Summer Book Review: Nothing But Trouble by Matt Cain

Purchase|Goodreads 

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: You are a pop star! Your base is the UK and your career is about to take off. You have a US record company about to sign you on which means, in no time, you’d be a big star.

But with fame comes Trouble, your new album that’s topping the charts and making your song the in-thing on the lips all girls and gay guys. But you are done with finding a little trouble on your own. Until you are sure it finds you everywhere you go.

You can’t stay away from bad guys who have trouble written all over them. From sexy guitarists, to intense keyboardists and insanely hot drummers. Wherever there’s a bad guy, you latch onto him and his many instruments. ;)

This addiction would get you into a whole lot of trouble than you’ve ever gotten to in the past. And before you have a chance to break out of it, your career would be in tatters for the whole world to see.

Lola Grant’s trouble-laden musical career and life summed up for your delight.

MY REVIEW

Go buy this book if you are up for some non-stop musical fun and trouble—lots of it!

First of all, there’s a great storyline. Matt Cain weaves a story that’s the exact portrait of the entertainment industry laden with sex, drugs and bad guys or just bad back-up singers. You’d love Lola’s story, because just like you’ve wondered why men love bitches, you’ve also probably wondered why you ladies love bad guys. Matt Cain infuses the story of a past drunkard and his gay partner into the mix. He also throws in a revengeful back-up singer who would do anything to stop her moronic swaying and the random ‘Ooh’s and ‘Aah’s in between her lead singer’s songs to ruin her career. Fab storyline.── ★

An entertaining multiple character read. Lola’s perfectly portrayed to be that laidback star with charm who greets everyone with darlin’ and a peck on each cheek. You’d love her for being relatable and not going into the usual eyeroll anorexic phase most celebs are into these days. She eats anything. Just as well as she drinks anything . You’d hate her for being stupid at times committing the same mistakes with her love life over and over again. She’s just your regular pop star who cannot stay out of trouble and stumbling out of clubs wasted. A star to her.── ★★

The other characters are amazing. There’s Harvey, the gay manager who’s always around to save the day. There’s Gloria, the revengeful back-up singer I so much loved, because who doesn’t a girl made as the bad guy. There’s Spike, Harvey’s Nigerian descent boyfriend who also cannot stay out of trouble himself. There’s Freddy Jones, the reporter Lola has an eye for. There’s Jake Hunter, the drummer with a bad boy reputation Lola cannot resist. A star to all these characters and more I can’t mention.── ★★★

The suspense in this book is good. Towards the last hundred pages, you’d be practically at the edge of your seat wishing the author would just put you out of your dilemma. A star.── ★★★★

My rating is a four-point-five star (4.5/5 stars).

Matt Cain’s latest is available on amazon.

I recommend this book for anyone who wants to read fiction based in the music industry. Anyone who needs a title with multiple characters who deliver should pick this. If you are up for a summer filled with lots of trouble and fame go get this book. And if you want something suspenseful, this book is a right pick. This book is very Jackie-Collins, so if you love her too, Matt Cain should be up on your shelf with her.


My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads.

Summer Blog Tour and REVIEW: I Followed The Rules by Joanna Bolouri

PURCHASE|GOODREADS

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: You are thriving as a journalist being a single-mum to your adorable daughter of ten. You’ve been single since you dumped your boyfriend—that’s a long time. And that’s fine, really. Who needs a man when you can have sex?

Except you haven’t had sex in a long time.

Now your column in an online magazine is funny and loved by most of your audience who are not leaving shitty comments about your sense of humour being as boring as your writing. Except when these comments are increasing by the day, you are beginning to get worried. And your editor is beginning to get worried about laying you off. Not that she’d care that much, she could replace you with someone funnier (fresh and younger, but no one’s adding that).

You are forced to base your column on a new dating book which every woman considers a dating bible. But according to you it’s actually shit, and sexist and against all feminist principles. How can you not ask a guy out? How can you not be funnier than a guy on a date? How can you not have sex till it’s the fifth date? How are you always supposed to let the man lead?

But your editor wants you following these rules soon and fast and writing on them every week. Because if you do not you should say bye to the job of your dreams, a regular income and lots of time to fit around your daughter.

Before you know it, you are following these rules to the letter; walking all over Glasgow to get asked out by a man, being less funny on dates, laughing at all his unfunny jokes, never swearing, being called sweet by these guys. Sweet! Sweet?!

