Emily is a single mum to teenager Sofia. They have the usual battles over social media and unsuitable friendships but these have an added overtone due to their past…
The Nursery is a psychological thriller and domestic drama.
Emily’s natural motherly concern for her daughter borders on paranoia. I think every parent will identify with the fears about allowing teens an increased independence. These feelings are intensified for Emily as she constantly worries about her ex discovering their location. The modern issue of online identity is covered by the plot.
There are plenty of hints about their past and why Emily is worried about their safety. I did find the first third of the book a little slow and the clues were quite repetitive. There are tense moments which show Emily’s constant vigilance and the state of panic she lives in.
I did start to wonder why the book has been given this title as Sofia is a teenager, however all becomes clear later as the plot develops. The book is written from Emily’s first person perspective so that we are fully attuned to her emotions and thought processes. Get ready for some big twists in the second half of the book…!
The Nursery is a slow burning psychological thriller.
The Nursery book description:
Then: Morning light shines into the nursery, casting shadows across the pale pink walls and wooden cot in the middle of the room. She opens the door expecting to hear the soft coo of her daughter Sofia stretching herself awake. But the room is silent. The cot is empty. Her little girl has vanished…
Now: Twelve years have passed, but Emily will never forget the night her life changed forever and she’s happy to have her daughter back beside her. A teenager now, Sofia – who was once a star student – is getting into trouble at school and she’s started asking questions about when she was a baby, but Emily can’t tell her what really happened the night she went missing. Nobody would understand why Emily did what she did, and if anyone ever found out, she could lose her daughter forever.
But when Emily catches Sofia messaging a stranger online, her heart pounds in her chest as she reads the last message received.
Your mother isn’t who you think she is.
Days later, Emily returns home to find the house silent. She checks every room but Sofia has vanished, again. She shudders as she remembers that night in the nursery. Has her past finally caught up with her? And is she already too late to save her precious daughter?
A completely gripping, utterly twisted thriller that will leave your jaw on the floor. Perfect for fans of Gone Girl, The Wife Between Us and The Woman in the Window.
Author Bio:
Sue Watson was a journalist on national magazines and newspapers before becoming a TV producer with the BBC.
Now a USA Today bestselling author, Sue explores the darker side of life, writing psychological thrillers with big twists.
Originally from Manchester, she now lives with her family in leafy Worcestershire where much of her day is spent writing – and procrastinating. Her hobby is eating cake while watching diet and exercise programmes from the sofa, a skill she’s perfected after many years of practice.
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TRIGGER WARNING: cancer and euthanasia
Meghan’s life is turned upside down when her husband is diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. He refuses treatment and is desperate for her to help him die with dignity. She can’t bear to help him but he dies and she is accused of murder so she grabs their son and goes on the run…
The Missing Widow is a psychological thriller set in America.
Meghan is devastated by her husband’s illness but cannot fulfil his last wish to end his suffering, Yet she still finds herself accused of murder and runs away to go into hiding with their son Ashton. She settles into her new life but never manages to fully relax. A year later her situation is as tense as ever and she wants to prove her innocence while also finding the truth.
I was absolutely gripped by this book. Meghan is put into a terrible situation and her in laws were the most dreadful people. I was so cross with her husband for not standing up to his parents but his cancer battle is heartbreaking. The dilemma she faces on whether to help him die is a huge emotional load and very thought provoking.
Meghan needs to battle to find the truth whilst also staying safely incognito. The plot is delivered at a swift pace and I devoured the pages in a single afternoon. The tension is maintained right to the end.
The Missing Widow is an emotional and gripping psychological thriller.
MEDIA PACK
The Missing Widow: A heart-pounding psychological thriller packed with nail-biting twists by L.G. Davis
I thought we would be safe here. But I was wrong.
My son Clark and I live in a beautiful cabin outside a rural town, somewhere nobody will find us. I could not have found a more perfect place to start over, shielded by the trees and far away from prying eyes. But when I find a newspaper clipping on my porch, it drives fear into my bones. Widow wanted for murder screams the headline. And that’s my face in the picture, circled with red marker. I look out into the forest, but I can’t see anyone. How did they find me? And what do they want?
I don’t know where to run next, or how to make sure my son is safe. And deep down I know the only way I can finally be free is to find out what really happened that night a year ago, when my dear husband
Brett died.
I’m sure I didn’t kill him… did I? But that night is a blur, and as I try to prove my innocence, the dark secrets I uncover force me to question everything I believed.
The people I trusted most are not who I thought they were. And the person who is coming for me is very close to home…
An utterly heart-pounding and twisty psychological thriller that will keep you up all night. Perfect for fans of Gone Girl, Behind Closed Doors and The Girl on the Train.
