
The Ex Who Came Back by Daniel Hurst
Genre: Psychological thriller, Domestic suspense
Read: 24th September 2025
Published: 24th September 2025
★★★ 3 stars
DESCRIPTION:
Your biggest mistake is your sister’s new boyfriend.
All the family are gathered to meet my sister’s new boyfriend, including my husband Seth, and it should be a happy occasion. But the moment I see him my stomach drops. It’s Mateo. My worst mistake. My biggest secret. I hoped I’d never see him again – why is he here now?
‘It’s nice to meet you,’ he says. As I look into Mateo’s cold green eyes, I know he’s playing a deadly game. My hands tremble. This man can’t be trusted. He’s pretending not to know me… and he knows I have to pretend, too.
I’m caught in a lie with no way out. Mateo is dangerous. I don’t want my sister to get hurt. But if I admit who Mateo really is – what really happened between us – I could lose everything. My gorgeous husband. My precious little boy.
Or even my life…
From number 1 bestselling author and the king of jaw-dropping twists, The Ex Who Came Back is a completely addictive and unputdownable psychological thriller that will have your heart hammering as you flip the pages until the final twist!
MY THOUGHTS:
Your biggest mistake is your sister's new boyfriend...
Five years ago, Corrine made a mistake. And she thought that mistake was long behind her. She was wrong.
Now Corrine is happily married to Seth with four year old Freddie and her sister invites them to a family dinner too introduce them all to her new boyfriend, who she must be serious about as she never "brings them home" so to speak. But nothing prepares her for who she sees seated next to her sister Georgia. It's him. Mateo. Her one mistake.
But it gets worse when Georgia announces that they are moving in together. Corrine feels sick and she does everything she can to dissuade her sister from making what she knows will be a serious mistake. Mateo is not here for Georgia; he's here for her. To pick up where they left off five years ago. And it only gets worse when Mateo gives her an ultimatum - tell Seth about their night together by the end of the week, or he will. In front of family and friends.
From there, Corrine just seems to dig herself in deeper and deeper. With one bad decision after another. Beginning with her decision to sleep with Mateo in the first place! She has such a good man in Seth, what on earth was the woman thinking? She was wallowing in self-pity is what she was doing. She seriously did not deserve him. And Mateo? He made my skin crawl from the beginning. I couldn't wait to escape his presence...or Corrine's either, for that matter.
But as unlikeable as the characters were, Hurst knows how to keep his readers engaged with his pacing and short snappy chapters. But I wouldn't call Mateo an ex; he was a one night stand. There is plenty of tension, I admit, though the story was predictable. The ending was a surprise.
I would like to thank #DanielHurst, #Netgalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheExWhoCameBack in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
He has been employed in several glamorous roles in his lifetime, including bartending, shelf stacking and procurement administration, all while based in some of the most exotic places on the planet, like Bolton, Preston and South London.
Daniel writes psychological thrillers and loves to tell tales about unusual things happening to normal people. He has written all his life, making the progression from handing scribbled stories to his parents as a boy to writing full length novels in his thirties. He lives in the North West of England and when he isn’t writing, he is usually watching a game of football in a pub where his wife can’t find him.
Since following his lifelong passion for writing in 2020, he has amassed a loyal and devoted set of readers, and regularly has several books in the top 100 of the Psychological Thriller Charts on Amazon. His title The Passenger became the #1 selling psychological thriller in the UK in October 2021. The Doctor's Wife is his first publication with Bookouture.
A prolific writer, Daniel likes to keep readers on their toes by self publishing even more books in between those released through his publisher.
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