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julie_hastings's review against another edition
5.0
All of my reviews can be found on www.novelthrillsandchillsreview.wordpress.com
WTF! There are no words to describe how incredibly twisting this novel is. None. K.L. Slater slayed it with this fast paced thriller! This book has been one of my favorite reads yet!
When we first start reading this undeniably breathtaking thriller, we see that it alternates in-between two timelines. The first time is 3 years back and the second timeline is the present day. Toni, widow and mother to Evie, lost her husband during a military assignment. To make life just a little bit more simpler for them, they move closer to Toni’s mom. She stars a part time job at a real-estate agency and has put Evie into a new school. Toni left a good friend back home (Tara) who also lost her husband in the same military assignment and had recently lost her child.
Being in this new town and finally getting this new job, Toni finally believes things are starting to look up for them. Toni even made a new friend at work, Jo. Toni had high hopes for this new town and the minute she believed most of everything was going to be okay the worst scenario could have happened. Toni’s mom slipped and fell down the stairs and Toni was late to pick up Evie from an after school session. When she arrived, Evie was gone. She had been abducted.
Toni had everything working against her the second her daughter was taken. Toni had a recent history since her husbands death of taking pills that help calm her body and almost put her in a slight comatose state. She became very forgetful of small details and spaced out often during conversation. This alerted Evie’s teacher, Miss Watson and she started to become very pushy when it came to Toni and her mother. The police couldn’t identify a suspect three years ago but when a stroke victim who is pronounced in a vegetative state is brought into the hospital everything changes. Because they are undeniably connected to the disappearance of Evie Cotter.
Bookouture has done it again! Another 5 star rating for an amazingly written dark and consuming novel. Even though it took me a few days longer to read than I hoped, I devoured the pages every time I picked up my kindle. If you are a fan of Behind Closed Doors, I highly suggest this novel. K.L. Slater not only had me guessing to the very end but she also made me loathe characters too. I am a preschool teacher and the way Miss Watson handled her profession, the children and parents were so unethical. There was even a point half way through the novel where I had thought one person was not the person who I thought they physically were. Way to go Slater!
Thank you tremendously to Bookouture, NetGalley and K.L. Slater for allowing me to read this novel for my honest review.
WTF! There are no words to describe how incredibly twisting this novel is. None. K.L. Slater slayed it with this fast paced thriller! This book has been one of my favorite reads yet!
When we first start reading this undeniably breathtaking thriller, we see that it alternates in-between two timelines. The first time is 3 years back and the second timeline is the present day. Toni, widow and mother to Evie, lost her husband during a military assignment. To make life just a little bit more simpler for them, they move closer to Toni’s mom. She stars a part time job at a real-estate agency and has put Evie into a new school. Toni left a good friend back home (Tara) who also lost her husband in the same military assignment and had recently lost her child.
Being in this new town and finally getting this new job, Toni finally believes things are starting to look up for them. Toni even made a new friend at work, Jo. Toni had high hopes for this new town and the minute she believed most of everything was going to be okay the worst scenario could have happened. Toni’s mom slipped and fell down the stairs and Toni was late to pick up Evie from an after school session. When she arrived, Evie was gone. She had been abducted.
Toni had everything working against her the second her daughter was taken. Toni had a recent history since her husbands death of taking pills that help calm her body and almost put her in a slight comatose state. She became very forgetful of small details and spaced out often during conversation. This alerted Evie’s teacher, Miss Watson and she started to become very pushy when it came to Toni and her mother. The police couldn’t identify a suspect three years ago but when a stroke victim who is pronounced in a vegetative state is brought into the hospital everything changes. Because they are undeniably connected to the disappearance of Evie Cotter.
Bookouture has done it again! Another 5 star rating for an amazingly written dark and consuming novel. Even though it took me a few days longer to read than I hoped, I devoured the pages every time I picked up my kindle. If you are a fan of Behind Closed Doors, I highly suggest this novel. K.L. Slater not only had me guessing to the very end but she also made me loathe characters too. I am a preschool teacher and the way Miss Watson handled her profession, the children and parents were so unethical. There was even a point half way through the novel where I had thought one person was not the person who I thought they physically were. Way to go Slater!
