I liked the premise of this novel as it sounded similar to Alys, Always which I thoroughly enjoyed. However I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped. When Emily lets a stranger step out in front of her and that stranger is killed, Emily proceeds to take over her life. But it turns out Rose's life wasn't as perfect as it looked.

I guessed all the twists very early on in the novel and although I raced through it to see if I was correct, I found I didn't enjoy the reveals because I'd guessed them. At times the writing and pacing was a little repetitive and slow - which also didn't help. The plot is fairly linear though it's told through two narrators and I wanted to know a lot more about Emily and her background.

I know this is Claire Allan's first thriller and as I liked the idea, I'd be interested to see what she writes next in the genre.

Thank you to netgalley and Avon for this eARC.

Emily witnesses a fatal road accident where a young mother selflessly sacrifices her life for her young son. She does not want to be involved so does not stay at the site of the accident, but she cannot get the trauma of what she had seen out of her mind. She is at a serious crossroads in her life; lonely, recently out of work and living her life behind closed curtains after her last relationship ended disastrously. She becomes obsessed with the young mother’s sacrifice and with all the details reported about her life. What she learns about the young mother Rose paints a picture of the life she would love for herself. Rose was married to Cian, a fledgling author and their toddler son who was adorable. Their home was sumptuous and everyone loved Rose. She had myriads of friends and, as they outpoured their grief, Emily felt pangs of jealousy. She wanted a life like Rose’s. Then an idea flashed into her mind and it was then that her life changed beyond all belief.
Emily applies for Rose’s job. She reinvents herself and everyone is taken in by her ‘new self’. Rose’s work colleagues actually like her and gradually Emily learns more and more about Rose. The hit-and-run accident investigation turns up evidence that suggests that the accident could have been a murder and Emily strongly feels that she could have been the intended victim. But when Cian and his toddler son visit the dental surgery to register Jack for his first appointment, Emily is attracted to Cian and sets about befriending him. It works and Emily is beyond delighted. Soon she hopes to have Rose’s perfect life all for herself. She has the feeling that she had, for once in her life, been in the right place at exactly the right time when she was witness to a crime.
This novel romps along at a cracking pace. A second murder muddies the water for suspects of Rose’s demise and the police are aggressively pursuing several different lines of enquiry. Emily cannot turn the clock back as she unwittingly becomes more and more embroiled in the action, more involved than she ever could have imagined. The press are braying at her heals and soon Emily is in deep need of escape.
I really enjoyed this novel about obsession, jealousy, abuse, paranoia and secrecy. It was well written with some interesting characters. I felt sorry for Emily in the first instance but then I thought she became the victim of her own deception. In like the way some of the characters were played off against each other, causing further intrigue. I enjoyed the crime investigation with its various twists and turns and I was really surprised by the shock ending. This novel is a good, absorbing read. Thank you for my copy, received through my membership of NetGalley and from publisher Avon, all in return for an honest unbiased review.

Great story but I did not really like Emily. She is a lonely insecure person who wants love, security and acceptance. When I look back I think the only people that I liked was Rose and Jack. This is a story about domestic violence as well as love with a lot of jealousy and lies thrown into the mix. I would recommend the book and the author as the story was well written.

This book was a very fun read, full of twists and turns and a story that was both creepy and complex. I was completely hooked on the main character and her journey throughout the story. I loved all the plot twists!

Emily let’s someone walk out of a lift in front of her, a car kills a mother killing her straight away and Emily finds that she is unable to move on.

The mother Rose leaves a job opening, just as Emily loses hers so she finds herself stepping into Roses shoes and then she meets Cian, Roses husband who is missing his wife and she realises that she could have everything she has ever dreamed of. But then she finds out that Roses life wasn’t so perfect after all.

I really enjoyed this book. It was told in chapters of both Emily and Rose which was very easy to follow. The storyline was good and kept me turning the pages until I found out what had happened.

I found I just couldn't put this book down! A great debut novel.

How I loved this twisty tale. Emily, who has taken quite a few knocks in life especially where her love life is concerned witnesses a mother getting run over in a hit-and-run. She becomes obsessed with Rose, stalking her Facebook page and lusting after her life with a loving (but grieving husband) and baby boy. She applies for Rose's job at the dental surgery and is given it. Everyone deserves second chances...don't they... But Emily is about to find out Rose's life wasn't all it was made out to be.....

Dramatic and complex this book was fabulous.
Something as simple as a misunderstood message on a laptop begins this book, and the events that follow create a nightmare...
Simple gestures can have dramatic results, some horrific......
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, easy to follow the characters, and I didn't expect the story to unfold the way it did....brilliant

Her name Was Rose is a very atmospheric, compelling thriller by an author I did not know before. The story really grabbed my attention, and though sometimes it was a little slow, I definitely enjoyed the book. Recommended!

A compelling, dark psychological thriller. Unexpected twists and turns throughout and a strong female lead who you initially expect to be flaky but surprises you by the end..

