Evening Everyone,

Happy Friday and happy Easter weekend. I am so grateful for this four day weekend and I am making the most of it by using the time to have a bit of a reset. I’ve been starting to feel a bit of burnout recently so I decided that I owe it to myself to take the time for a break. Today has been day one of said break and although it’s been busy, it’s been busy with things I’ve wanted to do which has been really nice.

Book 📖

Thank you to @onemorechapterhc for this advanced copy of The Lost Wife by @glees_author in return for an honest review. Thank you also for hosting such a great readalong and allowing me to take part. The Lost Wife was published today and you can get a copy here.

Description 🔖

You always underestimated me and I always overestimated you.
Maybe that was our problem.

A woman and a child arrive at a cottage in the Peak District in the dead of night.

Alone. Desperate. Hunted.

She knows they’re coming for her. It’s only a matter of time.

Because her husband kept a secret from her. Until he was ready to destroy her.

General Thoughts 🤔

I was really looking forward to this readalong as I think a good thriller is a perfect pick for a readalong. I love hearing people’s thoughts and theories as we progress through the story. I had a few theories about this particular story and I was so far off the mark it’s unreal. In my defence, I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else who was able to guess the twist so I’m definitely not in a minority.

This story had me thinking and guessing the entire way through and unfortunately I actually ended up feeling a little bit frustrated by it. Of course I love a twist and I love a surprise, however I very much enjoy piecing the story together from what I’ve already read; backwards following the breadcrumbs so to speak. This book had no breadcrumbs. The reason I was so shocked was because there were no clues to lead to the conclusion.

Characters 👫👭👬

Lea was the main female character in the story and I had a lot of empathy for her. I wanted and needed for her to be much stronger and make better decisions for herself and for her son. It was easy enough for me to think this though. In reality I think she was far too vulnerable and she’d been distanced from her family and friends so much, she didn’t see any other option for herself.

The character I felt the worst for though was Josh. Poor little lad. No child should have to go through that much trauma and I can’t imagine that it would be something that a person could ever get over. They could learn coping mechanisms I’m sure, but it would forever live with them.

Writing Style ✍️

Georgina Lees certainly knows how to build some tension and I really enjoyed it. Chapter by chapter, I got more invested into the plot and I felt like I was building up to a crescendo of drama. As mentioned above though, the crescendo was what somewhat disappointed me. It was so out of the blue that I had to go back a few pages and make sure I hadn’t missed something earlier on. I’m not saying that I wanted the twist to be easily guessable, but intricate and well placed clues make me feel much more satisfied.

Interestingly, I reviewed another book from this author; After the Party and in my review I said that I felt like the author had played it safe. Maybe I’m looking for the unicorn of thrillers that sits somewhere between these two books.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

Overall, this was a good thriller that gave me all of the tense and eerie feelings throughout. The story hooked me well enough to make me keep picking the book up everyday and I enjoyed theorising and reading the other readalong bloggers thoughts and plot twist guesses. Unfortunately, the final twist was what took this book from amazing to good for me, however I fully appreciate that my reasoning is personal preference. I enjoyed the readalong and I would definitely read more from this author.

😍😍😍😐😐