"Leah Mills lives a life of a fugitive – kept on the run by one terrible day from her past. It is a lonely life, without a social life or friends until – longing for a connection – she meets Julian. For the first time she dares to believe she can live a normal life.
Then, on the fourteenth anniversary of that day, she receives a card. Someone knows the truth about what happened. Someone who won’t stop until they’ve destroyed the life Leah has created.
But is Leah all she seems? Or does she deserve everything she gets?
Everyone has secrets. But some are deadly."
I had such high hopes for this book. I truly did. I'd heard nothing but wonderful things, but by the time I'd put down this book it just... fell flat for me. It didn't live up to the expectations of it that I had. While reading, I kept flip flopping between liking this book and hating this book, then liking this book again etc. So let's go into a little more depth, shall we?
Overall, Croft writes well. The story flowed well and at a moderate to fast pace, creating an easy to read novel that's written wonderfully. I finished this book in two days and that's only because I had uni during this time, otherwise I probably could have finished it in one sitting. Not because I was particularly riveted, but because everything flowed so beautifully. I'd definitely be interested in reading anything else Croft puts out, because I can clearly see she has wonderful ideas and premises in her mind and I look forward to seeing how she develops as an author.
The characters were written well, and the story is told from two different time perspectives: one in the past when Leah (our protagonist) was a high school student, and one in the present day when she is a fully grown adult living with the choices of her past in high school. This provided an interesting overlook into the development of Leah over the years, and we really get to see how her actions moulded her personality and her actions in her future life. I quite liked this.
Where this book fell short for me, though, was the plot. I knew who the "baddie" was as soon as they appeared in the book so it was literally like biding time until it revealed what I already knew. And then a twist came at the very end of the book that I'd already figured out for myself as well, so even the major twist came as no surprise to me. It just all felt so predictable, and so unrealistic in some places that I did actually laugh out loud, which is certainly not what you want to be doing when reading a psychological thriller.
So really, this author truly has potential and I'd love to read her other books, but the plot just fell short for me in this particular novel. 3 stars out of 5.
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