The Dare - Lesley Kara

Lizzie should be happy, newly engaged to Ross, a successful GP, and moving into their first house together.

Two dark shadows loom over Lizzie's life. She is epileptic, and her childhood best friend Alice was killed by a train. Lizzie was the only person present but has no memory of what actually happened as she was having an epileptic seizure at the time.

Using a past and present narrative, (the events in childhood around the tragic death of Alice, and Lizzie in her mid twenties), the psychological drama creeps up. Haunted by the past and increasingly fearful of the future, Lizzie starts to doubt those closest to her.

Atmospheric, empathetic and easy reading drew me then swept me along, and then the tension ramps up in the second half building to a very satisfying finale.

I have to say Lizzie's epilepsy is one of the best uses of a medical condition in a character I've read. It is sensitively handed and provides a constant source of anxiety keeping Lizzie and the reader on edge, and opens up many interesting plot lines.

I couldn't wait to read this, Lesley Kara's previous novel 'Who Did You Tell?' was one of my favourite reads of last year.

The Dare is very accomplished and original, it didn't grab me quite as hard as 'Who Did You Tell?' but is still recommended.

4*

Thanks to Netgalley.

I will post review to Amazon & Facebook nearer publication date.

Wow! I wasn’t expecting all the twists in this book! I really enjoyed it. I thought it was well written, fast paced with a very good storyline that just keeps you reading. This latest book from Lesley Kara doesn’t disappoint. I definitely recommend, thank you #netgalley

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this amazing book

a twisting psychological thriller...didnt realise this when i started reading it and as i got further into the storyline i had one thought uh oh know where this is going ..shall i carry on but i am glad i did as i really didnt see the whole picture and i had guessed some of it wrong....

two best friends lizzie and alice....but one has a terrible accident and the other feels the guilt at that death, as she cant remember what happened that day

but someone is trying to find out the truth

so many twists and turns and some shocking revelations that make this book a must read, brilliant characterization
cant wait for the next book from this author

I’d like to thank Random House UK, Transworld Publishers and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The Dare’ by Lesley Kara in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Thirteen-year-old Alice and Lizzie are best friends but on the 19th July 2007 Alice is struck by a train and dies on impact. Lizzie suffers from epilepsy and can’t remember what happened as she was having a seizure, although Alice’s sister Catherine has always believed Lizzie was lying and deliberately caused the accident. Twelve years later Lizzie is engaged to Ross the local doctor and moves in with him but when she unpacks boxes from her childhood the memories of that traumatic day start to come back to her.

‘The Dare’ is a well-written and gripping thriller that’s kept me enthralled from the first page to the last. It relates what happened before and after Alice’s accident and is full of suspense, drama and intrigue that kept me guessing throughout. The further I got into the story the more chilling it became until I couldn’t stop reading as I had to know what was going to happen next. The massive twist half-way through came as a great surprise and the second twist nearing the end was shocking and totally unexpected. This is an amazing book that I thoroughly enjoyed and can recommend without hesitation.

Although I really enjoyed this book it definitely wasn’t a ‘thriller’ until about half way through after the big twist was revealed. I enjoyed that I didn’t see it coming and the second half of the book was definitely entertaining and kept me reading until the end. Overall, a rather tame thriller with a few unexpected twists and turns that’ll keep you wanting to read more.

My true rating for this book is 3.5 stars. I received a copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is the story of Lizzie. She has just moved in with her fiancé Ross who is a G.P. Lizzie is epileptic and when she was 13 she suffered a seizure whilst walking with her best friend Alice near train tracks. When Lizzie regains consciousness finds Alice dead beside her and no memory of what happened just before her seizure. Now 10 years later Lizzie starts receiving silent calls and finds a toy train strategically placed where she was sure to see it.

This was a fast paced psychological thriller. As someone who has read a lot of this genre a lot of the twists I could see coming a mile off. There was a few that I was kicking myself for not guessing. I enjoyed the story but I don’t think that it brought anything new to the genre but if you haven’t read many psychological thrillers it is a great one to start with.

Another phenomenal psychological thriller. I think Lesley Kara's books have the most twists, turns, and shocks than any other author. Absolutely brilliant.

The Dare is a complex and very twisted thriller which sees us introduced to Lizzie, a lady who has had a fractured past and has suffered all her life with epilepsy. As a child Lizzie befriended Alice, who she perceived to be much more beautiful and well liked than she was and as such basked in her glory and at the same time felt jealous of it. Since their early teen friendship started neither girls parents welcomed it nor the other girl, which seemed strange to Lizzie. After an epileptic episode Lizzie is confused always as to what happened and how much she has imagined and when on a walk in their later teens Alice is fatally injured on a train track, while Lizzie suffers a seizure and remembers only an argument beforehand.
In later life Lizzie meets handsome Ross and falls in love but when Alice’s sister Catherine appears years later as a nurse at his practice she seems to have changed from the vindictive girl mourning her sister and blaming Lizzie, but is this all too good to be true?
There are many twists and turns on the way and a very climatic ending making this a worthy read for those enjoying this genre of psychological thriller.
Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review..

