Hello, Sonia. We need to talk because my poor noggin was NOT ready for what happened.
Brace yourself for this absolutely wild little read:

✨ Two women, one man situ
✨ One family in Dubai melting in the heat
✨ The other making pals with DPD
✨ One VERY FUCKING CLEVER connection

Let me introduce you to your new pals. First up you’ve got Connie – a nice sounding lady who’s coerced into moving to Dubai ’cause of her husband’s job. Poor Con never quite fit into the typical westerner-in-Dubai vibe and struggles with the idea of help around the house. Said husband (AKA Mark) is, however LOVING life with his newfound freedom and taking advantage of Connie’s nice nature.

Mark is a bit of a wanker. Let’s not beat around the bush with that one – he’s manipulative, controlling and absolutely doesn’t deserve Connie. The Christmas incident with his parents was one of the many reasons I’d like to hurtle this chunk of man-meat directly into the sun but let’s not dwell on that ground-snuffler for any longer than needed.

And then there’s Stella. Stella’s life is on the other end of the spectrum. Whilst Connie is living what most people would call a dream ex-pat life, Stella is living in the miserable UK looking after her dementia-riddled and very toxic mother whilst befriending the DPD man. As someone on a first-name basis with my local DPD lad, this probably hit me a little closer than anticipated.

Stella’s life is rock bottom. With no way out, tragedy strikes which bind these two women together in a way you probably will never see coming.

I read Ms Velton’s Blackberry and Wild Rose back in 2019 and let me tell you these books couldn’t be any further from each other. Whilst BaWR will always have a wee snug spot in my heart, The Image of Her takes on a completely different world. And you know what, she fucking nails it. Whatever genre she goes for next, I’ll be ready to pour it into my eyeballs.

SO if you’re after a clever AF plot, characters that will warm your cold, dead heart with a little sprinkle of science, you should absolutely grab this book.

I’m also NOT ashamed to admit that the name of the book has actual meaning until the end. Sometimes I’m smart, but not today.

Stella and Connie are strangers who are brought together by something so completely unexpected. Stella lives in the UK and is caring for her mother, who has dementia. Connie lives in Dubai with her husband and children. The women have never met but a cruel twist of fate means that their worlds collide.

Sonia Velton has written an utterly gripping page-turner, which I finished in a day. The story starts with intrigue. Who are these women? And what is their connection? The author leads you down some very convincing paths but the reveal takes some time and when it comes it is electrifying.

I was completely absorbed in the stories of both of these women. Their characters were so well-written and I was easily drawn into their very different lives.

How they are connected is an enigma and just when you think the missing piece of the puzzle is within reach, the plot takes an about-turn and the totally unexpected happens. The final scene is stunning.

I loved this book. It was a thrilling read, which I highly recommend.

*Many thanks to Netgalley and Quercus Books for a review copy in exchange for an honest opinion. *

Two women who have never met, one in Dubai, one in the UK, divided by place but their lives do have parallels and they connect together in the most astonishing of ways. In the UK we have Stella who has lived with her mother for most of her life and struggles to care for her when she is diagnosed with dementia and then is housebound due to a tragedy. In Dubai we have Connie, married to Mark and who has two children and is struggling with the ex-pat life.

This is such a good book, in fact, I’d go so far as to say it’s impressive. It’s extremely well written, it’s clever and a compelling read that is very hard to put down as you want to find out what connects them as you become invested in their lives. I do guess about half way through which does not in any way detract but also because there are still plenty of surprises to come. Stella’s sections are fantastic, she’s in a form of dialogue with Connie and she breaks your heart in so many ways but the root of her issues can be laid firmly at the feet of her narcissistic and controlling mother. She really is something else and you see all of Stella’s ambitions and wishes fall away, you feel her emotions and understand why she has so little self esteem. She becomes trapped in her mothers house and at one point her only contact is a delivery man, her isolation and loneliness are palpable. This contrasts sharply with Connie’s Dubai existence where she seems to want for nothing until you appreciate that her life also feels empty, although she loves her children, motherhood isn’t sustaining her. The relationships in the book are sharply and keenly observed from the toxic one with Stella and her mum to the strains within Connie’s family. All the characterisation is good and all are easy to visualise. There is one appalling element in the Dubai storyline that should raise everyone’s social conscience and you applaud Connie for her help. It is with a sense of impending doom that you read on, there are some jaw dropping shocks, multiple twists that arise organically through the alternate perspectives as you get to the truth. I like the way the novel ends, it feels right.

