees, claw-marks rake the doors and the moon rises to the song of a creature Camille has never heard before. Camille begins to realise her godmother was holding more than unladylike behaviour at bay… 

Review:

Reading this as an adult I can see the simplicity of the story, however, thinking about reading this as a young adult, which this is targeted too, I would have loved it.

The pace goes between slow and fast as the story progresses. The ‘secret’ seems quite obvious from the start, but the development of the story is presented really well. I enjoyed this book even as an adult. It’s a bit of an escapism into a world of YA fantasy.

I liked Camille as the main character, she had her human flaws like naivety, but she was brave, head strong and not afraid to get stuck in. She was also kind and understanding and I felt she questioned things for all the right reasons. Lucy was clearly trapped in a very sad world her mother Rowena and Bridget created for her to keep her safe and Camille became the one bright star in the darkness.

I would certainly recommend this to any budding young adult reader, who would like to delve into mystical creatures fantasy genre, it’s a great start into this world and a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Thank you to Netgalley for this book.

Rating: 5/5

Available from:

Amazon UK

The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker

Synopsis:

Chrissie is eight and she has a secret: she has just killed a boy. The feeling made her belly fizz like soda pop. Her playmates are tearful and their mothers are terrified, keeping them locked indoors. But Chrissie rules the roost -- she's the best at wall-walking, she knows how to get free candy, and now she has a feeling of power that she never gets at home, where food is scarce and attention scarcer.

Twenty years later, adult Chrissie is living in hiding under a changed name. A single mother, all she wants is for her daughter to have the childhood she herself was denied. That's why the threatening phone calls are so terrifying. People are looking for them, the past is catching up, and Chrissie fears losing the only thing in this world she cares about, her child.

Review:

The synopsis for this book makes you want to hate Chrissie. She sounds awful, like she knows exactly what she’s doing. I to be fair I felt like hating her myself – bossy, unruly, not a care in the world, a bully to her best friend and others and the list could go on. Just not a nice child – and to top it all off she kills a three year old boy Steven – and it makes her feel powerful.

And then you get introduced to Julia – grown woman with a little girl called Molly – and absolutely terrified of losing her. When she starts getting phone calls and Molly gets hurt and social worker arranges an appointment, Julia panics and leaves for her hometown, where her mother moved back to whilst she was in a children’s home (instead of prison).

The book alternates the story of eight year old Chrissie and those parts are written in a simpler language that Chrissie would use at that age – it’s a clever way to make the story more authentic. So we find out more about her life as a small child, while adult Julia visits her old home town and decides what to do next.

I can’t hate her – I have a lot of sympathy for her. When her childhood is revealed along with her understanding of life, death, role of a mother and father and everything that shapes a person at that age – how could you not sympathise. It’s a controversial feeling, but the more I knew about little Chrissie the more I wanted to give her a hug and hope that as Julia, she will be ok. Julia is clearly good mum, giving her little girl everything, whilst not asking anything in return, even love.

I am so glad to have read this. It’s thought-provoking, difficult, and definitely a book that will stay with me for a while.

Thank you to TBConFB for this book.

Rating: 5/5

Available from:

Amazon UK