“As a child, it was just a game. As an adult, it was a living nightmare.
'This time it's different. She's gone too far now.
She really has.'”
Lizzie is engaged to Ross. Twelve years ago she was with her friend Alice when she was killed by a train. Lizzie had one of her epileptic fits and doesn’t remember what happened until she woke up to find Alice dead and the train driver standing near her. She has tried to move on but wishes she could remember what happened to her best friend that day. She starts getting silent calls and finds a toy train on the wall outside their house. She is then staggered to find that Alice’s sister Catherine works at the same surgery as Ross. When she mentions this to her parents she gets the same “ stay away” messages as she got years ago when she was friends with Alice. What are they hiding and who is behind the messages and why? I quickly got into this and felt for Lizzie. Her characters comes across incredibly well. We get snippets of the past as if in someone's memory intermingled with the present day. A cleverly crafted tale that keeps the pages turning and with a wonderful final twist. If you like an edge of your seat read- read on! Loved it!
(rest of links as part of blog tour)

I really enjoyed this book. During an epileptic seizure, teenage Lizzie’s best friend Alice is killed by a train. Lizzie is the only witness but has never known what happened, despite Alice’s sister never believing her and stalking her for some time afterwards. Now, Lizzie is in a relationship with a respectable man and there are lots of reminders of the accident – a train left on their front wall, someone phoning with the sound of trains behind them but not speaking. Will Lizzie ever remember what happened? I read this book in one day, not wanting to put it down. Everything starts to become clear in the second part of the book, which makes a nice change from having to wait until the end for things to pull together. Highly recommended.

This book is an easy to read psychological thriller - it didn’t absolutely wow me but it was okay.

The plot held a lot of promise and I think it was mostly delivered well - there’s a good level of suspense that is maintained throughout and a few well-placed, if not a tad predictable, twists. I don’t really have any strong feelings about this book in either direction, I just unfortunately didn’t feel that gripped and struggled to connect with main character Lizzie. I totally appreciate with fiction stories that the reader needs to allow for dramatics and have an open mind but I felt that some of the situations Lizzie found herself in were too far on the side of unbelievable to even picture as remotely possible scenarios that could happen in reality. I did like the alternating timelines between Lizzie’s past and present which offered a comprehensive insight into the reasons why she is the way she is in her current life.

While The Dare isn’t a book that will stay with me, it was fairly entertaining in places and an easy read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first Lesley Kara book and I loved it!

Lizzie, the main character, is much stronger than I initially thought and not the naive woman I was worried she was going to be. I was so engrossed in her secret that I had to keep reading just to find out what really happened the day her best friend died. Her fiancé Ross really split my opinion, there were moments I felt sorry for him followed by moments I hated him. He was an interesting character whom I don't feel we really got to know.

The story has lots of twists and turns and throws in quite a few curveballs I wasn't expecting. It's full of drama, dark secrets and surprises. A very well written book!

If you like psychological thrillers then this is one for you. I will most definitely be reading Lesley Kara's back catalogue and will patiently await her new releases.

After the triumph of ‘The Rumour’ and the follow up of ‘who did you tell?’ I wondered how Book 3 would compare
It compares well
Here we meet Lizzie, still grieving over the death of her best friend Alice 12 years earlier, but she is settled in a new home, has a great partner and is thinking of going to Uni as she has always wanted to, life is generally good
But the past has a way of becoming the present and with the unwelcome arrival of someone from that past, (someone Lizzie would prefer never to have seen again) all bets are off and the story takes a terrifying turn and turns into a full on race against time psychological thriller
Great characters, red herrings a plenty and genuine shocks and surprises made this a ‘want to read quick book’ and was a more than satisfying tale that spanned years, families, secrets and revenge
Epilepsy features in the book and was written about well and informatively and gave the reader a personal insight into this illness
Exciting and dramatic and I had no need to wonder if Book 3 would be as good as the previous 2

10/10
5 Stars

Overall a competent story. It did take me a while to get into this book as it was a slow burner and the storyline didn't really hold my complete attention at times. Ok characters but not a page turner for me .Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to review it.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

The story centres around Lizzie. Lizzie has recently moved in with her G.P. boyfriend, Ross. We also know that Lizzie suffers from epilepsy and her seizures can be quite big ones.
The story is told from two timelines — before and after her best friend, Alice, died when they were thirteen. Alice was killed by a train on a crossing, and Lizzie had suffered a seizure just before, so can’t remember what happened. Alice’s elder sister, Catherine, had held a grudge against Lizzie after, leading to Lizzie and her parents moving away.
Lizzie is ready now to start her new life with Ross, until odd things start to happen. And with those odd things, come revelations and long buried secrets.