Thank you tremendously to Bookouture, NetGalley and K.L. Slater for allowing me to read this novel for my honest review.
zarlina's review against another edition
2.0
If authors could stop subheading their books with "a psychological thriller with a killer twist" when their twist is just a product of lazy writing, we'd all be so much happier. You can't spent a whole book misleading the reader and then call the pieces falling in place a twist. There need to be clues, something that'll make you wonder how on earth you could have missed this, not a sudden turn without any kind of logic.
I'm about to give up on this author. She's made some great books and was for a while on my list of favourite authors, but lately all her work has disappointed me.
I'm about to give up on this author. She's made some great books and was for a while on my list of favourite authors, but lately all her work has disappointed me.
rebcamuse's review against another edition
4.0
This is a great beach-read mystery/thriller. About three-quarters of the way in I felt that I must have figured it out, and I was a bit irritated because the protagonist (Toni) hadn't yet clued in. Then one major plot twist sets the world spinning and things move very quickly from there. That's a bit frustrating if you like more subtlety and a slow roll out of revelations, but the roller-coaster ride of the last quarter of the book is worth it. It is also the best kind of plot twist--the facepalm plot twist. The drawbacks have some spoilers, so don't keep reading if you don't wish to! I have referred to characters by the initial of their first name, so that nothing pops out at you if your eyes drift there. Overall it was an entertaining read and the performance by Lucy Price-Lewis is excellent (although I found the voicing of little girl Evie to be quite cloying at times).
[SPOILERS BELOW]
What the heck happened to B? Was she just a plot device and diversion? If so, that was fairly obvious. It was disappointing to have so much investment in her character and then have her not really be involved at all.
The "Three Years Earlier" titles of the chapters were confusing and a bit annoying in the audiobook. Only necessary if the preceding chapter was the present day or a different character's perspective.
I might be wrong here (harder to confirm with an audiobook), but it seems there is a continuity issue--why would H be expecting T to pick E from school that day? She didn't know that T's mom was in the hospital. Unless I missed some definitive decision to have T do the pickups (I remember them discussing it)...quite possible.
[SPOILERS BELOW]
What the heck happened to B? Was she just a plot device and diversion? If so, that was fairly obvious. It was disappointing to have so much investment in her character and then have her not really be involved at all.
The "Three Years Earlier" titles of the chapters were confusing and a bit annoying in the audiobook. Only necessary if the preceding chapter was the present day or a different character's perspective.
I might be wrong here (harder to confirm with an audiobook), but it seems there is a continuity issue--why would H be expecting T to pick E from school that day? She didn't know that T's mom was in the hospital. Unless I missed some definitive decision to have T do the pickups (I remember them discussing it)...quite possible.
judithdcollins's review against another edition
4.0
K. L. Slater returns following her gripping debut, SAFE WITH ME with another twisty psychological suspense BLINK, with plenty of red herrings to keep you guessing.
Meet Toni, a woman in Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham. Trapped by silence within her own body. Terrified. Screaming to be let out. She is alive- she wants to escape this nightmare. A defibrillator is keeping her alive. This cannot be happening, but yet it is very real.
No one knows she can hear what they are saying. She desperately is crying out for help. She is blinking and no one seems to notice. She needs "help" for her daughter. She is haunted, desperate, and tormented. What happened to her beautiful girl?
Had everyone given up on Evie? They only talked as they had personal knowledge about their family. Evie's terrible, neglectful mother and her unhappy home. She must think back to before it even happened.
" . . . For one day very soon, you will wake up to the realization that the horror has only just begun."
Flashing back and forth from three years earlier to the present, readers slowly learn the backstory and it unravels.
