The New Home by Chris Merritt #TheNewHome @bookouture #NetGalley @DrCJMerritt #newbook #review

 

The New Home by Chris Merritt

Published by Bookouture

Publication Date: 7th September 2021

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Book Description:

Freya loves her new home on a quiet suburban street. And her beautiful neighbour Emily is everything she’s ever wanted in a best friend. Finally, she has somebody to share her secrets with over a glass of wine. But as Freya watches her new friend setting the table for dinner one evening, she sees something shocking that makes her think that Emily’s life might not be as perfect as it seems. Days later, Emily and her daughter vanish…

When you meet Emily’s husband, you will think you know what he’s hiding.

You will ask yourself whether Emily and Freya really did meet by chance.

You will think you know what happened to Emily and her little girl the night they went missing.

But when you discover the truth, it will shake you to your core and you will lie awake at night wondering if you can ever really trust the people in the house next door…

My Thoughts:

Documentary maker Freya and fiance Jack, a hospital doctor, have moved from London to their 'doer-upper' of a property, one which Freya has great ideas for. However all her passion for making the property her forever home fizzle when she gets distracted by a more pressing desire: to find her missing neighbour and her daughter.
It's only a few months after they've moved in when Emily and Thea go missing; Freya and Emily are beginning to form a nice friendship, however Emily's husband Michael is a different kettle of fish. Freya finds him stand offish, if not downright unpleasant. But is Freya imagining the look which seems to pass between Jack and Emily when they first meet - it seems like they recognise each other. But that can't be right can it?
Frustrated by the lack of progress and police interest in the case, Freya decides to step up and be the one to seek out the fate of her friend. She sets up a social media page asking for information - but could this be leading Freya herself into danger? As the story moves along, we find out there is more to Freya's past than we were initially aware of. Jack is dismissive of Freya's concerns, the detective in charge of the case even more so. Why is nobody helping her, why don't they care?
We follow Freya's analysis of each person close to Emily, her thoughts and plans to discover the truth. I have to admit to thinking long and hard about the possibilities of what could have happened to the girls when I wasn't actually reading the book. The author certainly put enough scenarios out there as to who could have ill intentions - but I didn't see the actual outcome panning out as it did. I had question marks in my own mind about some of the characters, but bigger doubts about some of the wild accusations that Freya was coming up with. 
Chris Merritt has plotted and presented some excellent plot twists in this novel which has enticed me into looking into more of his books for the future. His characters are so nicely created that we are presented with just enough information about them to make them credible suspects but without giving away too much of their part in the plot. Everyone's a suspect!
Suspense, creepy houses and suspicious characters abound in this excellent thriller. It will have the hairs on the back of your neck standing up, I guarantee!

From the Author:

Hello! I'm a British author whose crime thrillers combine psychology, suspense, and characters you care about.

All my novels are set in London, where I live. My first trilogy starred Zac Boateng and Kat Jones, two detectives motivated by family, who tackle organised crime and police corruption. LAST WITNESS, the second Boateng and Jones book, reached #13 in the UK Kindle chart in 2019.

My second series features detective Dan Lockhart - an ex-soldier with a missing wife - and psychologist Dr Lexi Green, an American living in London. These novels are darker, more psychological serial-killer cases, with romantic relationships as a central theme.

I began writing fiction in 2014, after previous careers as a diplomat, based in Iraq and Jerusalem, and later as a psychologist working with victims and perpetrators of crime. I specialised in treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which sparked my interest in telling stories about how people cope when faced with extreme adversity.

Now, I spend most of my time writing novels and drinking coffee while *thinking* about writing novels. When I'm not writing, I love climbing and playing basketball.

You can find out more about my work at www.cjmerritt.co.uk or follow me on Twitter @DrCJMerrit

Hot Desk by Zara Stoneley #NetGalley @ZaraStoneley @OneMoreChapter_ @HarperCollinsUK #HotDesk

 

Hot Desk by Zara Stoneley

Published by HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter

Publication Date: 31st August 2021

Genre: Romance

My thanks to the publisher who allowed me an advance copy of this book via NetGalley in return for my honest review.

Book Description:

Same desk, different days. A post-it note is just the beginning…

Alice loves her job and wants to keep it – whatever the price. But then she’s told the company is switching to flexible working and hot desking…Alice’s desk might look a mess, but she knows exactly where everything is. Or she did. Until she found out she’s going to share it with the most annoying guy in the office.
 
Jamie can work from anywhere. He’s quite happy to sweep his work life into a box at the end of the working day. But can sharing a desk with Alice be as much fun as teasing her in person?
 
With no option but to try it and see, will their relationship turn into open warfare or will it ever progress beyond a post-it note?

My Thoughts:

What a fab book, so relatable for many who find themselves in exactly the same situation as the main characters Alice & Jamie, working from home due to the covid pandemic then just as they think some semblance of normality is coming back - Bang! Hotdesking! 

