Almost Love

Almost Love by Louise O'Neill

Published by Riverrun

1st March 2018

When Sarah falls for Matthew, she falls hard.

So it doesn't matter that he's twenty years older. That he sees her only in secret. That, slowly but surely, she's sacrificing everything else in her life to be with him.

Sarah's friends are worried. Her father can't understand how she could allow herself to be used like this. And she's on the verge of losing her job.

But Sarah can't help it. She is addicted to being desired by Matthew.

And love is supposed to hurt.

Isn't it?

So this is the story of Sarah, her current love Oisin and her former lover Matthew.  The book weaves back and forth to the heady first days of meeting Matthew at the parent's evening where she is his son's art teacher, to the start of their in-clandestine relationship, it's demise and of her current situation with Oisin.  I don't know if anyone reading this could actually like Sarah, but maybe that is the point.  You want to slap or shake her into waking up, into seeing that her relationship isn't what she believes it to be, to take a look around and see the damage that it is doing not only to herself but to those around her too.  Only she doesn't and as a reader I could feel myself getting increasingly frustrated with her as the book progresses.

Matthew does not love Sarah, let's make that perfectly clear.  He wants sex and gets off on the thrill of meeting her in a hotel room for an hour or so to get his fill as it were.  Sarah spends her life looking down at her phone waiting for just a text from him whereby she will instantly drop everything and everyone in the process to be by his side.  Her friendships start to fall apart because of the choices that she is making and the only person who cannot see that damage that is being done is Sarah.

Fast forward to the present day and Sarah is in a loving relationship with Oisin, living in his parent's house.  His mother is a very successful artist and Sarah wants for nothing.  However, in this situation money doesn't buy you happiness and Sarah is constantly thinking back to her time with Matthew to the detriment of her relationship with Oisin, because no matter what he does or doesn't do, he isn't and never will treat her in the way that Matthew did.

This is an interesting take on the way that a relationship can take over your whole being and Louise O'Neill does just that in Almost Love though it doesn't necessarily make for pleasant reading at times.

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x

The Fear Blog Tour

The Fear by C. L. Taylor

Published by Avon

March 2018

After my review yesterday, I wanted to share an exclusive extract from The Fear to whet your appetite for reading this gripping thriller.  Currently, if you have a kindle, it's also only 99p at the moment, so what are you waiting for? 

If you fancy seeing who else has been on the final part of the blog tour, and who else is still to come, here is the list of us all:

And now for that extract....

How long does it take to get discharged from a hospital? When I was woken up just after six this morning to have my vitals taken, I asked the nurse whether I could leave, seeing as everything appeared to be normal. She told me no, I needed to be officially discharged by a doctor. It’s now lunchtime and there’s still no sign of a doctor. When I moaned to the nice lady who brought me a tiny portion of spaghetti bolognaise with a pile of overboiled carrots and a cup of tea, she shrugged and said, ‘You might be here for hours yet, darling. They’re all terribly overworked.’

Find out who is in hospital, and why by getting a copy of The Fear!

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x

The Fear

The Fear by C. L. Taylor

Published by Avon 

March 2018

Sometimes your first love won’t let you go…

When Lou Wandsworth ran away to France with her teacher Mike Hughes, she thought he was the love of her life. But Mike wasn’t what he seemed and he left her life in pieces.

Now 32, Lou discovers that he is involved with teenager Chloe Meadows. Determined to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself, she returns home to confront him for the damage he’s caused.

But Mike is a predator of the worst kind, and as Lou tries to bring him to justice, it’s clear that she could once again become his prey…

Lou Wandsworth is about to return to her family home  in Malvern after the death of her father.  It's a home she has actively avoided returning to since she left it with her mother following her dramatic escape to France with her married older lover Mike when she was only 13 years old.  Mike still lives in the area and Lou knows that at some point she needs to face up to him and let the past finally go.  However after tracking Mike down at work she discovers him kissing a teenager and knows that the past is repeating itself.  Lou knows what Mike is capable of, and will do anything she can to prevent the same thing happening to Chloe Meadows.

The story is told from the perspective of teenager Lou and of her experience with Mike when they were in France, and also from her now as a recovering adult.  We also see the story through the eyes of Chloe and of her feelings for Mike.  Involved in the story too are Lou's on/off boyfriend Ben and Chloe's parents who are friends with Mike.  We also meet Wendy, a 50-something woman who also lives in Malvern and has an unhealthy relationship with Lou.  She stalks her on facebook under a pseudonym and contacts her friends.  Wendy is very interested in Lou, but the two have never met, until Wendy arranges a meeting with Lou at her workplace.  

The story takes lots of twists and turns and yes, at times some of it may seem a little implausible but then it is fiction and sometimes you have to suspend disbelief and go with the flow of a narrative.  I thought that Cally Taylor told a good story here and she keeps you turning the pages right to the shock ending.

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x