My Five Word TL:DR Review : A tale of two halves

This review is possibly going to be short.  For two reasons.  Firstly I enjoyed the first chapters of this book, I was totally intrigued, absorbed even, and literally couldn’t wait to dig back in.  But, when the reveals were delivered, I confess, I felt a smidgen disappointed.  Secondly, it’s going to be difficult to say too much about this one without giving away massive spoilers – which I really don’t want or intend to do.  So, instead, I’ll; give a very brief plot outline, finishing before the reveals, and more turn towards my feelings whilst reading.

I will say before I really tuck in that the writing is excellent, and although I might not have loved the reveals I was still hooked and needed to keep reading. Definitely an author that I would like to read again.

So, you’re on the cruise of a lifetime, surrounded by luxury and accompanied by your loving boyfriend.  You go to sleep at night and wake up to find yourself alone.  Not just alone in your cabin though – no, you search the liner and everyone has gone.  Cabin doors stand ajar but they’re all empty.  And yet the boat seems to be speeding out into the ocean – with no staff manning the rudders (so to speak).  What the heck!

Yeah, I was gripped.  I loved the start of this.  The central character comes across as slightly nervous due to her backstory which I won’t chat about here, but she’s also fairly resilient and doesn’t fall to pieces.  I was loving it, seriously.  I admit though, when certain other elements began to feed in, and when the eventual reveal takes place, I couldn’t help myself, I just deflated.  For me, it felt very much like ‘not this again’.  All I can say is that what is eventually revealed feels to me like something that is becoming a little overused.  i don’t really know what I was expecting, and clearly I can’t discuss that element further, but it just didn’t wow me.

All that being said, I couldn’t put the book down.  It’s a conundrum indeed.  And the stakes were indeed raised.  Which brings me to another element that grated a little bit.  For this type of story to really work you have to care about the character or characters fairly quickly.  And, to be honest, the author really does give quite a bit of backstory but, it felt repetitive and, and maybe this is just me, but I failed to form a connection which ultimately leaves all the high risk elements a bit flat.

Now, I’m not going to say too much more, I hate being anything less than positive and I would say that although I had reservations I still finished this book in a very timely fashion.  It is well told and it is gripping.

Ultimately, this is a difficult review to write because I am absolutely determined to give away nothing.  So, in a nutshell I suspect that most readers will like this one more than I did.  The actual premise just didn’t work for me personally but that doesn’t mean it won’t work for others and it’s certainly fast paced and punchy.

Although, on another aside – that ending was just too much.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 3 of 5 stars