The twists and turns of the story keep you turning the pages. I loved it and I loved the fact that the end is really strong but is left open for another book.
Well worth reading.

I found this difficult to read because of the subject matter but once started I needed to finish it. I had not really considered the long term impact of a rape nor the courage of Olivia in going to court. This was a story of female bravery - making difficult decisions in a ‘man’s world’.

I found the characters different views of ‘truth’ interesting and wonder how many people have such a flexible view of it.

Well written - I will be trying other books by this author.

This is told in from different perspectives. James is a politician and one day is accused of rape. The barrister prosecuting him has secrets too, she has changed her whole identity due to something from her past. As the story progresses it tells you the truth of what really happened to both of them. A slow burner all the way through but just gives you enough to want to keep reading. I enjoyed it.

This wasn't a massively easy book to read because of the main subject - rape. I can't bring myself to watch rape scenes on TV and reading such a scene is no easier so I tend to kind of get the gist of what is happening and move on. Anatomy of a Scandal is written so well you can tell Sarah has done as much research as is possible which would be necessary for such a result. As much as this was a work of fiction, I think it sticks to a fair bit of reality with certain aspects which I won't name to avoid spoilers. But it's an incredible court room psychological drama which I can see being adapted as a TV series. I knew I would love the main character called Kate as soon as I started reading.

***I've been told this review could be classed as a spoiler by the author, so apologies if it ruins the book for you *******

This book tackles a subject which is quite relevant in the current time, and is that of non consensual sex. The story follows an MP, James Whitehouse who has been accused of rape by an aid he had been having an affair with. The book flits between the modern day and 20 years before back at Oxford University where he assaulted an 18 year old fresher.
That 18 year old now faces him in a court room 20+ years later, not as the victim but as his prosecutor, now Kate, desperate to make sure he doesn’t get away with doing what he did to his ex lover like he did with her all those years ago.
The story is dark and tackles this very difficult subject but does so in a way that depicts what I am sure is a very real scenario that has effected far too many lives.
He is charming and entitled how could he be guilty. Or is she just an ex lover who is scorned. Kate knows the story only too well. All through this you also live with the wife’s view and how she sticks with him through the whole unraveling drama.
You are given a glimpse at the aristocratic and elitist world at Oxford Uni and the House of Commons. Well worth a read, something a little different to my standard read.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3 Stars

This was an enjoyable book, chapters alternating different time periods and different characters points of view.

However the characters are mainly unlikeable or annoying and the book didn’t get going for me until about 55%.

The big secret reveal was a tad underwhelming and I am really sorry but I didn’t like the abrupt ending.

Overall an average but readable book.

I really enjoyed reading this book. A great look at different view points of a scandal. It is intelligently written and very topical. Unfortunately, shortly after I finished reading this book, personal circumstances meant that I was unable to write a full length review.

This was an absolutely brilliant read...my favourite book of the year so far. I easily devoured it in a few nights as I just couldn't put it down. It revolves around hard hitting barrister Kate Woodcroft who prosecutes difficult cases involving sexual offences. You can tell she cares and has a passion for justice but you are not sure why her current case is so very important to her.
James Whitehouse is on the up in the political arena. An old Etonian and Oxford elite, his path in life has been an easy one. He is charming and charismatic and despite being married to his university sweetheart, Sophie, enters into a workplace affair. Following an ugly ending, James finds himself on a rape charge.
We follow the courtroom battle whilst re-living James' first year at Oxford. Dark secrets from the past are revealed whilst Sophie's loyalty to James is tested to the limit. This is a fascinating insight into the flaws of the legal system with a nice twist slowly unfolding towards the end.

Anatomy of a Scandal will be published on the 23rd of January 2018 and is a highly anticipated read!

I awarded four stars as it personally took me a while to get into but from chapter seven onwards it started to get good. This story focuses on the upper-class oxford university graduates/students in a rape case. Each chapter is told through the different main characters the story involves and is set out well. However, the story does flick between 1992/93 while they are in university and 2016/17 which is present time, but the author has set it out plainly so the reader does not become confused.

Anatomy of a Scandal is written well, starts off slow paced but is easy to read with plenty of reference to literature within the book, some may be familiar. There is more than one side to this story… Who do you believe? I am glad I got the chance to read this story and would highly recommend you all pre order or add to your list for next year.

A really good book. The subject is really current. Is James guilty? How well does Sophie know her husband. A carefully thought out and well put together story. I read this book in one sitting. I had to know the answers.

