Enjoyed isn't the right word for such a novel but captivating is. The unreliable narrators and the different POVs had you constantly guessing and second guessing yourself which flagged up that aged old thing of why do we need to know identity and why are we determined to have people that are solely good and solely bad. It does a great job at exploring the complexities of human emotion and character. A solid debut.

‘𝘿𝙞𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙮 𝙢𝙚? 𝘿𝙞𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙫𝙤𝙬𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙚 𝙩𝙤𝙤𝙠? 𝘿𝙞𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙖 𝙙𝙖𝙮 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙘𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙚? 𝙄 𝙙𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙨𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨, 𝙣𝙤𝙬.’

I’d seen this one on booksta and I was so excited when I got accepted for an ARC of it. I went in without reading too much about it and wasn’t entirely sure what to expect - but it blew me away.

It’s really hard to review this one because, due to the content, you can’t exactly say you enjoyed it. But I was totally captivated by the writing, it sucked me right in and had me feeling everything. It was very raw and real and every emotion was poured into the writing. I think at times all of this made for an uncomfortable read - like you were witnessing something that you weren’t meant to. But this just highlights how well written it was.

I loved the anonymity surrounding it all, never really knowing who J is for a starter, not even their gender is disclosed - really clever and such a different way of seeing the story. Then you have the fact that we’re told two different sides to a story, neither of them being the same. So are we to believe that the wife is a manipulative, greedy wench or that in fact, J is an abusive and controlling partner. It’s so hard to gauge with it being told from J’s POV with the additional letters/diary entries/etc told from the wife’s POV along the way - it really did make you question things.

I found this a really clever and well written story. Leaving you in constant doubt whilst feeling all the pain and anger coming through. It is more of a slow burn, character driven story, which I’m not usually a fan of, but this format made it work beautifully! The unreliable narrators and never really knowing who or what is the truth keeps you hooked throughout - even though I still need to know the truth!! As they say, there are two sides to every story and the truth usually lies somewhere in the middle.

‚Is this Love?‘ is a raw, multifaceted novel that starts with the ugly break-up of a marriage. In a mixture of reciprocal recollections by two unreliable narrators, legal correspondence and email entries, the layers of the dysfunctional relationship are gradually peeled back to reveal the sources of the destruction and coercion. Other readers have made much of the fact that J’s gender and full name are unknown, a stylistic feature that may or may not work in this novel. What does not work so well, I think, are the passages where J and their wife each dissect the same ugly scenes from their shared life. A little less ‘tell’ and more ‘show’ would have improved this book for me. I am, however, grateful to the publishers and to NetGalley for the free ARC that allowed me to read this novel and produce this book review with opinions that are entirely my own.

This story was about J’s marriage breakdown, the loss of trust and what really happened.

It was well written with strong characters that was uncomfortable to read in parts.

Ok so this started super strong. It’s a story of a divorce case told from two different perspectives, both are unreliable narrators and it leaves you as the reader in the middle and flip flopping back and forth with who you believe is the abuser and the abused. However, when I realised the chapters were basically just going to be rehashing the same stories repeatedly it started to get a little stale. I also really didn’t like the way the blurb tried to force the idea of ‘ooh is it a man or a woman? You don’t know and that’s what makes it impactful’. Let the reader discover that and make their own mind up on if that affected their perspective.

This is a raw and powerful novel and at times I found it difficult to read.

J's wife has asked for a divorce and then J's life begins to unravel. It's an emotional roller-coaster being told by J and then J's wife. I really didn't know who was being honest and who was blatantly lying to their lawyers.

This is quite a challenging novel and a few times I decided to stop reading it but I persevered..

A complicated breakdown of a marriage heading for a divorce. It's messy, it's sad and dependent on where you are in the book determines who you feel sorry for at that time. Intimate and powerful, it will leave you feeling emotionally drained.

This book had me stumped. Sitting smug and thinking I had it all thought out, the author put me in my place. Finally we have a thriller that will keep you your toes.