Overall, this is a thought provoking book that takes a broader stance than just the two women. Through their lives we look at the difficulties of being a carer, it raises social issues, there is tragedy in both lives which make you feel a range of emotions. Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Quercus for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

From page one I was hooked on this book. I had to know the relationship between the two women and I couldn't stop reading until I found out.
Stella looks after her mother who has dementia. Connie lives in Dubai with her husband and two children. What could possibly connect them?
We learn early on that Stella knows Connie's husband, Mark. How?
I can't go much further without spoilers and this is one book that definitely must unravel at the reader's pace.
Towards the end, when we learn what has happened I saw an inevitable scenario which I saw coming but didn't want it to happen.
If you want an absorbing read with an ending that is slowly revealed please buy this book.

The Image of Her is a stunning book that hooks you in from beginning to end.
The writing style is beautiful, the plot is engaging (the themes treated are incredibly interesting) and the characters are so real you almost feel what they're feeling.
I could guess how Stella and Connie were connected quite early in the book (there were a couple of hints that gave it out for me), but it didn't take away the enjoyment of going on reading at all, on the contrary, it made me want to know more and more about their stories.
I can't talk about this book without giving away too much about the plot and risking spoiling it, but this was definitely a great read, highly recommended!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Two different women,with completely different lives,living in different countries and a drip feed of clues as to how they might be connected.

Stella so obviously damaged not just by her accident,but by her controlling mother is the star of the show,as she reveals what happens to both women,and how she moves forwards.
I puzzled for ages over what connected them,but there are enough clues along the way for it not to be a surprise.
I've not read Velton before,but will definitely be looking out for her first book now.

The Image of Her

A beautiful , unusual , very cleverly thought out story of two very different woman Stella & Connie who's lives meet in the most usual of ways .
I cannot put into words just how amazingly emotional and complex this story is . A beautiful poignant read.
Loved it.

A page-turner for sure - but by the end it seems to me that the substance of the connection between the two women has gone relatively unexplored even though that's where the author's research has been focused. I think the reason is that this is structured as a psychological thriller with quick shifting narrative turns, and the necessity to hold back the reveal till the end means that the topic at its heart can't be given a central place in the book - which is a shame. Without knowing what it is till almost the end, the connection is random and the stories don't really throw light on each other.

That apart, I was far more invested in Connie's story though the expat in Dubai plot follows not unexpected routes. The toxic mother-daughter relationship is one well treated in contemporary fiction and some of the key notes such as the revelations at the end have been done extensively in other books.

I'm sounding a bit underwhelmed and should correct this by saying I read the book in a day so it's definitely engrossing. But the structural avoidance of the crux of the book didn't really work for me, and turned this from something thoughtful and emotive into a beach-read mystery.

The Image of Her is one of my favourites for this year. A very clever premise begins when Stella writes to Connie, a woman she has never actually met in real life. It then alternates between Stella's point of view with Connie's life and we learn the connection between the two women.

This is a book that has been well researched but doesn't drown the prose. Instead, we learn so much about both characters and the twists and turns their lives take. Why does reclusive Stella in the UK stalk Connie, who lives in Dubai, on social media wanting to learn everything about this woman she can?

A very clever story, well told and a highly recommended read. Many thanks to NetGalley and Quercus for the opportunity to read and review The Image of Her.

And breathe. I didn’t realise I was holding my breath quite so much reading this book until I got to the end and I felt myself relax and take a breath. This book is brilliant. It is so well written in terms of characters, plot, and locations, it really is the whole deal. The atmosphere is incredibly intense and almost claustrophobic as we follow both Stella’s and Connie’s stories. The way both characters are written you feel that you really get to know and understand them and become quite invested in their stories. The way their stories interlink is so clever as we alternate between narratives. I know it might be an over used term talking about the twists and turns of a story but seriously this book delivers them perfectly. You might think you know where the story is heading at times but you really don’t. The twists are actually delivered in quite an understated way rather than in a shocking sensationalist way, which is one of the reasons why it is so brilliant. This book is a slow and steady read as the story of Stella and Connie’s life’s unravels. This is definitely one of my favourite books of 2021 so far.

