Review : Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough

Published by : Harper Collins

26 January 2017

Copy : Hardback - Reviewer Purchase

The Blurb

David and Adele seem like the ideal pair. He's a successful psychiatrist, she is his picture-perfect wife who adores him. But why is he so controlling? And why is she keeping things hidden?

As Louise, David's new secretary, is drawn into their world, she uncovers more puzzling questions than answers. The only thing that is crystal clear is that something in this marriage is very, very wrong. But Louise can't guess how wrong – and how far someone might go to protect their marriage's secrets.

The Very Pink Notebook Review

This book stood in my TBR pile for a while, before a tweet #thatendingWTF, sparked my attention.

Now, from some things I have read I understand this book is a little like marmite, readers are either loving or hating it.  Just like marmite, I fall into the love category.

For me, throughout the entire novel I was thinking, WTF?  How?  Why?  What?  Gripping from the outset the writing is effortless and beautifully paced.  Told from two perspectives - Adele and Louise - the plot twists and turns and thickens.  Some reviewers have stated they feel the author shows her hand too early, but for me I did not find that the case at all.  I couldn't quite fathom out the next move or twist or 'truth' and I didn't see the conclusion coming.

If  you are someone who doesn't like reality to be messed with then maybe this book isn't for you.  But if you don't mind when literally anything can happen in fiction then you are in for a corker.  I thought the basic premise of the book was really quite unique.

Usually I can say I loved / hated a main character but I just can't do it with these ones.  I found them engaging.  And for how complex the plot and timeline is I think the author has done a sterling job of keeping it clear, concise and flowing - I would love to see the planning schedule for this!  It would be difficult to elaborate more without spoilers.

I can understand why this book might not be everyone's cup of tea.  To be honest my initial reaction to the ending was indeed #WTF and I wasn't sure if that was in a good or bad way, but as I thought about it I felt the author was actually really brave to put it out there and be confident to take the risk and go with it.

So, I am certainly in camp 'Fan of this book' and as such Behind Her Eyes receives a Very Pink Notebook rating of : 

Review : The Sisters by Claire Douglas

Published by : Harper Collins

13 August 2015

Copy : Paperback - Reviewer purchased

The Blurb

One lied. One died.

When one sister dies, the other must go to desperate lengths to survive. Haunted by her twin sister's death, Abi is making a fresh start in Bath. But when she meets twins Bea and Ben, she is quickly drawn into their privileged and unsettling circle.

When one sister lies, she must protect her secret at all costs. As Abi tries to keep up with the demands of her fickle friends, strange things start to happen - precious letters go missing and threatening messages are left in her room. Is this the work of the beautiful and capricious Bea? Or is Abi willing to go to any lengths to get attention? When the truth outs, will either sister survive?

The Very Pink Notebook Review

I found mixed reviews of The Sisters before reading it so I was interested to see which side of the fence I would fall on, but I have to say it is the positive one.  I flew through this book in two days.  I just could not put it down.

The plot is two-fold, following the lives of two sets of twins (Abi and Lucy, Bea and Ben) who have both experienced tragedy.  When their lives become entangled the plot gets thicker and thicker and with all the main narrators being hugely unreliable it makes you question everything.  I did sort of work out what the big secret was the characters Bea and Ben were trying to keep hidden, but that didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story because I couldn't really work anything else out and had no clue how it was all going to come together at the end.

I wouldn't say any of the characters were particularly likeable, I found them all very selfish and quite shallow, but for me, that worked well.  I didn't see that as a sign of poorly thought out characters, it just made me more wary of them which fed into the psychological thriller element.  I thought they were all capable of being the culprit of the disturbing incidences and all equally of being the victim.

There is a lot going on in this plot, and maybe it could have been scaled back a little as by the end you realise some parts are absolutely as they are laid out right at the start and therefore didn't really need investigating.  Also, sometimes I felt a few of the things that happened were a little too convenient (for example how the two main characters meet).  Having said that, no, it might not happen in real life, but this isn't real life, it is fiction and for the story to work sometimes you need to get over those issues, just read and enjoy as the plot unfolds.

