Book Review - You Let Me In by Lucy Clarke

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Amazon UK

Title: You Let Me In

Author: Lucy Clarke

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: HarperCollins

Publication Date: 16th August 2018

Rating: 3 Stars

Nothing has felt right since Elle rented out her house . . .

I’M IN YOUR HOUSE

There’s a new coldness. A shift in the atmosphere. The prickling feeling that someone is watching her every move from the shadows.

I’M IN YOUR HEAD

Maybe it’s all in Elle’s mind? She’s a writer – her imagination, after all, is her strength. And yet every threat seems personal. As if someone has discovered the secrets that keep her awake at night.

AND NOW I KNOW YOUR SECRET

As fear and paranoia close in, Elle’s own home becomes a prison. Someone is unlocking her past – and she’s given them the key…

I'm attributing the past few nights disturbed sleep to my foolish decision to read this in bed and even more foolishly stopping at sections that were about to hook me in further, as had I done that then I would never have even attempted sleep and instead would have been reading all night. 

The book is rather unsettling and at times I wasn't really sure what was reality, what was past and what was another character, or if some of this was a book within a book as Elle is an author. 

This is the second psychological thriller I've read in a few weeks with books and authors at the forefront, and I just wish I had put more distance between them so I could distinguish the stories more clearly in my mind. 

That aside this is a book definitely got under my skin, I was eager to keep returning to reading to it.  I wasn't entirely sure who was causing the unease but the final reveal somehow didn't surprise me, although a few of the other twists did. 

The writing is rather evocative and I really did wonder if Elle was losing her mind at points  every occurence of something weird also had a potentially plausible explanation,  which added to the intrigue.  I was very curious throughout as to what Elle was hiding,  and the story is certainly a bit creepy.  

Unfortunately at the end of the day I have much preferred the authors previous books, and feel this just didn't hit the mark properly for me - but given I can be hit and miss with the genre, doesn't necessarily mean you will have the same reaction to it. 

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

Book Review - Last Seen by Lucy Clarke

Amazon UK

Title: Last Seen

Author: Lucy Clarke

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Harper

Publication Date: 29th June 2017

Rating: 5 Stars

Seven years ago, two boys went missing at sea – and only one was brought to shore. The Sandbank, a remote stretch of coast dotted with beach huts, was scarred forever.

Sarah’s son survived, but on the anniversary of the accident, he disappears without trace. As new secrets begin to surface, The Sandbank hums with tension and unanswered questions. Sarah’s search grows more desperate and she starts to mistrust everyone she knows – and she’s right to.

Someone saw everything on that fateful day seven years ago. And they’ll do anything to keep the truth buried.

Unputdownable and enthralling, I can't really ask for more than that from a book, and Last Seen offers that and even more. 

On the surface its a reasonably easy story to understand. Jacob and Marley were inseparable best friends. 7 years ago unfortunately Marley drowned on Jacob's birthday when they were 10 years old. Now on the night of his 17th birthday Jacob is last seen in The Sandbank area and no one knows what happened to him or where he is. 

The story is told from the points of view of Isla and Sarah. Sarah is Jacob's mother and Isla was Marleys. Between them we discover just what happened this summer, and also the hidden details of what happened 7 years before, as well as developments in between. 

I found it really hard to like Sarah as a character and I wasn't overly keen on Isla either, but as the book progressed the writing had be so absorbed, and I was very interested to see just what happened to Jacob that I was able to see past my dislike of them and just not stop thinking about the book. 

The timeline of the book is easy to follow, and the pacing was great. Although I didn't think too much happened in the first bit of the book, it was really laying the foundation for the rest of the story. 

There are so many secrets and half truths in the book, that every time you thought you knew what would happen, or had just about grasped the current theory, then something else occurred that had you thinking in a different direction. 

Originally I was slightly upset that Lucy Clarke hadn't featured another exotic location for this book's setting, like some of her previous ones, but that was forgotten just a few pages into the book, when the writing grasped me regardless and wouldn't let me go. Regardless The Sandbank was in fact an excellent setting for a book, being a sandbank that is only generally accessed by boat when the tides are right, and that it contains a row of beach huts, and not too much else. Which gave the book a really atmospheric setting, while still coming across as summery but in a slightly sinister way! 

Unfortunately I had no choice but to put Last Seen down a few times, but given half a choice I would have read this in one sitting. Even when I wasn't reading it my mind was on the book, as it really is compelling storytelling. 

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

Book Review - The Blue by Lucy Clarke - Winning Reads #1

Winning Reads

Welcome to my new feature, Winning Reads. As I enter a large amount of competitions for books, and have a reasonable degree of luck, over the past year or two, my paperback mountain has grown out of control mainly due to being a bit lucky, and then not remembering (or having the time) to pick the books up and read them. 

Now I have a blog, I feel that I should be continually reading the brand new shiny releases the whole time, but I do want to read all these other books, so while I have a stash of them, here is Winning Reads, my new weekly feature for Sundays.

Amazon UK

Title: The Blue

Author: Lucy Clarke

Format reviewed: Paperback

Source: Competition Win

Publisher: Harper

Publication Date: 30th July 2015

Rating: 5 Stars

They had found paradise. What would they do to keep it?

With a quick spin of the globe, Kitty and Lana escape their grey reality and journey to the Philippines.
There they discover The Blue – a beautiful yacht, with a wandering crew.

They spend day after languorous day exploring the pristine white beaches and swimming beneath the stars, and Lana drifts further away from the long-buried secrets of home.

But the tide turns when death creeps quietly on deck.

A dangerous swell of mistrust and lies threatens to bring the crew’s adventures to an end – but some won’t let paradise go…whatever the price.

This is the first book I have read by Lucy Clarke, in fact before this book, I don't think I was aware of her at all, but now I find myself wanting to instantly read her other books, to find out if they are as good as this one. 

I absolutely loved The Blue, I was gripped right from the first page, and was very regretful any time I had to put the book down, as things like real life got in the way. It is an utterly absorbing story, telling both what is happening to Lana in the present, and the story of what happened when she was sailing on The Blue. 

There are so many questions being asked, right from the first chapter and the prologue, and they are in your mind the whole way though as the story progresses. I felt I was right with Lana, by her side as she describes her time on The Blue, a yacht that has a paying crew, and their own life philosophies to live by. 

When Lana and Kitty join The Blue, its in The Philippines, which is where they travelled after Lana discovers something major she had believed all her life, had been a cover up. While in The Philippines they meet Denny who lives on board The Blue and through him meet the rest of the crew. 

They are then invited to join the crew of the yacht themselves, at which point they believe they have discovered paradise. However everyone seems to be hiding something, or running from something, and then what happened that made Lana leave. 

It turns out I am rubbish at predicting outcomes in these sorts of books, and I definitely didn't see some of the final revelations coming, let alone some of the earlier ones. At points in the story, my adrenalin was definitely pumping, and I just needed to keep turning pages. 

In the first few pages I was a bit unsure about the style of writing, and then I became so used to it, as the story starts hooking you in, I stopped noticing the specific style, and focused on a brilliant book instead. 

Generally I don't normally say, if you loved x, you will love y... but in this case because the comparison feels right, I will say if you loved The Lie by CL Taylor, you will love The Blue. Both are set in exotic, unusual locations, and both have a this holiday/trip went wrong feel to them, as well as both being excellent addictive books.