📖 Book Review ~ It’s Always the Husband by C L Taylor

Avon
26 March 2026

My thanks to the publisher and Laura Sherlock for my copy of this book

Welcome to Lowbridge. Where secrets hide behind every door…

When newly divorced Jude arrives in the small town of Lowbridge, she is soon drawn to widower Will, the father of her young daughter's best friend.

But Will's past is shrouded in tragedy, with questions that no one knows the answer to – and after two tragedies tore his life apart in just a few short years, gossip and rumours abound about what really happened to the women he loved.

As whispers of murder surround Will, Jude becomes determined to uncover the truth – and with her own father's tragic fate haunting her, she refuses to let another innocent man suffer.

Yet in Lowbridge the darkness runs deep, and nothing is as it seems. Can Jude protect Will from a community out for blood? Or will she become the next victim in this web of deceit?

Because whilst one dead wife is tragic, two starts to look like murder…

📖 My Review..

Jude and her young daughter Betsy have newly arrived in town but when Betsy makes friends with Millie, the other other mums at the school gate are quick to enlighten Jude about Millie’s father, Will who, as a single parent and widower, has an air of mystery about him. With rumours swirling around that Will might have been involved in the death of his first wife and the disappearance of his second partner, Jude isn’t sure where the gossip ends and the truth starts.

With so much suspense unfolding the story moves along quite briskly and it soon becomes apparent that there is a lot more to Will Ledger than at first appears. As Jude gets drawn inexorably into Will’s life, so the tension starts to mount and the gossipmongers go into overdrive.

This is another good psychological thriller/ domestic drama from an author who certainly knows how to keep the momentum of the plot ticking over, there are lots of hidden nuances which I enjoyed figuring out and some unexpected twists, especially at the end, which I didn’t see coming. Overall, this is a great page- turner of a story which kept my attention from beginning to end.

About the Author

C.L. Taylor is an award winning Sunday Times bestselling author. Her psychological thrillers have sold over two million copies in the UK alone, been translated inot over thirty languages,and optioned for , television. . Her 2023 novel, The Guilty Couple, and her 2019 novel, Sleep, were both Richard and Judy book club picks. C.L. Taylor lives in Bristol with her partner and son.

Website

X @callytaylor

X@AvonBooksUK

📖 Blog Tour ~ The Secret Between Us by Kate Hewitt

Bookouture
24 July 2025

Thanks to the publisher for my copy of the book to review
Also for the invitation to be part of the blog tour

My husband and I share a secret. How far will I go to keep it?

In the middle of our school’s bustling summer picnic, I watch Harriet walk purposefully toward my husband, Michael. She places her hand on his arm, introducing herself and laughing at something he says. A knot forms in my stomach as I watch them. We’ve been here before. But I can’t just walk away…

Over the next few weeks, I try to keep Harriet from my family. But no matter what I do, she finds a way in. Her daughter and my twin boys become friends, and one night I find Harriet in my kitchen, smiling at my husband as she sips a cocktail. I feel like a stranger in my own home.

That night, when I see her name light up my husband’s phone, I can barely breathe. Because I know this is more than just an affair. She’s in our lives for a different reason. For years, I’ve kept a secret buried deep because I thought I could hold my family together. But now, I’m terrified Harriet is going to reveal it and I will lose everything…

Whatever happens, I can’t let her expose the secrets between me and my husband. But what will I have to do to stop her?

📖 My Review ..

When Elise Dunnett sees her husband, Michael, talking to Harriet Tierney at the annual school picnic she is immediately on high alert and is even more dismayed when Harriet’s daughter Kyra is newly enrolled at the same private school as her twin boys. From this innocent first meeting Elise is wary of Harriet and does her best to keep her away from her family with devastating consequences.