I actually thought the ending for Bea and Ben was the obvious one for them and for Abi it was really good and true to her character, it remained indicative of the trauma she had experienced.

Overall I thought this was a pacey, exciting, well thought out psychological thriller that left no character in the clear.

The Sisters receives a Very Pink Notebook rating of :

  

Review - The Ice Twins by S. K. Tremayne

 

Publisher - Harper Collins

29 January 2015

Copy : Paperback - Reviewer purchased

 

The Blurb

 

I AM KIRSTIE   I AM LYDIA

I LIVED             I DIED

OR DID I?

 

After one of their identical twin daughters, Lydia, dies in an accident, Angus and Sarah Moorcroft move to a remote Scottish island, hoping to mend their shattered lives.  But when their surviving child, Kirstie, claims they have mistaken her identity - that she, in fact, is Lydia - their world comes crashing back down.

 

They know one of their daughters died.  But can they be sure which one?

 

 

The Very Pink Notebook Review

 

This is a wonderfully written, gripping psychological thriller that I would highly recommend. 

 

The Ice Twins, are the two monozygotic identical twin daughters of Sarah and Angus Moorcroft.  Both born with blonde hair and ice blue eyes on the coldest day of the year, the book gets its title from the description the twins grandfather bestows on them - I like when a book title has a direct explanation in the story. 

 

The thing that grabbed me first of all, was how clear the characters were drawn from the very first page.  Written in first person narrative, you are placed inside the head of Sarah, the grieving and shattered mother.  She lives in a fragile, confused state of mind - a women who has seen the broken, lifeless body of her own daughter, held her and watched her die.  Her favourite daughter.  Her mind fractures from one thing to another just trying to get through each day, all the while living with a husband who can barely contain his contempt for her and trying to be a mother to the remaining twin.  The one left behind.  The non-favourite daughter, Kirstie. 

 

Angus, the devastated father, shows his temper is always bubbling beneath the surface and ready to explode at any moment from the outset, something which is not lost on Sarah and contributes to her own edginess greatly.  The reader understands the marriage is fragile, but after what they have been through it is no surprise, however we glean snippets of information throughout the novel that indicate neither partner has been, or is being, completely honest and you start to wonder how deep down the deceit actually goes.  It is quickly established that we do not have reliable narrators with us on this journey.

 

We are quickly whisked from the opening location of London, to the remote Scottish isles.  The imagery and passion with which this location, in which the bulk of the novel is set, is written does not falter throughout and I was thrilled to have actual photographs punctuated throughout the novel - some of them making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, so eerie some of the plot got.  It was a perfect location to walk hand in hand with the story though.  An island on which they need to rebuild the derelict old house - the place they believe they can equally rebuild a new life, to being the most isolated and wildly desolate and torrid place, which is where they find, in reality, they are in their lives.  Is the task at hand just too big to make work?



 

The twists and turns this story takes are plentiful and each one explained to seem quite plausible.  Not once did I get a sniff of where it was going next and in the end I stopped trying to guess.  I completely flip-flopped from believing they had identified the wrong twin, to not, and found the ways they tried to find out the truth provided a fascinating insight into the unique world of identical twins. 

 

I thought the pacing of the novel was excellent, it opens in the thick of the families emotional distress and we are taken on their journey of recovery, while being given injections frequently of what happened, to bring us to this point.

 

For me, I liked the mixture in the writing.  From the 'theory' of identical twins by the child psychologist, the raw emotion of Sarah and Angus, the general sadness of everyone the tragedy touched and the hints at the supernatural that never failed to send a little shiver up my spine.

 

The very last page made me cry.  And I wasn't expecting that.  I wasn't expecting such a fantastic ending actually, but for me it was perfect and I can ask for nothing more in a book than that.  So, for that reason The Ice Twins get a thoroughly well deserved ...