Definitely raw and true but not particularly funny as one of the main reviews mentioned, full on depth account of a mariage breakup, hard to read in places

I really struggled with this book. I found it quite

uncomfortable to read in parts and sadly DNF.

There are two sides to every story.

An unsettling , sometimes uncomfortable, almost beautiful, heart wrenchingly authentic book about the breakdown of a marriage. Told from both perspectives as the book unfolds but much like real life, we never know how reliable each narrator is. There were times reading this when I wanted to look away and others when I was frustrated by the actions of the characters. Anyone who has been through the breakdown of a long term relationship will find elements that resonate when reading.

While I can't say I enjoyed this, I very much appreciated it and it also made me appreciate my life in its current state something I can take for granted.

A beautiful debut. C.E. Riley is a writer to look out for.

Not an easy book, nor in all honestly an enjoyable book, reading the raw facts about the breakdown of a marriage is not for me enjoyable.. As the synopsis tells you a nameless wife shocks her nameless partner by announcing that she’s leaving and wants a divorce. J, the nameless receiver of the news is shocked beyond belief and appears to have no idea that their marriage is in such a bad state.

What follows is a diary type read of both, but mostly J’s, view of how things got to that point.

I’ve been in the situation where one person sees the marriage as disastrous and the other is clueless about the toxicity of the relationship, so the two very very different views of the marriage didn’t surprise me remotely. It’s tough reading when one person is so devastated and the other clearly glad to be out of the whole toxic situation.

It felt to me that it was probably an actual account of someone’s marital breakdown - probably the author’s but that’s just my opinion. It is well written, although I would have preferred to know the names of the two characters as at times I struggled to identify whose point of view I was reading requiring some doubling back. I understand that the gender ambiguity is designed to give it a ‘a la mode’ feel and I did wonder if my loyalties would be any different if the gender had been given but as it turned out I just chose the gender I believed J to be and I don’t think it affected my judgement at all.

My thanks go to the author, the publishers and NetGalley for an advanced reader e.copy. This review in return is one hundred percent my honest opinion.

This is a very difficult read. It felt like I was reading someone's private diary and I shouldn't have been. That is a testament to the writing and the story of this book,

Unfortunately after ten pages I found this novel not for me. It takes effort from both sides to make a marriage work. I found the storyline flippant about a serious subject. Not a book I can recommend.

I got engaged a month ago and am knee-deep in wedding planning. It takes it out of you — it’s expensive, it’s logistically complicated, and forces you to stare down the barrel of who in your life you need to cement yourself permanently (you hope) to another person. In the midst of it, you have to remember that you’re not just planning a really intensive party: you’re getting married. You have to blink to remove yourself from a conversation about, oh, I don’t know, colour scheme, or how close you are to your dad’s cousins and look at the person you’re going to marry and think about how it won’t all be fun and you want to sign up for it anyway.

I have been coming up for air from emailing every wedding venue I can find to read snatches of Is This Love? for as long as I can bear it, before submerging myself. C.E. Riley’s new novel of psychological and emotional unravelling is an impossibly compelling and painful story of a divorce. It reads as an autopsy of a marriage, or maybe two autopsies, performed and reported by two unreliable and unstable coroners. Your sympathies swing between each aggrieved party, as they exaggerate and overreact and contradict themselves. You are never quite sure what to believe.

Riley’s writing is compelling, presented in an unusual format that may be difficult to parse at times, but the ambiguity adds to the narrative chaos and allows the emotional intensity to take centre stage. Reading it in the midst of wedding planning, I’ve felt a kind of whiplash, watching how a marriage can disintegrate, taking the involved parties with it, as I march steadily on towards my own. It’s a relief to close to book and look at my fiancé and know he would never behave as the characters in the novel do, but – could he? Marriage is a leap of faith, a trust that someone will stay the way they say they are, but that isn't always true. Sometimes they tell you who they are early, but you don't hear them, or believe them. One of the strengths of Riley's writing is how she weaves an intricate tapestry of the two women at the heart of the novel, only to slash it violently to pieces over the course of the book.

