Saturday 21 March 2015

Now and That Night


Blurb:
Eighteen-year-old Toni and her boyfriend, Ryan, were wrongly convicted of the murder of her younger sister.

Seventeen years later, she's out on parole and back in her hometown, but she's struggling to adjust to a new life on the outside. Ryan is convinced he can uncover the truth; her mother still doesn't believe Toni's innocent; and the former high school girls who made Toni's life miserable may have darker secrets than anyone can imagine. Before Toni can move forward, she must take a terrifying step back to her past to find out the truth and clear her name, before it's too late.

Fast-paced, gripping and thought-provoking, That Night is a breathtaking thriller that you'll never forget.


Review:
Initially this book felt more like a Young Adult book than a Mystery & Thrillers book.   I think that this is because there was no maturity to the main character, who I took a bit of a disliking to.  Even after spending an amount of time in prison she still seems to act the same age as when she went in.  I did not really connect with her even when she was being bullied at any of the three locations which seemed a bit too much to be honest.  Having been bullied myself, in middle school, it does not stand to reason that you will be bullied in all stages of life like this character.  I understand that the author is trying to bring bullying into focus but these scenarios ring false.  I did like Ryan however.

To start with I found this book a tad confusing – constantly sliding from the present to the past and back again.  Then all of a sudden it a falls into place and finally the pace increased.  So much so that I was still reading when it became light and as I was over tired I had to put the book down to get some sleep.  Yet on waking with a headache through lack of sleep I immediately reached for the book again to see what happen.

The plot was so obvious and predictable that we all knew that the main culprit did the deed but not the surprising reveal!.  To find this out you will have to read the book.

However, there just seems to be too much padding.  The writing is not great but I said earlier this is probably a reflection of the youth of today; their stamina and education level as the sentence structure is poor in places.  That said there are some nice flourishes and some instances that make the reader sit up and pay more attention.

I have already said that I did not like the female lead and the other characters were also dislikeable (but that is what the author intended) though did she intend for her characters to be two dimensional with only a few nice elements.

This book is OK it is not great as there is just something missing but I can’t place my finger on what.  So this is an easy read, ideal for the beach where you want something entertaining but nothing that you need to think about.  So save if for then or a rainy day and when you do read it enjoy.

Full Disclosure: ARC received from Netgalley for an honest review.

I rated this 4 stars on Netgalley and 'I liked it' on Amazon (4 stars) and Goodreads (3 stars).

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