What a brilliant book. The plot had so many twists and turns it kept me hooked right to the very last page!!! Highly recommended and five stars from me!! Loved it!!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Sarah A. Denzil for the copy of this book. I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

Brilliant , gripping and wonderfully written , a pleasure to read. Strong , believable characters and a fabulous storyline .

Only Daughter is a pretty standard family thriller with a few plot twists mixed in, enough to keep me gripped until the end. The exception to this story which pulled me in is the main protagonist is a sociopath. I am so used to the villain of the story being the the sociopath that it did make an interesting premise.

This book definitely focuses more on the investigation of a 17 year olds apparent suicide and leads up to a big reveal. I'll admit that I honestly had no idea which way the story was going to go and at I suspected every character at least once.

I think the thing that let me down a bit was the writing, there were so many long monologs from the protagonist and most of it was repetitive that I by half way I was already starting to glaze over them slightly.

I am happy to try other works by this author because plot wise she can definitely tell a good story.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for allowing me to read this arc.
Absolutely brilliant. This was an exciting, emotional, and heart stopping read! I had sleepless nights because I just wanted to keep turning the pages.
People are not always who or what they seem!! And boy that ending.....wow!!!!

This book was a crazy, twisted story that always left me surprised. I loved how none of the characters were really as they seemed, and no one was entirely perfect. I loved seeing a mother have conflicting grief after the death of her only child. This book certainly was interesting and unlike anything I've ever read before. I never really knew what was happening with the plot, and when I thought I had it all figured out, everything changed. You would think that not much would happen, considering that the biggest event occurs at the very beginning of the book. But after her daughter dies, Kat goes on the hunt, trying to figure out what really happened. It was fascinating. The author completely turned everything around multiple times. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, though I do think it dragged at times. That's the only reason I docked a star. It just kept going and going, and things were happening, but it was all just a bit much. Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an interesting thriller type book.

Good luck sleeping with this one! I couldn’t put it down and loved this! Kinda reminded me of The Good Daughhter.

When Kat Cavanaugh’s daughter is found dead in a quarry after leaving a suicide note, she is determined to find out what led Grace to take her own life. As Kat delves deeper into her mysterious daughter’s life, she is also haunted by a secret from her past.

Sarah A. Denzil has crafted an intriguing and twisted psychological thriller that keeps the reader guessing. The fast pace, well developed characters and dark and tense plot help this book stand out amongst other suspense novels.

A good read with some twists and turns along the way. Lots of action to grip the readers attention.

This story is a bible parody of who loves the child the most. The mother who does agrees to give the other woman the baby. The other lady is eager to have half a child than none. Though Kat accepts that she is incapable of healing from her psychological disorder, she fully believes she loves her daughter and only wanted to be a decent person because of her. Kat doesn't believe that Grace would have committed suicide, so she sets out to find and destroy anyone responsibly for pain or problems that led to Grace's death. In the process of doing so, she loses a bit of her usual control over herself and almost sabotages her own mission. There were several characters that I found compelling: Kat's husband/Grace's father, great book. 3/5

This was my second novel by Sarah A. Denzil. The first was The Silent Child. Overall, I really enjoy her writing style. Kat was a great protagonist in that she is admittedly suffering from some psychological diagnosis that means she generally lacks empathy and can't love. That aspect reminded me a bit of Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone which I read and loved last year. Kat's daughter Grace has died in what is being ruled as a suicide. Though Kat accepts that she is incapable of healing from her psychological disorder, she fully believes she loves her daughter and only wanted to be a decent person because of her. Kat doesn't believe that Grace would have committed suicide, so she sets out to find and destroy anyone responsibly for pain or problems that led to Grace's death. In the process of doing so, she loses a bit of her usual control over herself and almost sabotages her own mission. There were several characters that I found compelling: Kat's husband/Grace's father, Charlie (Is he keeping secrets that make him a monster capable of causing his own daughter's death?), Alicia, Grace's best friend (Or was she secretly just a bully trying to mentally crush Grace?, Kat's mother (She is clearly a toxic mother to Kat, but was she secretly doing the kind of damage to Grace that she always did to Kat?), and Lily, Grace's "secret" friend (Was she really the friend that she claims to be?)

I was guessing beginning to end. There are a lot of characters to suspect, but not too many to keep up with easily. Kat is a unique character that made me laugh with her crazy antics several times, but whom I felt empathy for due to what she lost and the kind of relationships she never had. There was nothing cookie cutter about Kat. When the mystery is at last resolved, it was not at all what I had been suspecting all along, and while possibly requiring a little suspension of disbelief, a satisfying conclusion.

How well do you know your child?

