Shari Lapena writes gripping, unputdownable books and this one was no different. Her books are exciting and very enjoyable to read. I read well into the night on this one as I found it hard to stop reading! Looking forward to her next page turner....

I’ve enjoyed all Shari Lapena’s books: they’re entertaining and thrilling reads and her fifth novel is no exception!

Set in 2018, The End of Her tells the story of Stephanie, 30, and Patrick Kilgour, 32, who live in a suburb in Aylesford, New York, with their four-month-old twins, Emma and Jackie. The couple are finding it hard to cope and surviving on only a few hours’ disrupted sleep as their girls suffer from colic and fuss most of the night. Patrick is an architect and a partner in a small firm and is struggling to concentrate due to the sleep deprivation. His partner, Niall Foote, is concerned by his lack of focus at work.

When a woman from his past turns up for an interview for an admin role at the firm, Patrick is shocked. He hasn’t seen Erica Voss for over nine years, since he left Colorado, and she is a link to a tragic incident in his past. Why is she appearing in his life now? It can’t be a coincidence!

Erica emails and asks to meet Patrick and he reluctantly agrees to see her in a local bar, curious to find out what she wants. A few days later, they meet again and Erica warns him that she is going to ask the police to reinvestigate the death of his pregnant first wife, Lindsey, if him and Stephanie don’t pay her some money to keep quiet. Lindsey’s death was ruled accidental and never properly looked into.

Stephanie’s parents died in a car crash when she was a teenager and, as an only child, she was the sole recipient of their wealth of more than two million dollars. This money was put into a trust and she received it all on her 30th birthday, which was only a couple of months ago. Stephanie and Patrick decided not to make a prenup when they got married, as they were so in love.

Patrick confesses to Stephanie about what happened to his first wife and, at first, she completely believes her husband and is sure he’s innocent of any wrongdoing but then certain things are revealed that make her question whether she actually knows Patrick at all.

Stephanie and Patrick’s seemingly lovely life gets thrown into increasing turmoil as accusations are made, events get out of control and all that they know appears to be falling apart. Will the couple’s marriage be able to survive the strain or will everything be ruined forever?

Erica is cunning and intent on dragging everyone into her web of deceit so that she has as much of a hold over people as she can. She’s done her homework and knows the ins and outs of their lives – she has dirt on several people and knows how to blackmail them. She relies on them not talking to each other – as they feel guilty of their actions – to get away with her misdemeanours. She’s also good at keeping track of people without them being aware that she’s even there – she initially pretends to both Stephanie and neighbour, Hanna Bright, that she’s planning to move into the area and checks out a house that is for sale.

I really felt for poor Stephanie – the twins sounded exhausting and she was really struggling to stay sane due to the lack of sleep. She kept doing daft things as she was so tired and ended up not being able to think straight about anything. She grew closer to Hanna as the story progressed but lacked a good support network to help her through the early baby months.

There were lots of twists and turns in this novel and I wasn’t really sure who to trust – everyone seemed to be keeping secrets and lying about what they were up to. There were several red herrings and some misdirection that had me suspecting all kinds of things! I was trying to guess what was happening and kept changing my mind. This was definitely an intriguing and absorbing read.

Overall, I really enjoyed this dark, chilling, well-plotted story. It was intense and fast paced and I raced through this in a few hours, frantically turning the pages, desperate to find out how it was all going to be resolved. With that dramatic ending, I wasn’t disappointed! I’m already looking forward to the author’s next book.

Patrick and Stephanie are just another happily married couple. Parents to new born twins, they are both sleep deprived, especially Stephanie who is really struggling but that won’t last forever. Patrick’s partnership at his architectural business is doing ok and life is good.

Step up Erica Voss. Best friend to Patrick’s late wife Lindsey. Erica accuses Patrick of murdering Lindsey and wants money to keep quiet. He insists it was investigated at the time and was found to be an accident. Erica however won’t be put off so easily and is determined to get her money somehow.

Erica is a bit of a she-devil. We discover that Patrick is not the only person she is blackmailing and the story connects with other people also caught in her web. Heaven help you once Erica has you in her sights!

