Guilty by Ruby Speechley
Genre: Psychological thriller
Read: 17th June 2024
Published: 7th June 2024
★ 1 star
DESCRIPTION:
“You’re invited to my farewell party. I’ve got something to tell you before I die…”
Heather wants to leave this world with a clear conscience.
One confession. One secret. Two scores to settle.
Heather accepted the fate of her terminal diagnosis long ago, but now the time is nearing, she arranges a huge farewell party for her nearest and dearest.
She wants to say goodbye to everyone personally, but there’s another reason she wants the people in her life to gather.
She knows who killed young Simon Eyre all those years ago, and she needs to tell. The boy deserves justice.
But she doesn’t realise that by freeing her own inner demons, she’s unleashing much worse secrets, and putting everyone at risk…
MY THOUGHTS:
One secret...one confession...and she knows who it is...
Honestly, I feel a bit GUILTY about writing this review. This was a really hard book for me to get into. I found the main character and her terminal diagnosis of cancer just a little too depressing. And she felt the need to create these gatherings of loved ones, past and present, to make the sad announcement. It just felt a little too contrived and, well, depressing. And if it wasn't that, it was boring.
The characters are all a little irritating and with every turn of the page I was dreading something happening to the dogs she tended to when boarding in the kennels she ran. An author can kill of as many people as they like...but hands off the dogs!
I can't tell you if anything happened to them because I ended up skipping to the final pages where even more people died and seven months later, Heather is still alive and kicking when her announcement at the beginning of the book made it sound as if she was at death's door, about to be taken at any moment.
I wish I could have connected with this book more as I do love Ruby Speechley but a reading slump makes it difficult to enjoy many books and this one was just one of those that didn't cut it with me this time round.
I would like to thank #RubySpeechley, #BoldwoodBooks and #RachelsRandomResources for an ARC of #Guilty in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Ruby is a mum of three was born in Lisbon, Portugal at the time of the first earthquake there in 200 years! She has been a journalist and worked in PR.
Ruby’s debut novel Someone Else’s Baby, a chilling psychological thriller, follows a young woman, Charlotte who has always dreamed of becoming a surrogate. When she and her partner Steve, choose Malcolm and Brenda, a middle-aged couple who they find on a surrogacy forum to become the intended parents, Charlotte believes she is about to fulfil her dream of helping a loving couple finally become a family, only to find that her act of kindness comes with devastating consequences.
Ruby’s debut was published by Hera in ebook in July 2019, and following a fantastic digital run, was published in paperback in January 2020. She now publishes with Boldwood Books.
Ruby’s second novel, Every Little Secret, was published in April 2020. Her next novel, A Mother Like You, published in November 2020. Ruby’s fourth novel, The Face at the Window was published in July 2021! Her most recent book, Gone, was published in February 2023.
Ruby lives in Cheshire with her husband and two of her three children and two Springer spaniels. She has an older son and two grandsons.
Social media links:
No comments:
Post a Comment