Sarah Pinborough – Steph's Book Blog

About The Book

Something old…

When Marcie met Jason Maddox, she couldn’t believe her luck. Becoming Jason’s second wife catapulted her into the elite world of high society. But underneath the polite, old money manners, she knows she’ll always be an outsider, and her hard-won life hangs by a thread.

Something new…

Then Jason’s widowed boss brings back a new wife from his trip to London. Young, beautiful, reckless – nobody can take their eyes off Keisha. Including Jason.

Something you can never, ever undo…

Marcie refuses to be replaced so easily. People would kill for her life of luxury. What will Marcie do to keep it?

My Review

With thanks to the publisher for the copy received. I had read books by Sarah Pinborough before so knew I’d be reading something clever and slightly different. But this book is more than that, I have rarely cringed at so many repulsive characters. There are many phrases used throughout the novel but if I just select a few you will get the general idea. Entitled, judgemental, devious and atrocious. And these were people who were thought by many to be the great and good.

This book is about wealth, power, greed and obsession. There was only character in the novel, amongst the ‘great and the good’ who seemed to be genuine. I won’t say who, will leave it to your own judgement, it did take me a while to find them.

I did have some sympathy for Keisha, she was upfront from the start about what she wanted but she was completely out of her depth with the people she was up against. I really appreciated how she was manipulated by her fear of voodoo and her past. I found the voodoo part of the story to be quite creepy and intimidating.

There are not many characters in the novel and I had a very clear vision of what they were like. Greedy, spiteful and dangerous with their power. It showed a completely different life to what most have. My jaw dropped at one point, when a large sum of money was described as not very much.

Many years ago I enjoyed watching American TV shows such as Dallas and Dynasty. If you watched them you would appreciate how the characters in this book made me remember those shows and laugh.

The Blurb

I was dead for 13 minutes.

I don’t remember how I ended up in the icy water but I do know this – it wasn’t an accident and I wasn’t suicidal.

They say you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer, but when you’re a teenage girl, it’s hard to tell them apart. My friends love me, I’m sure of it. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t try to kill me. Does it?

My thoughts

My first reaction to this brilliant novel was that I was so glad that I was no longer a teenager, even though when I was, I thankfully didn’t know anybody like any of Sarah Pinborough’s characters. Becca was the most likeable of them, she had her faults but she wanted to put things right with the people who mattered to her. I detested Natasha. Even though she had been dead for 13 minutes it was hard to feel any sympathy and liking for somebody who was so self obsessed. There were a lot of twists, I was only really convinced of one persons innocence. The level of cunning displayed by the culprit was chilling.
It’s very clever YA fiction/ psychological crime that anybody who likes either genre should try.
With thanks to the publisher for the copy via netgalley.