Afternoon Everyone,

And happy Sunday. I hope that you’re all having a great weekend. I haven’t posted in a while as the house move happened last week so I’ve been all systems go since then. I’m drowning in cardboard and bubble wrap, but I am in love with our new cottage. Every morning feels like waking up on holiday and I never want that feeling to go away.

Book 📖

Thank you to @sarah_hilary and @panmacmillan for this advanced audio copy of Fragile in return for an honest review. Fragile was published on 10th June 2021 and you can get a copy here.

Description 🔖

Nell Ballard is a former foster child who is running away from her past. She’s seeking a safe place where she can try to forget what happened to her in her foster home in Wales and start afresh. She seemingly lands on her feet when she lands a live in maid job at Starling Villas.

Dr Robin Wilder is the person who hires Nell and although it may seem that a warm home is what Nell has stepped into, she soon learns that Robin is a strict taskmaster and there are lots of rules she has to follow. She also discovers that Robin has his own secrets which make Nell question are her secrets safe and more importantly, is she safe?

General Thoughts 🤔

I didn’t hate this book but I can’t say that I loved it either. I’m stuck in a middle ground between the two. I liked the concept of the story but I thought that it dragged on for a lot of the book without an awful lot happening. There are parts of the book that are dark and I usually love that in thrillers but I thought that it was a little half baked and didn’t follow through.

I did really like the narration of the book. It was what made me enjoy the book to be honest as it was read with such emotion that I could feel Nell’s pain. The chapters read from Megan’s perspective were also fantastically done and captured the venom she oozed.

Characters 👫👭👬

Nell was such a complicated character and it was easy to empathise with her. She was self destructive and at times I thought that she purposely sought out trouble for herself but she was a victim of her upbringing in my opinion. It seemed like she recognised that Megan was not the role model that a child deserves, but she had no positive role models in her life.

Writing Style ✍️

I did appreciate the authors tone for this book and thought that it was appropriate for the storyline. But as I mentioned above, I can’t pinpoint many moments of something actually happening. There are some of course, but I feel like it needed more. The sinister and dark themes needed something a little extra I thought.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖️

I enjoyed this book, but I didn’t love it. I’m not sure it’s something that I’ll be thinking about for weeks to come but I’m sure there are plenty of people out there that have had their spot hit by Fragile.

😍😍😩😩😩