The plot is so gripping that I read the book quickly as I couldn’t wait to see what would unfold next as it really is a story which gets under your skin especially as the secrets which are being revealed are so cleverly placed that you can’t help but be left wondering whatever is going to happen next in this twisted tale of jealousy and revenge. All credit must go to this talented writer who weaves such a complex plot in which most of the main characters are largely unlikeable, this takes an inordinate amount of skill and it really pays off in an intricate story of secrets, lies and pure malice.

Fascinating and complex, The Secret Between Us is an emotional domestic drama which had plenty of twists and turns, compelling characters, and a real page turner of a plot.

About the Author

Kate Hewitt is the author of many romance and women’s fiction novels. A former New Yorker and now an American ex-pat, she lives in a small town on the Welsh border with her husband, five children, and their overly affectionate Golden Retriever. Whatever the genre, she enjoys telling stories that tackle real issues and touch people’s lives.

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📖 Book Review ~ Collision by J M Monaco

Luminosa Books
14 August 2024

My thanks to the author for the copy of this book

Four People. Their Secrets. One Tragic Day.

Tragedy strikes when a teenage boy is killed in a hit and run. Why didn’t the driver stop? Why did the boy run into the street?

2018, Bristol. On his way to a boxing session, fifteen-year-old Kieran runs into the street and is knocked down by a speeding Mercedes. High on cocaine, rich-girl driver Rachel flees the scene. Days later she’s found in a deserted barn and charged with the teen’s death. Over the four months she is held in remand prison awaiting sentencing, Rachel battles with the demons that pushed her over the edge that lethal afternoon.

Rachel’s story and the voices of three others slowly unravel the events and secrets that lay behind what happened that day. Kieran’s mother, Noreen, a cleaner at the university, Kieran’s close friend - girl-boxer, Jess, and Rachel’s cardiologist father, Leo, all wish they could turn back the clock. In their grief and driven by guilt, their worlds collide as they face the truth of the roles they played in the tragedy.

📖 My Review..

All too often we hear of fatal road traffic accidents and whilst we stop to consider the sadness and tragedy of it there are also wider implications which are not always considered. It’s not just about the victims or their family and friends but also about the perpetrators of the crime and the effect that the tragedy could have on so many other people who are both directly and indirectly involved. Told in four distinct voices Collision looks at the events following the hit and run accident of a fifteen year old boy. We get the thoughts and emotions of Kieran’s mother, Noreen, his friend Jess, alongside the devastation of Leo, who is the father of Rachel, the twenty-one year old driver of the vehicle involved in the hit and run.

There are real emotions at play here and as we get drawn further into the story so the tragic events start to unfold. Identifying with each of the characters is where the strength of the novel lies and all credit to the author for giving each viewpoint so successfully. I felt emotionally connected with each of them, particularly the parents whose shock and sadness is tangible and their heartfelt bewilderment at the loss of a young life. Emotional and heart wrenching in places, this a powerful story about loss and grief, about the repercussions of what happens when things spiral of control, of how lives can change in a heartbeat and finally, whether in the face of great hurt there can ever be the chance of forgiveness.

Collision is one of those quietly, strong stories, beautifully written and acutely observed, I really enjoyed reading it and look forward to more from this talented writer.

About the Author

JM Monaco grew up in the Boston area, USA. She studied English and Creative Writing as an undergraduate at Tufts University. After working in a variety of areas, including desk-top publishing and as a secondary school teacher, she took up graduate studies. Her PhD from the University of Bristol examined quality television drama and its internet fandom. She has lived in Bristol since 1996.

Collision is her second novel. Her first novel is How We Remember (2018).

Twitter / X @jm_monaco2

#Collison

📖 Book Review ~ Girl Next Door by Karen King

Bookouture
9 July 2024

Thanks to the publisher for my copy of the book

My darling son is accused of attacking the girl next door. He would never do this… Would he?

I have the perfect family: my loving, devoted partner. Our sons, so thoughtful and affectionate despite their teenage angst. But everything changes when our friendly neighbours move in.

Their daughter Rachel is so pretty and bubbly. Her giggles float over our garden fence. I can see our boys are falling for her, fighting for her affection.

