The House on the Water's Edge by C.E. Rose
Genre: Psychological thriller, Suspense
Read: 30th July 2021
Published: 11th August 2021
★★ 2 stars
DESCRIPTION:
Sometimes the past is best left buried
Since the birth of baby Joe five weeks ago, Ali Baker has been struggling to cope. Starved of sleep and haunted by painful memories from the past, she’s a million miles away from the polished, professional barrister she has worked so hard to become.
Then her mother tragically and unexpectedly dies, leaving Ali an orphan. Haunted by her loss, Ali can’t forget her mother's last words to her: There is something I really need to tell you...
Heading back to the Norfolk Broads to sort her mother's things, Ali is plunged into memories of her family’s picture-perfect summers on the river.
But as she starts to uncover secrets hidden within the isolated house, Ali is drawn into a dark web that threatens to destroy everything she believed about her childhood – and her very sanity.
Ali may finally discover her mother's secrets... but at what cost?
A gripping, captivating psychological thriller, perfect for fans of Samantha Hayes and S.E. Lynes.
MY REVIEW:
Once again, I think I mist be in the minority with this book because it didn't resonate with me as it did others. Although I enjoyed it to be begin with, that soon changed when really...nothing changed in the story. Every character got on my nerves and I wanted to bash every single one of their heads together and shout "what the hell is wrong with you?" And as a result, I didn't much care what happened to them. I made it halfway through the book when I thought "you know what? I don't give a toss what secrets are buried anymore because it's taking too damn long to get there!"
In her previous life, Ali was a successful barrister facing off against some of the worst criminals first for the defence and now as a prosecutor. But that all changed when she gave birth to little Joe five weeks ago. Now she's a blubbering self conscious mess smelling of baby puke having not showered in how many days. She was looking forward to her mother's visit the following day when she called earlier in the week to say she was travelling up from Norfolk to where Ali lived with hubby Miles in Manchester. In desperation, Ali said to her mum "You're coming as a helper, not a guest?" as she felt she needed all the help she could get. This motherhood thing was nothing like she had imagined.
But that all changed when her sister Laura called from Canada to tell her that their mother was dead. Just like that. "Ali? Mum's dead." Apparently, her mother's friends called Laura to let her know....but why they didn't call Ali (who is actually in the country) was beyond me. Now, after going through the life-changing disruption of motherhood with which she was struggling and now her mother, her best friend, was dead. All the more reason to sit in a daze unshowered and unchanged in a dirty messy house all day, I should think. Of course, hubby Miles didn't agree. In fact, he appeared to be distant and cold to her needs and was blind to her struggling. He knew she was finding things difficult and his answer was to present his interfering mother Madeleine as a solution.
Before her mother's tragic death, she had wanted to tell Ali something but Ali had cut her off and told her to hold it till the weekend when she would be arriving. And in the ensuing days, she called a number of times but Ali rejected each of them. Why I've no idea. If my mother was calling me, I'd answer. Now, she has no idea what it was that her mother wanted so desperately to tell her. But it's when she's at the wake that she overhears her aunts whispering about some secret alluding to her father who died twenty five years ago and her mother's subsequent move from Sheffield to Norfolk.
But it was her mother-in-law Madeleine's interference that lit a fire under Ali to get her moving after overhearing a telephone conversation in which Madeleine alluded to just how badly Ali was coping and hinting at a sanatorium in which to install her while she, Madeleine, whisked Joe away to her Cheshire home to care for him. Ali was livid and could hardly hide her anger as she thanked Madeleine and ushered her out the door. Then as soon as Miles had left for his big trial in London, Ali loaded their bags and Joe into carseat and made the five hour long journey to Norfolk to their old holiday house in which their mother had lived for the past seventeen years.
Finally! Finally I thought it was going to get interesting and finally Ali was going to start uncovering secrets long buried about her family and all that. But no. Upon arrival, Ali continued in her neurotic state seeing shadows and hearing noises. Walks to the shops or the river or where ever else. Nothing was bloody happening!
Talk about slow moving! The whole story was almost stagnant. And Ali annoyed me no end. She kept on about her episiotomy and peeing and all that that I began to wonder at her ability as a successful barrister. Then there was her constant griping about breastfeeding and yet she kept doing it and she kept letting us know she was doing it. She didn't even appear to be all that enamoured with Joe and I'm not overly maternal myself but really, she seemed rather detached from everything. I know she had just had a baby, which is life-changing, and was in the midst of grief over her mum's death...but she barely cried. She barely did anything. I thought once she got to Norfolk, things would start to get interesting as she delved into her mother's things and uncovered the secrets to which the premise has alluded. But no...by the halfway point she still hadn't done any digging or delving. Just more moaning and self deprecation.
By this point I was...I don't care anymore. Ali was annoying. Laura was self-obsessed. Miles was distant and uncaring. Madeleine was an interfering bitch. Tom and Joan weren't in it long enough by the time I tossed it for me to form an opinion. I saw no twists, no suspense but there was plenty of tension...between the characters not the pages. I get Ali was still recovering from the birth and was probably suffering from post natal depression but I just found everyone around her so irritating that it made her character doubly annoying as well. And Laura had the most irritating habit of referring to baby Joe as "Thingy". Who calls a baby Thingy?
I don't know when the pace picked up because I gave it a good go till halfway afterwhich I ditched it. Life is too short and there are too many other books to be reading a book you are not enjoying.
If you want to give it a go and make it past the halfway point and see where it leads you, be my guest. You just might enjoy it. I, however, didn't because I never made it that far.
I would like to thank #CERose, #Netgalley and #HeraBooks for an ARC of #TheHouseOnTheWatersEdge in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
The House of Hidden Secrets is the first title written under her pseudonym, CE Rose with The House on the Water's Edge the second, published on 11th August 2021.
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