A really fast paced read well for me anyway. I loved the twist and the fact mental illnesses are now part of the reading world.
Great story once you get used to the writers writing style

Danni loses her family in a house fire. Her husband, her son and one of her daughters are dead. Niagara the oldest daughter survived because she was able to escape when she broke a window.
Danni is almost sure it was arson. The insurance company will not pay if it was arson. To make matters worse her estranged sister is demanding part of the insurance money.
This is the sister that made her life miserable. Abusing her without an iota of protection from her parents.
All she knows is that she needs to take care of herself and her daughter.
This is a psychological thriller. Lots of unexpected events occur. It is intriguing.
A story of mental illness.

This is my first Kirsty Ferguson read and to be honest I just couldn't get to grips with it. It starts fairly lively but I struggled to follow the structure of the novel.


Danni is positive that the house fire that killed her husband and two of her three children was arson. She also thinks that herself and her eldest daughter Mia were meant to die in the fire too. But she can't understand who would want her family dead.
Danni wants answers but with so many lies it is difficult to untangle the truth.
Too many plot holes and hard to believe situations for me.

I would like to thank both Netgalley and Boldwood Books for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Terribly sorry but I just couldn't understand or enjoy this book. I didnt like the authors writing style at all x

When her husband and two of her three children perish in a devastating house fire, Danni is sure it is arson. She’s even more sure that her and her eldest daughter Mia were meant to die in the fire too.

Great fact paved book! The story was good. I liked the characters of this book.
The writing great. The setting I also enjoyed

If you like fast paced, suspense, great enedings. This is for you

spoiler alert ** I don't think style of writing was for me.

Too much sex,abuse and swearing and No depth to the characters.

However,to give it some positivity,I finished it,and it was action packed.

So, this book has really confused me. I was left flicking back and forth trying to make sense as the book did not flow well for me. To be honest, the plot looked quite promising but it wasn’t well executed at all. Their were a lot of questions left unanswered at the end and the story was full of unrealistic situations.

It is really hard to review this book without spoilers. Most of the problems deal with a major twist and how it resulted in serious plot holes. The structure of the book is also very confusing, not only with multiple unnamed narrators, but also a nonlinear timeline. Again though, that's tied into the big twist at the end. What I can't understand is how no one has recognized all of the flaws up until this point. Not the author, editors, publisher, etc. Because the reveal at the end throws up numerous questions and errors that are not explained.

Essentially, the story is about Danni, a mother coming to grips with the house fire that killed her youngest two children and her husband. She can't understand why someone would target her family, and in such an evil way. So while her eldest daughter, Mia, grieves and refuses to connect with her, Danni retraces the events leading up to the fire as best she can, determined to find the one responsible for destroying her family.

So far, so good. We read about Danni's childhood with a brutally sadistic older sister who somehow abuses Danni continuously and no one cares or notices. Not the parents, teachers, classmates. Nor is it ever explained why her sister torments her, which is another unanswered question that will leave the readers frustrated. Oh, I guess she's just a sociopath, no big deal - no, that just doesn't cut it.

We also read about Mia's troubled secret relationship and another worrying situation with a classmate. When Danni discovers these, she believes that one of them must be responsible. And there's another unanswered question - the principal & guidance counselor's response to the classmate situation. I can't believe a single school would ever react this way, and it's never explained to the reader how or why they would do this and get away with it.

And here's the biggest issue, and it will spoil the surprise so please don't continue if you don't want to know.

SPOILERS BELOW

My issue is not with the truth about Mia, except for her flashback the night of the fire. Unless she died after getting out of the house, there could be no flashback. No, the issue is the flashbacks of Joanne and Christine. Christine's name is called out by another student. So if they knew her as Christine, they could not have known her as Danni, which is the only name she went by at school!. Otherwise, they would have called her name out as Danni. Then with Joanne's character, if she was always sleeping with all the boys, etc. she wouldn't have been the quiet girl Danni who Joe (the most popular guy school) didn't even know! He would have known her as the easy girl any guy could get with, and he sure wouldn't have dated her like he did.

And when she was older and going to the bars, she was already with Joe and pregnant. And Joe just never knew about any of that? In such a small town? And what on earth about that abortion?! When she had and kept 3 pregnancies! Any events that happened as 'Joanne' were real, so how is that supposed to be explained? And why would Joe have ever started dating Beth again (or ever, really) and have a child with her when she was so sadistic to Danni? You can't write that off as just a typical man wanting sex. Flashbacks in Joe's perspective show him truly loving Danni, despising Beth, and ending his cheating.

None of these scenarios make sense. The logistics of Joanne and Christine don't work and it's like the reader is supposed to be so amazed by the twist that they don't see the holes. I just don't get it, because if these flaws weren't there, this could have been a great story. But there is no way that readers won't end up thoroughly confused. And I did enjoy the style of writing, it was a definite page turner and that's why the disappointment was so great, because I was eagerly awaiting a conclusion that brought it all together and made sense. But all it brought was frustration.


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Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Danni's husband and two of her three kids died in a house fire. This book kept me interested from the first page to the very end. I cant wait to read Kirsty's next book.