Amanda Reynolds

Amanda Reynolds wrote “The Assistant” a crime fiction that kept me guessing. I hung onto every word like I was listening to juicy gossip from a friend. The twists in the end were a surprise.

This is a modern-day story. The setting is at the ritzy home of Ris and Miles Fox who live at 56 Lexington Gardens, Belgravia, London, England. A soap opera life of the rich and famous.

Amanda wrote the story in colloquial style as her character Ax, a true crime writer, was interviewing Gail. Gail knew Ax was a writer, so she set next to Ax on the train on purpose. Ax thought she and Gail met my coincidence. All of Gail’s ramblings ended up being a significant testimony as to what happened. Gail wanted to tell her side of the story, a sort of confession, to someone who would listen and not judge her. At first Ax didn’t take Gail seriously. She thought Gail was a bit eccentric but kept listening.

Gail explains how she landed a job as Ris’ assistant. A job she made up and Ris fell for. She manipulated her way into Ris’ life. Gail lived in the basement of the Fox’s home watching every move Ris made. Gail did her homework about Ris’ life before they met.

Gail was working for Ris under an assumed name. She suspected Ris was lying about her life and Gail wanted to protect Ris’ husband, Miles. Gail gained Ris’ trust. Gail almost lost her job after she pulled some antics when Ris went to Paris for the weekend that were quite hilarious, like sleeping in her bed and drinking her champagne, that Ris had no sense of humor about. Ris came home a day early and caught Gail. After making amends Gail worked hard to help Ris launch her book.

Ris took in a 19-year-old pregnant girl named Mia because Ris wanted Mia’s baby. Ris’ plan was to have Miles payoff Mia. Ris’ plans to take Mia’s baby backfired and Gail’s plans to protect Miles backfired. Ris wanted to have a baby and would go to any length to have one. Ris was her own worst enemy who was also leading a double life.

Gail and Ris had their own greedy reasons for wanting Miles. It was Gail’s plan to “topple” Ris. I thought Gail was after Ris, but it turns out she was after something else. Gail was obsessed with Miles. Ris was obsessed about having a baby.

The twists in Gails accounting of what happened in the house shocked me. I had to rethink the timeline. There was more than one twist in the conclusion.

I was rooting for Gail and Miles all the way up to the end.

The strong points are Ax’s ability to hang in there with Gail’s account of what happened, the writer’s ability to keep feeding the reader with enough information with each interview to compel the reader to keep reading.

There are a couple of violence scenes.… (plus d'informations)

Slow and Steady wins the race...............

This phrase is definitely created for this book, The Assistant by Amanda Reynolds. The plot is too slow right from the beginning, but do not lose patience. The real drama starts at the third half of the book. Full of thrills, the twists are going to drop like a bomb. From the beginning the plot is going to be mainly between two characters, Ris and Gail. I was totally confused and flipping through the pages for some thrill. And after I reached halfway, my patience was rewarded when a new character Mia enters. It was absolutely a mind blowing thriller.

Definitely, 5 stars for the book. Thanks to Netgalley and Rachel's Random Resources for providing me with an opportunity to be a part of the blog tour.… (plus d'informations)

I love a good hook at the start of a book and The Hidden Wife certainly has that. Not only is the first page labelled 'Thirty-Three Hours Missing' but the opening paragraph left me breathless and thirsty for more.

Max Blake's beautiful wife, Julia, has gone missing but that's not the tastiest part of the worm wriggling on the hook. Max is dishevelled and desperate as he paces his designer kitchen talking to DS Katie Ingles, but he is also lying. See what I mean about a great hook? Just what does he have to hide? Would a man with something to hide invite a reporter to interview him? It felt very cool and calculating of Max to request junior reporter, Seren, whose brother also went missing without trace, to interview him for an exclusive piece in The Herald. Add to the mix that Seren's boss, Theo, was at Max's house the night Julia went missing and we have all the ingredients for a very tasty story. There are so many facets to this story that I had all sorts of crazy ideas floating around my head. None of them were right, of course and I was completely fooled by Amanda Reynolds' dark and twisty imagination.