This was a quick read that I flew through. Erica was such an awful person, clearly out to make as much money as she could that she couldn’t possibly be telling the truth. Could she? This is the thing with this story, you think you know and then those doubts start creeping in. Who is lying and can you believe everything you are being told!

The character that I felt the most sympathy for was Stephanie. Caught up in the whole shebang, not knowing who she could trust. I couldn’t decide for sure either.

The End of Her is a fast paced and suspenseful domestic thriller that will have you wondering which way is up! Full of twists and surprises, even if some may seem a little unbelievable, it ended in a way that I wasn’t expecting. Very enjoyable and entertaining.

My thanks to Thomas Hill of Transworld for the place on the tour and for providing a copy for review via Netgalley.

The End of Her follows Stephanie and Patrick Kilgour, recently married and living in Aylesford in New York. Their two twins keep them up at night and it exhausts them. Otherwise, they’re settling into married life and enjoying their quiet life.

Patrick has hidden elements of his past from Stephanie including about Lindsey, his previous wife. After her tragic death, he moved to New York and tried to build a new life. He became a partner in his own architectural firm and married Stephanie.

Their lives change with the arrival of Erica, who had been Lindsey’s best friend. Quickly, Erica catapults them into a new reality. Patrick is fearful of how his past might unsettle their new lives.

The pace is quick and told from multiple perspectives with interlinked characters. Different threads are woven together, which hook you in and keep you guessing.

The End of Her is a well-written thriller, full of suspense and easy to read.

Wow this is another amazing, addictive read from Shari Lapena! If you haven’t read any of her previous novels you are seriously missing out and must go get them, now! I was thrilled to be invited to be part of this exciting blog tour and read this exciting new novel!

I was hooked! Stephanie and Patrick are recently married and have newly-born twins at home. Stephanie and Patrick are struggling with balancing their new responsibilities of having twins in their lives, from the sleep deprivation, to the fussy, colicky crying, and are going about their day to day lives when suddenly someone from Ptrick’s past resurfaces – a woman by the name of Erica. She contacts Patrick and claims to be able to blow up his entire life as he knows it, and blackmails him to keep her mouth shut. Is what she is saying true, or is she conniving and blackmailing Patrick to get money and make his life miserable?

I enjoyed reading this interesting dynamic and Erica surely was an interesting character in the book. She made things dark and mysterious, and made me question Patrick and his past, as well as his motives in the present. Does Stephanie truly know her husband, or is he (and has he) kept secrets from her? Who do we trust? Are their full truths or only half-truths. It is an addictive, page-turning read as you learn what is truly going on and the secrets and betrayals are revealed.

A definite must-read that you need to get your hands on ASAP! I am looking forward to Shari Lapena’s next novel!

A blog tour invitation for a Shari Lapena book is going to be an automatic yes, and The End Of Her was no different. I don’t think I even read the synopsis properly before emailing back. Some might think that was odd but knowing this author, I knew she would deliver and quite frankly I was in safe hands.

A sleep deprived mother already feeling on edge. A face from the past. Accusations that could have very serious implications for Stephanie and Patrick. We have a knifes edge amount of tension and the plot has a rubix’s cube level of intricacy that made my brain hurt.

A woman from Patricks past, Erica, is one of those characters that you just love to hate. You know that she’s there to cause trouble and dissidence in their marriage, but her actions have you turning those persistent pages at a rapid pace. If this had been a paperback copy I had no doubt that I would have been nursing some savage papercuts. The unique voices of the characters had me up and down like a yo-yo. The emotion, the worry and the stress called to the deepest parts of me. I wanted to reach out and hug Stephanie and I wanted to slap the hell out of Erica for her tactless interlude on their lives.

Erica’s actions are like a bolt out the blue. Apart from the obvious reasonings for stirring the pot what was the link between these three characters? I needed to check under every rock, leave no stone unturned. Did I have to examine every action and every word for a hidden meaning? The End of Her was never boring, it was a cold hand creeping onto your shoulder down a dark alley. It kept me on my toes and the narrative felt like a punch to the jugular at times.

What I enjoyed most about The End Of Her was Shari Lapena’s mind-blowing skill of using a wide spectrum of emotions to convey important aspects of the plot. She can write a soft character; a brutal character and the narrative is utterly compelling. I completely fell in love with the prose. The pages came to life and I was just basking in her skilful glow.

