Title: What She Saw
Author: Wendy Clarke
Publisher: Bookouture
[Synopsis]
She lied to her daughter to save her family.
Everyone knows Leona would do anything for her daughter Beth: she moved to Church Langdon to send Beth to the best school, worked hard to build a successful business to support them and found them the perfect little cottage to call home. Leona and Beth hike together, shop together, share their hopes and fears with one another. People say they’re more like best friends than mother and daughter.
It’s the relationship every mother dreams of.
But their closeness means that Beth struggles to make friends. Her mother has kept her sheltered from the world. She’s more reliant on her mother’s love. More vulnerable.
When Beth finds an envelope hidden under the floorboards of their home, the contents make her heart stop. Everything she thought she knew about her mother is a lie. And she realises there is no one she can turn to for help.
What if you’ve been protected from strangers your whole life, but the one person you can’t trust is the person closest to home?
[My Review]
Oh wow! I did not really know what to expect from this novel, but the synopsis really drew me in, and from the start to the end I found myself unable to put this book down. It’s brilliantly written and overall I’d say it’s pretty believable too, an advantage that I feel isn’t always the case with books that fall into this kind of genre.
The characters are likable and interesting, and I felt for Leona and her family – even Beth with her typical teenage moodswings! There were also some big surprises that took me completely by surprise, and that I LOVED. There were also some other elements that I was convinced I could see coming, but didn’t end up being what I thought they would be, and I was really pleased about that as it didn’t feel as predictable as I thought it would be.
Overall this is a truly addictive read, with twists along the way that are bound to keep you guessing, and I am really excited to see what Wendy Clarke comes out with next – can it top this brilliant read?
[Rating: 5/5]
Many thanks to Bookouture for providing a copy of this book on which I chose to write an honest and unbiased review.