It's a very character driven storyline and although I was slightly disappointed that I felt rather ambivalent towards them, I do think that the characters are portrayed very well; from Max's almost bipolar moods to Seren's naivety and desperation to do a good job in the cutthroat world of journalism. Not forgetting Max's strange and creepy PA, Miriam who always seemed to be hovering in the background keeping her ever-watchful eyes on Seren. As Seren spends more time at Brooke House, I worried for her safety and that part of the story reminded me of Stephen King's Misery. Just like Misery, I think The Hidden Wife would transfer beautifully to the screen as Amanda Reynolds' words create their very own suspenseful soundtrack.

Ominous and suspenseful, there's so much going on in The Hidden Wife that it kept me guessing from start to finish, with much changing of my mind in between. The only time I admit to being wrong is when I'm reading a book but The Hidden Wife is so cleverly plotted that I don't feel ashamed to say that I would never have guessed the full story of Julia Blake's disappearance, making it an enjoyable, suspenseful and surprisingly twisty read.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.… (plus d'informations)

This is Amanda Reynolds’ second book, and the second of hers that I have read.

Following her mother’s death, 26-year-old Jess Tidy has to return to the village she grew up in, a place she hasn’t been to for 10 years, ever since her accusations resulted in her mentor, teacher Mark Winter, serving 3 years in prison. This visit to her childhood home re-opens old wounds that have never properly healed, and finally the truth of what really happened 10 years ago is revealed.

The main timeline covers the 10-day period between Jess being told of her mother’s death and the funeral, with the narrative switching between two characters, Jess herself, and Karen Winter, Mark’s wife. Within her narrative, Karen (and therefore we) learn more about her husband’s side of the story through her illicit reading of his draft book on the events 10 years ago, while we find out more about Jess’s view through extracts of transcriptions of her fortnightly sessions with her supervisor – these sessions being a requirement Jess has to fulfil as part of her role as a new counsellor.

Telling a story through so many threads can be a risky strategy, but for the most part, it pays off, Reynolds’ structure keeping the story moving forwards, the transcripts and book extracts fitting in at the right time.
One of the main issues I had with Reynolds’ first book, Close To You, was that the central character didn’t come across, to me, as a likeable character, so I struggled to care whether she fell or was pushed down the stairs. I now find myself wondering if that was deliberate. I can’t say too much without giving a massive spoiler, all I can say is that I felt myself really warming to one of the main characters, but not the other, but my opinion of one of the characters was completely turned on its head by revelations later in the book. Reynolds has manipulated me! Be careful, dear reader – Reynolds may be Lying To You!

Lying to You kept me hooked; although I love reading, my time can be scarce so I usually aim to read a book every two weeks – I finished Lying to You in three days. I wanted to know what happened, I wanted to know the truth, I wanted the lies to be uncovered.

I did, however, become slightly disappointed towards the end. Reynolds suddenly switches to new voices in the last few pages. For me, this jars – I’ve accustomed to Jess and Karen, and at the last minute, two new narrators appear – Freya, Karen’s daughter, and Jess’s supervisor (who never actually earns themselves a name), and whilst they have been in the book as characters throughout, to suddenly have them as a narrator grates on me. I see why they have been used – as vehicles for crucial elements of the plotline – but it feels shabby compared to the rest of the book. Neither is given a voice distinctive enough in its own right. Much of Freya’s narration feels unnecessary – only a small part, perhaps dealt with through Karen’s narration, is crucial to the story, the rest padding to stretch Freya’s chapter to a length similar to other chapters. The supervisor’s story, on the other hand, is highly significant, but could perhaps have been dealt with in the form of a report, as all their other appearances had been.

That aside, Lying to You remains well worth reading.

Thanks to NetGalley and Headline for letting me have an ARC copy of Lying To You in exchange for an honest review.… (plus d'informations)