Toni Cotter’s husband Andrew was killed in a freak accident in Afghanistan. As a single mom, taking care of her daughter she is stressed, with money problems and her grief of being left alone. She takes comfort in the little pills left over from her husband’s accident to help her get through.
With the bills mounting she is forced to move, look for a job, and change Evie’s school. These life changing moments created more havoc. She had to move closer to her mom for help- for a fresh start.
As they say, when you are desperate, trouble has a way of seeking you out and sticking to you. The new neighborhood is not so safe, nor the school. Especially the teacher’s assistant. She feels guilty.
She had dragged her daughter from a respectable neighborhood to live next to a convicted criminal. She did not have very many friends or a support group to turn to. Even her own mom appears critical of her actions. She needs to keep her job to help them survive.
Between the malicious wasps, and the crazy teacher’s assistant, Harriet Watson from St. Saviour's Primary School, with her own psycho-problems — bullying Evie, Toni, and Toni’s mom, Evie’s constant whining about not wanting to go back to the school, and afraid— as well Toni trying to balance work and home life, and a new job— she begins relying more and more on the little pills. She is in a sleepy haze most of the time.
Others are watching her every move.
We slowly learn why Toni is hospitalized. Her daughter has been missing for three years. Everyone has given up on her. Toni must set things right. She must protect and find her daughter.
How will she do this when they could take her off life support. No one knows she is trying to be heard, trapped in her own body. Someone is out to get her. Are the police even still looking for her?
The question. Who, and why? There may be more than one person on her trail and now she must delve deep to solve this mystery and rescue her daughter. Take back the life which was brutally ripped from her.
In the blink of an eye, one day she receives a phone call regarding her mom. She had an accident and cannot pick up Evie from school on time. Toni must leave work to tend to her mom at the hospital and is late picking up Evie. She tried calling and no one answered. Evie is gone. No trace. How could she vanish? She had let down her own daughter.
At the time, she has no idea someone is controlling everything around her. Nothing is by accident. It is carefully planned, orchestrated, and manipulated.
A ruthless psychopath wants revenge.
Slater delivers a strong second novel, keeping the tension high; however, some parts were slow and dragging a bit--and the ending felt rushed; however, overall a solid thriller with a nice twist you are not expecting. An author to follow. Highly recommend both books.
In our day of social media where everyone’s life is on display, when in the wrong hands, of a psychopath, this could mean danger for the person in question and all those close and dear to them. Some people will go to great lengths for revenge. They can destroy. Guard you lives. A cautionary tale. Be careful of routines. They may kill you.
In addition to the reading copy, also purchased the audiobook, narrated by Lucy Price-Lewis delivering an entertaining performance especially for the characters of Toni, Harriet, and Evie.
I enjoyed reading the author's inspiration behind the book. It is true how the public and press are interested in how parental error may have contributed to events, rather than in debating the actual issue of —by whom the child has been taken.
So easy for someone to take advantage of a parent, child, teen, or anyone when they are in a bad place. Their defenses are down. Gullible. They trust, to easily when they are not thinking correctly. When someone is struggling or grieving. Someone they trust with their lives, their children. How do you cope with a tragedy and the crippling guilt? In today's world when everyone expects a parent to be perfect.
For fans of Clare Mackintosh's I See You . Someone may be watching.
Looking forward to reading, [b:Liar|34813902|Liar|K.L. Slater|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1491515174s/34813902.jpg|56031290], coming June 2017.
A special thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
JDCMustReadBooks
Meet Toni, a woman in Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham. Trapped by silence within her own body. Terrified. Screaming to be let out. She is alive- she wants to escape this nightmare. A defibrillator is keeping her alive. This cannot be happening, but yet it is very real.
No one knows she can hear what they are saying. She desperately is crying out for help. She is blinking and no one seems to notice. She needs "help" for her daughter. She is haunted, desperate, and tormented. What happened to her beautiful girl?
Had everyone given up on Evie? They only talked as they had personal knowledge about their family. Evie's terrible, neglectful mother and her unhappy home. She must think back to before it even happened.
