I read a review of this book quite a long time ago now, pretty much when it was first released and was really taken by the review that I went and deliberately looked for this book to buy. I did just that and then as with so many of my books, especially as I buy in bulk, it got put on the shelf to read later on. Cue approximately 4 years later and I finally decided to give it a go; I hoped after all this time, it was worth keeping it!
The author:
Diane Chamberlain is an author that I had heard nothing of until I read the review of the book that made me go and buy it. She has now written 25 books and one short story that tie in with one of her full fiction books. All of her books have emotional storylines that mean they are the perfect reads if you like a good plot with lots of emotion and characters that are full of real life situations and emotions.
The plot:
Julie Bauer and her family had a cottage on the bay that was a place of happiness and family get togethers; it was one that should have always been that way until the unthinkable happened and her older sister Izzy was murdered. Many years later and it should be easier to deal with the loss of her sister, but even now the memories of that night still haunt her.
Now, somebody is asking questions about that night and what really happened. There are so many secrets from that fateful night and leading up to it including those of her their mother and especially those surrounding the real killer who didn’t go to prison for her murder. Julie must have the courage to revisit the details of that night and get to the bottom of what really happened that night at the Bay at midnight.
Characters:
Julie Bauer is a very well developed character that I feel the author put a lot of effort into creating. Her emotions are very obvious and clear; you can really see how it has affected her over the years and how in turn, it has changed her to be the person she is and especially in the way she has raised her daughter. Then there is Lucy, Julie’s younger sister who doesn’t remember as much from that night as she was a lot younger at the time however, the events still changed her and she became the opposite of Julie in that she became braver. As the story progresses, snippets of information that has lain buried and she hasn’t thought about, start to come back to her and I like how the author included these snippets from the past from another perspective.
Overall, I found the variety of the main characters and those that were important to the story and also included, were all very well developed and thought about. Each person had bits to give the overall story that made it work so well and I feel it was an excellent job on the authors part.
Price:
When I purchased my book, it was bought at full price in Waterstones as I deliberately went looking for this book and at the time it, there was no offer on it. I feel the book is well worth the £7.99 RRP which is also what I paid however, if you are looking to buy this book, there are plenty of online shops that sell it at a slightly lesser price than the RRP.
Overall opinion:
Since buying this, I have bought a couple more of her books due to how much I enjoyed this one. I found it was an interesting plot that had lots of emotion throughout with very well developed characters. The book flowed at a steady pace and it flipped between the telling of the present day and memories from the fateful night which included the main characters and also a few others side of things too.
I would say that all round, it was a great book that really made me feel for the characters and one that I wanted to read constantly. It didn’t take long for the story to get going and I didn’t feel there were too many people involved that it got messy and hard to keep track of so I am of course, going to be giving this book very big thumbs up and will certainly be recommending it.