Admittedly, this plot is somewhat predictable but I still found this a really good read. I really like the family at the centre of the story and Mel was very likeable. You completely identify and sympathise with how she is feeling throughout the book - especially considering what she goes through! That said, you will experience moments where you roll her eyes and want to shake her. Abi, however, is another level of emotion! Is this story a little far-fetched? Maybe! Did that bother me? No! Sometimes, you don't want to read stories that are completely realistic and I certainly enjoyed the drama and emotion in I Invited Her In.

I haven't read any Adele Parks before but was aware she is a very popular author so was looking forward to reading this one. Sadly I was quite disappointed in the story - obviously you don't have to live a similar lifestyle to find a plot interesting or believable but this one seemed so farfetched and I guessed all the twists so it just ended up feeling a bit ridiculous.
I have given three stars as it was easy to read and I did get to the end but Im not sure I will be searching out any more of Ms Parks books

I remember reading Adele Parks in 2000 when I wanted to be a writer and never wrote anything!!. Playing Away was a great novel and I loved it, so I was delighted to receive this book from NetGalley. 'I Invited her in' by Adele Parks is a great provocative, thought provoking read. Unfortunately, I can't say too much about the plot without spoilers and so I'll just say - it is great. It is also a reminder of all the female friends we may have left along the way as we get older and the new friends we make, yet it highlights the importance of childhood friends who helped us grow as women. This book was a melancholy trip down memory lane about all of those female friends we pour our hearts out to and shared everything with, and those we didn't!
This is a twisty, turn read that drags you in and keeps you reading. It is a pacy, gripping, twisty, dark in places and I really enjoyed it. I thoroughly recommend.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my pre-publication copy.

Well, wow!
This is my first novel by Adele Parks and if her other books are as fabulous as I Invited Her In then she has just gained herself a new fan.

This story is probably every parents worst nightmare, when your child is in that awkward phase between child and adult and people are starting to view them as potential date material, people like your friend! Nobody knows how they'd really react in this situation but poor Mel finds herself having to do so after she invites her old university friend to stay.

This book is turbulent and messy and heavy on drawing the reader into the characters emotional turmoil. It was a real page turner, I couldn't put it down as it had gripped me from the very first page and took me on a journey full of twists and turns .

I think this was a superb idea, keeping the story as close to reality as it adds to the credibility. I will definitely be recommending this book!

3.5 stars

Mel and Abi used to be best friends but then Mel dropped out of university due to her unplanned pregnancy. They haven't seen each other for over 17 years - Mel has given birth to a son, Liam, is now married to Ben and they have two daughters together. Abi has done well in her job - she's been living a celebrity lifestyle in LA with her husband Rob. However, she's now divorcing him, after finding him in bed with another woman. This is when Mel receives an unexpected email from her former friend and immediately invites her over, opening the doors of her home and her own heart. But - did Abi get in touch because she really needed her friend, or is there more to this than meets the eye?

This book is full of sharp observations and it brilliantly captures different kinds of relationships. What I enjoyed probably most was the fact that the author presents us both sides of the story - I must admit, it takes a lot of time to learn what Abi's hidden agenda was but I simply guessed it in the meantime, and well, yes, it may change your mind a little about her character. The alternating perspectives of not only Mel and Abi, but Mel's husband, son and his girlfriend provided much deeper account of what's happening and what the characters really think and feel, and you really start to think who is the real victim in this story - because there are always two sides to each story. It was the moment that I started to feel very sorry for her. The next strong point of this book is of course Adele Park's writing style. She writes with ease and in interesting way.

However, the characters lacked depth, I expected them to be much more three - dimensional and relatable. I didn't care for them and I was not as invested in their lives as I'd like to. Yes, some of their decisions made me feel real desperation but I wasn't emotionally connected to them.