One the surface, Anatomy of a Scandal is a riveting courtroom drama about a high profile rape trial. A Tory minister is on trial, accused of raping a member of his staff in a lift in the Houses of Parliament. Kate, the lead barrister for the Crown is convinced he is guilty, and she is willing to do everything in her considerable power to see this darling boy of the British establishment brought down for his brutish entitlement. But James’ wife, Sophie is convinced he is innocent; her husband is simply not capable of anything so heinous as rape.

To begin with, we see the unfolding scandal through the eyes of these three characters. This cleverly places the reader is slightly ahead of the howling press pack who are keen to throw new unsavoury tidbits to the news cycle every day. Our privileged position lets us know that there are plenty more secrets to be detonated here, going back two decades to when several of the main protagonists (including the Prime Minister) were at Oxford together.

It was fascinating to see how, as the growing scandal spread like an oil slick, drawing in more and more people who themselves had absolutely nothing to do with the immediate crime in question, but were nevertheless party to information which could radically affect the outcome of the trial if only the jury were to hear it. So one of the many driving tensions of the novel is this question of what will, and what won’t, end up in the public domain, and therefore in the court.

The trial itself is exquisitely handled. Initially I assumed the author must be a barrister herself, as the descriptions and insights reminded me of that other courtroom masterpiece, Presumed Innocent and that feeling of being given an access-all-areas pass to places most of us will never get to go.

I loathe spoilers, so will not say anything more about the trial, just that as it plays out, the narrative cuts back and forth in time to Oxford and an elaborate web of secrets and betrayals. What is particularly fascinating about this is how it shine a giant torchlight onto how societal views of what is and isn’t acceptable in terms of personal conduct have, thankfully, undergone such a radical change in a short space of time.

This is a novel not just about the difference between the haves and have nots, or natural justice vs legal justice, but what it really means to be of good character, and how no matter how far we grow or how many times we reinvent ourselves there are always tells which follow us, facial tics, or turns of phrase that give us away. Perhaps one of the rawest truths here is how this scandal points up that, somehow, we are always still who we used to be. In this regard I was particularly blown away by the observations of one character’s mother in the final third of the novel.

As has already been said elsewhere, Anatomy of a Scandal is almost spookily of its time. But if I had to choose the one thing I loved most about it, it’s how the author resisted any temptation to just jump on the PC bandwagon here and hector us with obvious lessons about how we *should* feel about consent, but rather acknowledged we live in a world of moral ambiguity. This is a story which tested me in lots of ways. It’s uncomfortable, for example, to be reading about things you could so easily see yourself doing for a friend while at the same time knowing how wrong it is.

How it didn’t just jump on the PC bandwagon…When it was easier to go along than say no…when men knew that too…

In these most welcome times of greater understanding about consent, when the correct answer to ‘Don’t be a prick tease’ is ‘Don’t be a rapist’, it is also worth remembering how we weren’t always so clear minded about helping ourselves. As the women in this novel are brave enough to acknowledge, there are times when just going along with it seemed easier than saying no. #MeToo

There is a lot more I could say about this novel. But since it will be one of the most read, and most talked about, books of 2018, I’ll keep some back for then!

With thanks to the publisher for letting me see an advance digital copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan
What an amazingly gripping novel Sarah Vaughan has written in Anatomy of a Scandal! I found myself totally caught up in this pyschological drama and found it impossible to put down.
This absorbing, tensely constructed story tackles an important area of modern life and gives a dramatic and clear insight into the workings of the adversarial British trial system, showing how justice is not always achieved.
The voices of the two main female characters, Sophie and Kate, are skillfully interwoven to heighten the tension surrounding their lives, both during their time as undergraduates at Oxford and later during the trial of Sophie’s MP husband and fellow Oxford graduate, James.
Anatomy of a Scandal examines the devastating and destructive effect of a charismatic, narcissistic man on the lives of three women and gives great insights into the thoughts, motivation and feelings of the main characters. It should be required reading for everyone with an interest in interplay of men and women from different social classes and the psychology of people’s sense of privilege and entitlement.

I was drawn to Anatomy of a Scandal because the synopsis reminded me a little bit of the hit TV series Scandal, featuring Kerry Washington – successful public figures caught up in a scandal.

Anatomy of a Scandal is a slow-paced and intriguing novel – the ‘scandal’ forces both Kate and Sophie to take a closer look at themselves, and the slower pace allows for a detailed exploration of the characters in this novel. In alternating past and present timelines, we see how Kate’s experiences from her past have shaped her into the woman she is today, and it makes her character, in the present day, easily understandable.