I flew through the book and although I have been deliberately obtuse in regard to the plot, all I can say is, read it – I don’t want to give any little detail away. I don’t want to ruin the experience of this spectacular psychological thriller. Every clue leads down a solitary road and believe me, it’s one you want to travel. This book is worth the cerebral investment and your brain will relish the time taken to pick apart the details.

The End Of Her is a chilling novel that never lets up. The slow burning sense of imminent danger that results in a train hitting you. Dark suspense at its best.

Thanks to Thomas Hill @Transworld Books for an ecopy of the book and my spot on the blog tour.

This book was so gripping, I was hooked from the moment I started and I ended up reading this book within a day! As I turned each page, the suspense and thrill was just building up … I had to find the answers!

From the beginning, I felt sympathy for Stephanie in being a first time mum with twins, going through the exhaustion of hardly any sleep, to having endless problems thrown at her throughout. I can only imagine how it must have felt when Erica turned up telling her about Patrick’s first wife and the circumstances of her death, and how conveniently Patrick was only after her for her money. However, from the way Shari writes, you were constantly guessing whether Erica did it, or Patrick did it, was it a mistake?

When Patrick gets put on trail for the murder of his previous wife, it is clear that Stephanie is unsure whether the believe the facts presented or her husband. After her husband comes home, Stephanie decides to take the matter into her own hands… Who killed Patrick and Erica?

Without a doubt, this has to be one of the best psychological thrillers that I have read this year!

This was yet again another fantastic book by Shari Lapena. I was thinking throughout the book did he really do it. To me what makes an amazing thriller is when you don’t figure out the twists and turns before it happens and yet again I was shocked at the twist in this book.

Having read Shari Lapena's debut novel The Couple Next Door a few years ago I jumped at the chance to join The End Of Her book tour. What I love about Lapena's writing is that it hooks you straight away and draws you in. There is something comforting about the domestic drama that starts to unfold as you turn the pages but before you know it you are caught up in a chilling thriller where the pace doesn't let up.

The characters were well developed and I was completely at a loss as to who to believe. Every character had their own set of secrets which made the lies and the truth become very blurred at times. This made it every bit the twisted psychological thriller which I adored. I had no idea where the plot was going, who the reliable characters were or how it was going to end but oh my just like her previous books what an ending! It left me breathless with a huge smile on my face.

Many thanks to Thomas Hill at Transworld Books for inviting me to read this book and to NetGalley for an ARC.

I read this for a blog tour.

This was a very clever, twisting narrative and it was hard at times to figure out who was telling the truth, turning the reader into Stephanie, with conflicting stories that all sound like they could just be true...

The writing was compelling and the plot had me gripped, the deeply ambiguous ending and the sudden twists as well as the subplot concerning another family threatened by the same conniving blackmailer is equally intriguing.

Holy moly, this is one addictive book! I'm a big fan of Lapena's story telling, and this is another belter.

We meet Stephanie and Patrick - new parents to twin girls who are giving them hell every evening with colic. Both are severely sleep deprived and completely frazzled. When Erica shows up in Patrick's office for an interview his life comes crashing down around him.

Erica claims she knows that the tragic death of Patrick's first wife wasn't an accident as it was ruled by the police 10 years ago...she knows that Patrick had more to do with it than he has let on. Erica will stay silent, but it will cost them...

At first Stephanie is staunchly supports her husband. Why wouldn't she? She trusts him implicitly. When certain facts come to light about his late wife, Stephanie begins to question everything. She becomes irrational due to sleep depravation and her life unravels.

I absolutely detested Erica. She was maniuplative, scheming and was willing to do anything to make herself large sums of money...this is one character you will love to hate! She wants to get at Patrick and does this both directly (by approaching him and Stephanie) and indirectly by managing to weasle into the lives of those around him.

The tension that builds up throughout the story is palpable. In fact the more tense it got, the more I couldn't put it down. I just had to know the truth!

The ending was totally unexpected for me. I thought I had a good idea as to where the story was heading, but Lapena pulled the rug from under me! The epilogue is an absolute belter.

If you want an engrossing read this summer, then this is most definitley for you.

A 4 star read for me!