By: Karen King
Many thanks to Bookouture for the ARC of this book and the stop on the book tour!
About the Book
My darling son is accused of attacking the girl next door. He would never do this… Would he?
I have the perfect family: my loving, devoted partner. Our sons, so thoughtful and affectionate despite their teenage angst. But everything changes when our friendly neighbours move in.
Their daughter Rachel is so pretty and bubbly. Her giggles float over our garden fence. I can see our boys are falling for her, fighting for her affection.
Then Rachel falls from her bedroom window. Her life is hanging in the balance. And to my horror, her parents think my son Jacob pushed her.
I know my sensitive son would never do such a thing, but he is hiding something. A mother always knows, doesn’t she? And who is spreading nasty rumours in our neighbourhood about me and my partner, about history repeating itself?
Then I find Rachel’s broken sunflower necklace in my home, and my world falls apart. It’s unbearable, but I must face the truth. Someone’s child is fighting for their life. And someone in my family hurt her.
With Rachel at death’s door, is Jacob in terrible danger too? And how far will I have to go to protect him?
My Review
This book blew me away! The prologue starts off super strong, drawing the reader into the book. Then we rewind three months to see what led up to that point, and how things play out after the fall. I can’t even count how many times King kept me guessing. I didn’t know who was responsible for the fall, though of course I had my guesses. Which, by the way, they were all wrong. There were just so much suspense, second guessing, twists, and thrills in this book. It really was absolutely amazing.
King navigates through some interesting dynamics as well. There’s spouses pitted against each other because it’s a blended family and neighbors who were somewhat friendly now at odds. A parent’s instinct is to protect their child, but do these parents protect their children and the expense of someone else? While these characters are all likeable, I did struggle at times with Aaron, Vanessa’s husband. He was so quick to blame Jacob and say Jacob was just like his father, Rick. It was really hard for me to believe that someone who has become like a parent to a child would react the way he did when push came to shove. Now, Carl and Suzy, Rachel’s parents, I completely agree with how they reacted. I probably would have reacted similarly.
Told from multiple points of view, with a fantastic buildup to a jaw dropping ending, I highly recommend thriller lovers read this book. It does not disappoint!
If you’re interested in reading this book, you can find it here.
About the Author
Karen King was born in Birmingham and has always enjoyed reading and writing. She’s been published for over thirty years, in a variety of genres for both children and adults. She loves writing about the complexities of relationships. Her first three books for Bookouture were romances where relationships came right, she has now turned to the darker side of relationships, writing two psychological thrillers about relationships that go badly wrong. Karen now lives in Spain where she loves to spend her non-writing time exploring the quaint local towns with her husband, Dave, when she isn’t sunbathing or swimming in the pool, that is.
https://www.instagram.com/karenkingauthor/
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