I'd heard some good things about this, some comparing it to Fifty Shades of Grey. Having not read Fifty Shades, but having heard mixed reviews about it, I was determined to keep an open mind and form my own opinion.
The story starts off well, introducing characters, leading you in and making you want to know more. There are secrets, suspense, shock, disbelief - all the emotions you would expect from a thriller, but for me, unfortunately not for the right reasons.
I'll try not to include any spoilers, but throughout this story there are so many situations, events, murders (not really a spoiler, this is a thriller) that would impact heavily on any normal person, but at no point does the story go into how all this is affecting our main character mentally. There is no real emotional response. If this is intentional from the author there's not any dialogue to suggest it. I found this really distanced me from the character. I couldn't empathise or understand why she made the choices she did, why the story turned the in directions it did.
I also had a problem with the amount of brand-name dropping that was prevalent throughout. As someone who doesn't care for brands it just served to distance me more from the main character and the world she created for herself. There was nothing to describe why the character chose this brand over that, it felt almost like certain brands were sponsoring the book and that's why they kept being mentioned, or that because the author rates branded clothes, maybe it seemed important to point it out at every opportunity.
I mentioned this had been compared to Fifty Shades. Yes there is sex and graphic scenes in this, and yes some of these scenes we crucial to a storyline, but a lot of it did seem to be gratuitous rather than have an integral part in the overall plot.
Lastly, maybe this is just me, but I kept finding spelling and grammar errors. Not many, but I noticed so someone else probably has too.
Sorry that this isn't a good review, I don't like leaving bad ones but I wish someone had told me all of this before I read the book!
The story starts off well, introducing characters, leading you in and making you want to know more. There are secrets, suspense, shock, disbelief - all the emotions you would expect from a thriller, but for me, unfortunately not for the right reasons.
I'll try not to include any spoilers, but throughout this story there are so many situations, events, murders (not really a spoiler, this is a thriller) that would impact heavily on any normal person, but at no point does the story go into how all this is affecting our main character mentally. There is no real emotional response. If this is intentional from the author there's not any dialogue to suggest it. I found this really distanced me from the character. I couldn't empathise or understand why she made the choices she did, why the story turned the in directions it did.
I also had a problem with the amount of brand-name dropping that was prevalent throughout. As someone who doesn't care for brands it just served to distance me more from the main character and the world she created for herself. There was nothing to describe why the character chose this brand over that, it felt almost like certain brands were sponsoring the book and that's why they kept being mentioned, or that because the author rates branded clothes, maybe it seemed important to point it out at every opportunity.
I mentioned this had been compared to Fifty Shades. Yes there is sex and graphic scenes in this, and yes some of these scenes we crucial to a storyline, but a lot of it did seem to be gratuitous rather than have an integral part in the overall plot.
Lastly, maybe this is just me, but I kept finding spelling and grammar errors. Not many, but I noticed so someone else probably has too.
Sorry that this isn't a good review, I don't like leaving bad ones but I wish someone had told me all of this before I read the book!