Then a chance encounter with the writer of this book you’ve been slagging on your blog complicates everything.

Catriona’s funny, complicated, dating-hellish life summarised for your delight.

MY REVIEW

Joanna Bolouri has done it again! Go buy this book or don’t ever return for book recommendations (ever!)

Amazing storyline! After penning a debut such as hers. A debut which should just be your fifth book. The pressure to deliver a stunning book to assure your success wasn’t a one-time-lucky-thing is high. Yet, Joanna Bolouri doesn’t disappoint in her novel. A star to the storyline.── ★

Another character to love! I loved, loved, loved Catriona! Her voice is fresh, funny, sarcastic, witty. She’s all you need from an entertaining lead! You’d love her for her bluntness. Her tendency to cuss a lot! Her amazingly wonderful motherhood skills. Hell, another character by Bolouri I would want to have brunch with! A star.── ★★

Other characters make this book kicking too. There’s Kierran, the funny friend who’s quite sure men who play golf are not right for her friend. There’s Rose, the play-date mother who’s always lonely and offering to meet up. There’s Helen, the sister who’s always forcing Cat to sit through dates with weirdoes and would club anyone who insults Michael Bublé, because he’s a fucking god! There’s Peter, the annoying ex you’d love to hate! There’s also Guy Wright the writer of the Dating Book who infuriates our lead. You’d also love Dylan, the adorable one-night-shag and Grace, daughter who’d just make you want to get yourself knocked up and say, To hell with men, I have my adorable, witty, smart daughter. These characters and more(!!) are amazing and not redundant in anyway. A star.── ★★★

This book is fast-paced! You wouldn’t be able to put it down. I read it all in a day (that’s even because I am a slow reader!). The only time you put it down would be when you realize you need to change out of your underwear—because the chemistry of the lead characters is so electrifying!── ★★★★

It’s funny. I assure you, there’s no paragraph that wouldn’t get you grinning or cackling with laughter. Even if there’s one, you’d find yourself thinking back to the jokes that made you laugh so hard then you’d be laughing again. A star.── ★★★★★

My rating: Five out of five stars!

Get this book on amazon, people! And get her debut too if you’ve not read it—just because it appeared on all the good lists on this blog!

I recommend this book to anyone who wants a lead they would adore! Anyone who wants an actual Laugh-out-loud book (—you know, most books tagged this way are not really, but this is different!). Anyone who wants another title from Bolouri as shedoesn’t disappoint! The perfect beach read.

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads and amazon.

Book Review: The Reluctant Celebrity by Laura Ellingham

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: Your ex-boyfriend who dumped you has turned famous. Now he wants you back and is putting your name up in all the tabloids.

You are pissed at him. All you need is a quiet life in the country with your new house you are trying to renovate which the villagers believe is haunted.

Tabloids are asking of your whereabouts. Guys everywhere are confessing you broke their hearts. You are now the girl every Londoner wants to date. Even bartenders in the little village you’ve retired to, want you.

Your ex-boyfriend though, wouldn’t stop pursuing you till you come around. Because just as his single inspired by you has become number one on every chart, you are number on his heart.

Jules’ papped life summarised for your delight.

MY REVIEW

Great storyline. See above. When I read the blurb of this book I knew I wanted to read it. Nothing like a title about a girl who gets famous overnight for breaking a pop-star’s heart and running away from the tabloid gossip and the paparazzi. A star to the storyline.── ★

The main characters are good. Jules is just your relatable girl-next-door character who doesn’t admire a life of being papped. Guy Rawson, the celebrity model now-turned musician is also a favourite. Throughout the book you’d be rooting for these characters to sort out their mess and live happily ever after. A star.── ★★

Other characters you’d love are Terri, the interior designer who’s quite funny. There’s also Rich, the bartender who has the hots for our lead, and his dog, Max who’s always jumping on strangers. Oh, and there’s also a funny newspaper man in the country. And a model who fancies herself as too cool to hang out with everyone. A star to these characters.── ★★★

I liked this book. But I wish I ‘loved, loved’ it. I felt the writer could have done more with the story. I wish it wasn’t so predictable. I wish it was more than OK,

So my rating: Three out of five stars.

You could get this book on amazon.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants a title based on the fame-theme with lover-boy pop-stars and heroines you’d find relatable.

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads.

Summer Book Review: Dietland by Sarai Walker

                                                                

PURCHASE| GOODREADS

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: You are overweight, obese, huge, big. But never fat. Anyone could call you anything but fat.

