REVIEW: Two Little Girls by Frances Vick (ARC)

Two Little Girls by Frances Vick

Genre: Thriller

Read: 10th April 2019

Goodreads

Purchase: Amazon

(release date: 17th April 2019)

★★ 2 stars

TWO LITTLE GIRLS by Frances Vick really had the potential to be a great book...but, for me, it simply failed to deliver. I wouldn't say I was enjoying it - more waiting for it to get better - till about halfway through when it it just went on a completely different tangent and simply lost the plot. I struggled with the second half with such an unbelievable ending. I was really disappointed because I had high expectations for this book, based on its synopsis. I didn't hate the book but I didn't love it either. I was just simply disappointed. It could have been so much better.

Beginning in 1985, Kirsty and Lisa are best friends and are inseparable. But with Lisa's penchant for exaggeration, her stories are so far-fetched - particularly the one where she was engaged to their lodger, Tokki, and was going away with him to become a princess - makes it difficult for Kirsty to know what is real and what isn't. She has learned to believe very little of what Lisa says but whenever she has tried to confront her about them it only leads to crying and temper tantrums. Then one day, Lisa admits that her and Tokki are not together, never have been, and that it was all in her head. Kirsty, frustrated at Lisa's constant and blatant lies, is hurt and confused and doesn't know what to believe any more. The girls have a row...and Kirsty walks off home, leaving Lisa by the canal.

Two days later, Lisa's mum rings Kirsty's in a panic. Has Kirsty seen Lisa? She never came home from school, disappearing without a trace. Kirsty is shocked, unable to believe it is really happening. Maybe it's one of Lisa's games and she expects Lisa will be at school the next day. But she isn't. Or the next. Then when Kirsty's name is linked with Lisa's disappearance, the police subject Kirsty to lengthy questioning, coercing her into giving the answers they want. After the constant badgering, Kirsty becomes confused with what she really remembers and agrees that she saw Tokki at the park where she left Lisa. When Tokki is arrested, not understanding English and without an interpreter, he confesses - belieiving he is confessing to an expired student visa, not murder.

Thirty years later, Kirsty has moved to London and is married to Lee. But the lies she told when questioned by the police haunt her - as does Lisa's disappearance. The fact that her body has never been found only compounds those memories with constant nightmares, with Kirsty unable to know what was real and what wasn't.

When Lisa's younger sister Vic (who was just a 3 year old at the time of Lisa's disappearance) falls pregnant and needs bedrest, she suddenly decides she needs her big sister to move in with her. "Just until the baby arrives" she tells Lee. Then after baby Milo is born, Vic presses Kirsty to stay to help her adjust. "Just until she adjusts" she tell Lee. But being so close to her hometown stirs up old memories again, and Kirsty decides to find out what really happened to Lisa all those years ago. She takes a flat and gets a job at a local hospital with the intention of Lee moving up from London when he has finished his jobs and they buy a house. But Lee is apprehensive, suddenly not as supportive as he always has been. Vic, on the other hand, decides she doesn't need Kirsty as much now with her mother and baby group and her new found interest in Angela Bright, the renowned psychic.

And this is where the story just goes downhill.

Becoming embroiled with two psychics - Angela and her elderly mother Sylvia - Kirsty soon discovers things aren't as they seem. Mother and daughter don't get along. Sylvia lives in an old ramshackle house in impoverished conditions. Angela is rich, making her wealth as TV psychic in the USA, home to settle her uncle's estate. But Kirsty is drawn to the kindly old Sylvia and sees a kind of mother figure in her. When Sylvia offers to read her cards, the results leave Kirsty questioning who she can trust. Who can she believe? Can she find out what really happened to Lisa? And can she trust her husband after discovering he has been hiding a secret?

TWO LITTLE GIRLS is not what I expected. Although Kirsty and Lisa were best friends I can't imagine why. Lisa was horrible, prone to exaggeration and a blatant liar. But to be fair, they were only 10 years old and at that age, they do have the propensity to be fanaticists and live in a world of make believe. But Lisa was also bossy and controlling, even at her young age, often going off in a huff or throwing a tantrum when Kirsty challenged her. I honestly didn't like Lisa as I could see so much of the bully in her that I was subjected to at that same age and into my teens.

Kirsty's sister Vic I much preferred when she was "baby Vicky". She seemed to be as demanding as Lisa was and incredibly shallow. The whole world just had to revolve around Vic and if it didn't, she moved on to where it did. Angela wasn't very likable whilst her mother Sylvia was. Lee started off supportive as Kirsty's strength and then seemed to become more secretive. why he just didn't tell her his "secret" in the beginning, I've no idea. And Kirsty? I couldn't make up my mind about her.

In the end, the book just seemed to drone on to a ridiculous ending. I was very disappointed as this had the potential to be a fantastic and intriguing thriller. I found I had to force myself to keep going - and if a book does that to me, it's not really worth the time.

However, having said that, this is my first book by Frances Vick and it won't stop me from trying another of her books...in the hope one of those would be better.

I would like to thank #FrancesVick, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TwoLittleGirls in exchange for an honest review.