Book Review: THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS by Michael Robotham

Title: The Secrets She Keeps

Author: Michael Robotham
Publisher: Hachette Australia
Read: July 2017

Expected publication: 11 July 2017

My Rating:🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2

Book Description:

Two pregnant women are counting down the days until their babies are born. They may be of similar age, but their lives could not be more different. Meghan, already a mother of two small children, seems to have it all: a successful husband, a big house, a comfortable life as stay-at-home mum and regular latte’ dates with her equally privileged friends. This pregnancy is their “oops” baby, the one they never planned on having. Then there is Agatha, who has a lowly paid job in a supermarket, and whose childhood trauma and failed marriage are still overshadowing her joy of finally becoming a mother. This pregnancy is her salvation, the answer to all her prayers, the baby she has longed for forever and the one she never thought she would be able to have. When these two women’s worlds collide, their lives will change in ways neither of them could have predicted ...

My musings:

I first discovered Michael Robotham through his Joe O’Loughlin series, and he soon made his way onto my favourite author’s list. I have since learned to look out for new books by the author, knowing that they would guarantee a cracking good read! I admit I did a happy dance around the house when I heard that I had been granted an ARC of his latest book, The Secrets She Keeps.

I am happy to say that The Secrets She Keeps is every bit as good as all the other books by the author. Before reading it, I may have thought that featuring two pregnant woman protagonists is a strange choice for a male author, but I need not have worried, because Robotham always knows how to get into the hearts and heads of his characters and reveal their deepest, darkest thoughts and feelings. When your heart aches even for the “bad guy” in the story, you know the author has done a great job in forging a connection between his characters and the reader. It truly is a rare art to be able to make the reader empathise with each and every character of the story, which is the one thing I loved most about this wonderful read. Now there is a REAL psychological thriller – character driven, disturbing and intense. Told in alternating viewpoints by Meghan and Agatha, the story unfolds in all its creepy, chilling and nail-biting glory, laying both of these women’s souls bare for everyone to see.

This may be a very brief review, as I do not want to give anything away about the story, or the characters. The Secrets She Keeps is one book you should go into blindly, let the story highjack your heart and your brain and take you on its journey. Do not despair if you think you have figured out the “secret” early on, because this is not what drives this book – it’s about what follows, how it ends, and how it gets there. And what a journey it was! I could not put the book down until I had reached its inevitable finale. Emerging somewhat stunned and bleary-eyed from a late night read-a-thon I know I will have a massive book hangover today!

  

Summary:

The Secrets She Keeps is a tense, chilling and disturbing psychological thriller about secrets, obsession and the longing for the “perfect life” from a master of the genre. Very highly recommended!

Quotes:

She says I should reach out and build bridges, but I think certain bridges are meant to burn and it's a shame some people can't be on them when it happens.

That's the difference between children and adults - children don't put as much energy into being sad.

A massive thank you to Netgalley and Hachette Australia for the free ARC of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Bookish Reflections: HALF-YEARLY STOCKTAKE

I know, I know - it's a cliche', but time seems to be going faster every year. It's July already, and time for some bookish reflection on reaching the half-way mark of 2017.

Total books read: 

66 (which is 16 books ahead of my schedule - not bad!)

Total countries visited by armchair travel:

20

Best mystery so far in 2017:

 Dead Woman Walking, by Sharon Bolton

Best historical fiction so far in 2017: it’s a tie!

 Devastation Road, by Jason Hewitt

 All the Light WeCannot See, by Anthony Doerr

Best general fiction so far in 2017: it’s a tie!