You are tired of people poking fingers at you, mothers using you as an example to ward their little girls off ice cream, no guy would ever want to marry you, or fuck you, or kiss you. To the world, you existence is unnecessary. And for so long you have begun to believe it. All the nasty things people and the media refer to you as. It doesn’t help that you work for a glamorous teen magazine. Your life has been one big (literally) criticism after another.

But all this is going to end.  Soon enough. Because in a few months you are going to do the surgery to transform you from being overweight, obese, huge, big (—anything but fat!). And soon, you’d be what society approves of every woman to be!

But then an encounter with a girl you realize has been stalking you changes your life forever. It all happens too fast. Next thing you know, you are hanging out with a group of interesting women who wake up every morning and show a finger to what society expects them to be, and be anything they want to be! By their daring lifestyles and their influences on your own life, you are persuaded to take on some challenges that would deem you ‘beautiful’.

Except no one told you these challenges would be difficult. No one told you you’d be waking up one morning putting on make-up, wearing knee-length dresses at the risk of society perusing your bulbous thighs, no one told you you’d be going out on blind dates, getting yourself mocked by everyone. How on earth could this way of living make you feel beautiful?

As if all the above is not enough, you find yourself entangled in a messy plot involving a guerrilla group of women terrorizing female-offenders. You can’t afford to have the FBI breathing down your neck. You need this surgery more than a feminist group or prison.

Plum Kettle’s ridiculed, complicated and soon-to-be-dangerous life summarised for your delight.

MY REVIEW

I loved, loved this book! So you know in my review I’d be yelling in your face to go buy this book and, in the process, get your own kind of beachbody this summer!

First of all, This is a debut? This is a debut!? What the….── ★

The storyline is off the hook! It’s just one storyline with so many layers that would surprise and intrigue you! Every section (mind you, not chapter) of this book is divided into a new story line that you never saw coming! So Girl working for a teen magazine is FAT, unlike all her glamorous colleagues who whizz by! Girl wants to have surgery to transform into the kind of woman women hate and men want to fuck. Girl is made to undertake a series of challenges that would make her consider herself ‘beautiful’. But can she stand the lure of becoming the girl society wants to be?── ★★

That above is not all the book is made of. The writer pushes real boundaries. Expressing admirable feminism that would change your perception of society’s view of women, the porn industry, the beauty industry. This book is the kind of book that transforms the reader (it did me!), men, women! I believe this book should be a staple of every home! The kind of book Lady Bug should make into a classic fairytale to teach girls from a younger age they should be everything they want to be (and not what society expects them to be)!── ★★★

Plum, the main character is my kind of girl! (Oh, don’t worry, I do share). You might not understand her reasons for wanting to undergo surgery unless you have experienced the predicament she’s going through—only if you’ve been in her shoes can you relate. But really, Sarai Walker does a good job to make you, the reader, be in her (Plum’s) shoes, feel her pain, know her wants. I wouldn’t say she’s the kind of character for a certain kind of woman—by just being a woman you’d love her! Even I am not a woman so making that statement surely means Plum Kettle has the tendency to win every reader over! Her development is so stunning you would want to rush to Brooklyn to hug her. That said, she felt so real!  A star to her.── ★★★★

Other characters in this book are also amazing! I was so in love with Verena, the woman responsible for our character’s change. You’d love Marlowe the ex-American sweetheart who walked out of Hollywood and decided to never go back (because really, a Hollywood career ends when girls do not want to be you and no man wants to fuck you). All the women in Calliope House—the house filled with the women who leave on their own terms—would be much-loved mostly for their individual projects to change the world’s view objectification of women! Leeta, the stalking girl would also be a favourite and a major reader-interest in the novel. There’s also Julia, the secretive Beauty Editor. Other minor characters representing figures of society that mock women who are not considered ‘beautiful’ enough would be adored(?) A star to all the characters in the book, none were redundant!

The writer’s style is amazing! I love how she reported the attacks of misogynistic characters in this novel by the Guerrilla Group (I even loved the font she used! Yes, I am weird). This part of the story held my interest so much. It’s one of the parts responsible for transforming me.── ★★★★★

A star goes to the humour—wouldn’t call it hilarious, but it’s funny.  The mystery, the suspense! Marketers of this book link this book to getting beach bodies, but I worry what beach body you’d get when spending majority of the time knitting your brows together(!) focused on this book! So engaging!── ★★★★★

My rating: Six/Five stars (6/5 stars). (Not mathematically possible, I know. But I run this blog).

