I was absolutely hooked to this book from the very first page to the last.
We meet Zoe who from the outside looks like she has a charmed life. Her husband Dan is a very rich and successful man and she wants for nothing materially. What we quickly learn is that Dan is a controlling, possessive and manipulative psychopath.
He controls every aspect of Zoe’s life from what she wears to what she is allowed to eat (or not eat). And woe betide if Zoe gets in Dan’s wrong books. Her fear of the punishment he inflicts is as bad as the punishments themselves. It’s here that you begin to think that this will be another run of the mill, yet enjoyable book about wife running away from crazy husband. But oh how wrong I was!
About a third of the way through the book, Carol completely pulls a great twist that I didn’t see coming. We then get a portion of the book from Dan’s point of view and how his utterly barbaric mind works. Just as you get fully immersed into this side of the story then BAM! Carol pulls another absolute shocker of a twist.
I would completely ruin the enjoyment of this story to give anything away. I went into this blind and it absolutely heightened the enjoyment for me.
This book is full of dark and dangerous characters. Yet amongst all of this is Zoe – you really want her to come out good in all of this. Carol has really done an original and brilliant story in a genre that has been played over again in the last few years. I thought I was going to guess what was coming up, but I really didn’t.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and highly recommend!
A brilliant 5 star read for me.