The problem is, when the book is so strongly advertised and it gets brilliant quotes that you start reading it with incredibly high expectations - especially when it's written by such a fantastic author like Adele Parks. I read this book at the same time as I was reading another novel with exactly the same subject matter - old friends coming back into your life and turning into a very challenging one to say the least - sadly, any of those book was this what I was hoping for. Last year I read Claudia Carroll's "Our Little Secret", a book with the same keynote, and I can still remember how much tension there was in her novel, how much I hated the antagonist, how much I vibrated and felt all kinds of emotions - this is what I so missed in "I Invited Her In". In my opinion, the idea was here but it lacked in development. Somehow, I just couldn't fall for Mel, I couldn't sympathise with her, the story itself was too predictable for my liking and to be honest, there was not any twist that would make me go "wow". The end also seemed too rushed and just too happy - endish. I'm sorry, I really hoped I'm going to love this story. don't get me wrong, it was not a bad book, it's far away from it, it's probably my expectations being set really high. It was maybe because the "thing" happening was not SO very controversial, at least not for me, that it left me a little lukewarm.

"I Invited Her In" was an interesting story about friendship and boundaries, about revenge, secrets, lies, jealousy and forgiving and it's to my regret that I'm not in the minority that raves about it. However, it was a satisfying read that I'm sure the hard - core fans of Adele Parks will love. It was well written, I really liked the writing style and the author has a great way with words and altogether, I was intrigued to see how it was all going to play out.

A slow-burner but intriguing story, I invited her in focuses on how far women will go in order to get revenge....hell hath no fury,...

Adele Parks is a recent new author for me, and I adored her book "The Image of you" so I was excited to receive her new book. Her writing style is consistently great and I love her characterization as I once again had strong opinions towards nearly all of the main characters. The two women in this story are multifaceted and well developed, and there is a lot of development throughout the book. However, some of the characters have sudden "turn arounds" or changes of mind that seem to be out of keeping with the rest of the story and their previous behaviours. I also didn't like either of the main characters, and was completely unable to muster up any sympathy for either party which meant that I found it incredibly hard to read at times.

In terms of plot, I would say that there are four main twists in this book, and all of them are obvious from pretty much the get go, which was slightly disappointing. The last few were not given the same amount of gravitas as the others, which meant that some of the impact was lost for me (what should have been a shocking reveal was kind of lost in the narrative). The ending was a bit too "with bows on" for me as well, considering everything that had gone on in the rest of the book, it was a bit of a shocker to have it resolved within a couple of pages. I also found that some of the reactions from characters were unbelievable and I found myself asking ""why would you do/think that??"

Despite this, I really enjoyed this book and look forward to more work by Adele Parks.

I invited her in is a very good read .Though a little slow to start with the pace soon quickens and there are a lot of twists and turns ,some I guessed and some surprises.The story is told through the characters which I like .I didn't particularly like either Abi or Mel I wouldn't want them to be my friends ! This was one of those books that is hard to put down especially the last few chapters .Many thanks to the Publisher ,the Author ,and Net Galley for my review copy in return for an honest review .

I've been a big fan of Adele Parks books but I found this really disappointing. The twists were predictable but some of the behaviour was just unbelieveable. I didn't connect with any of the characters either. I finished the novel to see how much more outlandish it got.

I'm sad to give a bad review as I have always been a big fan of Adele Parks but this tale of a best friend's betrayal wasn't for me I'm afraid.

What a great read, I really enjoyed this! I love a story with characters creating havoc with the reason for their bad behaviour being slowly revealed. Mel is living a happy fulfilled life with her husband and children, but when she is contacted by former best friend Abi who she has lost touch with, she is delighted. Abi has spun a sob story about her marriage breakdown and out of guilt and sympathy, Mel allows Abi to inveigle her way into her life. Abi behaves appallingly and takes advantage of Mel in every way possible leading to a rift in the family.
I was shouting at Mel at times to get a grip and throw Abi out and stop being such a doormat! It broke my heart when Abi's manipulation led to a breakdown in Mel's lovely relationship with teenage son Liam.
Really good family drama with quite a few twists and surprises, I would certainly recommend this book.