It’s a debut to go get on amazon. It’s a debut to go buy this instant!

I recommend this book to anyone who wants a piece of the new age of debut writers who are breaking bounds! Anyone who wants a book that would change their idea about a lot of things and inform so much on a lot of things too. Anyone who wants something to keep them glued to their sun loungers should go get this book—no need for fake tans, please.

I entered this book not expecting anything other than entertainment, but boy do I feel transformed. That’s why my work doesn’t end here. Running over to goodreads and amazon to spread the Hashtag Dietland fabulousity!

Summer Book Review: A Question of Betrayal by Zoe Miller

PURCHASE| GOODREADS

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: Five years since your parents died and you are not in grief mode. Heck, even if you are you do not want to admit it. Their death has created a giant hole in your life, as well as your heart. You find yourself not committing to anything in your professional life, or your social life. You are just staying alive, not so much living.

The only one person you valued in your life has packed out and left. Mostly because you drove him out, and partly because you are not exactly the type to communicate your feelings or even revisit the night of your parents’ death.

Apparently, secrets buried deep are bound to surface. You find out your mum, who so much claimed to be in love with your father was cheating on him when she was a newly-wed. Now this man she had an affair with has something important to tell you. Of course, you do not want to meet him—what with your own fears and your inability to believe your mum did the unthinkable.

Except this man hasn’t anytime left. He’d be dying soon. If he dies, he dies with all his secrets. You tell yourself you wouldn’t see him. But then you man up and fly to Switzerland.

Of course, you have no idea what you are in for. One secret leads to another and another becoming a whole mess of complications you can never believe an easy-going person such as your mother would put away these ghosts in her pasts for such a long time.

But be careful, there’s someone out there who doesn’t want you to uncover these secrets. Because doing so would lead to their demise, and they’d rather have you silenced forever.

Carrie Cassidy’s complicated and messy life laden with secrets and dark pasts summarized for your delight.

MY REVIEW

GO BUY THIS BOOK!

First of all, Zoe Miller carves a complicated storyline that looks simple from reading the opening hundred pages (or so). A storyline I rolled my eyes at, I must admit, thinking this might be so predictable, you know what secrets would be revealed…. Blah blah. But then I forgot Zoe’s excellence, her very rare talent of making the reader carve out their own storyline and throwing the reader off course with shocking revelations that make her titles hard to predict anymore. All I am saying is, this book doesn’t seem as easy as it is on first glance. And the storyline you might be creating for it, would be so different from what you find out! A star!── ★

Secondly, there’s great character development. It was hard to fall in love with the main character at first, because I found her so dull. At times I’d closed the book and wonder what was off with Zoe’s lead character this time (as I very much loved the main characters of her previous title). But when our lead begins to face her fears, begins finding joy in little things, begins living and learning to confront all stages of grief, she leaps off the page and become lovable—one every person who’s gone through the loss of someone they loved (five years earlier!) can relate to! A star.── ★★

Other characters make this book great too. There’s Mark, the adorable guy our lead has hurt so much you could feel his anger simmering over the pages with any argument they have. There’s Sylvie, our lead’s mum who for most of the story we think she’s someone else till she surprises us and leaves us shocked. There’s Beth, the timid Beth whose inactions you would find yourself enraged by, but she inadvertently becomes the smartest and bravest character in the book. There’s Adam, the bad guy who’d do anything to make sure Carrie doesn’t discover past secrets. A star to these characters.

Zoe Miller offers a beautiful portrayal of Ireland in the eighties and Ireland now you cannot help but adore the past and present narratives of this book. Heck, for most part I adored the past when our lead wasn’t delivering in the opening pages.── ★★★

This book is laced with romance and some very good love-making that is so sensual (and not the tacky kind you’d find yourself skipping). The mystery would get you so confused you’d find yourself wondering why you ever tried predicting its outcome anyway. And the suspense… marvellous!── ★★★★

These are one of the many reasons I love Zoe Miller: she shows chick-lit/women’s fiction can embrace other genres without totally altering their chick-lit/women’s fiction sense. Beautiful.── ★★★★★

My rating: I am tempted to slash half of the stars I intended for the book because it really began at a slow pace. But upon further deliberations, I found out its pace was relevant and significant to our lead character’s development. Her growth wouldn’t have been significant, if the story wasn’t plotted that way. So five stars!

