I am a huge fan of Sandie Jones and her suspenseful novels, and, like the others, this one kept me on the edge of my seat! Naomi has her share of clients being a therapist for domestic abuse victims. Her husband, Leon, doesn't like when she gets too involved trying to help her clients. She thinks he's overreacting until a client goes missing and all evidence points to Naomi! Is her client framing her? Is her husband to blame, or could her past be catching up with her? This will keep you guessing until the very end! What a page turner!! I'm grateful to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy to read and review.

This hits the marks for a psychological thriller - twists, turns, affairs, lies and mystery. Unfortunately the main character’s propensity for making things worse detracted from my enjoyment, but overall it’s an entertaining read.

I just finished The Blame Game and absolutely loved it!!!! It kept me on the edge of my seat and guessing the whole book! I loved the twists and turns!! This was the first book I have read by Sandi Jones and I’m looking forward to reading more!! Her writing flows smoothly and kept me enthralled from the beginning.

"She wants to be everything to everyone, but making yourself indispensable is dangerous." This is the start of "The Blame Game," by Sandie Jones whose lasted psychological thriller hums with tension in the opening chapter. We meet Naomi, a psychologist, who has a garden office on the English estate of Tattenhall. Upon entering her office for her first patient, she notices her door is ajar and during her first appointment with Jacob, she realizes that his file is missing.

Naomi has to contend with the possibility that someone has broken into her office. She is very preoccupied with her patient, Jacob, who she is helping sort out an abusive situation he has with his wife. Jacob has tried to stay in his marriage for his children, but has recently moved out into a flat owned by Naomi and her husband Leon, unbeknownst to Naomi's husband.

Naomi struggles with crossing the line between professionalism and helping her clients who she fears might be in imminent danger. This is a bone of contention between Naomi and Leon. Leon feels that Naomi is primed to spiral out of control with her attachment to her clients and their problems. This is further evidenced when Naomi offers lodging in their cottage to her other client, Anna, and her two children.

As the suspense builds, Jacob disappears and Naomi fears for his life. Coupled with all of this are flashbacks to her own childhood which was fraught with tension stemming from her relationship with her father. Although I figured out the twist, I devoured the pages to get to the thrilling conclusion. Fans of Sandie Jones will undoubtedly wrap themselves in this story to go along for the ride.

Many Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, St. Martin’s Press and by #NetGalley. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

I couldn’t put this one down. I read it all in one sitting.

I received an ARC of, The Blame Game by, Sandie Jones. This is a pretty intense story. Who do you believe, who can you trust?

Naomi is a phycologist specializing in abuse cases. She has a history of becoming a bit too involved with her patients lives. Now, after helping Jacob make the difficult decision to leave his wife, he is missing and so are his files from her office.

Sandie Jones is great at writing thrillers that immediately suck you in and have twist and turns throughout. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a good phycological thriller!

Thank you to netgalley and St. Martins for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Amazing psychological thriller from Sandie Jones. This was a book with many twists and that kept me engorged in this so much to read it in two sittings. Naomi just wants to help all her clients as much as she can, she is a psychologist after all. She lets Jacob rent a flat that she owns. She offers Anna to live with her to get away from an abusive husband. Yet, Naomi is the one who gets accused of kidnapping and murder. Great explosive ending that really ties everything together. If you like thrillers, read this book.

Naomi is a psychologist with a nice practice she runs from an office on her home property. She has a happy marriage and is living a good life. Things go south as she finds herself s little too involved with a client named Jacob. As Naomi has buried childhood trauma from a shocking tragic event in her childhood, his story resonates too well with her and she becomes overly invested. Her husband is not happy about it and she find herself in a tangle of lies. When Jacob goes missing, she becomes a primes suspect in the case. Naomi must figure out just what is going on and solves this mess while dealing with her own childhood pain that is coming to a head. This book kept me guessing and was an enjoyable read. Another win for Sandie Jones!

I'm very grateful to have received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Wow. What. A. Read.

I was hooked from the very beginning and could not put this down. I read it in less than 24 hours - it is a fast paced, attention catching read.

I loved the characters and how they interacted. The storyline itself had depth and twists that I didn't see coming.

The ending was great although I still have some questions about parts of the storyline - I don't want to give anything away, but once you read it you will understand

Get this on your shelf ASAP.

• Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books and NetGalley for providing this Advance Reading Copy. Expected publication date is August 16, 2022.

Naomi is a psychologist who primarily treats people who are victims of domestic abuse. The problem is that she gets too personally involved with some of her patients. That is because her family history is one of murder and abuse. Jacob, one of her clients, has decided to leave his abusive wife. Naomi goes a little too far and let him move into her guest house. When Jacob goes missing along with her case files on him, the police start asking questions and the truth finally comes out. Now, it is Naomi who is in danger.

I was so excited by this premise. A therapist, Naomi, specializing in helping domestic abuse victims, in a psychological thriller that ties together mysteries from her past with mysteries about her clients. What’s not to love?

