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5th Sepember 2019, Aria Press, 384 pages, Paperback, Review copy
Summary from press release
Perfect wife. Perfect life. Perfect crime.Anthony is not the man everyone believes him to be.
And Emelia is not the woman he wants her to be.
Theirs was a whirlwind romance,Anthony was the doting boyfriend, the charismatic and successful career man who swept her off her feet. But now Emelia is trapped in a marriage of dark secrets and obsession. She is no more than something Anthony wants to 'fix', one of his pet projects.
Emelia has no escape from the life that Anthony insists on controlling, so she shares her story through the only means she can –her blog. Yet Anthony can never find out. Forced to hide behind a false name, Emelia knows the only way that Anthony will allow her to leave him, is death.
Trapped with a man she knows is trying to kill her, Emelia is determined that someone will hear her story and Anthony will meet his ends. That everyone will discover the truth.
Nayu's thoughts
This is very much a Dun Dun DUN!!!! kind of read. I am unapologetic for using this phrase quite a lot at the moment - it really fits the thriller! I have limited ability to retain information due to brain fog, which means I generally don't try to guess the plot of thrillers. I am grateful for this because it makes reading them even more of a surprise. There was no way I could have attempted to predict what happened to Emelia by the end of the novel. To say there are major surprises semi-frequently is a bit of an understatement. Bit by bit Emelia's life gets unravelled. She has a lot of secrets.
From the start Anthony made me feel queasy. Knowing what he is doing to Emelia and watching on as she initially is powerless to oppose his domestic abuse was heartbreaking and instantly made me feel sorry for Emelia and want her to break free. I think Naomi wrote this scenario to create conflict with me as a reader, because Emelia isn't as helpless as the summary makes her seem. Yes her life is genuinely in danger, but she does something highly immoral which made me have doubts about her integrity.
I wanted her to be free and safe from her tormentor, and I believe that although Emelia did something horrific, it was partially caused by her circumstances so she both is and isn't to blame for what happened. She could easily have used her talents and the few freedoms she had to reach out and get help to escape her life. She consciously chose to a degree of deception which ended up hurting people, including herself.
Reading with brain fog means I did get a bit confused over the plot a few times, but I know even readers with clear minds will be unsure what to think and believe about Emelia's life. She does lie and twist the truth, making this an automatic entry on my reread shelf just so I can try and spot the myriad of hints which must have been there. No one deserves abuse, ever. Emelia suffered due to circumstances outside her control, and ended up suffering more due to poor choices in how she could escape her prison. I always felt sorry for her, and did want her punished but feel she was punished enough by what she had to live through.
Be sure to follow Naomi on social media:
Facebook: @naomijoyauthor
Twitter: @naomijoyauthor
And you can buy the book in all good bookshops including:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Mdblxi
Kobo: https://bit.ly/2H2dvvg
iBooks: https://apple.co/31AvG30
Google Play: https://bit.ly/2KwoYWq
Please note none of the links are affiliate links for me.
Suggested read
A thriller which kept me on my toes recently that involves lying is The Heart Keeper by Alex Dahl (Thriller, 10E/10E)
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