Book Club #3 His Wife's Sister by A J Wills - NOW OPEN

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Yel

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I liked it and another book I wouldn't have read had it not been for this - id of given up on the intro!

It was hinting right from the start that the husband was off, so it didn't come as a suprise that he was turned into the villan. But hard to know what was the actual truth between what actually happened between him and the sister. Was hoping the narrative would switch back to him before the end. I assumed it would finish with hints that something wasn't quite right with the sister (closing credits sinister smile type) but that never came. So assume after a very short stint she was released and had very little professional help, which seems unlikely.

Just how accurate was her pov from the time the husband kidnapped her?

Who made the sesame sarnie? Assuming hum as he turned out to be the bad one. But makes no sense he would do that with the allergy or that they wouldn't be so lapse at getting rid of I it and all traces.

Quite a few plot holes that annoyed me. How on earth would someone that have no idea with tech hack into the laptop? Was explained by an easily guessable password, but if I was the editor I'd of said to rewrite that saying the password was written down in a book or something more believable.

As if they wouldn't have dug up the veggie patch after they found the house. Rolled my eyes when that's where the body was. Same for the birthday cards and notes.

It could have gone so much more into the psychological effects on the sister, but it didn't really cover that much at all.

Why would he wait until she was all the way upstairs before checking the hidden cam? He'd glance at it the moment he returned to the room and the moment she left. Not to mention hidden it well enough so that it wasn't found. I'm sure you can get tiny ones without a screen and flashing light.

4/5

I'm about to finish the authors other book as that's on Kindle unlimited, did anyone else read that?
 
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I liked it up until the twist. I thought he was an arse, so selfish and controlling but didn't think he would go to the lengths he did towards the end, it just didn't make sense. His wife was a passive idiot, which didn't help.We got no explanation as to why he had done all this and set the sister up, unless it was just that he was possessive over Lucia?

And I don't find it believable that the sister was basically fine with no real help. Just so much didn't make sense but it was still an enjoyable read in that it was easy, enough to keep the pages turning and didn't drag on forever and ever. I'd give it a 3/5.
 
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I enjoyed reading it even though some bits annoyed me. The characters were all so unlikeable!

I knew the husband was off from the start, but then it did confuse me when the sister seemed to be acting nastily too. I enjoyed the twist when it was revealed that he actually had hit her.

Nice easy read and one I’d recommend, but wouldn’t necessarily remember in a years time. 4/5.
 
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All the characters were so god damn annoying and I saw the twist coming a mile away. Although I did think somehow they’d make that Damian was in on the disappearance or something along those lines. But I definitely guessed that all the things Damian was accused of he actually did, hence why it was classed as a psychological thriller I guess

I didn’t reallylike this book in all honesty I’d probably give it a 2 out of 5 😂 it was just quite predictable and obviously the story pretty much mirrored the real life horrible thing that happened to Natasha Kampucsh. Found it a bit cliche
 
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I tried to read it but couldn't get into it... I am not sure if it was just my copy but there were a few spelling mistakes throughout it. Haha.
 
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I enjoyed it, and read it quite quickly as I couldn't put it down. However saying that......

There was so much that didn't add up for me like the attacking of the nurse but nothing coming of it, who was in who's bedroom? The sandwich bit, would he really of hurt his son to the point he could've died? The laptop password guessing 🙄

The characters were pretty annoying throughout. I liked the little hints of the husband being an arse in the beginning of the relationship but never thought it would've twisted as much as it did.

As much as I did enjoy it, I won't remember it and I'm already getting it confused with other books I've read.
 
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Overall I really enjoyed the book and finished it within two days. The first chapter when his child goes missing had me gripped. Damien was a love to hate character. At first I thought it was smart of the author to have him showing his other side, controlling with flaws and not just make him the one dimensional devoted husband ( he seemed an obvious suspect but disregarded it in the hope I was wrong ). When I predicted the twist coming I was a bit disappointed. There were so many loop holes and I didn’t like the idea of all of a sudden it was all him. The equivalent of “ and it was all a dream.” There was a part of the book I was thinking so did any of it happen? Was she kidnapped etc? Did he try to kill his own son? If he was that scary why didn’t Mara just move out ? Is it going to say she made it all up? As if the police wouldn’t search the garden and find the body... I seemed to have more questions than answers toward the end so struggled to enjoy the ending fully. It also didn’t help that I had watched the film Mara a few weeks before this before so Mara the character for me straight away was creepy as hell so to then switch to liking her and feeling sorry for her was near impossible for me 😂.
 