I often find myself wondering how friends of mine end up in awful relationships and how they can extricate themselves; Is This Love? cuts to the heart of who ends up in these situations and why, revealing individuals whose shortcomings drive them to a desperate need for another person but an inability to love and support them as they ought. It is a stomach churning ride, and one that many live. It isn’t love, but Riley helps you understand why someone might think it was, at least, once.

[The Crane Wife is out on 4 August 2022. Thank you very much to NetGalley and Profile Books for providing me with this e-ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.]

This book was like a ‘metal fork in a new tooth filling, whilst having morning sickness’ kind of experience for me. YET, I couldn’t stop reading.

Very recent personal experiences made me gasp at some of the conversations J and J’s wife had with one another and their barristers along with their, at times insane, behaviour. A hard-hitting, hardcore delve into domestic abuse, coercive control, gaslighting and a messy, and at times almost psychotic, breakup.

I am so glad I read this (despite initial reluctance because of the subject matter) but I would suggest you need to be in a strong mental place to do so, as it’s mind-bending and heartbreaking and makes you doubt everything you have ever experienced in your relationships!

Incredibly smart writing.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is the story of a marriage breakdown, told from both sides. It’s well written but not one for me. Quite uncomfortable at times, I don’t like that the couple involved are referred to using initials, for me it just added to the confusion I felt at times. You also never knew what was 100% truth. I can see why people would enjoy this one but just wasn’t for me.

An interesting read as you sway between accepting first one version of the truth and then question everything you'd thought - or assumed - about it as you are swayed to the other. Either way it's apparent that there is deep feeling between the couple which is vented in both good and then not so good ways. Interpretation is everything and you question your own beliefs and values about what love really looks like.

Within 2 chapters I find myself putting the book down and wanting to copy Joey from Friends and put the book in the freezer..... I probably would if it wasnt on my kindle. I'm afraid this is "did not finish" for me. I may come back to it at a later day but it just completely wound me up and I found myself rolling my eyes at J's wife several times. The fact it elicited such strong emotions shows that its clearly very well written hence the 3 stars.I'm afraid I cant give much more of a review as I stopped reading half way through Chapter 2.

"I'm divorcing you.", You said.

You just told J you're divorcing them. There isn't going to be a conversation about it. J can't figure out why, how someone could love them yesterday and resent them today. J doesn't understand why you're saying all these awful things about, throwing evil accusations, and why you're acting like a stranger when all they wanted was to love you.

But as your marriage falls apart, you both tell a story - could they both be true? Or does the truth depend on what you want it to be?

"You've done a tremendous job of labelling me as a monster. I half believed it myself now."

This is a story about love, but it's not a love story. It's a story about the complexity of relationships, about the dangers of idolisation and desperation. It tries to shine a light on the grey and unspoken homes that are filled with abuse and terror that they can't even see.

Told from J's point of view as the chaos unfolds, and interspersed with their wifes diary entries and letters, we hear very two different tales of a marriage and it's death. J takes us back to the beginning, to the first kiss, to obsession and love and lust, to a relationship that explodes and burns out without them noticing.

The story moves freely, like a conversation - J addresses the reader as though they are speaking directly to their wife, seducing us, pulling us closer and willing us to be a part of their story, to take a side. Although the prose was long and dense in parts, there was an intrigue, an uncomfortable curiosity that keeps you reading.

It's impossible not to find yourself in the pages, and you might be surprised to find yourself in both characters at times despite them being on opposite sides of a war. The thing is, J is unnamed, ungendered and unidentified. J is nothing less or more than we perceive them to be, what we believe them to be. You are forced to think - if you knew them, who would you believe? Would it change your mind if you knew more, if you knew their names, genders or identities?

Both characters are flawed, toxic and problematic - but who is really the victim? And who is blurring the truth?

"Maybe, just maybe, you would keep it and remember me and , in time, remember what you did and what really transpired between us."