by Julia Crouch
There, in energetic, yet ordered script, were six words: Get her out of your house.
As I read this book I was fascinated to learn who had passed this message to Rose, a young housewife living in her perfect, renovated countryside home with her new baby, Flossie her slightly older daughter, Anna and handsome artist husband, Gareth.
Everything is perfect in Rose’s life until her best friend, Polly, an ex-rock star, living in Greece with her husband and two small sons, telephones Rose to tell her that her husband has been killed. Heartbroken to learn of her childhood friend’s unexpected loss Rose immediately invites her and her sons to come and stay in the annexe at her home. Despite Gareth’s dislike of Polly and his misgivings about having the messy, selfish woman in their home, he gives in to Rose and allows Polly to stay.
Soon, Rose’s ordered life begins to disintegrate. Strange things start happening. Flossie becomes ill and accidents occur and slowly Rose begins to distrust the friend who has long shared secrets that she’s never even trusted to Gareth. Rose soon realizes that the warnings she’s been given were well-meant and knows she has to find the strength to stand up to the one person who has the power to ruin everything for her, but even she didn’t bank on Polly’s cunning determination.
This book was darker than I expected. The slow destruction of everything Rose holds dear was shocking. I thought the heroine seemed to spend a lot of time sleeping or waking up from being asleep, but I did enjoy it and the shocking twists and turns towards the end were wonderful.
Reviewed by Debs Carr
7 comments:
I really enjoyed this too Debs, though at times it was hard to like Rose - I kept wondering why she allowed Polly to stay after certain things had happened, but it eventually became clear she was quite a flawed character too!
Yes I must admit I became a little irritated with her until later in the book when everything became clear.
Thanks for the review, Debs. I was interested in reading this but did wonder: Why doesn't she just throw the woman out of her house sooner? (Apart from the fact, it wouldn't then be that much of or that long a book!) Yours and Karen's comments have convinced me to give it a go, despite this, as it sounds intriguing.
This sounds like a great read. Another for my Kindle, I think.
XX
Sounds like an interesting book - and a thoughtful review. We once had a visitor who stayed put. In the end we had to ask her when she was planning to go home. It was a bit awkward!
kath & suzanne - I hope you both enjoy the book.
leigh - that must have been so awkward for you. I hope your visitor got the message and left fairly quickly after that.
This book scared the life out of me. I had to read it in the daytime with the radio on. If I'd read it in the evening, I wouldn't have slept at night...
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