I was interested by the summary given on this debut novel.. The story was slow to start. A story of three ordinary people, one terrible event and the problems started. Tony and Julia are married and Nick is Tony's younger brother, whom he has always looked out for all his life. This triangle is about to fall apart. I did not enjoy the style of writing and not for me. I struggled to connect to any of the characters. I give a 3 star rating only because the novel was not for m. I WANT TO THANK NETGALLEY FOR THE OPPORTUNITY OF READING AN ADVANCED COPY OF THIS BOOK FOR AN HONEST REPLY

This is a strong, well written drama about a terrible sexual assault on a young male and the ripple effect on his closest family. The characters are so well written and it's a real page turner. It's not an easy read at times, but, I struggled to put it down and was gripped by the twists and turns. Nick is the young man who is assaulted and the story revolves around him, his brother Tony and his sister-in-law, Julia as well as the police detective, Rice. Nick and Tony are very close, particularly as their abusive, alcoholic father was pretty absent as they grew up, so, they've learned to depend upon each other. This makes Nick's reaction to the situation all the more explosive. A really good strong 3* Good Read from me.

Wahrer gives a good insight into how a family can be affected following a traumatic event. The plot is very dark but I felt that Wahrer sensitively handled the difficult topics which included sexual abuse, violence and self harm which made the story more realistic. I did feel that not much happened in the plot but I still managed to read it quickly. I also didn't really connect to the characters and felt the ending was quite predictable but liked how chapters were told from multiple characters points of view. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys a domestic thriller that focusses on real life issues. A huge thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Michael Joseph UK for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest and unedited feedback.

This book got off to a good start and I was gripped for the first 10% where we learned about the rape and violent attack on Nick. He is very close to his elder brother, Tony, and Tony’s wife, Julia who is a lawyer. Both are determined to protect him and ensure that the perpetrator is brought to justice. I liked the way the story was written in four narratives, but for me the majority of it was slow-paced and plodding with too much extra information that was not necessary to the plot. It seemed to drag on and on and go nowhere, and unfortunately I lost interest in the middle. I read to the end because I needed to know what happened, but this isn’t a book I could recommend. Sorry, it was just an average read.

I had high hopes for this book as the synopsis sounded good, however it just fell a bit flat for me. After reading so many brilliant crime and thriller books, it just didn't live up to the expectation unfortunately. I liked the characters of Nick, Julia and Tony and also Detective Rice who was doing everything he could, but the storyline was just a bit too predictable and the 'twists' weren't really twists. Went on a but too long and was a bit too repetitive. I kept reading it though to see if anything unexpected would happen but sadly it wasn't a gripping novel like I had hoped.