If there’s one thing I like doing, it’s discovering new authors. Danuta Kot is certain a new author for me. I read the synopsis of ‘Life Ruins’ and it certainly sounded intriguing. I couldn’t wait to start reading and so without further ado, I made myself comfortable and eagerly began to read. Well I really enjoyed reading ‘Life Ruins’ but more about that in a bit.
I must be honest and say that it took me a little while to get into ‘Life Ruins’, which has more to do with the fact that I was tired when I started reading and I was finding it a bit hard to concentrate. Once I got into the story then that was it and I was away as the saying goes. I found reading ‘Life Ruins’ became addictive in the sense that if I had to put the book down for any reason then I would be itching to get back to reading it. I was intrigued by the story and by the characters. I had my own theories as to what was going to happen and so I had to keep reading to see if I was on the right track or if I had wandered down the wrong path entirely. The pages turned over at a fair old pace as I made my way through the story. I became so wrapped up in the story that I lost all track of time and just how quickly I was getting through ‘Life Ruins’. All too quickly I reached the end of the story. I found ‘Life Ruins’ to be a tense and dramatic read, which kept me guessing and which kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.
‘Life Ruins’ is extremely well written. The author has one of those writing styles that is easy to get used to and easy to get along with. I love the way in which Danuta grabs the readers attention and slowly reels them into the story. For me, the story hit the ground running and maintained a fairly fast pace throughout. Reading ‘Life Ruins’ was a bit like being on a scary and unpredictable rollercoaster ride with several twists and turns along the way. I felt as though I was part of the story and that’s thanks to Danuta’s very vivid and realistic storytelling.
In short, I really enjoyed reading ‘Life Ruins’ and I would recommend this book to other readers. I will certainly be reading more of Danuta’s work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*

This was a slow and steady ride, but it ends with a bang after taking the reader on a roller coaster ride! This was a good read, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Recommended.

Enjoyed this book on the whole. It was a bit slow to start with and I did wonder where it was going and if it was going to pick up. But it did pick up a lot and was quite action packed towards the end. I was really hooked by this point. This was my first introduction to Danuta Kot but I'm sure it won't be my last read from this author!

Life has not been easy for Becca. Abused by her stepfather she found some stability in foster care with Kay and her husband Matt. However in an attempt to make money to finance her college course Becca exposed herself to internet trolls and now she finds herself struggling to make ends meet working in a cafe in Bridlington in winter. The cafe is run by an outreach centre and Becca finds herself getting involved in the lives of the young and troubled. When a girl is found mutilated Becca wants to help and she runs into Jared, another loner with a story.
For much of the time I found this book very engaging. The setting is terrific, the bleak Yorkshire coast which, out of season, is a depressing place. The coastal towns of the East are full of unemployed and troubled people shipped out there for cheaper housing during the winter and the prospect of seasonal work. Kot envisions the cold, miserable and sad towns well. In fact I thought this was a clever book, focusing not on the middle class but the two outsiders. However it seemed to lose its way and the final quarter of the book was frustrating, almost as though an exciting denouement had been edited out and lost forever.

Life Ruins by Danuta Kot starts slowly but picks up pace until a thrilling last hundred pages or so pull the various strands together.

The style takes a little bit of getting use to and there is a vast cast of characters.

Overall the book had a lot of promise and is a good read

Recommended

This book is set in an area of England I have visited a lot, so I really enjoyed the setting, despite the depressing overtones, however, I actually don't mind a bit of gloom.
I think it's a solid first book, although I did drift a lot during my reading and found the overall plotting, sadly, a little weak. Personally, I would have loved to see more on the central story, rather than the lengthy issues the principal characters were going through. Saying that, there were moments of drive and these held my attention and were written well.
I enjoyed the more sinister undertones throughout the book, although Whitby and surrounding areas are actually much more joyful in reality, and not perpetually bleak, but that's the tone the writer wanted, and I can appreciate why. Maybe a bit more light against the dark?
This author certainly has potential; I felt with better structure and plotting to hold the threads together the story-telling would be delivered more coherently for the reader?
I found I was pulling out of the story with the different threads and the final joining of these didn't have enough impact for me, although the final quarter of the book worked much better.

