A great read. Katerina writes a gripping story with many unexpected twists and this book is typical of her. The characters are extremely well described and easily related to. I can highly recommend this book and indeed any books by this author.

4.5 stars

This is the second book called The Heatwave I have read this year. This book is written by Katerina Diamond, a new author to me. Thank you to Avon Books for a digital copy via NetGalley - my thoughts are my own and not influenced by the gift.

This is a book which got darker the further I read it. We know from the front cover of the book that there was a killer and the story gives us lots of hints about who that could be.

Felicity, living in the Lake District with her husband and children, is suddenly driving back to Sidmouth, a place she left behind years ago after a girl went missing one summer. Her family don't understand why she has to go back to a place she never talks about because a girl she didn't know went missing.

As we follow her in Sidmouth, talking to old school classmates and to the friends of the latest missing girl, parts of the story of 16 years ago are shared. We find out about Jasmine and her family, with their new lodger Tim who appears to have lots of secrets, the teacher who tried to kiss Jasmine and her friends (including Felicity). But can the killer be back in town too?

I really enjoyed this thriller, plenty of twists and turns, and an ending I hadn't expected. I predict that that this will be a popular read in back gardens and parks, whilst social distancing, in the summer of 2020.

I’ve enjoyed other books by Katerina Diamond so jumped at the chance to read this one.
Felicity is shocked to hear about a missing teenager in her hometown near Devon and tells her husband she needs to go back there.
She packs a bag that night and travels down there with little explanation to her husband and children.
The story is then told by ‘Then’ and ‘Now’ chapters and we gradually learn what happened when Felicity was a teenager.
It’s clear she was close to her friend Jasmine and the story revolves around the two girls and what they discover.
This is a great mystery thriller that had me hooked.
Thanks to Avon Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Absolutely gripping, once I got started with this I found it almost impossible to put down. I was just desperate to get to the end to find out how it all fit together and what was going on.

The story is told from two POVs, there's Felicity in the current day, who has come home to Sidmouth after she hears about a girl being kidnapped in the news. She fled her home town years ago, when the first girl went missing. She's convinced she's the only one who can find the newly abducted girl, but she's afraid to face her past at the same time.

The other POV is in the past, at the time of the first abduction, and features Felicity's best friend Jasmine, her parents and their new mysterious lodger Tim, who Jasmine is both drawn to and afraid of.

I found I preferred Jasmine's story, it felt like it advanced the plot more, whereas Felicity's narrative just raised more questions all the time. The more time we spent with her though, the more desperate I was to know what had happened, and the cutting between the two helped keep the tension high.

There are plenty of twists and turns and sudden reveals in this book, some of which took me completely by surprise! I wish the ending had been a bit longer, as I'd have liked to have spent more time with the fallout of the final reveal, but this was a great tense twisty thriller.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Felcity- also known as Flick-has a lot of secrets. Secrets she's never told her husband who doesn't understand why she feels compelled to go to Sidmouth when a young girl named Mandy goes missing, This is told in past and present- by Flick and by Jasmine 16 years before. Jasmine's parents, who take off on charity work, have allowed Tim to take up residence. Jasmine wants to know what his story is, Something bad happens, things change, no spoilers from me as to how everything hooks up. Flick isn't especially likable but you'll eventually understand her motivations. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It's twisty.

I requested this book because I heard a lot of good things about the author...BUT...This book was very repetitive and the writing was so pedestrian. The same thoughts and words were regurgitated over and over to the point of boredom. I really tried to like this book, I read the whole thing, willing to give it a chance, but it was just not for me. The characters were underdeveloped, unlikable and I could not relate to what little was there. Cliche to the point of being insulting, much like the flat title. I understand this author is widely acclaimed and I am sure she is worthy of the acclamation, but this is obviously not her best work.

A hot mess of a crime, a great summer set thrilling read. 16 years on a second girl goes missing And Felicity is forced to confront her past. Full of twists and turns this is a real psychological thriller that kept me in suspense. I couldn’t wait to find out how it ended.

This is a decent 'whodunnit' thriller / murder mystery.

A girl disappears from Devon and the lead character of the novel, Felicity, sees the news and realises that the disappearance is from her hometown and relates to her past.
She leaves her husband and children to get to the bottom of this mystery and what follows takes us back to Felicity's childhood whilst having chapters designated to the present time, in both the voice of Felicity and her childhood friend, Jasmine.

It does maintain interest, although, for me I found it a slow moving read that was quite hard to progress in parts.

Overall though, a decent strong 3* and I'd recommend as a good read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to preview.

A super story that will keep you gripped from the very beginning.

The characters are believable and you want to know what happened to them.

It isn’t predictable be ready for a rollercoaster ride.

This is the new standalone novel from Katerina Diamond,
The Heatwave takes place in two different timelines, In present day we hear from Felicity, married with two kids, shes see a news item on the Tv about a young girl gone missing from her home town. There and then she tells her husband she must go back there and find out whats happened. Not explaining much to him or indeed to the reader she leaves that day. In the then sections we hear from a 16 year old Felicity and her friend Jasmine. Jasmine's parents have taken in a lodger, who does work for them, and are keen to help him out. Jasmine on the other hand at first finds him a little strange and he tends to make her uncomfortable. With the story flipping back and forth we learn of another disappearance of a girl and Felicity's current 'need' to uncover the truth. I found this a little slow going at the beginning and wondered if the heatwave was ever going to appear to be a part of the story. However, it does pick up and there are many twists and turn, some more obvious than others.