Lots of twists and turns, nothing is quite as it seems. A really good psychological thriller.....a page turner. You just think you know what's going to happen next when another element is brought into play. I couldn't put it down. The characters are well drawn and comp!ex with their own demons. An excellent read!

Really enjoyed this book and finished it in a day. The story is seen through Emily's perception but also Roses story evolves to show that not everything is as it seems. Emily wanted Roses life as she thought it would make it happy. Looking back on her Facebook Emily thought Rose had the perfect happy life but as we learn a status can hide many truths

I thought I would enjoy this book but it did not live up to its promotion material. I liked the premise of someone stepping into the life of another woman who had been tragically killed and discovering the truth about her predecessor but I could not warm to Emily who was selfish and self-centred and just weird and too stupid to believe at times! The plot was all over the place with Ben Cullen and Emily's past mysteriously fading away and then quite predicable with the revelations about Cian. Minor characters hopped in and out to aid the story - Maud, brother, parents - but they actually dragged me, as a reader, away from the man in events. The twist I didn't expect didn't just ring true. Who does that?! It's a well written novel but it was too far-fetched for me.

I enjoyed this but wasn’t exactly gripped by it. I found the main character Rose a bit naive and annoying at times throughout the book. I also thought it was a bit long winded and went on a bit. I figured out the twist so no big surprises.

This tells the story of Emily, who lets a woman Rose step in front of her. In a split second her life changes forever. I literally could not put this book down. It kept me guessing and i didn't expect the twist at the end. It was gripping, a brilliantly written and a real page turner. I would highly recommend this book.

I have mixed feelings about this thriller. On the one hand, the characters feel a bit one-dimensional and I’m never sure I quite care, the plot feels just a bit too implausible even for a thriller (girl witnesses murder and takes on life of victim), and I don’t get that ‘I’ll stay up til I finish it’ feeling. But on the other hand, I do warm to it a bit, and it does linger with me.
So would I recommend it? It has the right ingredients: a villain, an unreliable narrator, pace and a twist at the end. It’s one of those novels that definitely gets better as it goes on. But I’m not sure it’s the greatest of its kind.

"Her Name Was Rose" really did have twists and turns, at first I wondered if the main character really would be likeable but I warmed to Emily after a few chapters. Things are never what they seem in this book and I read it in two days! Thoroughly enjoyable!

Thanks so much to Sabah Khan for inviting me to be part of this blog tour. What a read that was. A new author for me, and a new author whose books I will be looking out for in the future.

What an interesting book this turned out to be. I'm not really sure if i'm honest, as to what I was expecting from this book. It sounded a little different when I read about it, yet it gave me that sense that 'I really need to read this book'.

I found myself drawn right into the book from the early pages, and when you realise what is happening, it becomes one of those books you know you can@t put down until it's finished.

When Emily Witnesses a hit and run, little does she know at the time how much her life is about to change. A lady called Rose was killed in the hit and run, yet luckily her little boy Jack, Lived.

Emily seems to become obsessed with Rose's life and manages to plant herself well and truly into what was once Rose's life. Thinking things would be better for her if she became Rose. Emily is also trying to keep from anyone who actually knew Rose, that she witnessed the accident.
Emily seems to be a lost soul, losing her job, having no friends or family around her. For Emily becoming someone else seems perfect. But is it? This could be the start of things going very wrong for Emma. It soon becomes clear not everything in Rose's life was Rosy.

A great read, one I think a lot of people will be talking about over the next few months. I can see this book doing very well for the author. As for it being a debut, Wow. I was really surprised with that as it doesn't read like a debut at all.

I enjoyed this book. It has different chapters written by the two main female characters and I enjoyed the alternating voices and thought it worked well. I thought the story was good and it had a build up to an interesting ending. Would recommend and would read future books by this author.

An interesting thriller, fast moving with a backdrop of murder and domestic abuse.
Rose is killed in a seemingly freak car accident and heroically saves her young son by pushing his buggy out of the way. This is witnessed by Emily who is so traumatised by the event that she doesn’t tell anyone.
Rose becomes an obsession with Emily she trawls through her Facebook eateries and then decides to apply for Rose’s job in a local dental practice to learn more about her.
As the story unfolds it is clear that all is not as it seems, or who really is telling the truth.

It takes a minute to get used to Rose, to really adjust to her story. This starts off as a straightforward thriller, or so we think - Rose is the victim of a hit & run, and the driver dies by suicide. But what starts off as a "simple" thriller turns out to be anything but - Emily wanted to die, you see. And she is convinced that the car that hit Rose should have hit her. What devolves from here is a story that really drives home the phrase "the grass isn't always greener on the other side" - we get to know Rose's widower, an unlikeable man, and their child, a precocious toddler named Jack. Any more information would spoil this story, and you deserve better, dear reader. So just trust me when I say: it's worth the wait.