These are my honest opinions and I wish the author well in their writing career. Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the review copy.

This is a book made up of damaged people, doing damaging things with little uplift at the conclusion giving an unfinished feel. The plot is interesting but it is a long time before the various threads begin to draw together making the reading more compelling. The thriller elements of this book work well in that the chase scenes give variety to the plot and the last 100 pages fly by. The characters are interesting and well thought out making this feel very character driven and the crime almost an afterthought. The bleak Yorkshire coast in the winter is used well as are the abandoned mines and quarries found there.
Overall a book with some merit and a writer with promise, I would read another by them, I rate this book at 3.5 as there are enjoyable elements.

#LifeRuins #NetGalley

A debut author and book. The blurb held so much promise but unfortunately this book did not deliver.
The story is compelling in parts but I am afraid to say few and far inbetween. The plot was good with plenty of action but I personally had began to lose interest half way through.
This book deals with the three main characters Jared, Kay and Becca and they all have problems..The book seems to spend so much time centred on their problems and very little time on the actual event and catching the perpetrator. The ending was a let down and it felt like an afterthought. Personally I don't think that this book is finished, I have so many questions What happened to Becca???
A good read but it just did not grab me. Saying that I am sure other readers will rave about it just not me.
I would like the author, Simon and Schuster UK and Netgalley for the advanced copy in return for giving an honest review.

This is a hauntingly bleak character driven debut from Danuta Kot, set on the Yorkshire coast in Bridlington and Whitby. Jared Godwin is a cave and tunneling enthusiast, a climber who has serious health issues with his back who lives on a run down caravan site. He is a witness to an incident, and Becca Armitage is convinced she knows the identity of a brutally assaulted girl barely clinging on to life, but the police do not believe her. The two of them encounter each other at the police station, forging a connection with each other despite past history and trust issues. Ex-social worker Kay McKinnon is struggling to come to terms with the death of her husband, Matt. The couple fostered troubled youngsters, including Becca, a magnet for bad luck and trouble. Becca thinks that Kay could help her and Jared and the dangers they face. The challenges the three face offer each the opportunity to address the gaping holes in their lives as their relationships develop.

Kot gives us a great sense of location, atmospheric in the picture that is depicted of poverty and few life opportunities for the young, and the dark undercurrents present in the coastal area. The characterisation feels authentic as Kay, Jared and Becca worry about the disappearing girls and the mystery of the abandoned mines. This is not a perfect read, there is an unevenness in the narrative and the plotting could have been better. However, I enjoyed the novel, particularly in how it captures the location and outlines the depressive future faced by the young. The relationship between the Kay, Becca and Jared was a joy to behold, each needed each other at this point in their lives. Many thanks to Simon and Schuster for an ARC.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Simon and Schuster UK Fiction for an advance copy of Life Ruins, a stand alone novel set on the Yorkshire coast.

If I'm being totally honest and that is the point of reviewing books then I've got to say that this story didn't really grab me and hold me all the way through. Accordingly I can only give this publication three stars.

My first impression of this novel, after reading the first two chapters, was that I thought it was going to be dull. A somewhat elderly lady out walking on the cliffs did not I still a passion to delve into the story. But I did and am glad that I stuck with it

The introduction of Jared and Becca brought a welcomed transition to the crux of the story and from there I was entertained until the end.

I am claustrophobic and genuinely struggled to read the parts set within the depth of the caves and mines which tells me the author did a good job in conveying the tenseness of the situation.

Although I kind of guessed quite early on where it was all heading, I found this a tense and enjoyable read. My only complaint was that the younger characters seemed a bit stereotyped and cliched and there was use of the “c” word on a few occasions, which I hate.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Simon and Schuster UK Fiction for an advance copy of Life Ruins, a stand alone novel set on the Yorkshire coast.

Jared Godwin is recovering from an almost fatal accident in a caravan in Bridlington when a young woman is attacked almost in front of him. In the meantime former social worker Kay McKinnon is trying to come to terms with her husband’s death a year previously and get her foster daughter, Becca Armitage, on a career path. Becca, in turn, is dealing with some problems she wants to keep from Kay. How these three characters converge is the meat of the novel.