I recently read Blackberry and Wild Rose by this author and absolutely loved it, so I was so pleased to be approved for this book by the same author.

Yet again Sonia does it again with weaving incredible stories that really suck you in. Descriptive writing and imagery as well as an incredible cover. Highly recommend to any and everyone

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in an exchange for an honest review.

I had read and enjoyed Blackberry & Wild Rose, Sonia Velton's debut so I thought I'd give this a go To be honest I was not disappointed. A very clever, well-written story, beautifully crafted. Fabulous. Cannot wait for the next one.

This book has it all - heartfelt storyline, interesting characters, and a story you want to read on to find out more. Looking forward to reading more of Sonia Velton's books. Overall I enjoyed this one!

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

If you're after a book with a twisty plot that leaves you breathless, then look no further!! As I was reading this story I was wondering just where it was going... boy was I wrong!! It completely got me, and I loved how you were taken on these absorbing journeys with these 2 women, both so different in character and with such different backgrounds.

Connie and Stella are the women in question, and you get to hear their stories through their eyes in each chapter. Connie is married to Mark, has children and lives in Dubai where her husbands job has taken the family and she's feeling that she is wanting more from her life. She doesn't feel she's fitting in with the lifestyle she's supposed to be leading over there and cracks are beginning to appear in her marriage.

Stella has had to give up her life to care for her mother who has dementia. That is taking a toll and the stress is building up. She's always born the brunt of her mothers temper and anger after her father left them, but she's left with no option to put up with the cruel taunts and little appreciation from her mother.

The story takes the form of Stella 'stalking' Connie via social media, wanting to know anything and everything about this woman and her life. And we can all learn so much from a profile and the amount of photos shared online - it makes us feel we know a person, without even meeting them. As the story unfolds we hear some shocking twists and turns that really add depth to the story and had me frantically turning the pages to find out more!!

This was a thrilling piece of work, that really worked so cleverly as you built up these clear images of these women and their lives and got to see beneath the surface of their lives and it made for a really compelling plot!!

This is kind of a 3.5 because of the unexpected ending. I was offered this for review and, whilst it's not what I usually read, I picked it up because I really, really loved Velton's first book, Blackberry & Wild Rose. (There are always exceptions, right? Good writing can always surprise you. I was hoping to be surprised. )

Here, Velton uses a similar style, segueing seamlessly between Stella's narrative of her new life and snippets of Connie's old one. There's a mystery to how these two women could possibly be connected. Their lives are so disparate, so separate - how would they ever have met? There's only one person who links them, Connie's husband Mark. And for the most part, you see Connie drawing away from her husband, suspecting him of cheating on her, and you hear Stella wanting to know more about this mystery woman she's stalking on facebook, drawing closer to her - and to him and...

This was honestly where I got bored because one of the reasons I don't quite like reading literary fiction (or what's mostly touted as literary) nowadays is the whole prolonged drama about marriage infidelity.

ANYWAYS I pushed on because annoying as the subject matter was, the writing is good enough that I wasn't throwing things at the wall. I was more invested in Stella, honestly, because of the mystery of her accident and what really happened between her and her mother. Connie's was a very manufactured entitled-white-woman-expat drama that I found myself rolling my eyes at most of the time.

But I'll conclude this review by saying that the book blurb is right - how they are connected is one that I would have never guessed, and even if you skim the whole book, reading that ending when the timelines converge makes the rest of it pretty much worth it.

Note: I received a digital ARC of this book from Quercus via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I had read and enjoyed BlackBerry and Wild Rose, Sonia Velton's debut so I thought I'd give this a go when I was given the opportunity. It's a very different story, not least because it's a contemporary plot.

Connie and Stella are two strangers that have brought together after two traumatic events. Stella is a recluse, living alone after her mother's death. Her mother was a narcissist, unable to give Stella the love she needed, but also unable to let her go, which leads to a tragedy.

Connie is living in Dubai with her husband and two children, but cracks are beginning to appear in their marriage; it's great for his career, but she is deeply troubled by some aspects of their lifestyle such as employing a maid. He said is Philippino and one of her friends is working in a situation that is troubling Connie so she sets out to try to help, despite her fellow ex-pats telling her she shouldn't get involved.