From the first chapters, I knew that I was going to have major problems buying into the story. Don’t get me wrong, it’s captivating, once I got into it I couldn’t put it down until I knew how it was going to end. But oh my god, the level of inappropriate boundary-crossing puts this therapist in the ranks of Anna Kendrick in “50/50”, and she straight up enters a romantic relationship with her client Joseph Gordon-Levitt. And even that was somehow more believable. The fact that Naomi continuously says how she knows that what she’s doing is inappropriate, and her husband keeps telling her that she’s being completely inappropriate and seems like she’s burning out, and that she wonders if she should stop telling dumb obvious lies to the police BUT THEN KEEPS DOING IT ANYWAYS? WHY?!?!?! It’s infuriating.

Also I don’t understand how anybody can be so utterly lacking in curiosity, but especially a therapist. She’s told by the police that one of her clients is both missing and lied about his name, and it literally takes her another fourth of the book to GOOGLE him. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt that she had Googled him and just didn’t mention it, but nope, nearly 100 pages later, she finally thinks to Google him.

The last fourth of the book was pretty exhilarating and the ending was mostly satisfying/made sense. There were a couple of things logistically that I didn’t quite follow but I don’t think it makes too much of a difference. Some of the twists felt either a little too obvious or like we weren’t given enough information to piece them together. Like two of the main suspects lied about so many things, and sure I get that that’s why they’re sketchy people, but like basic facts about their lives or identities would have been helpful. Or like maybe this freaking therapist could have verified the most basic info? Like did she even ask them for an ID when she started seeing them? Is she billing to their insurance? I’m not expecting her to like stalk them on social media, but how does she check SO little about them? How is she an award-winning decorated psychologist but she’s so incompetent?

A more minor quibble - the protagonist/narrator is meant to be an American who moved to London, but speaks in so many (what I assume are) British-isms, it’s completely unbelievable. I had never seen “moot” used as a verb, but it’s one of her main verbs for describing what somebody said. There were a few other examples, but this is the one that took me out the most.

I’ll leave you with some of my favorite examples of the narrator being thiiiiiiiiiiiiiis close to getting it and then somehow walking straight past the point:

“I’d thought I was the color in Jacob’s life; selflessly laying myself down for him to cross. But perhaps I’m just a narcissist who feeds my own need for gratification with other people’s insecurities. Even as I’m thinking it, I know it’s not true, but I don’t know what to believe any more.”

“I have to take back control of this situation and wonder if I shouldn’t just turn around, go back into the police station and tell them everything. Although I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong, there’s still so much more I haven’t told them, and I fear it’s those untruths that I’m going to spend the rest of my life running from if something really has happened to Jacob. Or I could just start eliminating myself from their inquiries, but to be able to do that, the evidence needs to match the narrative.”

And finally this incredible meta moment that perfectly describes how I felt every time Naomi made yet another incredibly stupid decision. Like say, leaving her phone at home for no discernible reason when going to find a dangerous killer!

“I can’t help but be reminded of all the horror movies I’ve watched where I’ve shouted at the screen, “Don’t go upstairs,” to which Leon always responds, “But the director’s told her to.” We’d laugh and I’d appreciate the released tension, but there’s no one here to shout “cut” now, is there?”

Excellent thriller! Unfortunately there are psychos in this world like this. Lots of twists and turns. Completed in less than 24 hours…couldn’t put it down!!

Excellent thriller! Unfortunately there are psychos in this world like this. Lots of twists and turns. Completed in less than 24 hours…couldn’t put it down!!

An easy, fun read. The writing was well done and the plot just tricky enough to keep me engaged and eager to find out more.. Not mired in useless fluff and filler content, it is the kind of writing that flows well without the aggravation of the aforementioned. I would recommend this book and will absolutely read another from this author.

Any book by Sandie Jones is winner for me, but her latest might be my favorite! I loved this book, from the very first page to the very last. It kept me interested, kept me guessing and kept me reading page after page.
Highly recommend!
Thank you to netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Psychologist Naomi, married to Leon, gets too involved with her practice clients. Two of her clients end up in danger and she becomes the focus of an investigation. She is dealing with her own major family issues from 25 years ago that still prey on her and the investigation reminds her of the past. Really unexpected ending.

It isn’t a must read. The ending was really exciting, but overall the book was just okay. A therapist who gets too involved in patients’ lives. Did she go too far? Despite being a short read, it felt slow and took me a while to finish.

Sandie Jones does it again! i read this book in 2 days and had trouble putting it down.
Initially, the first 3/4 of the book, it was hovering around a 3.5 to 4 stars but that ending! Oh boy, it shot the rating all the way up!

I do wish there was more about Jennifer, especially at the end. That would be my one complaint, I want to know more about her, her story, what happened and what will happen with her.

The twist at the ending, definitely threw me by surprise however I can see the clues now, looking back. they were subtle but definitely there.

3.5 rounded down
A lot is going on in this book. The tension slowly builds early on and then it seems like the ending is rushed. Was rolling my eyes in some parts. Glad I read it. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book