Previously published under the title The Widow’s Cabin.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Liz’s story began in a refugee camp in Angola, where she spent the first eight years of her life. After that, she spent some years in Namibia (her home country), South Africa, and Germany. She now lives in Vienna, Austria, with her husband and two children. Liz wrote her first full-length novel at eighteen and hid it in a box under her bed. Several others soon followed it. Her passion lies in writing edge-of-the-seat psychological thrillers that give readers the same rush they would get on a rollercoaster.
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Anna, an elderly woman in her nineties, grabs her suitcase and leaves her home to escape. But what is she running from…?
The Woman Outside The Walls is a historical novel set at various times in Germany during the Second World War, and also the present day in England.
Anna is a troubled woman in both the past and present. We first meet her in 2016 as she prepares to leaves all she loves, and then in 1945 as she returns to Hamburg to search for her parents. There are plenty of implications of the things that she has seen and possibly done. This adds a sinister dimension while we wait for the truth to be revealed.
The emotion in this book is evident from the start. Anna is haunted by the past but also fears the future. This is also true of her character in 1945 as she reflects on her own actions while searching for how to move forward.
I felt emotionally invested in all parts of Anna’s timeline. Her fear in the present mixed with her developing mental confusion was quite heartbreaking. It was interesting to read about the devastation she witnesses at the end of the war. The historical detail was well researched and carefully balanced against Anna’s personal experiences.
The Woman Outside The Walls is an emotional multiple timeline novel that had me hooked from start to finish.
Book Description:
I always knew it would come out one day. They are finding everyone who has stayed hidden. They would have come to me in the end.
Hamburg, 1942 Seventeen-year-old Anna knows she can never tell her proud parents the truth about where she is going. She must hide the fact that she is pregnant, that the father of her unborn child is dead and that she is on her way to a special maternity home, where her baby will be given to a perfect family. She tells herself that this is the best solution. Anna doesn’t expect to feel the rush of love for her beautiful baby boy in the white blanket, or the devastation when he is snatched from her, never to be seen again.
Desperate to forget her grief, she sees an advert for a secretary in a prison, far away in the east. Days later, she leaves Hamburg, travelling eastwards by train, feeling as if a whole new life is about to begin. It is the biggest mistake she will ever make.
London, 2016 Ninety-year-old Anna sits on the edge of her bed, hands trembling, eyes brimming with tears, as she looks at the picture of the soldier in the newspaper. Her friends and neighbours know her as a kindly old lady who bakes cakes and always has time to listen to their troubles. They don’t know about the hated green uniform she burned, the memories of the prisoners she tried to help and the bombed and blackened city she once called home. But now the time for a reckoning has come, will revealing the truth free Anna or destroy her?
A gripping read that will break your heart and have you hooked, perfect for fans of The Alice Network, The Nightingale and My Name is Eva. The Woman Outside the Walls will take you on an emotional journey and show you that in war, even when you are on the wrong side, you can still do the right thing…
Author Bio:
Following an eventful career as a public relations consultant, specialising in business and travel, Suzanne Goldring turned to writing the kind of novels she likes to read, about the extraordinary lives of ordinary people. Whether she is working in her thatched cottage in Hampshire or her seaside home in North Cornwall, Suzanne finds inspiration in the secrets hidden by everyday life.
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Anna and Will’s relationship ended years ago and they both moved on with their lives. Now he is going through a divorce and she is unhappily married. A chance meeting between the pair makes them both reconsider their own happiness and future…
The Girl I Used To Be is an emotional and uplifitng novel about making the most of life’s opportunities.
I became totally absorbed in this novel and the lives of Anna and Will. Most of the book is told from their perspectives in the present day but there are also flashbacks to their relationship through the years: the hope and missed opportunities for happiness. My emotions were torn to shreds!
The main pair have been kept apart by circumstances out of their control. However I did feel that Will’s immaturity in pushing her away was perhaps a sign that he wasn’t as invested in their initial relationship. In the present day, Anna’s husband is so selfish and thoughtless whilst Will’s ex wife is just awful. This made me want Anna and Will to find fulfilment and the happiness they (and each one of us!) deserve.
The Girl I Used To Be is a warm and enjoyable novel with an important message about keeping our hopes and dreams alive.
The Girl I Used To Be book description
Marie Kondo for the soul.
Anna and Will have been passing in and out of each other’s lives since they were just kids.
Now 20 years later, Anna is married – she has a lovely house, a step daughter in university and a husband with a good job.
What she doesn’t have is joy. When she runs into Will it sparks something in her, a longing for the Anna she used to be.
Together they embark on a journey to find what brings them joy, to discard what doesn’t and to become the people they always wanted to be.
But in finding themselves, can they also find each other?
Author Bio –
Debbie Howells’s first novel, a psychological thriller, The Bones of You, was a Sunday Times bestseller for Macmillan. Four more bestsellers followed, including most recently The Vow, published by Avon. Fulfilling her dream of writing women’s fiction, she has found a home with Boldwood and her first title with them, The Life You Left Behind was published in February 2022.
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