Book Review - Clear My Name by Paula Daly

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Amazon UK

Title: Clear My Name

Author: Paula Daly

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Transworld Digital

Publication Date: 20th February 2020

Rating: 4 Stars

Innocent?

When Carrie was accused of brutally murdering her husband’s lover, she denied it. She denied it when they arrested her, when they put her in front of a jury, and when they sent her to prison.

Now she’s three years into a fifteen-year sentence, away from the daughter she loves and the life she had built. And she is still denying that she is to blame.

Guilty?

Tess Gilroy has devoted her life to righting wrongs. Through her job for Innocence UK, a charity which takes on alleged miscarriages of justice, she works tirelessly to uncover the truth.

But when she is asked to take Carrie’s case, Tess realises that if she is to help this woman, she must risk uncovering the secrets she has struggled a lifetime to hide . . .

We’ve all done things we’re not proud of.

That was a different take on a crime novel, Tess Gilroy is devoted to trying to prove convicted criminals are in fact innocent and should be released. 

We follow Tess and her new trainee at Innoncence UK, Avril, as we try to determine whether Carrie really did murder her husband's lover.  

Throughout I couldn't quite make up my mind which side I was leaning on, i just had a sneaking feeling that it may be more complicated than it appeared, but couldn't work out why.   I was hooked as we are taken on a journey seeing just happened four years ago, when Carrie was arrested, as well as following Tess's story now. 

What added an extra dimension to this is just how Tess's incredibly deeply hidden personal life interconnects with this case in a way you couldn't have guessed.  I think I would have liked to see a bit more from that story line as I was really interested in it. 

I really enjoyed seeing how this story played out, there were some mini gasps from me, as the action progressed and it is another great book from a author I really enjoy reading.  

From around the half way point, the book was incredibly addictive and I just had to know what would happen next. 

Thank you to Transworld and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily. 

Book Review - Open Your Eyes by Paula Daly - Blog Tour

The Amazon Purchase link below is an Amazon Affiliate link.

Amazon UK

Title: Open Your Eyes

Author: Paula Daly

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Transworld

Publication Date: Transworld Digital

Rating: 5 Stars

Haven’t we all wanted to pretend everything is fine?

Jane doesn’t like confrontation. Given the choice, she'd prefer to focus on what’s going well, the good things in life.

But when her husband, Leon, is brutally attacked in the driveway of their home, in front of their two young children, Jane has to face reality. As he lies in a coma, Jane must open her eyes to the problems in her life, and the secrets that have been kept from her, if she’s to find out who hurt her husband – and why.

Maybe it’s time to face up to it all. Who knows what you might find . . .

I didn't quite see that coming, after being transported on a fabulous journey, where I really wasn't sure who had injured Leon, or what the motivation was, the ending made a lot of sense and was rather quite satisfying. 

As a result of a brutal attack Leon's life hangs in the balance and it soon becomes apparent that Jane knows very little about her husband, or about things like her own finances as he looked after them. So when he is incapacitated she suddenly realises she needs to take control. 

I found Jane to be a rather likeable character, who was certainly believable, who is forced into an unthinkable situation.  She is an aspiring author and her husband is a published author, and one of the themes running through the book is one that all authors will relate to. 

That being said at some point it seemed like there was a degree of snobbery about any self published authors which did get my back up as I have read plenty of self published books that are incredibly enjoyable, yet when I had those thoughts it was clear that either the character or author isn't keen on it. 

There are all sorts of references to problems that authors have, or could have and it all seemed to ring true to what I know about the book industry. 

At times this is a book that pulls on your heartstrings, and then there was an incident that made me regret reading that part of the book in bed, as I knew I needed to sleep but my heart was racing and the book was just getting more addictive but it was 3am!! 

Whenever I wasn't reading this my mind was on the story, and I suspect it will infiltrate a few more nights sleep too. It was addictive, and I really felt for both Jane and Leon.  It was clear a lot of research had been done into portraying Leon realistically after the attack. 

A thoroughly enjoyable story which has reminded me how much I love Paula Daly's books. I really should purchase the couple I haven't read yet. 

Thank you to Transworld and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily. 

Please do check out the rest of the fabulous bloggers on this blog tour. 

Book Review - The Mistake I Made by Paula Daly

Amazon UK

Title: The Mistake I Made

Author: Paula Daly

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Random House Transworld

Publication Date: 27th August 2015

Rating: 4 Stars

We all think we know who we are.