Zoe Miller’s amazing and different(—you always want that in a book!) story is up on amazing. Just go get it!

I recommend this book to anyone who loves their women’s fiction with a slice of dark. Anyone who wants something to keep them on their thinking feet trying to connect dots before the writer reaches her resolution should go get this! Anyone who loves Zoe Miller should go get this book as she doesn’t disappoint!

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads as well as amazon.

Summer Book Review: TechBitch by Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza

AMAZON| GOODREADS

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: You’ve taken a ‘sabbatical’—which everyone in fashion knows is a term used when you’re recovering from going under a blade—from your job as Editor-In-Chief of one of the most popular fashion magazines. Only to come back to work to find your assistant twirling around in your office chair—in clothes that do not look like they are from the supply closet.

Turns out, she’s fired all your editors, replaced them with twenty-somethings who do not acknowledge your presence when you walk into the conference room because they are too busy on their phones, she’s banging on about organic traffic, referral traffic and other kinds of traffic you have no idea about. And most importantly, she’s turning your magazine into an app. An idea you’d later find out your publishing executive is on board with.

As Editor-in-Chief of your magazine (now becoming an app), it’s obvious you are supposed to call the shots. But what do you do when you have no idea about tech stuff, when you used to have your assistant print out your all emails, when you’ve updated your status on Facebook three times since you created it (a long time ago).

It’s no news your assistant, now Editorial Director, wants to prove you redundant enough to get you to lose your job. But you wouldn’t let that happen. Not if you could tell the difference between an instagram and a tweet before your magazine turns into an app.

But watch out, your assistant wouldn’t wait around for you to catch up. No. Not if she has anything to do with it.

Imogen Tate’s life summed up for your delight.

MY REVIEW

Go buy this book before I can afford a Louboutin in time to hurl one at you! I loved, loved this book!

Fantastic storyline! Woman survives breast cancer only to come back to work battling a force that might be so powerful than cancer: a back-stabbing assistant. Woman tries all she can to get with the times or find herself with no job in the cutthroat world of fashion. Woman needs to stand her assistant who has now become a version of Anna Wintour with everyone in the office tiptoeing around her. Beautiful! A star to the storyline.── ★

It’s so nice when a book transcends the vision a reader has for it! This was more than a book about fashion, to my surprise! It’s more of the handbook every woman in business must own to stay on top of things. It talks about a new age where twenty-somethings (like me!) are getting all the jobs at high places because they have all the knowledge about using technology to boost sales and you, like our main character, might be trying to wrap your head around Facebook only to find out now everyone is popularizing a new app called ‘Instagram’ more. Mothers dealing with the negative effects of technology on their children! So much more lessons for the contemporary woman! You can be sure this book is a book of the times and would never be irrelevant for thousands of years to come. Consider it a classic! A star!── ★★

You would love the main character Imogen. An epitome of class and style! You’d expect her to eat off her assistant’s head right when the latter is being a bitch, but she handles it with a dismissive nonchalant manner that makes her assistant more pissed off. Like I am calling this woman an old mare that has to be put out to pasture, why isn’t she reacting?! She’s not your stereotypical fashion bitchy boss—she listens(!), she’s the mother who’s always sneaking out of the office in time to go read her children to sleep. I loved her!── ★★★

Other characters made this book fab! There’s Eve, the assistant now Editorial Director who is such a bitch you’d find yourself plotting Imogen’s revenge and asking yourself why they hell isn’t Imogen taking your advice to end her. There’s Alex, Imogen’s adorable husband who’s so supportive and kind of the husband you ladies would dream of having if you have high-powered jobs—one who works like crazy and finds time for his family like crazy. There’s Annabel, Imogen’s adorable daughter who’s a Youtube sensation in some circles and posts videos of herself making smoothies—aww! There’s Rashid, the multi-million tech geek who’s Imogen’s go-to person for anything she doesn’t understand in tech. There’s Addison Cao the fashion journalist who always wants to get scoop of something juicy. There’s so much characters yoi wouldn’t find redundant including real-life stars making appearances. A star!── ★★★★

Reading this book is like watching a candle dissolve into wax (do I even get my analogies??), you do it slowly because you are scared it would end leaving you with the worst book hangover (not that watching candle wax could gives you any hangover). You are so enamoured by the world of fashion and its (the book’s) setting you are in no rush to finish it. You can trust that if I wasn’t a book blogger I would have read it a page a day! A star.── ★★★★★

My rating: I could give this book eighty-eight out of five stars (88/5) if my math teacher wouldn’t come clubbing me to death.