 The Scandal (also published under “Beartown”)by Fredrik Backman

 Our Endless NumberedDays, by Claire Fuller

Best book in a series so far in 2017:

 The Deepest Grave, by Harry Bingham

Most anticipated new release in the second half of 2017:

 Then She Was Gone, by Lisa Jewell

Most anticipated new release of a book in a series in the second half of 2017:

 Force of Nature, by Jane Harper

Most interesting and unusual protagonist so far in 2017:

 Eleanor Oliphant isCompletely Fine, by Gail Honeyman

Biggest disappointment so far in 2017:

 The Burial Hour, by Jeffery Deaver

Favourite read by a new or debut male author so far in 2017:

 Watching You, by Arne Dahl

Favourite read by a new or debut female author so far in 2017:

 Follow Me Down, by Sherri Smith

Favourite read by an Aussie author so far in 2017:

 Ache, by Eliza Henry Jones

Most beautiful book cover:

 The Red Hunter, by Lisa Unger

Biggest “happy dance” approval by Netgalley:

 The Secrets SheKeeps, by Michael Robotham

Most devastating “request denied” by Netgalley:

 Then She Was Gone, by Lisa Jewell

Must-reads coming up in 2017:

 Since We Fell, by Dennis Lehane

 Sunday Morning ComingDown, by Nicci French

 The Lying Game, by Ruth Ware

 The Dark Lake, by Sarah Bailey

 Exquisite, by Sarah Stovell

 Im Wald, by Nele Neuhaus

 The Girl in KellersWay, by Megan Goldin

A big thank-you goes to Netgalley and the authors and publishers who granted me access to many wonderful ARCs and gave me the opportunity to review them prior to publication. Receiving an ARC is better then Christmas! 

Here is to many more books and reading pleasure in the second half of 2017!

Sunday Confessional: THE INTREPID ARMCHAIR TRAVELLER

“Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.” 

― Anna Quindlen, How Reading Changed My Life

Childhood Dreams

There’s that one phrase in the English language that every adult loves to ask, and every teenager learns to dread: “And what do YOU want to be when you GROW UP?”

At three, my answer would have been: “A dog!” As I disappeared under the table and hid behind my parents’ legs, giving a few growls if anyone challenged my answer. At that age, that can still be considered cute by some.

At five, I would have said: “A fireman!” And was outraged when someone pointed out that I couldn’t ever follow that dream, because I was just a GIRL!

Then came my formative years with all its angst and pain, but by then I had my answer down pat: “I want to travel!” Even in the face of my parents’ despair at my total lack of ambition and unrealised “potential”, I never had any doubt that there was a hidden recessive globetrotting gene inside me that had obviously skipped several generations of stay-in-your-own-village type people, but which now needed attention. “But there is no money in that!” people would say, usually accompanied by a frustrated eye-roll and a pitying glance at my parents, because in the last two years leading up to high-school graduation, totally unrealistic answers are no longer considered cute. “Money?” I would ask, with a vacant stare, because this reality had never occurred to me. Why would I need money? I would travel on donkeys over mountain passes, sleep on the ground surrounded by members of yet undiscovered Amazonian tribes, forage grasses and seeds and wild grubs out of hollow trees and give a big fat middle finger to Western society and its materialistic culture.

I think your childhood ends the day that you finally come up against those very barriers of money and responsibilities and find that you lack the courage to trade in your life as you know it for a donkey ride over some wild Andes mountain. Suddenly that fire in your belly gives way to a resigned sigh: “Ah well, that’s life,” as your childhood dreams go up in a big fat puff of black smoke.

The Reality

I have travelled, even though nowhere near as much as I would have liked. But you are looking at the girl who, at the age of twenty, moved to the opposite side of the world, only taking the few possessions that fitted into a small backpack, and started a completely new life away from everything she had previously known. Who, in previous centuries, would have been the “black sheep”, like the distant uncle in America who had broken family convention and whose name was only spoken in furtive whispers at family gatherings. Compared to the adventures I had in mind as a child with an overactive imagination, mine have been relatively sedate, but they were adventures nonetheless and make for a few good stories around the campfire.

