'Three Hours' is an incredible book. The storyline is powerful, holding up a mirror to the very best and the very worst of our society. Not only is the subject topical, but the story is engaging and I was gripped from beginning to end. Even at one point when I could see the horrors about to come crashing down and the stress was getting to me, I couldn't put it down.

This has the honour of being the first book I've read where I wanted to skim the end to check on a couple of people because I was so wrapped up in the characters and their struggles. Luckily I wasn't reading a print copy so I had to wait it out with the characters, which felt like being under siege myself.

I emerged from 'Three Hours' a little older, a little wiser, saddened and heartened. I will never forget this book. A must read.

Wow! Heartstoppingly good! I just couldn't it put it down, amazing book. Such a terrible subject yet brilliantly written. I highly recommend it.

Three hours is 180 minutes or 10,800 seconds.
It is a morning's lessons, a dress rehearsal of Macbeth, a snowy trek through the woods.
It is an eternity waiting for news. Or a countdown to something terrible.
It is 180 minutes to discover who you will die for and what men will kill for.

An explosion in the woods begins the terror of a school under siege. Masked gunmen on the grounds, schoolchildren barricaded indoors & questions of who & why....

Written from various viewpoints from the pupils, teachers, parents & the police, I read this in a matter of hours. The story was so compelling I was finished before I knew it.

Very well written, dealing with issues of racism & hate as well as bravery & hope, this the best & very worst of human nature.

My thanks to Netgalley & Penguin for an ARC.

This was a slightly difficult book for me to read at points, as being a teacher myself it was a little close to home, having had to practise school lockdown procedures before. However, this was generally a well written book set over three hours of time on a school day. It is about a school that comes under lockdown when explosions in nearby woods are heard and the headteacher is shot by an intruder. The story is told in the third person of various events happening to the different characters in the book, such as students, teachers and parents. It mainly deals with the issues around radicalisation, where the school is proud of its very liberal and inclusive views, and has recently taken on two refugee boys from Syria. As the story unfolds around the school lockdown, so we are also told the story of the two young Syrian boys before they were taken into the school by the headteacher. Whilst the school is under lockdown a group of students are rehearsing a production of 'Macbeth', and parallels are then drawn by the author between events in Syria and terrorist groups and events and characters in the play itself. Whilst these literary strategies help to drawn links between these events, the part of the book that let it down for me was that it was slightly predictable. Whilst this issue is very current and of extreme importance, we are not sure at first who the gunman are, but that the headteacher heard one of the gunman say one word which made him realise what it was all about. When this word is finally revealed towards the end of the book and we find out who the gunman are, I did not feel at all surprised as I had already suspected these characters myself, and it became a little too typecast in some ways. So, although this book deals with an extremely current critical issue, the outcome for me was a little obvious and so the overall story did not grip me at times as much I had would have liked. My thanks go to Penguin Books UK and netgalley for the opportunity to read an ARC copy of this.

Wow ...what an incredible read on so many levels! First of all a warning...this is a brutal read, dealing with real issues of today but in a fictional context. You may well be shocked at some of the attitudes portrayed and horrified with the brutality of the arising situation ....BUT there is also so much good to see and experience too. As you will read in other reviews (so I won't say much here}, this novel is about a British private school based on the coast in Somerset which in the space of 3 hours is under siege and held hostage by well armed individuals. Very early on we learn about how some pupils and staff escape but others remain in captivity. We hear about some of their thoughts and background stories plus those of a couple of parents awaiting news and of the security team who come in to manage the situation. Alongside all this, part of the school continue to rehearse 'Macbeth' and the parallels of this Shakespearean tale work alongside the siege going along around it. Amazing piece of writing all round. Highly recommended if you can take the tension!

Wow, just wow! A word of advice, do not read the heart-stopping climax of this book in bed, or like me, you just might spend that night with your heart and brain sleeplessly swirling! I found such an emotional punch in this beautifully written book, full of tender, youthful love, loyalty and incredible courage in counterpoint to the depravity of radicalisation and hate: the very best and worst of human nature. And so relevant to our unsettled times, with the provocative stirring of racial and religious hatred by tweets and newspaper columns written by presidents and politicians, and yet also so historic and deep rooted that the ongoing rehearsals of Macbeth in the ‘safe’ theatre area of the besieged school serve, with so many appropriate quotations, to underline how far back such prejudice and induced hysteria can be traced. Even the weather has its place in racking up the tension as an increasingly severe snow storm makes rescue ever more implausible. A race against time that had me breathless and truly moved. Very highly recommended.

A great thrilling book covering a fictional school shooting in the uk. A different style for the author which I completely loved. Fully recommend

One of the most gripping and beautifully written books I've read recently. Absolutely unputdownable. I would recommend to everybody. The Macbeth storyline was brilliantly clever too.

I received a complimentary copy of Three Hours from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Three Hours is the story of a school attack in north Devon. The narrative jumps between following, among others, teenage refugee Rafi and his little brother Basi as they struggle to reach safety, haunted by a PTSD-inducing past escaping Syria to reach the UK where supposedly they would be safe; Rafi's girlfriend Hannah and their headteacher who has been shot and she's struggling to keep alive; the mother of one of the pupils; and the secure theatre block where many students are sheltering, rehearsing Macbeth to keep their minds off the horror.

The story was incredibly gripping. I was desperate to know what would happen but also why it was happening. Lupton has written a hugely compelling novel. Don't expect to be able to dip in and out of this one though - the urgency of the novel makes that incredibly difficult.

As someone living in the UK and onlu aware of shooting in schools as what I see on the TV it gets me thinking I am so glad we do not have guns here. The sheer terror and the writing. Sad and upsetting.

Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton was a book that I could not put down and read in one day.
A school in Somerset is under siege. There are masked gunmen on the premise and the headmaster has been shot. Groups of children and staff have barricaded themselves into classrooms. Emergency services and police can't get into the school and are trying to negotiate with the gunmen. There is a snowstorm outside and panicked parents begin to arrive.
I really enjoyed getting to know the characters in this book. The tension grew with each chapter and I couldn't wait to find out how the story would end.
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin UK for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, this book sent chills down my spine.
Following different characters it weaves and winds the story until you finally find out the true reason for the siege of the school.
Chillingly real, a true reflection of the sadness of our world.

I was really excited to read the new book by Rosamund Lupton, one of my favourite authors. I loved her books Sister and Afterwards and couldn't wait to start this one, thanks to NetGalley! The book is beautifully written, as expected, the characters are strong and the story is captivating. It is about a school shooting and what happened before. I was not disappointed, it is another excellent read by this author, well done!

I really enjoyed reading this book. It's not my usual genre but I found it gripping and interesting from the beginning and throughout. It's cleverly written and I would definitely recommend.

First of all you have to know that Rosamund Lupton is one of my favourite authors, since Sister I’ve read all of her books, and they always surprise me. She has an amazing way to write books mixing the best traces of the human society with the worst of them. Her books always leave something in me, on this one is to remember that love is the most important thing in life.
Since the first day I started reading this book I had nightmares, sometimes being inside the school with the students and teachers fighting for their lives, and others being the parents outside the school with the fear of what will happen next to their children. But this is what Rosamund Lupton does in her books, she creates a stressfull atmosphere in which the reader feels trapped in it without being able to leave till the last page, no matter if you are reading the book or not, it keeps hunting you.
This had not been an easy read, if you are a parent I am sure one of your worst nightmares is that someone attacks the school of your children, so be prepared to drop a few tears and bite your nails while you are reading this story, it will not be easy.
A bitter sweet read full of emotions; love, friendship, fear, bravery, sadness… I highly recommend you to read this book, I will not deny that I drop a few tears with this book, and now everytime I look at my son I cannot stop thinking about it, there are so many themes in this book that affected me that I don’t think I’ll be able to forget it ever!
I don’t want to talk much about the plot, I don’t want to spoil you the story. Let me just say that this had been the most intense “Three Hours” I’ve ever read, Ready?

Absolutely superb. Lupton whips through this tale without a word wasted. There are numerous characters, but Lupton skilfully enables the reader to focus on the main players and generates sympathy in the reader. The procedural element is well-researched and persuasive. Sure to be a big hit.

Beautifully written with strong characters and excellent insight in the good and not-so-good sides of people. This story about a school shooting, but even more about what happened before that made some people decide to go ahead with it, is not an easy read. I had a bit of trouble getting into the story because of the location, with several buildings spread out and people having to move from one place to another, or just having to stay inside to stay safe. After a while I decided to not to try too hard anymore and I just let the story flow into my mind.
The weather is cold, cold in this book and parts of the underlying story are cold as well. You can almost see it evolving and it is hard to put down once everything is really in motion.

A great book and I'm happy Netgally and Penguin Books allowed me to read a digital review copy.

This is an intense, exciting book about a school in lockdown, due to Rafi, a refugee child from a war-torn country of origin, hearing what he believes to be a bomb exploding in the woods surrounding his school. The police have three hours to carry out proceedings in order to stop the planned devastation from being carried out. (That’s as much detail as I can give without giving any spoilers!) The first half of the book sets the scene and introduces the main characters, but lacked pace for me. The second half of the book was fast-paced and had many surprises, which all made sense when read back. I couldn’t put it down until I’d finished it in the early hours of the morning. Even then, I thought about it all night and checked back over the details of one character in the morning to see how their part changed as the story developed. A really strong 4 stars.

Three Hours is incredible. This story of a school under siege is horrifying, terrifying and a true emotional rollercoaster. I read it mostly over the course of a day and evening, and ended feeling completely wrung out. I don’t want to say too much, though, because it’s best discovered for yourself.

Cliff Heights School, set amid woodland on the Somerset coast, is the last place you would expect to be terrorised by gunmen over a period of three traumatic hours. We see the story as it unfolds from different viewpoints - the wounded headmaster, Matthew Marr, tended by sixth-former Hannah in the library as an armed man stalks the hallway outside; the students and their teacher somehow continuing to rehearse Macbeth in the theatre; Syrian refugee brothers Rafi and Basi (PTSD-suffering Rafi, who knows a bomb when he sees one, is the first to raise the alarm about an explosive in the school grounds); mother Beth, desperately seeking news of her missing son; the police struggling to understand and contain the situation; and most poignant of all (though we see this mainly from others’ viewpoints), the teacher trying to protect and care for her class of seven year olds in the unprotected pottery room.

As a snowstorm rages outside, the tension rises to the point where the book becomes both almost unbearable to continue reading and impossible to put down. As hatred and fear do battle with courage and love, it’s impossible to predict how it will end.

I don’t want to say more, other than: stunning, harrowing and important book with a timely message. Read it!

The blurb of this sounded really great however I was unsure of this when I started reading, wrongly so as I soon discovered. The book literally starts in the middle of events, almost as though you’ve missed the first few chapters and this is why I struggled to get a hold of it at first but take it from me it’s well worth sticking with and I found I was very quickly engrossed. There’s quite a lot of characters in this however I had no trouble keeping up with who was who and I found all the characters to be well written. The plot is great, the layout of the school is a bit extreme but that’s necessary for the story to flow. It’s a real page turner, I guessed small parts of it but overall it keeps you on your toes and is thought provoking too. I am mostly unfamiliar with the story of Macbeth beyond the basics however the intertwining of this works well and does prove to have a relevance at the end. This is one of the best thrillers I’ve read recently and would give it 9/10