What we’re capable of.

Roz is a single mother, a physiotherapist, a sister, a friend. She’s also desperate.

Her business has gone under, she’s crippled by debt and she’s just had to explain to her son why someone’s taken all their furniture away.

But now a stranger has made her an offer. For one night with her, he’ll pay enough to bring her back from the edge.

Roz has a choice to make.

The Mistake I Made shows how every little decision you make, even if you think its for the best at the time, is potentially the biggest mistake you will ever make. Especially when you are at the end of your tether and have very little hope left in the world, can you make the right decisions, or will you end up in the same situation as Roz?

Roz is a single mother, her ex husband left her with a large joint debt, her old private physio practice went under, and then she faces an eviction notice. She has no money, the baliffs come and empty the apartment, and obviously has no credit rating left at all. 

Financially she is in a huge hole, and then a relative stranger, a client, offers her a proposition that is too good to refuse. But what will that cost her in the long run?

Although I found the book interesting, it took until the last quarter for it to really get me to completely gripped, and "I'm not putting this down until I'm done" territory. The whole of the first three quarters of the book, alludes to mistakes, but continually feels like it is building to something, I wasn't sure what exactly as I was reading, but it was definitely building. 

And then as the story progresses you understand Roz's decisions a bit more, you can she is really trying to do the best in a bad situation, but just gets her thought process slightly muddled. 

The pacing the book was relatively sedate until the last bit, and I found the story very easy to read, even when it wasn't unputdownable, I still wanted to continually know what was going to happen next, and just what was being built up. 

The Mistake I Made has a different feel to it, to Paula Daly's previous book, in that this is not what I would call a pyschological thriller, or a thriller at all (body count is too low for that!), but a very impressive piece of fiction, that does draw you in and keeps you in suspense. 

I loved The Mistake I Made, and learning Roz's story. I am not sure that I, would have necessarily made the same decisions as Roz, but yet unless you find yourself in that situation, you never really know. 

Thanks to Netgalley and Bantam Press for this review copy. This was my honest review. 

The Mistake I Made is out tomorrow in ebook and hardcover. 

Book Review - Keep Your Friends Close by Paula Daly - Paperback Summer

Amazon UK

Title: Keep Your Friends Close

Author: Paula Daly

Format reviewed: Paperback

Source: Competition Win

Publisher: Corgi

Publication Date: 21st May 2015 

Rating: 5 Stars

Your best friend isn’t who you think she is.

You’ve been friends since university, when you became the people you are today.

You don’t see each other enough but when you do it’s as if you’ve never been apart.

She’s one of the family. You would trust her with your life, your children, your husband.

And when your daughter is rushed to hospital, you’re grateful that she’s stepping in at home, looking after things.

But your best friend isn’t who you think she is. You’re about to find out just how wrong you were.

What can you do when you discover your best friend isn't who you thought she was? What can you do when your best friend not only seduces your husband but also seemingly takes over your life, while making you appear paranoid in the mean time? Hopefully this will never happen to you, but it did happen to Natty. 

While Natty urgently goes to France, to help nurse her younger daughter in hospital, after she falls ill on a school trip, and tells her husband to stay at home to run the business, and look after their other daughter. Eve, Natty's best friend from university just happens to be visiting from the States and plays to all the weaknesses in the marriage when she offers to stay and help Sean. 

By the time Natty and Felicity return from France, Eve has got Sean wrapped around her finger, and both of their lives start to unravel.

There are a lot of twists and turns to this book, and I wasn't expecting any of them. Equally I was unable to put the book down for the entire second half at least, and read Keep Your Friends Close in next to no time at all. I was in so much shock by the end that the book fell from my hands, and my mum who was watching me at that point, asked me what the problem was - to which my only reply was - "I ran out of book, I want more pages"!

You get to see mainly Natty's point of view and you really do have to feel quite sorry for her, and also small amounts of Eve's perspective, as well as a detective's whose story is quite interesting too. All I can say is Eve is not what she seems, and I'm so glad she isn't my best friend. With friends like her, you definitely don't need enemies.

Keep Your Friends is compulsive reading, as you always want to know who will react next and how. 

This was the first book I have read by Paula Daly, but I know it won't be the last. 

My review of Paula's new book The Mistake I Made will be here a bit later today.