Book Review - I Made a Mistake by Jane Corry

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Amazon UK

Title: I Made A Mistake

Author: Jane Corry

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Penguin

Publication Date: 22nd May 2020

Rating: 5 Stars

IT STARTED WITH A KISS

AND ENDED IN MURDER...

The darkly addictive new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of I Looked Away, Blood Sisters and My Husband's Wife.
In Poppy Page's mind, there are two types of women in this world: those who are faithful to their husbands, and those who are not. Until now, Poppy has never questioned which she was.

But when handsome, charming Matthew Gordon walks back into her life after almost two decades, that changes. Poppy makes a single mistake - and that mistake will be far more dangerous than she could imagine.

Someone is going to pay for it with their life . . .

Woah, I don't know Jane Corry keeps coming up with these fantabulous books, but I hope it never stops.  This one was brilliant, and it only took me a few chapters to become hooked. 

I think if this book was to have a message it's that all actions have consequences, far more reaching than you may first think. 

I mean Poppy knows pretty much instantly and cheating on her husband, with her first love when he reappears was in fact a mistake - but what isn't so apparent is just how huge an error of judgment that is, and the far reaching effects it can have on everyone she knows and loves. 

This is a very hard book to describe, as I would hate to give away any spoilers, but suffice to say it is a gripping story, told from three viewpoints - Poppy, her mother in law Betty and also snippets from a trial. 

Betty's story was without a doubt a highlight for me, from her time as a young girl, throughout her marriage and right up to the present day, what she had to go through, and put up with for the sake of family, is heart wrenching, but at the same time as she herself says, it was just the way things were in those days. 

Equally though I did really enjoy Poppy's story, I felt for her at times, at others wanted to know why she was making such bad decisions, while understanding her too. There is a whole lot of depth to this book and it was a pleasure to read each and every word, and to see just how things unfolded. 

You know from the prologue and blurb that someone dies, but just who, and why - well it's compulsive reading to find out. 

Thank you to Penguin and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily, 

Book Review - I Looked Away by Jane Corry - #HolidayReading Madeira

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Amazon UK

Title: I Looked Away

Author: Jane Corry

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Penguin

Publication Date: 21st June 2019

Rating: 5 Stars

Every Monday, 49-year-old Ellie looks after her grandson Josh. She loves him more than anyone else in the world. The only thing that can mar her happiness is her husband's affair. But he swears it's over now, and Ellie has decided to be thankful for what she's got.

Then one day, while she's looking after Josh, her husband gets a call from that woman. And just for a moment, Ellie takes her eyes off her grandson. What happens next will change her life forever.

Because Ellie is hiding something in her past.

And what looks like an accident could start to look like murder...

I was already incredibly hooked on this story and then the moment came where I actually gasped out loud, and couldn't work out how I hadn't seen it coming. 

Jane Corry writes such compelling characters that you just have read all about them.  

We are told in alternating chapters about Ellie and Jo's lives and there are assorted flashback sections, where we see key moments of Ellie's past, and also another characters past too... which I couldn't quite work out how it connected initially. 

I couldn't help but feel very sorry for Ellie, she really has had a hard life. 

But equally Jo is homeless and living a tough time now, although she does seem to have an impact on the people she comes across. 

This was a simply fascinating book, one which wouldn't let me know. There are sections that make for tough reading, but they are written in a compassionate way, and you can tell the author has done a lot of research to be able to make everything so real.

Another absolutely amazing story from the always brilliant Jane Corry.

Thank you to Penguin on Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily, 

Book Review - The Dead Ex by Jane Corry - #HolidayReading Book 11

Book 11 of 28 read on my holiday to Cyprus in June 2018.

The Amazon Purchase link below is an Amazon Affiliate link.

Amazon UK

Title: The Dead Ex

Author: Jane Corry

Format reviewed: Paperback

Source: Publisher supplied copy

Publisher: Penguin

Publication Date: 21st June 2018

Rating: 5 Stars

 HE CHEATED. HE LIED. HE DIED.

Vicki's husband David once promised to love her in sickness and in health. But after a brutal attack left her suffering with epilepsy, he ran away with his mistress.

So when Vicki gets a call one day to say that he's missing, her first thought is 'good riddance'. But then the police find evidence suggesting that David is dead. And they think Vicki had something to do with it.