I really liked this book, it was full of twists and turns. The writing was great, and flowed nicely throughout. I liked the characters, but I didn’t relate to them much. I would recommend this book to any fans of the psychological thriller genre.

Alice and Lizzie are best friends. Inseparable but they also have their ups and downs and, like all 13 year olds, do fight on occasion. Sadly, tragedy strikes as Alice is killed in an accident on a train line. Lizzie is found near by coming round from an epileptic fit, and with no memory of the events leading up to what happened. We see in flashback the events before, and following the accident. We witness the friendship between the two girls. We see how Lizzie tries to cop after Alice's death. How Alice's sister turns on her. Back in the present and Lizzie is coping well. She still has little memory of what happened although she does get the odd nightmare. Her epilepsy is more or less under control and she has just moved in with her GP fiance Ross.
But her past is thrown back into her present when she and Ross host a house-warming party and he invites people from work. Lizzie is shocked to see that Alice's sister Catherine is now a practice nurse working with Ross. She was so cruel to Lizzie after Alice's death, blaming her, determined to find the truth at all costs, believing that Lizzie knew more than she was telling. But, all these years have appeared to have mellowed Catherine and she wants to make amends for how she treated Lizzie. But is she really sorry or does she have a whole other agenda...? And that's all I am saying about this book. All I can say really as I fear to say more might inject spoilers.
I can say that this book had me spinning around chasing my tail quite a few times throughout my time spent with it. It also delivered a few sucker punches that left me reeling. It takes a lot to pull the wool over my eyes so totally but here the author excels. Oh and without leaving me feeling cheated too. I did feel that this was initially a bit slow burning - but when you get to the crux of things you'll see exactly how and why that was important. There are many layers to build up - both in the present and the past - and these need to be savoured as the provide the foundations to the house around Lizzie that the author spends the rest of the book breaking down.
Characterisation is on the whole good but there was one character that didn't quite convince me. They seemed to be a contradiction of themself. I'd love to explain but it would spoil things so I can't, but it did annoy me throughout the book so I have to mention it here.
That said, it gripped me from the first page, held me captive throughout, spitting me out at the end on the whole satisfied. The past was injected into the narrative in just the right places to add background and colour to what was going on in the present.
Pacing was good albeit as already mention slow initially, but it was assisted by having no superfluous padding to distract. There were a few things I found to be a tad implausible but the rest of the book was good enough for me to easily forgive my niggles.
All in all, although not as strong as the author's previous books, a good solid read nevertheless. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I have read all of Lesley Kara's previous novels and have really enjoyed them. This book was no exception.
Kara's writing style is just perfect - I flew through this book, and was gripped right from the start.
I loved how the book was structured and paced too - going back and forth in time, and looking from different character perspectives. I think this worked because there were not too many characters - sometimes when a book does this with lots of characters I get a bit lost, but this was just perfect!

It drip feeds information at just the right pace, that it doesn't feel like a bombardment at the end, but keeps you reading and keeps you engrossed throughout.

I will continue to read everything Lesley Kara brings out!

(The only reason I couldn't give this book the full 5 * was it became a little far fetched at the end.)

This was my first Lesley Kara book, but I saw that people with similar taste in books to me were enjoying this so I decided to request it.

I've seen some reviews say that the first half was slow going and I can see what they mean but in my opinion it's important to get the amount of back story we did for the twist to have an impact. Speaking of the twist, I didn't see it coming so kudos to the author for managing to pull the wool over my eyes.

I definitely really enjoyed this and couldn't put it down, but there's something stopping me from giving it full marks. I didn't particularly relate to any of the characters and whilst I really enjoyed the story, I'm not sure how memorable it will turn out to be.

I would recommend this and I would also be interested in reading more by the author.

The Dare written by Lesley Kara is a well written psychological thriller. I read this book in one day and couldn't stop reading it. I wanted all my questions answered.

A horrific accident happened when Lizzie was 13 years old. Her best friend Alice was hit by a train. Lizzie suffers epilepsy and had a turn right when the tragedy occurred. She has no recollection of why or how it happened and is blamed and bullied for Alice's death. The story is told in both past and present and I enjoyed learning about Lizzie and what she went through after Alice died.

This is my first Lesley Kara book and it definitely won't be my last. An absolutely crazy ride full of lies, betrayal, revenge and heartache. If a psychological thriller is right up your alley you definitely need to read The Dare.

Thank you Netgalley and Bantam Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lizzie and Alice are best friends eventhough each of their family didn't really approve their friendship. Alice unfortunately died in the train track, and Catherine, Alice's sister, seems to think that Lizzie was the one pushed Alice. Lizzie didn't remember what happened as she had a seizure when the accident happened.
The story is alternated between past and present. In present, Lizzie is now living in Blackheath with her fiance, Ross. Ross hasn't known about Lizzie's past up until Catherine shows up in their life as Ross' colleague.
Another read from Lesleykara which made me hooked from the start, as I know there'll be surprised twists and turns.