Then Rachel falls from her bedroom window. Her life is hanging in the balance. And to my horror, her parents think my son Jacob pushed her.

Then I find Rachel’s broken sunflower necklace in my home, and my world falls apart. It’s unbearable, but I must face the truth. Someone’s child is fighting for their life. And someone in my family hurt her.

With Rachel at death’s door, is Jacob in terrible danger too? And how far will I have to go to protect him

I know my sensitive son would never do such a thing, but he is hiding something. A mother always knows, doesn’t she? And who is spreading nasty rumours in our neighbourhood about me and my partner, about history repeating itself?

📖My review..

When a lovely family move in next door Vanessa is thrilled to have someone she can be friends with and her two sons, Lucas and Jacob, seem happy to spend time with Rachel who is the girl next door. However when a devastating tragedy occurs the finger of blame is firmly pointed at Vanessa and her family. Tensions run high in this chilling domestic thriller which looks at how quickly things can spiral out of control and with so many people keeping secrets both Vanessa and the investigating police team seem unable to discover the truth  around who was there when Rachel’s accident occurred.

This is such an all consuming story that I read the whole of the book in a couple of sittings eager to discover more about these two families who seem to have been heading on a collision course from the moment they all met. With difficult conversations and heightened emotions the story gallops along at a good pace and to be honest although I thought I had the conclusion worked out I was surprised by the ending which wrapped everything up in a satisfying sort of way. Girl Next Door definitely has enough  domestic drama to keep you guessing until the end.

About the Author

Karen King was born in Birmingham and has always enjoyed reading and writing. She’s been published for over thirty years, in a variety of genres for both children and adults. She loves writing about the complexities of relationships. Her first three books for Bookouture were romances where relationships came right, she has now turned to the darker side of relationships, writing two psychological thrillers about relationships that go badly wrong. Karen now lives in Spain where she loves to spend her non-writing time exploring the quaint local towns with her husband, Dave, when she isn’t sunbathing or swimming in the pool, that is.

X @Karen_King

X @bookouture

📖 Blog Tour ~ Blue Hour by Sarah Schmidt

 

Tinder Press
7 July 2022

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of the book
and to Random Things tours for the invitation to the blog tour

She thinks of blue mountain, her favourite place. 'We're going somewhere where we can be safe. We never have to come back here.' As the rest of the world lies sleeping, Eleanor straps her infant daughter, Amy, into the back of her car. This is the moment she knew must come, when they will walk out on her husband Leon and a marriage in ruins since his return from Vietnam. Together, she and Amy will journey to blue mountain, a place of enchantment and refuge that lit up Eleanor's childhood. As the car eats up the miles, so Eleanor's mind dives back into her fractured relationship with her mother, Kitty. Kitty who asked for so much from life, from love, from family. Kitty who had battled so hard to prise her husband George out of the grip of war. Kitty, whose disapproving voice rings so loud in Eleanor's head.

📖 My Review..

Eleanor's marriage is in ruins and over the space of this sparsely furnished novel we get to know why she is leaving her husband in order to get far away to the Blue Mountain, her favourite place in the world. With her infant daughter Amy in the car Eleanor sets off on an emotional journey recalling the events in her life which have led to this moment. Eleanor’s challenging relationship with her mother is pretty much at the core of the story as is her fractured relationship with her husband, Leon, who has recently returned from the conflict in Vietnam.

Blue Hour took me by surprise, not just because the story is so powerful but also in the way the author uses her words so sparingly and yet delivers such a thought provoking and intensely personal story of trauma and abuse. Covering such an array of topics from toxic motherhood, to PTSD and every level of emotional discontent, the story should be difficult to read and yet it flows so beautifully that I had difficulty putting the book down. Right from the start I felt a brooding respect for Eleanor, unlike her mother, Kitty, who made my skin crawl.

