Happy day of my birth!!

I made it all the way to 35. I can barely believe it. I still don’t feel like I’m old enough to adult and I definitely shouldn’t be trusted with adult things. However the universe thinks otherwise and here I am. Today I have mostly been doing nothing. My fiancé and I are having a Jamaican themed day for drinking and eating and that’s all of the effort that I’m will to expend on this very special day.

Book 📖

I was kindly given an advanced copy of this book for review (thank you to the publisher and the author) and then I drowned in ARCs and unfortunately this one slipped. I still very much wanted to read it though, so I purchased a copy to make up for my tardiness. The Apartment Upstairs was published on 23rd June 2022 and you can get a copy here.

Description 🔖

Scarlett’s aunt lived upstairs in the apartment above hers. She was also brutally murdered in the same apartment. Most people would want to get as far away as possible, but Scarlett is determined to restore some normality to her life, even if she has to remain living so close to where horrible memories lie. Plus, she loves her home and she’s safe there. She thinks.

Dee has her hands full running her funeral director business and planning an event to mark ten years since the disappearance of one of her best friends. Throw in a troll leaving horrible messages on her company’s Facebook page and needless to say, Dee doesn’t have a lot of down time.

When Scarlett employs the services of Dee’s business to arrange her aunts funeral, it becomes apparent that there is a link between her murdered aunt and Dee’s missing friend. Unknowingly, the pair are about to uncover some long buried secrets, even though there is someone who will try their hardest to stop them.

General Thoughts 🤔

I’ve not read any books by Lesley Kara before so I was looking forward to seeing if I would enjoy her writing. I did very much enjoy this book. It was easy to read but was by no means boring. I loved the way that the book explored the bad things that people can and will do; all for a variety of reasons. Not every person who does something bad is inherently bad, but there are people out there who will do evil and not bat an eyelid.

Characters 👫👭👬

I really enjoyed the friendship between Dee and Lindsay. They had been friends since childhood which I always think makes friends feel more like siblings. The two of them were very close, but both kept secrets from the other and I did have a feeling that once they started unravelling, they would struggle to mend the cracks. I understood the perspective of them both and I think I’d have struggled to have picked a side if it was two of my friends in an argument.

I wanted to feel a little bit more for Scarlett but for some odd reason, I struggled to connect with her. She had gone through something awful and was struggling with her own medical problems, but for some reason, I couldn’t empathise with her. I personally think that she held on to information that she knew for far too long but having said that, I was happy with the choices that she made in the end.

Writing Style ✍️

Although this book wasn’t speedy Gonzales pace, it wasn’t a negative thing. As soon as it started, I was hooked into the story and it definitely had the “one more chapter” feel about it. Please don’t be put off if you prefer lots of action and pace, stick with this book because the twists and turns weaved by the author were definitely worth it.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

I got through this book in one sitting and I think that’s always a good indication of how much I enjoy it. It was engaging, suspenseful and it made me question moral decisions and what truly makes a bad person. I’d recommend this book for an easy read that still packs a punch with some hidden surprises.

😍😍😍😍😩