After a traumatic childhood and being diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, it seems that now Kat Cavanaugh has it all: a rich husband, a big house and the perfect daughter Grace. That is until Grace is found dead at the bottom of a quarry in what is ruled by the police as an apparent suicide. But Kat is convinced her daughter wouldn't have killed herself so she decides to investigate the circumstances surrounding her death and she's willing to do whatever it takes to find the truth. After all, as a diagnosed sociopath, up until now she's been faking being a good person for her daughter's sake but with her gone she doesn't have to be good anymore.

What follows is a gripping psychological thriller with a really interesting and maybe not totally reliable main character. Though the plot itself is not the most original, the characters, specially Kat, were engaging enough to keep me invested in their story until the big twist at the end which I have to admit I didn't see coming but found it to be a bit far-fetched.

Overall, Only Daughter is a fast paced, well written thriller that deals with such important topics as bullying, suicide, parent-child relationship, mental illness and the importance of not letting that illness define who you are as a person.

Read and reviewed in exchange for a free copy from NetGalley. I found this to be a well written book. The story was interesting and I didn't predict the outcome at all. I'd be interested in reading more books from this author.

Only Daughter by Sarah Denzil is a gripping thriller following the emotional journey of Kat Kavanaugh uncovering the suspicious and untimely death of her teenage daughter Grace. The reader experiences the story from Kat's perspective immediately following Grace's demise.

As with any thriller, there are secrets to be uncovered, but what differs here is Sarah Denzil's delicate unfurling of these hidden treasure and easy to follow writing.. I experienced feelings of panic, grief, and shock right alongside Kat. There were times where, as the reader, I questioned the reliability of the narrator and was as anxious to learn as much about her as of her daughter. This is a fast paced, edge of your seat, well written piece of fiction that captures you from the first page and keeps you engaged until the very last.

I appreciated that while the story includes a few teenage characters, I didn't get annoyed with their banter/conversations which I commonly struggle with.. Only Daughter portrayed characters authentically, from the grieving parents, to the shocked friends/family friends, and even those more sinister characters.

I rated this a 4/5 stars and plan to pick up Silent Child also by this author.

My first read by Sarah Denzil and it wont be my last! This is a great read. Kat's world falls apart when she is given the worse imaginable news - her daughter has commited suicide, found at the bottom of a quarry - a local suicide spot. Kat cannot believe this news, why would her daughter do this, it cannot be true. The police and her husband Charles are both sure this is the case, but Kat thinks her beautiful daughter Grace must have been murdered. She sets out to prove the case, with or without the polices support. Slowly Kat learns her daughter may not have been as happy as she initially thought, what secrets was she keeping, what did her husband know, Can Grace;s friends help her unravel the reality of that horrific night.?
You will need to read this to find out the truth! A great read !!

Parents think they know their children. But they can't possibly know what their teens are up to all the time. When one college aged daughter commits suicide, Kat cannot accept that she did so. She's more certain that her child was murdered. She will not give up or give the police any peace until she knows exactly what happened to her daughter. In the end, she finds out more than she'd ever have wanted to. Many broken hearts in this story.

Only Daughter is a slow read, but the twist is worth it. This had a lot of potential,but it just fell short of it because r get a bit bored.

3.5
I’m on the fence with this one. I read it quickly and it kept me engaged but I’m not sure how much I liked it.

There is a lot of inner monologue. Perhaps too much really as it was repetitive and didn’t move the plot along that quickly. The concept was interesting though, and the writing was fine, good really. There were plenty of twists and red herrings.

The characters are mostly horrible. The decisions they make aren’t any better. It’s a sad story. So much wasted time and wasted lives. So many warped perceptions are formed from abusive caregivers.

The conclusion wasn’t what I expected. I wasn’t unhappy with it but with such darkness throughout I saw this ending differently. It has me thinking so it did its job there. I was entertained and would try more by this author.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Bookouture for a copy in exchange for a review.

When Grace, a teenage girl, is found dead at a local suicide spot everything points to suicide especially as she left a note. Her mother, Kat, refuses to believe this and as the police and her husband, Charles, are thinking the case is closed she knows that she has to find out exactly what happened. On this journey she finds she didn’t really know her daughter that well. Kat is from a council estate and had a troubled upbringing and a hidden dark past, but after marrying Charles she is now living a different life. Kat then starts receiving anonymous threatening letters and they refer to her troubled past but as she gets closer to finding out the truth she questions whether she could have protected Grace.
This book gripped me from the first page as I desperately wanted to find out the truth about what had happen to Grace. This book is a rollercoaster of a read, it has sadness, grief, betrayal, revenge and so many twists and turns. A superb read. Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thank you Sarah Denzil and Netgalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this novel.

I was completely on edge the whole time I was reading this novel. I went from total anticipation, to shock, and then to tears. I love the writing of this author and really enjoyed the plot of this novel. This author will be on my list of authors to watch, and I can't wait to read the next one.

5 stars!!!

Great book, lots of twists and surprises. I enjoyed the characters and the book was well written. I don't think it was 5* like a lot of the other reviews but definitely a great read!