Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough
Publication Date 17th May 2018
Published by HarperCollins UK
400 pages
Mystery/Thrillers
Book Description:
‘Cross my heart and hope to die…’
Promises only last if you trust each other, but what if one of you is hiding something?
A secret no one could ever guess.
Someone is living a lie.
Is it Lisa?
Maybe it’s her daughter, Ava.
Or could it be her best friend, Marilyn?
The explosive new thriller from Sarah Pinborough, author of the Sunday Times Bestselling novel BEHIND HER EYES.
Promises only last if you trust each other, but what if one of you is hiding something?
A secret no one could ever guess.
Someone is living a lie.
Is it Lisa?
Maybe it’s her daughter, Ava.
Or could it be her best friend, Marilyn?
The explosive new thriller from Sarah Pinborough, author of the Sunday Times Bestselling novel BEHIND HER EYES.
My Review:
Having read the marmite book which was Sarah Pinborough's Behind Her Eyes, with the #WTF ending, I really was interested to know how she was going to follow it up. Would it be as divisive with readers or would it be more mainstream? I dived in to find out...
The book is divided into 3 parts: Before, Now and After - but we start off, interestingly, with After.
"Don't come after me. Don't try and find me. Don't try and find us."
This made me want to find out who, why and where had they gone.
We then move on to the Now, where Lisa and her daughter Ava have a seemingly normal single parent - child relationship. Ava is 16 and pushing the boundaries of what her mum will allow her to do and where she can go; Lisa knows she has to let go of the apron strings but is too wary of what might happen. She knows Ava has a small, close group of friends from her swimming club and they are unlikely to do anything too outlandish as they need to train hard and keep fit for their swimming events. Apart from a couple of paranoid niggles all seems to be going well, as far as Lisa is concerned, until Ava is suddenly pushed into the media spotlight after diving into the river and saving a toddler from drowning. Then the world tips on its axis when the police arrive at the door.
At this point, we find out that the majority of the main characters in the story have secrets. Nobody seems to be who we have thought. A huge bombshell reveals that Lisa is in fact Charlotte, and there are shocking reasons as to her change of identity. Ava also has a former identity, and the facts behind this even shock her to her core.
Fortunately Lisa has made a close friend, Marilyn, and has started a new relationship with one of her new clients in her career, Simon. Both of them are sufficiently committed to her to be able to help her through some of her darkest days in recent years.
There are more shocking secrets to come out as the story unfolds. Sarah Pinborough manages to keep us turning pages at an ever increasing rate as the facts come tumbling out of the closet but I have to admit I had my suspicions regarding one of the characters at around the halfway point but I really hadn't joined up the dots sufficiently to work out exactly what their role was.
Brilliant writing from start to finish kept me invested in the story - definitely not as "weird" as the author's previous novel, there were a couple of coincidences and scenarios which tested credibility but nothing too questionable this time.
I will definitely be looking out for Sarah's next novel.
The book is divided into 3 parts: Before, Now and After - but we start off, interestingly, with After.
"Don't come after me. Don't try and find me. Don't try and find us."
This made me want to find out who, why and where had they gone.
We then move on to the Now, where Lisa and her daughter Ava have a seemingly normal single parent - child relationship. Ava is 16 and pushing the boundaries of what her mum will allow her to do and where she can go; Lisa knows she has to let go of the apron strings but is too wary of what might happen. She knows Ava has a small, close group of friends from her swimming club and they are unlikely to do anything too outlandish as they need to train hard and keep fit for their swimming events. Apart from a couple of paranoid niggles all seems to be going well, as far as Lisa is concerned, until Ava is suddenly pushed into the media spotlight after diving into the river and saving a toddler from drowning. Then the world tips on its axis when the police arrive at the door.
At this point, we find out that the majority of the main characters in the story have secrets. Nobody seems to be who we have thought. A huge bombshell reveals that Lisa is in fact Charlotte, and there are shocking reasons as to her change of identity. Ava also has a former identity, and the facts behind this even shock her to her core.
Fortunately Lisa has made a close friend, Marilyn, and has started a new relationship with one of her new clients in her career, Simon. Both of them are sufficiently committed to her to be able to help her through some of her darkest days in recent years.
There are more shocking secrets to come out as the story unfolds. Sarah Pinborough manages to keep us turning pages at an ever increasing rate as the facts come tumbling out of the closet but I have to admit I had my suspicions regarding one of the characters at around the halfway point but I really hadn't joined up the dots sufficiently to work out exactly what their role was.
Brilliant writing from start to finish kept me invested in the story - definitely not as "weird" as the author's previous novel, there were a couple of coincidences and scenarios which tested credibility but nothing too questionable this time.
I will definitely be looking out for Sarah's next novel.
About the Author:
Sunday Times No.1 bestseller SARAH PINBOROUGH is the critically acclaimed and award-winning, adult and YA author. Her previous novel, Behind Her Eyes, has sold in 25 territories, been shortlisted for the Crime and Thriller Book of the Year at the British Book Awards and was a Sunday Times No.1 bestseller in hardback and paperback. She is also a screenwriter who has written for the BBC and has several original television projects in development.
You can follow her on Twitter @sarahpinborough
No comments:
Post a Comment