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I enjoyed this book at the start but then felt it dragged on and couldn’t wait to finish it. I started off as thinking that maybe Damien had something to do with Mara’s disappearance hence why he became close with Lucia as some sort of keep your friends close enemies closer.
I feel like they could have delved deeper into the psychological aspect of Maras return too and felt the ending was rushed
 
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I thought the book was a heap of dung, the premise was so good was looking forward to it. Intensely disliked the three characters particularly Damien and Mara and by the end I was hoping they'd accidentally be stuck in the cellar together forever 😂
 
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I’m going against the grain and saying I really enjoyed it. It’s the first book in a while that’s totally gripped me. However it did lose me a bit when we switched POVs to Mara’s and we found out everything we’d been led to believe was wrong. I did want something at the end that said one way or the other who’s side we should really believe as I’m not truly convinced that it really was Damian all along.

Like others, I did think the whole laptop hacking and the body in the garden were just not plausible but it didn’t ruin things overall for me.

I felt the end with the reporter and kidnapping Mara just cheapened the whole story. It just wasn’t convincing and the action with the last fight went too quickly and I couldn’t quite picture what was happening.

I’d give it a 4 out 5.
 
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I thought the book was a heap of dung, the premise was so good was looking forward to it. Intensely disliked the three characters particularly Damien and Mara and by the end I was hoping they'd accidentally be stuck in the cellar together forever 😂
Best review ever. 😂
 
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*Contains Spoilers*

I thought the first 3/4 wasn’t bad but the last 1/4 wtf?!
It was like a different author had written it - a teenager straight from their Creative Writing course!
It was ridiculous. We were supposed to believe that Mara, who had never used a computer, managed to download video files from the camera and put them in hidden folders on Damien’s laptop? Come on.
And then the death scene - impaled on a tree branch! All it needed was Fonzie on waterskis jumping the shark! 😆
I’ll give it 3/5 for the first part.
 
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Didn’t really enjoy this one. I disliked most of the characters and I felt there were too many things unexplained. Was an easy enough read but not my cup of tea. 2/5.
 
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I also didn't think it was great far too many holes in the plot, characters were annoying I agree with @Irishjools I also wanted them all to remain stuck in the cellar 🤣 ending was very bad and seems like no thought went into it
 
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I enjoyed the book to a degree but there were a few things I felt left it down. Firstly there seemed to be very little after care and attention given to Mara after her ordeal. I kept thinking throughout that she'd made the whole abduction up and maybe that would be the plot twist.

Secondly I do tend to suspend belief when reading fiction but found the fact that the body hadn't been dug up after her rescue ridiculous.

Thirdly I didn't connect with any of the characters and was suspicious of Damien from a line very early in the book which mentioned something about him losing her (his wife).

Lastly I found the ending far fetched and a bit rushed. Overall it did grip me and I wanted to continue reading rather than tear my hair out, which has happened with a few books recently.
 
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Echoing what others have said I was really enjoying it to start off with, in fact I read half of it in one afternoon. Then the last 1/4 I was just like eh??? I get that it was a twist but as mentioned above it was like it’d been written by someone else completely! I felt like reading it again from the beginning thinking have I just totally missed where it was going

How did Mara hack a computer when all the technology it was mentioned that she’d used whilst imprisoned was watching the TV. Also it was said that she ignored the kids then became an adoring aunt when it was from her perspective! I would have liked if it went back to Damian before the ending, I know the seed was planted early on that he was a wrong un but I didn’t like Mara at all 😂 so I didn’t buy the ending. It was all very rushed too.

Overall it’s a 2.5/5 from me
 
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I've just finished it today. Not a fan, I'd give it 2 stars max. It started off okay but then by the end it just felt so rushed, odd and slightly predictable.
 
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I enjoyed the book. It was easy to read and very much a "does what it says on the tin" thriller. Like others have said the plot holes were annoying. Some holes could have been easily avoided e.g. instead of Mara guessing Damien's password he'd written it in a notebook she found. Some were just daft - why didn't the police notice a fresh shallow grave in the house? Why didn't they remove her prison bed for evidence or properly seal the house?
I think the thing that most annoyed me was reading the acknowledgements were the author said he was inspired by real life cases and how the victims coped psychologically after their escape. I didn't really get that from this book. I think it would have worked better being narrated from Mara's perspective. Firstly for the psychological side and secondly for the thriller aspect. It would have been more interesting working out who was telling the truth about the incidents with Damien throwing the jug and punching her with Mara as the narrator. Or even just giving more time to Damien's obsession with the case. People do get obsessed with these cases. The stereotypical evil journalist and the affair sub plot wasn't really necessary and the less said about the double death by branch tumble the better.

But despite all those grumbles I ripped through it in an afternoon and enjoyed it. I'd give it a 3/5 for being a swift pulpy read with wasted potential.
 
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