Armchair Travel

To cut a long story short, this is where books come in for me. I may have to leave my physical body behind when travelling to faraway exotic places, but I still do so with the help of BOOKS! There is nothing better than a bit of armchair travel whilst your body is comfortably wrapped in a warm doona and the kettle is on. I love the dazed and somewhat confused feeling when I emerge from one of my armchair travel adventures, totally disorientated, still ensconced in a world so alien from my own reality. That’s the true magic of books, that Aladdin’s carpet quality that can create a portal into another world just by opening a book and turning the first page.

So far this year, I have armchair-travelled to 20 different countries. Since the list of ARCs I have read have controlled most of what I have read, I have been a bit like a loose leaf in the wind, letting them carry me wherever they wanted to, with no itinerary and no plan.

But there are a few locations on my radar I would love to visit in the second half of 2017: Iceland, Greenland, Alaska, Russia, China and Japan are foremost on my list. With the help of the wonderful members of the Crime Book Club on FB I have found the website TripFiction, where you can look up books by location and leave reviews. Another site where I can spend hours browsing whilst my husband yells from the other room: “What are you DOING on that computer?”

My armchair travel map, complete with links to the books which took me there, can be found here. I am hoping to add a lot of new markers to the board in the second half of 2017!

Where is your next armchair journey going to take you?

Book Review: NO EXIT by Taylor Adams

Title: No Exit

Author: Taylor Adams
Publisher: Joffe Books
Read: June 2017

Expected publication: 1 July 2017

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟

Book Description (Goodreads):

Darby Thorne is a college student stranded by a blizzard at a highway rest stop in the middle of nowhere. She’s on the way home to see her sick mother. She’ll have to spend the night in the rest stop with four complete strangers. Then she stumbles across a little girl locked inside one of their parked cars.

There is no cell phone reception, no telephone, no way out because of the snow, and she doesn’t know which one of the other travelers is the kidnapper.

Who is the little girl? Why has she been taken? And how can Darby save her?

My musings:

After a very intense and emotional last read, I wanted an entertaining, fast-paced thriller to clean my palate and save me from my book hangover – and No Exit sounded like just that type of book. The premise of a small group of people confined in a small space in the middle of a snowstorm intrigued me. I love tense, claustrophobic settings as a backdrop to a crime story. Adams sets the scene very well, with young Darby getting caught in a blizzard as she is driving her old car across the country to get to the bedside of her dying mother. Darby’s anxiety of not making it in time is portrayed really well, as is her desperation as she realises that she is trapped in a remote location with no means of escape, and no phone service to alert her family or the authorities to her plight. Just the thought of being confined to a bleak roadside shelter with four strangers sent shivers down my spine. The situation gets even worse when Darby discovers a little girl imprisoned in one of the cars parked outside, and realises that some of the people inside the shelter may be involved in a kidnapping. The premise of the story had all the right elements for a heart-pounding thriller, and there is certainly a lot of adrenaline-surging action as the story plays out.

I enjoyed this for the quick and entertaining read I had wished for, but had a few minor issues with general plotting. <spoiler> For example, why would the two brother pretend that they didn’t know one another? There was no motive to do so. At this stage, Darby had not even discovered the little girl in the van. It didn’t make any sense. </spoiler> My main gripe however was the character of the six-year-old girl, who talked and acted like an adult. Even though my own children are no longer that young, I see little children every day at work, and have never come across one as precocious as young Jay. The story would have worked much better for me had Jay acted like the little child she was supposed to be – for one, it would have got all my maternal instincts going whilst reading it, and let me form a much deeper emotional connection to the child. 

Summary:

No Exit was a quick and entertaining read with a tense and claustrophobic setting and lots of action in the later half of the story. Readers who can overlook a few minor plot-holes may find it the perfect holiday read for the train or the plane or just to clean the palate with a book that carries you along in its wake without needing to puzzle out any riddles along the way. I thought it would make a great movie!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Book Review: DEVASTATION ROAD by Jason Hewitt

Title: Devastation Road

Author: Jason Hewitt
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Read: June 2017

Expected publication: 3 July 2017

My Rating:🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2

Book Description (Goodreads):

Spring, 1945: A man wakes in a field in a country he does not know. Injured and confused, he pulls himself to his feet and starts to walk, and so sets out on an extraordinary journey in search of his home, his past and himself.