The twist which binds these two women together becomes clear before the halfway mark, but that in no way takes away from the mystery, we still need the details, and how did this thing come about? This leads to a very compelling narrative and two well defined characters who I cared about and needed to find out their full stories. Throughout the novel, I kept thinking I was about to get answers, only for it to take another turn. Not the sort of novel I would usually read, but I'm very glad I took a chance on this one.I

*Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a review copy in exchange for an honest opinion*

Sonia Velton is a very talented writer. Her first book was excellent and this one is another very good read. My preferred reading is historical fiction but this one set in present times is so well written and on point. Connie and Stella have a connection but we don't find out what is is until well into the second half of the book. Very interesting concept. I look forward to readingmore by this author in the future as I do prefer authors who can write good standalone novels rather than those who get stuck in the series rut. With many thanls to NetGalley, the author and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review an e-ARC of this title.

Thank you to Netgalley, Quercus and Sonia Velton for this ARC in return for my honest review. An absolutely original concept, I was enthralled by this book from the opening pages. I was completely immersed in Stella and Connie's stories. Definitely a book to recommend.

Sonia Velton's second novel, The Image of Her, may be a complete contrast to her first, but it is just as brilliant. Her debut, Blackberry and Wild Rose, was a historical novel about the Huguenot silk weavers set in 18th century London , whereas her latest title is set in the present day.

What unites these two books, with their diverse historical and geographical settings, is a masterful strength of characterisation, a compelling story and a really strong narrative thread which hooks in the reader and keeps them turning the pages to the end to discover the outcome.

Stella and Connie are complete strangers. living unrelated, parallel lives, in two different countries.

Stella is a teaching assistant with a suffocating, controlling, loveless mother who belittles and undermines her confidence at every opportunity. Stella's life has been completely shaped and moulded by this narcissistic woman, and she has lived her life to please her mother and keep her happy, submitting to her whims and her strictures on everything from her career to her love-life, running back to her mother every time she yanks the emotional leash.

When her mother develops dementia, Stella is forced to give up her job to become her full time carer. - the pressures in Stella's life increase significantly, and her already narrow world shrinks and contracts even further - until their situation culminates in a traumatic event..

Recovering from a life-changing, almost fatal accident, Stella feels the need to connect with someone, and in her head she unburdens herself to Connie, a woman she has never met, and never will. Connie lives the ex-pat life in Dubai with her husband Mark and their two children.. On the face of it, she has everything: a handsome, successful, loving husband; two gorgeous children; the incredible Dubai lifestyle. But not everything is as it seems on the surface, nor in the carefully curated photos and comments on Facebook, and as the novel progresses the destinies of these two women - strangers, living thousands of miles apart - intersect in the most unexpected and unimaginable way.

This is a completely intriguing and utterly compelling read, and it works so well because of the superb characterisation and the dramatic tension which is expertly handled by the author. The characters of Stella and Connie are superbly drawn, and with real compassion and subtlety. Their dual-thread narrative adds intensity to the novel, with Stella's first person, and Connie's third person viewpoints alternating.

Stella and Connie may be complete strangers and miles apart, but what is so clever about the construction of the novel is how their respective circumstances parallel each other as their stories unfold. Both women have had to give up careers that fulfilled them; both become increasingly isolated; neither gets the support she needs.

As well as being compulsive and emotional read, this is also a very thought-provoking novel, and Sonia Velton is not afraid to pick up some really big issues and weave them into her story, including domestic slavery and exploitation in Dubai; abuse; toxic parents; and the lack of support for carers. Perhaps the biggest theme of the novel is that of identity and self, and, on several levels: psychological, physical, mental, and emotional. There is so much for the reader to think about, and it is the sort of book that will live on in your mind long after you have finished it.

This clever, thought-provoking, emotive and intriguing novel is "must-read" - if you haven't yet discovered Sonia Velton you are in for a treat, and if you are already a fan after reading her first novel, I guarantee that you will not be disappointed by The Image of Her.

I really cannot wait to see what Sonia Velton's third novel will be, and having thoroughly enjoyed her first two, I look forward to reading it immensely.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Quercus, for an advanced reading copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

I feel this is a book I really shouldn't have read during the pandemic. Full of trauma with a woman whose mother is a bully and then succumbs to dementia . The other character is unhappy at having to live in Dubai for her husband's job.. The writing was beautiful but I found it difficult to read and I didn't engage with it overall.