Clever writing by this talented author makes Blue Hour such powerful and emotional roller coaster of a read and the connection, made between author and reader, is a very personal one. Throughout the story there is a sad intensity as we witness fractured lives spiralling out of control. 

🥛Best read with... a glass of Milo

About the Author

Sarah Schmidt is the acclaimed author of See What I Have Done, which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and won the AIBA Literary Fiction of the Year 2018. She lives in Melbourne where she works as a librarian. 

Website

Twitter @ikillnovel #BlueHour

@TinderPress

@RandomTTours

Blog Tour ~ Sticks and Stones by Jo Jakeman

☆
Happy Publication  Day
☆

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be hosting today's stop on the Sticks and Stones Blog Tour

Harvill Secker
12 July 2018

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book and the invitation to be part of the blog tour

What's it all about..

Imogen’s husband is a bad man.

His ex-wife and his new mistress might have different perspectives but Imogen thinks she knows the truth. And now he’s given her an ultimatum: get out of the family home in the next fortnight or I’ll fight you for custody of our son.

In a moment of madness, Imogen does something unthinkable: she locks her husband in the cellar. Now she’s in control. But how far will she go to protect her son and punish her husband? And what will happen when his ex and his girlfriend get tangled up in her plans?

And here's what I thought about it..

In what seems like a moment of complete madness, Imogen locks her ex-husband, Philip, in the cellar. That this act is done in haste doesn't lessen the impact of why she felt compelled to take this action in the first place. However, as Sticks and Stones unfolds, the reasons for this deadly drama starts to take shape, and as the story deepens, so more and more secrets about Philip Rochester start to emerge.

This is one of those tense and nail bitingly complex psychological suspense stories which grabs your attention right from the start, and whilst I couldn't always rationalise Imogen's behaviour, I could appreciate why Imogen, and later, Ruby and Naomi, two of Philip's other wives, acted in the way that they did. Looking at abuse, even in a fictional format, is never easy, and I think this story highlights just how desperate people can become when they have reached the limit of their endurance.

The author writes well and makes her characters feel totally authentic, and even though there were times when some of the action caused me to suspend belief, I couldn't help but become completely immersed in the way that the three women reacted to the situation. I was, very quickly, absolutely engrossed in this complicated story about the ultimate revenge.

The domestic noir genre is very popular and to stand out from the rest each new title has to offer something different, I think in Sticks and Stones, this debut author has succeeded in giving us a really innovative story, something which has a real edginess to it and which is both disturbing and utterly compelling, a real page-turner!

About the Author

JO JAKEMAN was the winner of the Friday Night Live 2016 competition at the York Festival of Writing. Born in Cyprus, she worked for many years in the City of London before moving to Derbyshire with her husband and twin boys. Sticks and Stones is her debut thriller.

Twitter @jojakemanwrites #SticksandStones

@Harvill Secker

@DeadGoodBooks

Review ~ Exquisite by Sarah Stovell

Orenda Books
15 June 2017

What's it all about...

Bo Luxton has it all—a loving family, a beautiful home in the Lake District, and a clutch of bestselling books to her name. Enter Alice Dark, an aspiring writer who is drifting through life, with a series of dead-end jobs and a freeloading boyfriend. When they meet at a writers’ retreat, the chemistry is instant, and a sinister relationship develops. Or does it? Breathlessly pacey, taut and terrifying, Exquisite is a startlingly original and unbalancing psychological thriller that will keep you guessing until the very last page.

What did I think about it...

From the start of the novel, and a very clever prologue, we are taken very securely by the hand as this talented writer leads us on a journey which becomes increasingly darker and more menacing as the story, and the journey, progresses.

Bo Luxton appears to be everyone's dream author, with a series of highly successful novels and the ability to encourage other aspiring authors at her writers' workshops. When she spots raw talent in Alice Dark, a young writer with heaps of potential, a disturbing and sinister relationship starts to develop between them. Both women are complete opposites, one with a successful writing career and a wonderful lifestyle, whilst the other seems to lurch from one calamity to another, and yet, the spark of attraction which exists between them is gloriously addictive, and is perhaps one of the most disturbing things I’ve read in ages.