TechBitch by Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza is available on amazon! Go get it! These kind of books come out a few times in a millennium—revolutionary books that would be made into movies five years (or sooner!) later. I wouldn’t be surprised if this book is the next biggest fashion motion picture since The Devil Wears Prada.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves their chick-lit oh-so-true! Anyone who wants a book that fits with the times! Anyone who wants a book they could do over and over again—like when we book geeks say ‘I read  that book like five times and I still love it!’. Anyone who wants a chick-lit title that’s two words made into one… fan-frigging-tastic!

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads and (shitty) amazon (that would make me edit a chunk of this review! L)

Blog Tour: The Other Child By Lucy Atkins

We are celebrating the release of one of my favorite Lucy's new book! Lucy Atkins, whose debut, The Missing One was thoroughly enjoyed by me, is up on our blog discussing her reading life! Find out her book obsession growing up!

My reading life

Ok, so here’s a list of classic books that I did not read as a child:

- Wind in the Willows - Secret Garden - The Hobbit - Anne of Green Gables - Alice in wonderland - The Railway Children - Any of the Famous Five books…

I could go on….It wasn’t that I came from a home of non-readers. My parents are book lovers, and our house was stuffed with books. I didn’t read these books because I was mad about horses, and so from the age of about 6 to 14 I read nothing but Pony books. I can still recite the opening lines of my favourite, Rebel Pony.

My mother was a lexicographer (she wrote the Collins Robert English-French dictionary) and she would come back from book fairs with bags stuffed full of small, hardback pony books that she got for 20p each. I read and re-read those books. My mother sometimes put a different book on my bedside table, but I generally ignored it, and she never made me feel this was wrong. She never pressurized me that I ‘should’ be reading a certain kind of book. She simply enabled my love of pony books. As a result, I came to see all books as magical – feeding my imagination, my dreams, my passion.

I did move on from pony books as a teenager, to novels by Thomas Hardy, DH Lawrence, The Brontes. I didn’t find this a leap because I trusted books to let me in – I wasn’t intimidated by them, because I’d learned that books were my friends. Reading through childhood and adolescence opened up new chambers in my mind. It expanded my vocabulary, it taught me about the world, it introduced me to feelings and concepts I had not yet experienced. But above all, it made me a writer.

I wrote and illustrated my first ‘novella’ – you guessed it, a pony book! – when I was nine years old. My mother laminated it and I still have it. It felt entirely natural to me to write as well as to read. I never thought about it, or questioned it. The two activities seemed like part of the same whole.

I’ve now read those children’s classics out loud to my own three children, who have loved them, but I’ll always be grateful to the pony books of my childhood: they were the greatest gift.

Learn more about Lucy’s books at www.lucyatkins.com Follow lucy on Twitter @lucyatkins. Or Facebook: Lucy Atkins Writer.

Find out more about The Other Child.

Blurb: Sometimes a lie seems kinder than the truth ... but what happens when that lie destroys everything you love?

When Tess is sent to photograph Greg, a high profile paediatric heart surgeon, she sees something troubled in his face, and feels instantly drawn to him. Their relationship quickly deepens, but then Tess, single mother to nine-year-old Joe, falls pregnant, and Greg is offered the job of a lifetime back in his hometown of Boston. Before she knows it, Tess is married, and relocating to the States. But life in an affluent American suburb proves anything but straightforward.

Unsettling things keep happening in the large rented house. Joe is distressed, the next-door neighbours are in crisis, and Tess is sure that someone is watching her. Greg's work is all-consuming and, as the baby's birth looms, he grows more and more unreachable. Something is very wrong, Tess knows it, and then she makes a Jaw-dropping discovery...

Reviews: 'Truly unnerving. The neck-prickling suspense starts on the very first page, building and building until I wanted to get in the car and drive to Boston to rescue Tess and Joe myself. Atkins perfectly captures the vulnerability that comes with moving overseas, away from friends and support networks, and uses it expertly in this compelling novel. Not just one-more-page gripping but perceptive and beautifully written' Lucie Whitehouse, author of Before We Met.

'Taut, tense, and beautifully written. I held my breath between chapters and didn't sleep until I reached the end' Clare Mackintosh, author of I Let You Go.

'Tense, involving and clever. I defy you not to get hooked' Jane Lythell, author of After the Storm.

Purchase| Goodreads| Quercus.