What really happened on the night of David's disappearance?
And how can Vicki prove her innocence, when she's not even sure of it herself?

Had me hooked incredibly quickly and it was a real page turner for me. 

Initially the book alternates between Vicki who may or may not have something to do with her ex-husbands disappearance and Scarlett a scared 8 year old who we are learning all about her childhood and relationship with her mother. 

As the story progresses there are many shocks along the way, all that kept me gripped at the edge of my seat.

This story was completely unpredictable and I loved delving into the backgrounds of the various characters and trying to guess the truth of the situation. 

With every reveal you get more settled and then bam something else comes along to get you thinking slightly differently, or your sympathies were changing. 

What a wonderful book, Jane Corry keep on delivering immensely satisfying stories that are well written and keep you on your toes.

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

Book Review - Blood Sisters by Jane Corry - Blog Tour

Amazon UK

Title: Blood Sisters

Author: Jane Corry

Format reviewed: Paperback

Source: Publisher supplied copy

Publisher: Penguin 

Publication Date: 29th June 2017

Rating: 5 Stars

Two women. Two versions of the truth.

Kitty lives in a care home. She can't speak properly, and she has no memory of the accident that put her here. At least that's the story she's sticking to.

Art teacher Alison looks fine on the surface. But the surface is a lie. When a job in a prison comes up she decides to take it - this is her chance to finally make things right.

But someone is watching Kitty and Alison.
Someone who wants revenge for what happened that sunny morning in May. 
And only another life will do...

If only I could give this book more than 5 stars, its amazing! I am in shock and reeling at how the story panned out, and I didn't guess any of it. Was completely bamboozled with the twist and turns and I couldn't be happier about being fooled. 

Even from the first few pages I was hooked, I was finding both Kitty and Alison's stories incredibly interesting in the present day, before you even take into account their pasts and just what exactly happened that caused their current situations. 

It is clear a huge amount of research must have gone into the writing of this book. Kitty lives in a care home, and although her mind seems quite sharp and she has normal thoughts. However due to a brain injury everything comes out as a babble and she struggles to make herself understood. She also has no knowledge of why she is in the home in the first place. 

Then there is Alison who is an art teacher, and she can't resist taking a job in a mens open prison as an artist in residence. She is terrified but needs the money.

I was fascinated by the prison that Alison was working in, as well as just how Kitty was cared for and everything to do with Kitty's storyline.  In fact I was enjoying the early part of the book so much I was annoyed that I needed to watch a theatre show....which leads me to give you one piece of advice, read this book when you have a window of time uninterrupted. It will draw you in and just won't let you go.  

The book is so well written, there isn't a boring moment, everything has its reasons for being part of the story, and I loved seeing how things advanced. I can't express just how much I loved this book and just how skilled I think this author is.  Nothing I can say will do Blood Sisters justice, I would just recommend that if you like addictive, gripping stories that you take a close look at Blood Sisters. 

Thank you so much to Annie Lyons at Penguin for this copy of Blood Sisters, which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily. 

Don't forget to follow along with the rest of this blog tour for Blood Sisters

Guest Post - What Made Me Write A Thriller For The First Time? by Jane Corry - Blog Tour

Back in my early twenties, when I decided I wanted to write for a living, I never saw myself as an author of thrillers. In fact I thought I was too young to even attempt a novel. So I became a magazine journalist instead. I interviewed several celebrities including Julie Walters . And I also specialised in what we called 'Triumphs  over Tragedies'. These were stories about men, women and children who had beaten the odds by defeating illness or other problems.

I didn't know it then but looking back, I wonder if this laid the foundations for the dark streak which was building up inside. By the time my youngest child was three, I decided it was a 'now or never' time to write that novel. So I began by writing a romantic comedy called 'Amersham Wives' which was about a journalist who swapped places with a frantic mother! I got an agent but she couldn't find a publisher. However she kindly encouraged me to continue. Eventually I did get published but found that the dark streak I mentioned earlier, kept creeping in - even when I didn't want it to!

Then my marriage broke up and I found myself applying for the job of writer in residence at a high security male prison. It was there that I really found out what the dark side of life could be all about. I was dealing with men who had committed all kinds of high-profile crimes. Yet at the same time, many of them seemed perfectly pleasant. It was, to put it mildly, a real eye-opener.