I love Alice's character, all she wants is a little piece of the world to call her own after sharing with a big family. Even her 'own' room in the house she shares is invaded by her annoying sister who has zero boundaries in knowing what is acceptable and what is well and truly over the line. So when  her 'own' desk at the office is lost to the Dragon Lady's concept to save money and space - hotdesking- and she finds herself drawing the short straw having to share with cocky office heart throb Jamie, her little safe haven feels lost.

The first half of this book did come to feel a little repetitive with Alice going over and over the issues she has with Jamie, her sister, her obnoxious boyfriend who wouldn't go away, yada yada yada. Then all  of a sudden the book comes to life. Is Jamie really the extroverted office clown she thinks he is? Can she actually start setting boundaries and getting people to respect them? The humble Post-It note plays a fabulous part in this book in a similar vein as in The Flat Share by Beth O'Leary but to a lesser extent. 

My worry for this book is that it will lose a lot of readers with being too longwinded before the action kicks in. Alice can be quite annoying with her inner monologues and does harp on quite a lot about needing her own space. The second half is SO good that it seems a shame that many won't get to enjoy it as they will have abandoned the book way before they reach it. 

So in conclusion: a book of two halves. Please persevere with the start, you will be rewarded!

About the Author:

USA Today bestselling author Zara Stoneley was born in a small village in the UK. She wanted to be a female James Herriot, a spy, or an author when she grew up.

After many (many) years, and many different jobs, her dream of writing a bestseller came true, and more than half a million copies of her books have now been sold worldwide.

She writes about friendship, dreams, love, and happy ever afters, and hopes that her tales make you laugh a lot, cry a little, and occasionally say 'ahhh'.

Zara now lives in a Cheshire village with her family, a lively cockapoo, a cocker spaniel puppy and a very bossy (and slightly evil) cat. Her bestselling novels include 'Bridesmaids', 'No One Cancels Christmas', 'The Wedding Date', 'The Holiday Swap', 'Summer with the Country Village Vet', 'Blackberry Picking at Jasmine Cottage' and the popular Tippermere series - 'Stable Mates', 'Country Affairs' and 'Country Rivals'.

Website: http://www.zarastoneley.com
Twitter: @ZaraStoneley
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ZaraStoneley

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell @lisajewelluk #TheFamilyUpstairs @arrowbooksuk @penguinrandom

 

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

Published by Arrow (Penguin RandomHouse)

Publication Date: 12th December 2019

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Book Description:

In a large house in London's fashionable Chelsea, a baby is awake in her cot. Well-fed and cared for, she is happily waiting for someone to pick her up.

In the kitchen lie three decomposing corpses. Close to them is a hastily scrawled note.

They've been dead for several days.

Who has been looking after the baby?

And where did they go?

Two entangled families.
A house with the darkest of secrets.

My Thoughts:

I'm rather late to the party on this one. The world and his wife seems to have read this before me, and not only that there's news of a sequel as I read it. 

I have to admit I have passed over this book a few times in my search for my next read purely due to the whole cult theme which is the basis for the novel; it's a subject I have to be in the right mindset to read about. Although in this book it is less of an obvious cult which takes over the property in Chelsea, more of a very devious, manipulative man taking advantage of an extremely vulnerable couple.

There are two timeframes within the book: the present day with a young lady named Libby inheriting the aforementioned property in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea and the historical background to the house in the late 1980s when Henry and Martina Lamb bought it and the ensuing horrors which unfolded. There is also another thread in the present day with Lucy and her children living a hand to mouth existence in the Cote d'Azur; homeless and struggling to get by it's left to the reader to try and piece together how this little unfortunate family unit fits in.

I have to admit I kept getting Libby and Lucy confused - I do wish authors would use completely different names for their characters as it doesn't take much for me to get muddled, especially at the beginning of a book where I'm settling the characters in to my head and getting the foundations of the storyline fixed in place. Once I got past that issue I have to say I didn't really gel with any of the people involved. On one hand I felt sorry for them and their circumstances/misfortunes but on the other I needed them to take responsibility for what they were doing. And then there's David Thomsen, evil personified. I cannot tell you how much I disliked this man. Therefore a character well-written. I don't think the man did a nice deed throughout his time in the book and I have to admit to wanting to hug Henry for his determination in trying to remove David from the house. It was just unfortunate that the knock on effect had such dire consequences.  

I'm not sure about the ending of the book, it all seemed to fit a bit too nicely for all that had gone before and it is only the fact that I know the sequel is coming which makes me happy with its conclusion. It doesn't feel like the end, more of a pause, and I am so glad that Lisa Jewell is giving us more to the story to perhaps give us a more comfortable closure for the story. I can't wait for The Family Upstairs 2 and certainly won't be leaving it on the shelf as long after publication as I did book one!

About the Author:

LISA JEWELL was born in London in 1968. Her first novel, Ralph's Party, was the best- selling debut novel of 1999. Since then she has written another eighteen novels, most recently a number of dark psychological thrillers, including The Girls, Then She Was Gone and The Family Upstairs (all of which were Richard & Judy Book Club picks). Lisa is a New York Times and Sunday Times number one bestselling author who has been published worldwide in over twenty-five languages. She lives in north London with her husband, two teenage daughters, one cat, one guinea pig and the best dog in the world.