" . . . For one day very soon, you will wake up to the realization that the horror has only just begun."
Flashing back and forth from three years earlier to the present, readers slowly learn the backstory and it unravels.
Toni Cotter’s husband Andrew was killed in a freak accident in Afghanistan. As a single mom, taking care of her daughter she is stressed, with money problems and her grief of being left alone. She takes comfort in the little pills left over from her husband’s accident to help her get through.
With the bills mounting she is forced to move, look for a job, and change Evie’s school. These life changing moments created more havoc. She had to move closer to her mom for help- for a fresh start.
As they say, when you are desperate, trouble has a way of seeking you out and sticking to you. The new neighborhood is not so safe, nor the school. Especially the teacher’s assistant. She feels guilty.
She had dragged her daughter from a respectable neighborhood to live next to a convicted criminal. She did not have very many friends or a support group to turn to. Even her own mom appears critical of her actions. She needs to keep her job to help them survive.
Between the malicious wasps, and the crazy teacher’s assistant, Harriet Watson from St. Saviour's Primary School, with her own psycho-problems — bullying Evie, Toni, and Toni’s mom, Evie’s constant whining about not wanting to go back to the school, and afraid— as well Toni trying to balance work and home life, and a new job— she begins relying more and more on the little pills. She is in a sleepy haze most of the time.
Others are watching her every move.
We slowly learn why Toni is hospitalized. Her daughter has been missing for three years. Everyone has given up on her. Toni must set things right. She must protect and find her daughter.
How will she do this when they could take her off life support. No one knows she is trying to be heard, trapped in her own body. Someone is out to get her. Are the police even still looking for her?
The question. Who, and why? There may be more than one person on her trail and now she must delve deep to solve this mystery and rescue her daughter. Take back the life which was brutally ripped from her.
In the blink of an eye, one day she receives a phone call regarding her mom. She had an accident and cannot pick up Evie from school on time. Toni must leave work to tend to her mom at the hospital and is late picking up Evie. She tried calling and no one answered. Evie is gone. No trace. How could she vanish? She had let down her own daughter.
At the time, she has no idea someone is controlling everything around her. Nothing is by accident. It is carefully planned, orchestrated, and manipulated.
A ruthless psychopath wants revenge.
Slater delivers a strong second novel, keeping the tension high; however, some parts were slow and dragging a bit--and the ending felt rushed; however, overall a solid thriller with a nice twist you are not expecting. An author to follow. Highly recommend both books.
In our day of social media where everyone’s life is on display, when in the wrong hands, of a psychopath, this could mean danger for the person in question and all those close and dear to them. Some people will go to great lengths for revenge. They can destroy. Guard you lives. A cautionary tale. Be careful of routines. They may kill you.
In addition to the reading copy, also purchased the audiobook, narrated by Lucy Price-Lewis delivering an entertaining performance especially for the characters of Toni, Harriet, and Evie.
I enjoyed reading the author's inspiration behind the book. It is true how the public and press are interested in how parental error may have contributed to events, rather than in debating the actual issue of —by whom the child has been taken.
So easy for someone to take advantage of a parent, child, teen, or anyone when they are in a bad place. Their defenses are down. Gullible. They trust, to easily when they are not thinking correctly. When someone is struggling or grieving. Someone they trust with their lives, their children. How do you cope with a tragedy and the crippling guilt? In today's world when everyone expects a parent to be perfect.
For fans of Clare Mackintosh's I See You . Someone may be watching.
Looking forward to reading, [b:Liar|34813902|Liar|K.L. Slater|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1491515174s/34813902.jpg|56031290], coming June 2017.
A special thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
JDCMustReadBooks
gertrude314's review against another edition
3.0
I go into mysteries like, 'whodunnit?' from the start. So I had a good feeling about who had taken Evie, but I kept doubting that conclusion and there was a good twist at the end.
jamiehunt's review against another edition
3.0
I found this book very frustrating to listen too. I hate Harriet.