The Un-Family
By Linda Huber

Today I have a review of the Un-Family, a twisty psychological thriller by Linda Huber, thanks to Hobeck Books for inviting me to review.

For better, for worse

Wildlife vet Holly’s life seems blissful: husband Dylan is the man of her dreams, she has a rewarding career and a lovely home. And yet, a tiny niggle is growing daily. Dylan is becoming increasingly remote – but why? Holly is determined to mend the fissure in their relationship. But a shocking discovery changes everything…

Family ties

Then there’s Dylan’s family: his wayward twin Seth and their widowed mother Elaine, who is rather fond of a glass or two of sherry. Nothing in Elaine’s life is easy, bringing up teenage granddaughter Megan while the family grieves the loss of Megan’s mother.

Family lies

A tragic event rocks the foundations of the family, and Holly’s life starts to unravel. Dylan drifts ever further away. Megan is left uncertain and alone, while Seth falls deeper into himself.

The bonds that once bound the family together are breaking. Can they ever be repaired?

Review

The Un-Family is a psychological thriller with an incredibly dysfunctional family at its heart. It’s a slow burner but it’s intriguing and a page-turner of secrets and lies, but the beginning and ending are explosive! The characters are deeply complex and authentic in feel and is an oddly compelling read. The themes include love, addiction and obsession.

This is how to watch one family implode. On the face of it, the family could be like any happy family. Holly is very happy with being a vet and her career is progressing well. Dylan is just the man she’d always desired. All on that, on the surface sounds like a perfect romance. Scrub that! This is dark, complex and twisty and there’s more than just a touch of toxicity in the air.

An event occurs that rocks the family and everything starts to fall apart in quite chilling and spectacular fashion as the family start to break apart. Instead of any of them coming together, they drift further apart and volatility emerges. Along with a volatile situation, the tension builds and has you gripping on to see how it could all end.

The Lies We Tell
By Jane Corry

The Lies We Tell is a great domestic noir of a psychological thriller that you will watch play out. Find out more in the synopsis and my review. Thanks first of all to Adventures With Words for inviting me to the blog tour to review and to Penguin for gifting me the book.

Synopsis

‘Everything I love in a book’ LISA JEWELL
‘Leaves you asking – what would I do? Jane Corry’s best yet’ BA PARIS

Sarah always thought of herself and her husband, Tom, as good people. But that was before their son Freddy came home saying he’d done something terrible. Begging them not to tell the police.

Soon Sarah and Tom must find out just how far they are willing to push themselves, and their marriage, to protect their only child . . .

As the lies build up and Sarah is presented with the perfect opportunity to get Freddy off the hook, she is faced with a terrifying decision . . .

Save her son . . . or save herself?

Review

Oscillating chapters between Sarah and Tom, you get a sense of both perspectives on the thought-provoking thriller that plays out.
It questions, what would you do if someone in your family had done something so terrible, so illegal?

The differences in how Tom and Sarah are striking and it shows how funny love can be sometimes and how opposites can attract. Tom is stricter than Sarah’s more relaxed approach and this sometimes puts a strain on their relationship and even more so, now their son, Freddy, has gone off the rails somewhat and committed a terrible crime…. but there’s more and the lies that build started before Freddy. It seems if you need an ace liar, Sarah is you woman. This is far from a cosy, perfect family that happens to have a son who did something terrible, even his parents, especially Sarah had been in on the wrong side of the law before. As you read lies, you also discover truth about this rather messed up family, with the parents being relationship to each other, practically at crisis point. It is such an interesting read of this whole family set-up, where you think it will be in one direction, but goes in quite another. It’s interesting to see the formation of the different personalities and parenting traits quickly come out. It creates quite an atmosphere and one that holds tight to the end.

There is a sinister edge that grows in the book, that leads you to feel it more and see Tom’s distrust of his wife grow. It is, although a psychological thriller, very much and perhaps a bit more so, a domestic noir/ family drama feel, that is full of cause and effect and choices to make.

It is an intriguing read to find out how it all ends, with wayward attitudes and actions. There’s a bit of a change when Freddie reveals what it is that he’s done and Sarah’s more relaxed style is given quite a jolt. This works well as you can see the sobering of her style appears… for a bit. What happens next as things progress, brings a bit of a different feel and it all intensifies, until the end. At the end, it sort of has you linger, wondering just what you might do, if faced in a similar situation.

The Lies We Tell BlogTour1