Title: The Ones You Trust
Expected publication: out now
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2
Book Description:
Emma Cardwell, host of top-rating morning TV show Cuppa,
is beloved by audiences and only occasionally stalked by crazy fans. She seems
to have it all - fame, money, a gorgeous family - but when her tiny daughter disappears from daycare, Emma is faced with every
mother's worst nightmare.
Is this a kidnapping, a product of her high profile, or is somebody out for revenge?
As the hours tick by and the pressure mounts, everything comes under scrutiny, including her own marriage, and Emma is forced to confront a terrifying question: can we trust the ones we love?
My musings:
I love it when I come across books that wrap a current affairs topic into a delicious bun of mystery, finishing it off with a dollop of intrigue and a smear of blood to make the perfect fictional hotdog. Okay, so comparing a book to a hotdog may be stretching the friendship, but this book was just as binge-worthy as comfort food when you’re on the go and too tired to steam some broccoli. And being set in Australia, dealing with current Australian topics and featuring characters modelled on real Australian celebrities was a real treat. You don’t often find gems like this, and I felt like a fossicker striking gold when I accidentally stumbled across The Ones You Trust!
Overington has a real knack for plucking some hot topics
straight out of news headlines and creating captivating fiction. Even though I
was prepared to hate Emma for being the sort of woman who is always in the
spotlight, beautifully made up, the centre of everyone’s attention, plus the
sort of person who gives her children pretentious names like Seal and Fox-Piper
(another character in the book made me laugh when they asked: are they running
a zoo here?), I came to adore her in the end. Emma is smart, and she is savvy.
She may be presenting herself exactly the way her breakfast show viewers want
her to be – the responsible, ever well-presented wife and mother – but she is
far from stupid. In her forties, and past her prime as far as television is
concerned, Emma is fully aware that her days on “Cuppa” are numbered, and that
she is likely going to be replaced soon by some sexy young single woman, like
Cassie Clay from their rivalling show “Brew”. Because on TV, ratings are
everything, and a lot of scheming and foul play goes on behind the scenes to
make sure the stars get headlines – even if it’s negative publicity. Emma has
been the target of the paparazzi before and knows the prize she has to pay for
stardom – but now that she is a mother, this responsibility rests heavily on
her shoulder. When her baby daughter is kidnapped from her daycare centre, Emma
finds out how costly this price may be .....
If you live in Australia, the parallels of Emma’s world to
Australian breakfast television are instantly obvious and relatable. I found it
a real eye-opener to hear what goes on behind the scenes of the show,
especially the tactics Cuppa’s publicity boss Maven employs to keep the show in
the spotlight. When Fox-Piper goes missing, there is a myriad of suspects to
choose from that may benefit from the huge media circus that ensues. I
certainly had a few theories, but was still unprepared for the way Overington
brought together all the strings in the end, and the final reveal. But even if
your hunches are right, the power of this novel lies not in the mystery of
Fox-Piper’s abduction, but in the events surrounding the event. I loved the
everyday feel of the characters’ lives and events, which made this an extremely
compelling read for me (I hate making comparisons but the characters and story
did remind me a bit of fellow Australian author Liane Moriarty’s books).
Overington’s journalistic skills of tackling current affairs
are instantly recognisable in her knowledge about “backstage” happenings, such
as the political wheelings and dealings going on in the media world to ensure
high viewer ratings. I applaud her for being able to present these in a
fictional content without losing their punch – making me feel that I learned a
few things along the way. I also appreciated her portrayal of Emma, a woman
trying to “make it” in the media, where youth, beauty and the perfect body trump
brains and courage, but where smart women like Emma and Maven still find a way
to excel. Despite her initial apparent pretentiousness, Emma totally won me
over in the end! Emma’s marital problems added an extra layer to the story that
highlighted the pressure working mothers with small children are under these
days.
Summary:
In summary, I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of The Ones
You Trust and sat up way too late into the night reading because I could not
tear myself away. The characters were so well drawn that I felt instantly
transported into their world, even though their realities are worlds apart from
mine. A great read – I look forward to reading more from this author in future!
Thank
you to Netgalley and HarperCollins Australia for the free electronic copy of this novel and
for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.
No comments:
Post a Comment