The Heatwave is another cracker of a book by Katerina Diamond, although a slow burner, it soon picks up pace and leaves you reeling…. Felicity hasn’t been back to her hometown in 16 years but when she hears a girl has gone missing, she knows she must return and face her demons!

The story is told twofold, the then from the POV of Felicity’s best friend, Jasmine and the now from the POV of Felicity. This book draws you into the lives and the tribulations of both Felicity and Jasmine back then, I was engrossed as to what would happen, with who, where, when…. Brilliantly put together, some shockers along the way but then an explosive reveal and an outstanding finale…. I was “WTF”….. I for one didn’t guess the twists that were dealt!! Thoroughly enjoyed this read.

This was a bit of a slow burner for me and I feel it took a while before I got into it. The story is told from 2 different perspectives, one character in the past and the other in the present. We learn there is something that happened in the past to link these 2 characters, and it's clear this was something traumatic, but it's quite a lot of build up before it really gets going. However once this past event is revealed the story really picks up the pace and delivers a tense and twisted ending. I really liked the final chapters but wish it hadn't taken so long to get there.

Unfortunately I didn’t ‘get’ this book, up until i was 70% of the way through I found it extremely slow. The twists and turns were also unbelievable and the ending was completely rushed. The title and synopsis was also incredibly misleading. I waited for something spectacular to happen instead of giving up on the book, as I read other rave reviews ... but this book definitely didn’t have the same effect on me as the people reviewing them.

Very much a tense read, a little bit of a slow burner for me but this just adds to the tension throughout the book !!

Felicity lives with her husband and two children in the Lake District. One morning she sees the news that a girl, Mandy, has gone missing in the town where she grew up. At that moment everything changes for Felicity and she decides she has to return to her hometown, but why ?

Around 16 years ago another girl went missing in the exact same town and in very similar circumstances. After this disappearance Felicity left her hometown and has not been back since. But Felicity knows she needs to return in order to try and save Mandy !!

This is a tense thriller that is told from two different view points. We have Felicity in the present day and Jasmin from 16 years ago. Are the two connected and how do they connect to the two missing girls ? This is a great book that will have you totally engrossed in the lives of Felicity and Jasmin !!

Thank you to Avon Books UK and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book.

I have recently returned to this psychological thriller genre after a long break as I found it was becoming easier to spot the 'twist' before it happened. This book is very much in the tradition of these types of novels - enigmatic references to events of the past, split time frames to gradually reveal what actually happened and the 'twist you won't see coming', but probably will. I passed a happy few hours reading this in my garden but once it was finished I don't remember much about it. It's a good standard within the genre, but not outstanding.

I love katerina diamond so safe to say when this popped up on netgalley I jumped at it! Her previous books (see below for reviews) feature detectives miles and grey but Heatwave is her first stand alone book.
It begins with Felicity watching the news about a missing girl in her home town of sidmouth in Devon. Felicity immediately packs her bags and leaves her husband and children to go back to Sidmouth convinced that this girls disappearence is connected to her past. The story then splits between current day and the past as told by felicity’s best friend at the time, Jasmine . This is a fast paced book with great short chapters, lots of twists and kept me guessing til the end (although my suspicions were partly right I didn’t guess all the twists!). Thanks for the advanced copy #heatwave #katerinadiamond #thriller #bookreview #bookstagram

One summer. One stranger. One killer…
Two bad things happened that summer:
A stranger arrived. And the first girl disappeared.

A fantastic adventure in reading. A superb thriller with more twists than a rollercoaster. I changed my mind about who did the crime more times than I care to admit. I always thought I was good at these types of things, how wrong was I haha.

A brilliant tale of love, jealousy, betrayal and revenge full of twists and turns and intrigue which had me on the edge of my seat.

Highly recommend 5 stars

A girl disappears without a trace and some lives are forever changed and it takes another girl’s disappearance years later to unravel the spool of mystery surrounding it.

The disappearances that are seemingly unrelated are inextricably interconnected.

The story is completely plot driven and that shows as the characters are poorly developed, in fact their actions conflict repeatedly with their intentions both supposed and actual.

I get it that the protagonist is a teenager but her characterization was extremely juvenile, irresponsible and unbelievable.

The repeated references to the secret that our protagonist knows and we do not was highly irritating after a point rather than interesting as I’m sure the author would have initially intended.

Initially I was quite confused as to who our protagonist is but midway the author gives a huge hint that kind of lets you assume half the history.

Also, the real mystery for me was the title here, like how is it actually relevant to the story and apart from the few times the author repeats the title a few times to stress on how hot it was there was no connection that I could think of.

A very basic mystery story and easy to read.

Will be posting the review on my IG @thetravellerofbooks in a couple of days

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

Brilliant. This is an edge of the seat read, Felicity returns home after 16 years to try and find a missing girl. There are so many twists and turns and shocks. Really well written with great strong characters.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Heatwave starts out with the news reporting of a missing girl which makes Felicity drop everything and run back to the place she fled many years before. The question is why did she flee all those years before. Eventually you will find that out. For a large portion of the story it was a slow burn between the past and present. Then the story hits a point of no stopping until you finish. The intensity of the twist is mind blowing! I really liked that I didn’t see it coming and I liked how it played out. Stick with this one because the outcome is well worth it. Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for the ARC!!