Life Ruins is an interesting read, compulsive in parts but strangely unfulfilling in others. The narrative switches between the three protagonists so the novel is quite far advanced before they start to converge and it starts to make more sense. Before that I I found it difficult to concentrate on as it is a series of unrelated incidents spread over three characters with hints of events in the past that are impacting their present but no real explanations. I understand the teaser nature of these hints but they don’t intrigue me, they annoy me and make me want to switch off as I’m more of a spit it out and move on type.

The plot itself is good with plenty of action and tension and a well concealed motive although some of the perpetrators are easily guessable. I found the ending a bit of a letdown - there is no resolution to Becca’s original problem and the rest seems to go out with a whimper rather than a bang. This is probably because it is much more of a character driven novel than I normally read.

I can’t say that I liked any of the characters or would want to spend time with them in real life as they all seem like really hard work. Having said that they are all well drawn, warts and all, and are very realistic. It is testament to Ms Kot’s writing that she can elicit a reaction.

Life Ruins is a solid read and while it didn’t overly appeal to me I can see many readers really enjoying it and rating it highly.

A story set in Yorkshire around the towns of Whitby, Bridlington and the village of Kettleness with coastal cliffs, hidden coves and unexplored tunnels. Into this setting enters Jared a troubled young man with an acute back injury resulting in an addiction to painkillers, Becca leaving her university course for an uncertain life, and fostered periodically by the recently widowed Kay struggling to come to terms with life after the death of her beloved Matt. I was hoping that both the setting, and the somewhat damaged characters, would be the basis for an exciting adventure especially after the discovery of a body hidden deep underground and the emergence of some shady characters most notably Greaseball Harry affectionately known as GBH. Unfortunately my initial enthusiasm was not realized as the story quickly developed into an unremarkable meandering and at best mediocre tale. I was not impressed with the author and her style of writing, not even the untamed bleak Yorkshire coastal landscape could save this sorry tale. Many thanks to the good people at netgalley for a gratis copy in exchange for an honest review and that is what I have written.

A tense and atmospheric crime read that has that page turning quality and some fantastic characters in the core three- Kay, Becca and Jared.

The mystery element is cleverly woven but is very standard in a lot of ways, not new but done really well.

Life Ruins strengths comes via the aforementioned characters and their relationship- along with the fostering element that binds two of them together and allows the budding friendship between Becca and Jared to be extremely compelling. Trust and history make both wary but thrown into a dangerous situation they have to work together.

Another strength is the beautifully described setting, Whitby and the surrounds and the old mines/tunnel aspect is used to create tension fuelled moments.

It does fall down slightly in its plotting, with the usual girls in peril, men are bad scenario which utilises the odd cliched plot device but that's secondary really to the heart of the novel which comes via the human drama.

I enjoyed it, read it fast and look forward to more from Danuta Kot.

An interesting and well written novel but it's very bleak!

Kay, Becca and Jared are the unfortunates in life each trying to improve on their luck but finding that luck might not find them but despair certainly does. Jared is recovering from an almost fatal injury after falling down an abandoned mine and now is addicted to painkillers. Becca has been chucked out of university and doesn't even have her dead end job anymore. She knows that a girl has been attacked and dumped at the roadside and knows who the victim is... Kay meanwhile is recently widowed but over the years she has fostered many difficult children and Becca was one of them

The story plays out with the disused mines in particular painting a grim and desperate landscape. The area of Bridlington and Whitby seem the most grim places in the world when you read this and those bleak Yorkshire moors have suddenly taken on a grim black cloak of death and despair! Not a book to read when you're feeling down that's for sure.

The novel did get a bit bogged down in the bleakness for me and for the switching in POVS between these characters but if you persevere there's a sense of a dark secret within a coastal community, those who have been neglected by society, some who have rejected society and those who live in the shadows. There's a sense of haunting here and there's no ghosts to speak of - just the death of hope and of youngsters with little or no home life, of years spent in the foster or care system.

It all read just a little too depressing for me but the mystery of the hall and the disused mines was very interesting and kept me reading