Suspense

Melanie is married with 3 children. Her first child, Liam, was the result of a one-night stand when she was in college, and until she met Ben, she raised him on her own. Now, Liam is getting ready to turn 18. Abi, Melanie's best friend in college, is getting a divorce, and has told Melanie she is coming to UK. Melanie invites her to stay with them. Sadly, Abi becomes more entrenched in their family, doing things that are inappropriate. Ben begs Melanie to ask Abi to leave, but Melanie feels that she can't. Abi reminds her of the life she gave up when she decided to leave school and have her child. However, she can't imagine what Abi would do to Melanie's family.
Twisty and interesting. ( )

Parts of the ending were disappointing to me. This was tied up a bit too perfectly.
Wild ride tho. ( )

As a long time fan of her writing, I haven't read an Adele Parks novel for a while but there was something so very 'inviting' (sorry!) about her new book, I Invited Her In. As soon as I picked it up, I remembered why I love Adele Parks books so much: the writing is so descriptive and the characters are so very 3 dimensional that it's like watching a soap opera created with wonderful words.

Mel and Abi were friends at university who lost touch when an unplanned pregnancy caused Mel to drop out of her studies. Many years later, Mel is surprised when Abi contacts her out of the blue and before she knows it she has invited Abi to stay at her house. Mel's house reminded me a bit of the TV show Outnumbered: always busy and a little frazzled with children at the heart of it. Just how will childless Abi fit in? Oh she fits in alright, she makes herself quite at home and I even exclaimed out loud at one point 'what a bitch!'

As Abi makes her intentions clear I was absolutely fuming! How dare she! I knew she had an ulterior motive but I didn't realise just how devious she was. As the cracks in Mel's family spread like a broken eggshell, I was firmly on Team Mel and hoped that blood proved to be thicker than water. With a bitch like Abi around though, anything could happen.

I loved the way that I Invited Her In put a friendship under the microscope. Mel considered Abi a friend at university but it's true that you never really know how the other person feels about you. So many people are fake and it seems like some of us are forever destined to get burned.

This is one of those books that I would place in my bitch-lit genre; Abi really grated on me and made me so mad whereas Mel was so trusting and honest. I'm even feeling mad just writing about it! As mad as I was, I couldn't read it fast enough so see if Abi's true colours would be revealed before it was too late. All in all, a very enjoyable read.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion. ( )

Melanie Field gets a surprising email from her oldest friend, Abigail Curtiz. It had been a lot of years, seventeen years in fact, but when Abi asks Mel for help, she simply cannot say no. When Mel finds out that Abi would like to stay with her for a few days, she is only glad to open her home. As a mother of three, and a husband, Mel is kept quite busy, but what else would you do for a friend?

Things certainly do not go as planned, as Mel soon finds out. At a girls' night, it is revealed that Abi is actually seeing someone - a much younger someone. This will ultimately affect Mel in a way that she never could have imagined.

What starts off as one thing quickly morphs into something far sinister in I Invited Her In. Abi finagles herself into a situation with such deceit that it literally rocks Mel to her very core. Mel and Abi were not on the same wave length back in college, and Mel had really hoped that their friendship could achieve a better balance. Unfortunately, as the story unfolds, that was never bound to happen.

Mel seemed at a loss, as well as her husband Ben, to control things around them. So, the story took a rather unpleasant turn. I kept on pushing through the pages because I just had to know how things would turn out. Needless to say, I was indeed a bit surprised. Oh, there were some things that I sorted out, but there were others that I did not.

I rather enjoyed this book by Adele Parks. Yes, as a mother, I watched the byplay closely, as who wouldn't briefly wonder what they might do in a similar situation. As a reader, I just had to see how the author would bring a resolution about. I kept at this book, pretty much in one sitting, because Ms. Parks had some fixing to do! I look forward to her next book.

Many thanks to Mira Books and to Edelweiss for this ARC to review in exchange for my honest opinion. ( )