Book Review: I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

In a split second, Jenna Gray's world descends into a nightmare. Her only hope of moving on is to walk away from everything she knows to start afresh. Desperate to escape, Jenna moves to a remote cottage on the Welsh coast, but she is haunted by her fears, her grief and her memories of a cruel November night that changed her life forever.

Slowly, Jenna begins to glimpse the potential for happiness in her future. But her past is about to catch up with her, and the consequences will be devastating . . .

My Thoughts:

This book has left my mind spinning!  Much like the last book I read, this one has a plot twist that you will absolutely not see coming!  At the end of part one, I had to reread the last paragraph just to make sure I was understanding it because everything I had been thinking I knew about the characters just flew out the window. 

The story starts out with a young mom walking her little boy home from school.  It is raining and she is laughing with her son and keeping a close hold on him until they are across the street from their house.  She lets him go and suddenly her whole life is changed.  A car comes out of nowhere and her child is struck down and killed and the driver of the car just drives away.

DI Ray Stevens takes on the hit and run case with his trainee, Kate.  Ray is dealing with his own issues at home that he would really just like to run away from.  This case gives him a reason to stay away from home and Kate is young and ambitious and reminds Ray why he is doing this job to begin with.

After the accident, Jenna ends up leaving Bristol and heading out to anyplace that will help her hide her memories.  She ends up at the coast in Wales.  She is happy starting fresh but soon her secrets will come out and she will have to deal with her past again.  

I cannot say much more about the plot in this book because I don't want to give anything away.  I loved all the characters but Jenna had some moments for me.  During her talks with Ray and Kate, I sometimes felt that she was weak and wanted to say "just tell them already" but I have never been in her position so I am not sure how I would have handled it either.  Jenna redeems herself at the end when she finds strength that seems to come out of nowhere.  

This book easily kept my attention and was a very fast paced read.  Once you get to the end of part one, the story seems to fly by and I really had a hard time putting the book down.  I figured out what happened towards the end but there were still enough twists that it kept me wanting to finish the book just to see if I was correct in my thinking.  

This is an excellent, fast paced and totally unpredictable psychological thriller.  Make sure  you pick this one up when it comes out and see if you can predict the ending.  

**A HUGE thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this book!**

  

Teaser Tuesday: I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Books And A Beat.



Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

The grief I feel is so physical it seems impossible that I am still living; that my heart continues to beat when it has been wrenched apart.  I want to fix an image of him in my head, but all I can see when I close my eyes is his body, still and lifeless in my arms.  I let him go, and I will never forgive myself for that.
~page 40 of I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh 

Book Review: Don't You Cry by Mary Kubica

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

In downtown Chicago, a young woman named Esther Vaughan disappears from her apartment without a trace. A haunting letter addressed to My Dearest is found among her possessions, leaving her friend and roommate Quinn Collins to wonder where Esther is and whether or not she's the person Quinn thought she knew.

Meanwhile, in a small Michigan harbor town an hour outside Chicago, a mysterious woman appears in the quiet coffee shop where eighteen-year-old Alex Gallo works as a dishwasher. He is immediately drawn to her charm and beauty, but what starts as an innocent crush quickly spirals into something far more dark and sinister than he ever expected.

As Quinn searches for answers about Esther, and Alex is drawn further under Pearl's spell, master of suspense Mary Kubica takes readers on a taut and twisted thrill ride that builds to a stunning conclusion and shows that no matter how fast and far we run, the past always catches up with us in the end.

My Thoughts:

I have read both of Kubica's other novels, The Good Girl and Pretty Baby.  I loved The Good Girl but I found the characters in Pretty Baby to be annoying and unrealistic.  I was very interested to see how I was going to like Don't You Cry.  I am pretty sure this book will remain on my top ten best books of 2016 list.  Don't You Cry was so filled with twists and turns and every single time I was sure that I knew what was going on, Kubica would throw in another twist and everything I thought I knew went out the window.  For  me, this book was very unpredictable, I had no idea what was going on until Kubica wanted me to know and it kept me intrigued through the entire story.

The story starts out with Quinn.  Quinn lives in Chicago with her roommate Esther.  Quinn wakes up after a night out to discover that Esther is missing.  Her bedroom window is open, her blankets are on the floor and Esther is gone.  Quinn is sure Esther will return and spends the day waiting for her.  When Esther doesn't return and Quinn finds some disturbing letters and other strange items in Esther's room, she finally starts to really worry.

Then we skip to Alex.  Alex lives in a small town in Michigan, about an hour from Chicago, and works at a local diner.  His mother left his father and him when Alex was  young and Alex's father is nothing but a drunk.  Alex has heard stories about the dilapidated old house across the street from him.  Stories that claim the house to be haunted by a 5 year old girl who drowned in a bathtub while her mother was busy attending to her younger sister.  Alex and his father see strange lights in the house and just figure it is squatters.  Then comes the day when "Pearl" enters the diner that Alex works at.  Pearl fascinates Alex and he takes a great interest in her.

This story is told in alternating views of Quinn and Alex.  You don't have any idea how the stories intertwine until the end (even though you think you might know....you don't).  Quinn works hard to find out what happened to Esther and in return she finds out some horrible things that make her believe Esther actually wants Quinn dead.  Alex gets to know Pearl and then finds that she holds some very dangerous secrets.

This book is fast paced, intriguing, and completely unpredictable.  It hooks you from the very first page and keeps you turning those pages late into the night.  If you want a psychological thriller that you can't put down, get this book when it comes out.  You won't be sorry!

**A huge thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book**

Teaser Tuesday: Don't You Cry by Mary Kubica

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Books And A Beat.


Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

 Anyone with half a mind would have immediately called the police or ran in the other direction, not trailed her.  But now here I am, hiding in the bushes of an all-but-abandoned cemetery while some wackadoodle unearths a corpse from the ground.

~page 264 of Don't You Cry by Mary Kubica

I am loving this book!  It is so creepy and twisted and completely unpredictable.  I wanted to finish it last week but had a crazy week so I will definitely finish it tonight and write up my review!