It is almost impossible for a writer to be in a situation like that, and not tap into it. However another thing also happened during my time there. I got married to my second husband! This wonderful man also changed my writing because he took me into another world. That's when I began to realise that I wanted to write a thriller which centred around a young couple. One of them is a lawyer who works in prison. My intention was to test their relationship to the brink. What if one of them wasn't telling the truth about something? What if none of them were? Who can we really believe?

I've always loved watching dramas with twists. Now I get a thrill out of writing novels that send readers down one path but then take them down another. It's a much more complicated approach than any of my previous books. And it requires a great deal of planning and head scratching. But that's what I love doing.

I hope you will enjoy reading 'My Husband's Wife' as well as next year's book 'Blood Sisters'. Thank you for being part of my blog tour!

About Jane Corry

Jane Corry is a writer and journalist, and teaches creative writing all over the world. Recently she spent three years working as the writer-in-residence at a high-security prison for men. 


In her own words: 'I had always thought prisons were terrifying places for people who had done terrible things. But after my first marriage ended, I found myself working in one, and discovered a world I could not have imagined without actually being there. A world in which no one was quite who they seemed. A world that I found strangely addictive - so much so that it wormed its way into this book.'

Twitter | Amazon


Thank you so much Jane for that interesting look at your dark side. My Husband's Wife is a brilliant book, and you can see my review here

Book Review - My Husband's Wife by Jane Corry

Amazon UK

Title: My Husband's Wife

Author: Jane Corry

Format reviewed: Paperback

Source: Publisher supplied review copy

Publisher: Penguin

Publication Date: 26th May 2016

Rating: 5 Stars

What if your life was built on a lie?

When Lily marries Ed, she's determined to make a fresh start. To leave the secrets of the past behind.

But when she takes on her first-ever criminal defence case, she starts to find herself strangely drawn to her client. A man who's accused of murder. A man she will soon be willing to risk everything for.

But is he really innocent?

And who is she to judge?

My Husband's Wife is one of those books that had been shouting at me to read it for a short while before I decided to start it. Within minutes of starting the first couple pages, not only was I hooked, I also had yet again made that error of judgement of starting a psychological book right before bed. 

I have found over the past two days while reading it then any time I had to stop for real life to invade, my thoughts were staying with the book, imagining what could happen next, trying to work out who was guilty and who was innocent. 

The story is told in alternating viewpoints between Lily and Carla, and at the start its set 15 years ago where all of this really did begin. Lily is Ed's wife, and Carla is the little girl who lives next door to them, and becomes Ed's muse (he's an artist). You continually get hints that the marriage isn't very happy but yet not entirely sure why (although more is revealed as you progress into the book). 

Lily is a criminal defence lawyer, but the only case we hear about in any detail is her first one, defending a man convicted for murder, who is appealing his sentence. Carla on the other hand when we meet her is an unhappy 9 year old girl, who's mother is more interested in a married man than her daughter and Carla feels out of place at school. 

This brilliant novel tells the story of the two women as their lives continue to combine. In addition there is a lot to do with Aspergers syndrome with at least three characters having it. For someone without much knowledge of the condition, I felt a lot more knowledgeable after reading this book. 

I'm not really sure how to classify a book like My Husband's Wife, it doesn't read like a crime, it doesn't quite affect me like a psychological thriller, although I did have a sense of doom throughout the book, and its definitely addictive. I suspect the best definition for those that like that sort of thing would be a psychological family drama, as it definitely affected me psychologically, and there is a lot of family drama involved. 

I am actually struggling to believe this is the author's first attempt at this sort of book, as its so well written, and feels very accomplished. Often I have a very mixed opinion on a psychological book, but in this case, I thought it was brilliant and addictive. It's affected my sleep for two nights so far, and there are lots of twists and turns (they may not have made me gasp, but was very impressed by them regardless). 

With a timespan of 15 years, two incredibly intelligent women, some very dubious morals, one main man, and one that is always there in the background, My Husband's Wife worked it's way so far under my skin, that I'm amazed. 

Thank you to Annie Hollands at Penguin for this review copy. This was my honest opinion. 

Come back on the 11th May for a guest post by Jane Corry as part of the blog tour for My Husband's Wife.