Through the course of the book, it is implied heavily that Emma is struggling to come to terms with her mum’s untimely death, as she frequently spends time speaking to her and envisioning what she looks like and what she would’ve said in different situations. This lead me to believe that option 1 was the route the book would take, as situations arise that makes you question Emma or whether she’s being set up by a suspicious new friend. Arla arrives at nursery without food frequently, a knife ends up in Arla’s playhouse that results in her getting a cut, but Emma has no memory of forgetting or placing those things were they were. This lead me to believe that option one was the ending. Bring in JB to drive Emma insane and make her seem she’s having a mental breakdown and Sophie can plant things to make Emma look like an unfit mother.

JB’s denial of ever knowing Emma, sends her into a spiral of questioning why he is here and what are his intentions, with her admitting that her daughter is the result of her affair with Johnnie and therefore, Arla is not Mike’s child. 

I have slightly mixed feelings on this book and the way it ended (nothing new). I felt that, despite the book only being 396 pages, I was making little progress progressing through the storyline. When reading, I just felt like I wasn’t getting closer to the build up/end. I wasn’t tempted to DNFing , but I thought the pace of the book was extremely slow and focused too much on unnecessary build up. It had too much of everyday life, where nothing interesting happened. I would say I was around 80% into the book before any mystery or suspense started to built. Before that, we are just with Emma’s suspicions but no investigation into Emma’s concerns. Personally, I would’ve liked to have seen Emma investigate her suspicions a bit more, rather than her just questioning it. I didn’t dread reading this book, I just wasn’t eager to get to the ending because of the slow pace. 

I questioned Sophie’s character throughout the book and her intentions towards developing a friendship with Emma. Sophie presented as a pick me girl, who would constantly ‘accidentally’ spill secrets and information that would hurt Emma. For example, Sophie and Mike sleeping together before his relationship with Emma that she was unaware of, Mike’s negative opinion on Emma’s mother and even planting ideas that Mike was responsible for Emma’s mum’s and Sophie’s dad’s deaths. Additionally, Sophie consistently planted ideas in Emma’s head that JB was abusing her, so that Emma would tell Mike, which Sophie said that Mike couldn’t know as she didn’t want her husband dead. 

The climax saw Mike, Emma, Sophie, JB and Arla on a nighttime boating trip, where Sophie 'accidentally' revealed that Mike wasn't Arla's dad. Sophie became crazy and suddenly pulled out the knife that was found in Arla's playhouse and accidentally stabbed Mike. She later stated it was supposed to be JB that was stabbed. I was confused because surely if she wanted to be with Mike, she would've wanted Emma dead, but then again, it makes sense to kill JB and frame it on Emma with her delusions.

I do wish the ending had a different result, where we saw Emma's innocence proven and Sophie being sent to prison for being batshit crazy. I wish we had an explanation as to why JB took Sophie's side, despite him admitting he knew Emma and his intentions were to only find out if Arla was his daughter. I thought Emma would've proven her innocence by recording Sophie admitting to everything she'd done, so that Sophie would be arrested and the truth would come out about what actually happened to Mike. It was claimed Emma had many drugs in her system that night, but how were they put there? We know the paracetamol Sophie offered was actually a drug and her vitamins were replaced, but where did the others come from? I suspected Sophie was up to something and was behind the missing lunched and misplaced knife. I didn't expect Emma to go to prison, but it makes sense considering the point it happened and that it wasn't the end of the book - plus it adds to the twist.

We never got a full answer on what actually happened to Emma's mum, like was it accidental? I felt like I was left with a lot of questions rather than answers, there were lots of plot holes. I felt like the ending was rushed in comparison to the beginning, that was dragged out. I also found parts hard to follow, especially the parts where it was a flashback, as in the book, there were no indication it was a flashback until you were halfway through and relalised it was a flashback.

In conclusion, I wouldn't say no to reading another book by Kelly Golden, but I wouldn't actively pursue reading on my own accord. I just wish there'd been more suspense and answers to the questions presented.

My Rating:

Georgia 

♥