Hi Everyone,

Hope you’re well. I’m back so soon with another review as I’m on a mission to try and catch up on all of my outstanding ARCs. It’s such a struggle because the magpie in me very easily gets distracted by other equally shiny books but I’m on a book buying ban and an ARC request ban so hopefully I can get back on track ASAP.

Book 📖

Thank you to @headlinebooks and @nataliechandlerauthor for this advanced audio copy of Believe Me Not in return for an honest review. Believe Me Not was published on 9th June 2022 and you can get a copy here.

Description 🔖

Megan wakes up in a hospital bed and the first thought in her mind and her first question is “where is my baby?”. But everyone she loves and the doctor looking after her are telling her that she doesn’t have a baby. Megan then realises she’s not on a maternity ward but in a psychiatric hospital.

Imagine your husband and your family all lying to you. That’s what Megan strongly believes and she is determined to find out the truth. But she is going to struggle to prove everyone wrong when she has difficulty trusting her own mind and her own memories.

General Thoughts 🤔

When I read the blurb for this book I knew it was going to be right up my street and I was not at all disappointed. So many books are described as chilling but this one really did send shivers up and down my spine at points. There were some events in this story that I honestly don’t think I would be able to recover from if I were put in that same situation.

Believe Me Not was painful to read at times but it was unputdownable. Kind of like when you have a bite that you know you shouldn’t scratch but you can’t stop. Yes, you do end up finding out the truth but believe me, it ended up being so much more than I thought it was going to be.

Characters 👫👭👬

Megan is the obvious character to start off with because pretty much the whole story emanates from her. She was so vulnerable but remained focused on her personal mission to find out the truth. I’m not sure I could keep the same determination and I would likely have ended up giving in. Everyone around Megan did such a good job of wrapping her in cotton wool that I did have some moments where I doubted her mind too so I can’t even imagine what it would have been like to walk in her shoes.

I disliked the Dr. A lot. He was probably one of the few things I didn’t like about the book actually. His methods were not ethical and although this was raised in the story a few times, the whole thing didn’t feel believable to me. I’m sure he would have been reported by either a member of staff in the hospital or other patients. I didn’t like his character at all and though I recognise he wasn’t supposed to be liked, I’m not sure I like the way he was written.

Writing Style ✍️

I didn’t realise that this was a debut until I started looking into the author after having finished the book. I thought this was a fantastic debut thriller and I would definitely read more from this author. I felt that the whole book was steadily paced and perfectly suited the subject matter. There were certainly many twists and turns throughout the book and every string in the story was weaved together very cleverly.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

I really enjoyed this book and by the end of it, I felt a little bit exhausted as though I had been through it all right there beside the characters. Yes there were a couple of character flaws, but these weren’t big enough to impact how much I enjoyed the story. I can’t wait to see what this author does next and will definitely be keeping my eyes out for more thrilling reads.

😍😍😍😍😩