Digital Reads Reviews

Many thanks to Noelle Holten and publisher Bookouture for my spot on this Blog Tour.

Ah… What can I say about this book that would better describe it. There were just 3 words I was left behind with… Suspense, pathos, and senseless deaths.

All the characters in the book were stuck in the different sections of the web that the author Rona Halsall had caught them in. If only they had communicated better, they could have escaped the trap that she had put them in. But they didn’t…. And I continued reading their foibles.

The main characters mother Fran, a graphic designer and an alcoholic diabetic prone to go into coma and daughter Martha who looked after her with hardly any freedom. The duo were hiding in an isolated cottage with just a neighbor Neil and landlord and friend Anna who came down from abroad a few times a year. The father Greg had disappeared 15 years ago. Martha’s best friend and only support, Izzy, was godsend and almost too good to be true.

There was a web of deceit sequestered around Martha, and with her mum in hospital, things started getting unfurled. The loose ends of life now wanted to have their day under the sun. With only these characters, I could guess the plot of the story easily, but Rona’s writing kept me hooked to the prose, wanting to know if I was right.

The story kept moving back and forth in timelines and also in mother-daughter’s decisions. Life had a way of getting in the middle of their honest talks and that kept the suspense going. A few visits by the cops added to the conclusions I had drawn in my brain.

The best part of the book was the ease with which I could understand this story. Many things weaved in and out, but the trail remained the same. I just had to follow the breadcrumbs left by the author. A fun read. Started the day with this book.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley and publisher, and this is my journey into its pages, straight from the heart!! STRICTLY HONEST AND UNBIASED.

All my reviews can be read here

Rona is the author of Best Selling psychological thrillers KEEP YOU SAFE, LOVE YOU GONE and THE HONEYMOON. Her fourth book, HER MOTHER’S LIES is out in October 2019.

Rona lives on the Isle of Man with her husband, two dogs and three guinea pigs. She is an outdoorsy person and loves stomping up a mountain, walking the coastal paths and exploring the wonderful glens and beaches on the Island while she’s plotting how to kill off her next victim. She has three children and two step-children who are now grown up and leading varied and interesting lives, which provides plenty of ideas for new stories!

‘She hasn’t told you, has she?’ He squeezed his eyes shut. She watched the muscles of his jaw tense, then his eyes blinked open and he took a deep breath… ‘I’m not your father.’

He was there for her first steps, for her first day of school. He helped her with her homework, and took her for ice cream at the weekends. And then, two days before her ninth birthday, Martha’s father walked out. She never knew what went wrong, but she and her mother Fran never saw or heard from him again.

Fifteen years later, frustrated in a life which consists of caring for an increasingly-ill Fran, and heartbroken after the death of a beloved friend, Martha decides she needs some answers, and she knows it’s time to track down the father who left them behind.

Except when she comes face-to-face with him for the first time in fifteen years, he tells her a brutal truth.

He isn’t her father.

Her mother has been telling lies.

And not just about who her real father is…

Publication Date: 23rd October 2019

Publisher: Bookouture