Book Review - Her Last Breath by Tracy Buchanan

Amazon UK

Title: Her Last Breath

Author: Tracy Buchanan

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Avon

Publication Date: 12th June 2017

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Food writer Estelle Forster has the perfect life. And with her first book on the way, it’s about to get even better.

When Estelle hears about Poppy O’Farrell’s disappearance, she assumes the girl has simply run away. But Estelle’s world crumbles when she’s sent a photo of Poppy, along with a terrifying note: I’m watching you. I know everything about you.

Estelle has no idea who’s threatening her, or how she’s connected to the missing teen, but she thinks the answers lie in the coastal town she once called home, and the past she hoped was long behind her.

Estelle knows she must do everything to find Poppy. But how far will she go to hide the truth – that her
perfect life was the perfect lie?

Well this was certainly a book that kept me guessing throughout. There are two perspectives in this book, Estelle a food blogger who is launching a book, and then another person who pops up now and then that is written very cleverly.

For it is this mystery person that is clearly behind all the weird things occurring in Estelle’s life but for most of the book I was left wondering who they are, and just what they are trying to achieve.

Oddly I enjoyed reading about Estelle’s childhood, its gritty and very real, from a 7 year old until placed into foster care and then the main story features around one of her foster families while she was 15.

For during that year there were two main events that left their mark on young Estelle and shaped her into the woman she is now.  And it is these events that seem to have come to the surface and are the focus of the book.

I am sorry to say that I didn’t find this book anywhere near as gripping as I had hoped, although I did enjoy reading the story.  The characters on the whole I just found incredibly hard to like and for me that makes it harder to read. 

I was intrigued to find out what was happening, and there is a storyline that takes in landslides that definitely kept me reading. There is plenty of deception and mystery to this book to keep you guessing.

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

Book Review - No Turning Back by Tracy Buchanan - #20BooksofSummer

Amazon UK

Title: No Turning Back

Author: Tracy Buchanan

Format reviewed: Paperback

Source: Supplied by publisher

Publisher: Avon

Publication Date: 28th July 2016

Rating: 5 Stars

You’d kill to protect your child – wouldn’t you?

FROM THE #1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF My Sister’s Secret

When radio presenter Anna Graves and her baby are attacked on the beach by a crazed teenager, Anna reacts instinctively to protect her daughter.

But her life falls apart when the schoolboy dies from his injuries. The police believe Anna’s story, until the autopsy results reveal something more sinister.

A frenzied media attack sends Anna into a spiral of self-doubt. Her precarious mental state is further threatened when she receives a chilling message from someone claiming to be the ‘Ophelia Killer’, responsible for a series of murders twenty years ago.

Is Anna as innocent as she claims? And is murder forgivable, if committed to save your child’s life…?

I had no idea what to expect when No Turning Back dropped through my letterbox the other day, I had not read any of Tracy Buchanan's books but had heard good things about them...and then I started No Turning Back. 

This book has kept me enthralled from its eventful opening, to its gripping conclusion that left me open mouthed. I just didn't see it coming. As I was reading, quite a few times various theories popped into my head as to various aspects of the large mystery and every time I was wrong about them all, I just didn't expect the book to conclude how it did. 

And with all the drama that occurs during the story, as well as some very chilling sections, I started to have my own doubts about the main character Anna. 

Anna in a rash moment to protect her baby from harm, reacts and unintentionally kills a school boy, who had a knife. From that time on her life is thrown into turmoil, and I found myself wondering if I would do the same thing to protect a loved one. Early on in the story there are a lot of thought provoking moments, that really do get you thinking outside the book. 

As is often the case with these thrilling suspenseful books I am reluctant to say much else about the story, as its far better for you to read it without too many preconceptions, so you can enjoy it fresh like I did. I really had no idea what to expect from this fabulous author, with her brilliant descriptions, and compulsive storytelling, that left me unable to put the book down. 

This is a triumph of a story, and one I think that may stick with me for a while, and has made me eager to read more of the author's books, to see what I have been missing out on. 

Thanks to Avon for this review copy. This was my honest opinion.