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Digital Reads Reviews

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My review

Lucinda or Lu as she is known as, is adopted and after a tragedy, goes in search of her birth mother and finds Mellyn. The first part of the story deals with their emotional meeting after so many years. But slowly things start unravelling between them which leads to doubts and secrets. All is not what is seems!!

My first book by author Amanda James, a good book to read. I liked the way Amanda has shown the inner workings of Lu’s brain, the emotions which hit her in the beginning, followed by suspicion and fear. In the entire book, I felt Lu was like a wave advancing and retreating depending on Mellyn’s moods.

Though I liked the development of Mellyn’s character, I felt that the suspense shown could have been better. I liked both the characters but couldn’t connect with either.

There were a few niggles, which delayed the read, took me 4 days to finish, which is far too long for me. The story started slow, and had its moments of intensity, but didn’t last. It dealt more with the day to day life of Lu with her birth mother. The premise of the story was great, but I wanted the pitch to be higher for it to be classified as a complete thriller.

The author has written the book well, making it more of a family thriller with an unexpected twist in the epilogue.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and publisher Bloodhound Books and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating : 3.5 stars

About the Author

Amanda James was born in Sheffield and now lives in Cornwall with her husband and two cats. In her spare time, she enjoys gardening, singing and spending lots of time with her grandson. She also admits to spending far too much time chatting on Twitter and Facebook! Amanda recently left her teaching role (teaching history to sixth form pupils) to follow her ambition to live her life doing what she most enjoys–writing.

Book blurb

Adopted at birth, for years Lu has secretly dreamt of finding her birth mother but childhood bullying has left her with a lack of confidence. When a tragic accident changes her life forever it sets her on a mission to get in contact with her birth mother and find out the reasons behind her adoption.

When she tracks down her mother in Cornwall there is an emotional reunion and the pair begin to form a relationship.

But is everything as wonderful as it appears or has Lu walked into a nightmare?

Product Details

Publication date : 10th April, 2018

Publisher : Bloodhound

Language : English

Available on Amazon

Family thriller

85 Responses

  9. Nice review! Is it weird that when you said that you hoped the pitch would be higher in the book all I could picture was a bunch of dogs chasing it?? Yes. Yes that’s weird…

    Reply

          3. Oh you’re on!! Although, you may be frightened at how weird I get WITH the drinks!! It’s only 11am here and I’m weird enough already!! 😂😂🍻👍

          4. Hahahaha. It’s 8 15pm here. I am pretty sane… And I realized how weird you are with the dog comment. Hahaha… Now I am hearing the dog noises. Till I realized my neighbor has a dog visiting…. Hahaha

          8. Why are the neighbors quiet suddenly too?? What happened? Why is there a lock on the door when I didn’t hear them going out

          10. Oh yeah… We should investigate… Will report back if the door ever gets unlocked or if I hear noises… Standby till then…

          14. True that… Where did the barking dog go? The usual neighbors are gone, there are some new people entering, but no dog…

          15. Ok… So, maybe these people entered earlier and killed the regular neighbours. They didn’t expect the dog as its not normally there. So, the either killed the dog too, or took the dog somewhere (I mean, killing an animal wasn’t part of the plan!!) and now they’re coming back to clean up the mess…

          16. Nah the dog was a visiting dog, so probably belonged to these new people. But I can’t hear the old neighbours and there is no dog. It seems to have vanished. I can hear noises from the kitchen but no lights in the other rooms. Curiouser and curiouser… I am seriously standing at the window to see what the heck is happening

          18. Haha…. Good one. The dog belongs to these new people. I have seen them with the dog. But now no dog, no old neighbors, house in darkness, noise from the kitchen and some strange music…. Hahaha I am scaring myself away..

          20. Maybe they are usurpers.. Its 10 20, my old neighbors are generally home by this time of night. Weird… It is not even the weekend..

          21. Lol!! I keep forgetting what time it is for you! (Even though you just told me) that IS really weird!! Isn’t it a little late for them to be there even IF these people had their dog??

          22. I agree.. I am trying to peer through my window. Can’t see much. Why are there no lights, it’s 10 30… Got to have lights in the room

          24. Their relatives come at any time of day or night sometimes at 2am making a lot of noise. This was too quiet an entry for them.. They are a noisy bunch usually

          25. …. You have some weird neighbours… says me, who has her father in law walking in at all hrs (usually, when I’m unclothed) and he’ll be walking in the back door (because, why knock??) while I’m trying to sneak upstairs to put some pants on! Lol!!

          26. Omg omg hahaha such a funny scenario. Why are you unclothed at any time of day or night? OK night is understandable.

          28. Hahaha… 🤣🤣😂😂 If it’s only at heart, it’s fine. In reality it is always going to be a rush to find clothes and get into them hahaha

          32. This is not technology which needs to catch up. You have gone to the cave men style of living, one with nature, no clothes all bared. Hahaha… And we get to bear with the bare without an emoji….
            You got to understand it’s half hour to midnight the bewitching hour

          34. Hahaha I was thinking about the same thing. Wait I thought of a great dialog while brushing teeth.
            With the hour being barely sane, I could barely bear to hear you being bare, so I decided to make a bear🐻 of your bare

          36. Hahaha.. I am barely bearing to stay awake, till your bear bared his tushie to me… Haha this was horrible. Hahahaha

          38. Hahaha yp on my way, just having a peek at the window, no dog, no original neighbors, will check tomorrow, who are these new people… Lots to do tom

          45. Breaking in is possible….. I didn’t check through the peep hole, it they were the original neighbors…. Scary

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