Cleverly told, in alternate chapters and from Bo and Alice’s perspective, Exquisite is one of those stories which you are unable to leave alone. It follows you, insidiously, from room to room, so that in any spare minute you find that you pick up the story to delve deeper into the mystery of Bo and Alice’s chilling association. Throughout the story there is an overwhelming need for answers, and yet the author only ever reveals as much as you need to know, and she does this ever so slowly, drop by exquisite drop, until there comes a point where even as the truth and lies start to coalesce, you continue to doubt the trustworthiness of either narrator.

And that’s really where the strength of the novel lies, in that, you never really know what’s going on until the book has ended and even then there are still questions...

The Domestic Noir genre continues to go from strength to strength with some very fine female writers who command attention, and in my opinion Exquisite is up there with the best of the genre.

Best read with...a home made baguette with brie and grapes...

About the Author

My thanks to Karen at Orenda for my copy of Exquisite 

~***~

Review ~The Trophy Child by Paula Daly

Bantam press
January 2016

What's the book about..

A doting mother or a pushy parent?

Karen Bloom expects perfection. Her son, Ewan, has been something of a disappointment and she won’t be making the same mistake again with her beloved, talented child, Bronte.

Bronte’s every waking hour will be spent at music lessons and dance classes, doing extra schoolwork and whatever it takes to excel. 

But as Karen pushes Bronte to the brink, the rest of the family crumbles. Karen’s husband, Noel, is losing himself in work, and his teenage daughter from his first marriage, Verity, is becoming ever more volatile. The family is dangerously near breaking point. 

Karen would know when to stop . . . wouldn’t she?

My thoughts about the book..

Meeting Karen Bloom in this latest offering by Paula Daly is rather like meeting one of those people who you sometimes encounter at a school parents evening, you immediately recognise the incredibly pushy mother who always seems to want their offspring to take part in every activity that the school can offer.

At the centre of The Trophy Child is ten year old Bronte Bloom who is constantly pushed to her limits by a mother who feels that Bronte's every waking moment should be filled with activities. The rest of the family tiptoe around the perimeter, never really functioning as a normal family and before too long we begin to suspect that not everything in the Bloom family is as it should be.

There is no doubt that this author has made this specific area of domestic drama all her own and once again gives us a story that gets right into the nitty-gritty of dysfunctional family life. Trying to make sense of what's happening to the Bloom family is DS Joanne Aspinall, the detective we have met in previous stories. Her unique brand of police investigation is tested rather more in this story and it's interesting to see a little more about Joanne's personal life being put under the microscope.

There is much to take in, not just in the dynamics between Karen and Bronte but also in the tension between husband and wife and in the relationship between Bronte's older siblings, Ewan and Verity. As always there are some really complex family issues being dissected and the author succeeds with her usual fine attention to detail and her unique ability to keep the reader guessing until the very end. Several times within the story I thought that I was one step ahead of DS Aspinall, only to find that I was wallowing in the dark as the story veered off in yet another direction. Cleverly the story strands all join together and the story concludes in a way that I really I didn't see coming.

Just a reminder for those readers who may be new to Paula Daly's stories. All her back list can be read as standalone stories. The only common denominators being the Lake District setting and DS Joanne Aspinall's involvement somewhere in proceedings.

I'm always bereft when I finish a new novel by my favourite author and I can only hope that she writes her next book quickly !

Best Read With..A strong Nespresso and a cream cheese sandwich, eaten on the wing.. 

About the Author

Paula Daly was born in Lancashire. Before beginning her first novel JUST WHAT KIND OF MOTHER ARE YOU? she was a self-employed physiotherapist. She lives in the Lake District with her husband, three children and whippet Skippy

 My thanks to the publishers for my review copy of The Trophy Child

~***~