His name is Owen. A war he has only a vague memory of joining is in its dying days, and as he tries to get back to England he becomes caught up in the flood of refugees pouring through Europe. Among them is a teenage boy, Janek, and together they form an unlikely alliance as they cross battle-worn Germany. When they meet a troubled young woman, tempers flare and scars are revealed as Owen gathers up the shattered pieces of his life. No one is as he remembers, not even himself - how can he truly return home when he hardly recalls what home is?

My musings:

Everyone who knows me knows that I am a bit of a sucker for WWII stories. But as lovers of the genre are aware, these books are a dime a dozen, and finding a true jewel among the bling is a bit like striking gold in the desert. For me, Devastation Road was such a book. It is set in the spring of 1945, when there were around 7 million displaced people roaming around Germany in search of missing loved ones or trying to get back home – or what remained of it. Owen, who has lost the memory of the last four years of his life, joins the crowds of battle-scarred refugees and homeless people making their way across the war-torn country. He vaguely remembers being an RAF pilot, who had been imprisoned in a camp of sorts, but has no idea where he is and how he got here. Somewhere, in the deep dark recesses of his mind, there is the memory of a brother, Max, and that of a girl, but the images are hazy and produce a flood of emotion he cannot analyse. He knows that he has to get to a place called Sagan, but his mind won’t tell him why, or what he is looking for.

Hewitt’s writing is poetic, atmospheric and visual. With his observations through the eyes of a dazed and confused man who has suffered a severe head injury, he manages to catch not only the despair of a whole nation ravaged by war, but also that of its many victims. Through Owen’s unlikely companions, Janek, Irena and Little Man, we hear of the many different facets of suffering, with one underlying theme running through the entire story – the desperate longing to find loved ones, to get home. Or, for those who have lost everything, to escape, to make a new life somewhere else away from all the suffering and pain, and the memories. Amnesia is a tricky plot device that doesn’t always work well, but Hewitt pulls it off textbook-perfectly. I loved the way Owen had to write down snippets of memories on a piece of paper to remember them later, when his bruised brain has lost them again. As Owen’s memory slowly returns, usually triggered by smells, sights and sounds, his past is divulged in small, vivid snapshots which appear quite disembodied at times. It is through these we slowly learn of his fate between 1941 and the present – and there are quite a few surprises in store.

I loved every bit of this emotional rollercoaster ride of a book! Usually, I am not one that cries easily, but there was one point towards the end of the book that had me sobbing out loud with emotion. Such powerful imagery!  What I particularly loved was that there is no judgment, no blame, just the snapshots of people caught up in a terrible era, united by trauma, death and loss, and the powerful will to survive.

“Do you hate the Germans?” It was, perhaps, a foolish question, and for a long time she did not answer. “Some people, they mistook the devil for God,” she said eventually. “In my opinion, it is an easy mistake to make.”

Or:

He saw it all around him. He had walked through the city’s flattened streets, picking his way around the rubble of the train station and gazing around him at the forlorn carcasses of buildings, the endless flurries of dust blowing out and swilling around his feet, and all he could think was: we did this. Max and I. Deliverymen delivering bombs. They couldn’t be held responsible, but he felt responsibility all the same.

Although Hewitt conveys the sense of doom and hopelessness of a time when so many people had lost everything, there is always an underlying thread of hope the reader can hold on to, a small sign of humanity amidst the rubble.

Summary:

Devastation Road is one of the most compelling, visual and thought-provoking books of WWII I have ever read, capturing the immediate aftermath of the war, when around 7 million refugees were roaming a ravaged country in search of loved ones or to find a way home. Insightful, visual and poetic, it is a wonderful exploration of human resilience in the aftermath of the worst possible trauma humankind could endure. I loved every bit about this book, and recommend it highly to all lovers of the genre. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Little, Brown and Company for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.