Morning Everyone,

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a lovely weekend and you feel ready and prepared for a new week. I had a very relaxed weekend which was marvellous. Spent some QT with my partner and had a super laid back couple of days. Back to the grind today, counting down until the Christmas break.

Book 📖

Thank you to @jessryderauthor and @bookouture for this advanced audio copy of The Second Marriage in return for an honest review. The Second Marriage was published on 3rd November 2021 and you can get a copy here.

Description 🔖

Lily’s best friend tried to tell her that she was marrying Edward too soon. But it fell on deaf ears. Lily was deeply in love and thought that she was starting the rest of her very happy life.

Not long after they’re married, Lily’s stepson Noah tells her that they are both being lied to. He seems to think that his mother is not dead despite the entire family saying so.

Why is Edward trying to suppress his son’s memories? What does he have to hide and why is he so keen on stopping Lily from digging for more information. What happened to Edward’s first wife? And will Lily find out before she finds herself in danger?

General Thoughts 🤔

I had been looking forward to reading this book for a good thriller fix and it didn’t disappoint. It was tense and the story most definitely kept me on my toes. I had a sneaky suspicion about what had really happened to Edward’s first wife but there was a twist before that that I didn’t see coming.

I wouldn’t say that this was a gritty and hands over the eyes kind of thriller, but it is very well written, the plot is clever and entertaining. What more could I have asked for to keep me busy over the weekend?

Characters 👭👬👫

Lily was a character that I went back and forth on. There were times when I thought she was level headed, calm and I was fully on board with her actions. There were other times that I thought she was blinded by her love for Edward and couldn’t look at the situation rationally. However I respected her determination to not give up with her investigation. She was like a dog with a bone as soon as she sniffed the first sign of trouble.

The characters that annoyed me most were Edwards two daughters; Tara and Georgia. As a step mom myself, these two would be my idea of absolute hell. Entitled and spoilt. Not only that, it wound me up that Edward didn’t seem to notice this about his daughters. I’m sure that making the reader feel this way about the girls was intentional, so mission accomplished.

Writing Style ✍️

I really enjoyed this authors style and voice. The story was mostly told from Lily’s point of view and written in first person but I didn’t get bored of her voice (which sometimes happens to me with first person). I always enjoy a timeline that jumps around, helps to keep me interested, and I thought that Jess Ryder did this really nicely. It didn’t feel like I was being thrown from one decade to another, it was much more subtle and the transitions felt seamless.

I listened to the audiobook and would like to give a mention to the narrator @RosamundHine. She did a wonderful job of bringing the story to life and her narration matched the pace of the book brilliantly.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖️

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a nice middle ground between easy breezy, midsummer murders type thriller and oh my god, I can’t sleep, what on earth am I reading thriller. I thought that it was smart and had some lovely twists and turns to keep readers turning the pages. I would definitely recommend this book so if you haven’t read it yet, you should.

😍😍😍😍😩