While I was more drawn to Kate, I loved that Sophie was forced to take a closer look at her life, the things she was so easily accepting of when, perhaps, she shouldn’t be. I didn’t find her character likeable because I didn’t agree with some of the decisions she made, both in the past and the present day, but she was definitely the one I was most intrigued by – wanting to see how she would act during in, and in the fall out of, the scandal. However, if I had to pick a favourite character, it would be, Ali, Kate’s best friend – she was so supportive and loyal, though her role was a minor one, she really showed herself to be a true friend.

My favourite parts of this novel took place in the courtroom, I enjoyed seeing Kate in action – seeing the questions she asked and how she phrased them in her bid to secure a conviction. Also, how alert she was to the reactions from the jury.

This novel did have shades of the TV series, like I hoped it would, but it was much less entertaining. Anatomy of a Scandal is a very character-driven novel and I enjoyed seeing how events played out. However, I think the pacing was too slow, and at times this made the plot drag and gave it the overall feeling of being too long. One of the things I like about slower-paced novels is the time it gives you to reflect on what you’re reading, while you’re reading, as things move at a slow pace, you can analyse the events without having to pause reading (I hope that makes sense). However, here there was too much time for reflection, particularly in the last part of the novel, where I contemplated skim reading it. Once you know the outcome of the scandal, all that’s left is to see how the characters act in the aftermath and I felt like this portion was too long. Endings are tricking things because they have the power to impact all that you read before and based on the slow pace of this novel, I felt a smaller word count to show the aftermath would have been more suited.

Overall, I thought this novel was good and it is worth a read if you are a fan of psychological dramas, but only if you are a patient reader because you really have a slow-pace and a slow turnover of events to contend with here.

Anatomy of a Scandal hooked me in from the start and I was utterly engrossed and entertained. The topic is so relevant, as in the news more politicians and famous people are being uncovered for sex scandals.

The book is pacy as well as well written, with some wonderful descriptions and great characters. You got the sense of who each character is, and through flashbacks, find out how they had become the people they are. I just had to keep reading to find out what was going to happen next. The court case was so tense and atmospheric - so absorbing.
Being hyper-critical, I would have like to see a bit more of a conclusion/wrapping up at the end, however I suspect everyone who reads a book will have an opinion at how it ends...

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advance copy of the book.

This has to be one of the best books I have read this year. Tightly structured, the characters recognisable, the plot impying rather than telling...it unfolds in a fascinating and credible way. Truth versus convenience; truth versus not-quite-truth; what is right versus what suits the occasion...all collide in this compelling narrative.

Wow what a page turner this book was. I read this within a day as I really couldn’t put it down, wanting to find out what exactly had been going on. As soon as I started reading this I could see everything that was happening in my mind’s eye. The characters all felt like real people and I could unfortunately imagine the whole scenario playing out in real life.

I really liked Kate the lawyer. I loved the fact that she wanted to find out the truth and to bring about justice for her clients. I really didn’t like James and his privileged background, I wouldn’t have made a fair juror at all that’s for sure. Sophie was okay, although at times she really annoyed me.

There was a very clever twist in this book that I didn’t see coming, as it slowly crept up on me. Sarah Vaughan is definitely an author I’ll be reading again in the future.

This book has made me realise that I do enjoy a courtroom drama, and I would recommend this for readers who enjoy this genre.

What a read! Gripping, tense, clever, thought provoking. I was hooked - it is so well written!

There was a twist hinted to throughout the book and I guessed it wrong - love it when this happens. Will definitely be recommending to others.

Thanks to NetGalley, Atria Books, and to Sarah Vaughan for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An absolutely brilliant read. Anatomy of a Scandal had me gripped right from the start, and it didn't let up. Fast-paced, intelligent and intriguing.

This is a gripping and compulsive read - I found it hard to put down. It’s told from several points of view: Kate, a barrister prosecuting a man accused of rape; James, the accused and a high profile politician; Sophie, his wife; and Holly, a young woman who was Sophie’s tutorial partner at Oxford. The book jumps back and forth between the present day and their time at Oxford, and at first it’s not clear what the link could be. But as the story begins to fall into place, dark secrets are revealed. The book is clever and sharp, and deftly examines the politics of privilege, the devastating impact of sexual assault and how hard it is for survivors to come forward. It also focuses on the power of female friendships and the strength of women.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the publishers and Net Galley.

Sophie has the seemingly perfect life, a loving yet occasionally emotionall absent husband and two wonderful children. When Sophie’s husband James is accused of a serious crime, and as James is a public figure, their lives are sent into turmoil. Sophie believes her husband is innocent yet the prosecutor Kate is convinced he is guilty. I found myself rushing through this book as its so well written and a pleasure to read. The subject matter and views concerning it are so relevant to the current times, I think that its about time we talk about these issues and will definitely be discussing this book with others.