There was part of me that didn't want to keep reading as I thought I knew where it was going and in the main I was right and as a mother of a son it made me uncomfortable and horrified all at the same time.

The lengths someone would go to for revenge is incredible and this story is one of those.

A page turner.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Revenge, regret, jealousy, rage, heartbreak and forgiveness it’s all here in buckets. Believable, identifiable characters. A book I really didn’t want to put down and a story that kept my attention

This is yet another story of friendship, betrayal and revenge.
I really thought that this would be a good read. The storyline was predictable and lacked any tension as in her other books which were a lot more darker and I guessed the ending.
I would like to thank the author, publisher and Net.galley for this ARC.

I wasn't sure what to make of this to begin with but it turned into a very messed up plot line which kept me enthralled!

When I first started reading this book I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy it. However, aside from the fact that the main character was written from a first person point of view and the others weren't ( my only real criticism) I settled down to enjoy the ride. And what a ride it was! What a mixed up bunch of characters! As for the ending, I didn't see that coming! I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and would like to thank Netgalley, the Publishers and of course Adele Parks for the opportunity of reading this ARK

Adele Parks is one of my favourite authors so I was super excited about settling down to read her newest book. Like the previous books over the past years they are slightly darker than what they used to be so I was trying to think ahead and work out what the twist would be (which I guessed right). However I didn't really feel sympathy for the main character, she started to grate on me towards the end. The ending itself was dramatic and even at the end I was surprised with the final outcome. A satisfying read overall.

I have been a long term fan of Adele Parks but found her last few books to be more 'meh', undeterred I picked this book up and I am so glad I did. Although it starts as a slow burner the writing style was so good I stayed sucked in and the ending was just wow. Would definitely recommend,

A twisted tale of obsession and revenge. Two old university friends meet up after many years and unleash a series of events which threaten to tear a family apart.

Jealousy , betrayal anD revenge are key key themes of this book. Abi and Mel had been friends at University but Mel fell pregnant and left whilecAbi continued and went on to have an apparently successful career until her marriage fell apart. Through social media Abi reconnected with Mel who had a happy family life, ingratiated herself and moved in with Mel’s family to enable the scenario for revenge which involved trying to destroy The family. Real life situations with characters that feel real with a host of emotions. The book did lag for me a bit until the revengeful plan became apparent then it really pushed along .

At University Mel and Abi were best friends, however when Mel became pregnant and left uni to be a mum, they lost touch and went their separate ways.

Seventeen years later both ladies lead very different lives. Mel is a happily married working mother to three kids and lives a “normal suburban” life.
Abi, on the other hand, lives in the US with her highly successful husband and is a chat show host on a local TV station.

When Abi catches her husband in bed with a younger woman, she decides to return to the UK and reaches out to Mel. Mel is happy to reconnect with her former best friend and offers her a place to stay whilst she figures out what to do next. What Mel doesn’t expect is the huge impact Abi has on her life and her family.

I Invited Her In is a story of friendship, betrayal and revenge.

This story provided an interesting scenario to consider but it did feel drawn out at times and longer than it needed to be. I wasn’t overly enamoured with the characters and I really didn’t like Abi from the beginning. The plot twists were predictable and seemed too obvious but I did like the realistic feel to the story and the characters’ reactions to certain events.

Overall this wasn’t a bad read. It was interesting and well written. Parks captured the emotional affects of the story brilliantly and I was intrigued to find out how it was all going to play out.

3.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I Invited Her In will be available from September 20th 2018.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers (HQ and Harper Collins) for providing a copy. All opinions are my own and provided willingly.

Friends Mel and Abi haven't been in touch since college, which Mel dropped out of after getting pregnant, whereas Abi went on to lead a charmed life, marrying her handsome boyfriend and becoming a name in television Stateside. Their fortunes are reversed, however, and fate brings them back together when Abi's husband leaves her for a younger woman. 'I Invited Her In' is gripping and intense, exploring the intricacies and sometimes competitive nature of female friendships.