Stop at Nothing by Tammy Cohen.
What a fantastic book! Drama, family life, hurt betrayal and guilt! I loved getting to know Tessa and her girls and, be honest, who wouldn’t appreciate a Frances in their life. Disturbing, frustrating and twisty. A great read- but bang went my day as I couldn’t put it down until I’d finished

This story opens with the attack on a young teenager, Emma, by an unknown man and the impact on her already unstable mother. Tessa, previously a confident and successful career woman with a husband, two children and beautiful home was already feeling seriously diminished by energy sapping events. Dependant parents, redundancy, the ongoing symptoms of the menopause and the final humiliation of her husbands affair resulted in a tenuous hold on a crumbling lifestyle . An ill conceived decision had caused a family rift with her oldest daughter ; this threat to her youngest child was the final straw. A driver luckily passing by had witnessed events, come to the rescue, and believed herself to be intrinsic in discovering the identity of the perpetrator In the mothers search for justice and revenge. Unhinged by events compounded by guilt at allowing her daughter to travel home alone on the night of the attack results in an escalating series of bad decisions and inability to perceive the long term results of her actions. Escalation in a series of unexplained events heighten the mystery. A missing dog, a dead member of her family and a sudden apparent lack of support from lifelong friends compounded by little if no interest or involvement from the law, leave Tessa fearing for her sanity, the safety of her children and uncertainty on who she can trust or rely on . We the reader can only hope for a satisfying conclusion even though events tend to suggest our protagonist may lack the strength and ingenuity to save her family from this terrifying threat.

This is the first Tammy Cohen book I have read so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I thought the first third of the book was quite slow going but I persevered and I’m glad I did as the rest of the book made up for it. It was nice to read a thriller where there were no deaths and blood/gore. I thought I had guessed the ending but I was wrong as there’s a twist at the end. Overall I really enjoyed this book and will look to read more by this author.

I really like this author so was really pleased to be sent this advanced copy. Thank you to tolhe publisher.

The story centres around a mother of two daughters called Tess. Tess isn’t in the best of positions with her husband recently leaving her for another woman, she has hit 50, made redundant from her highly successful job and has a strained relationship with her eldest teenage daughter who has moved out. We find out more about this relationship as the book progresses.

Things really kick off in the book when Tess is woken one night with a stranger at her door named Frances who by chance was passing as her youngest daughter got off a bus and was attack by a man, Frances stopped to help.

As the story goes on, Frances is ever present and Tessa is hell bent on getting revenge on her daughters attacker who she believes she sees in the street after a police line up she attended with her daughter.

From here on in with the revenge on her mind the story does get really dark and touches on some current social issues such as the impact of social media and technology. I would say I was gripped half from around half way through the book and couldn’t put it down. The characters (although some frustrating) are realistic and well thought through.

If you are after a gripping read with some surprises along the way, this is the book for you!

First of all, the formatting of this book in the version that I received was terrible. At times there were
single words on lines
few words on lines
and a word starting half way through the line and then finishing on the next line

I couldn't flip between chapters on my Kindle and the next chapter started on the same page as the last
I feel that this had a negative impact on my enjoyment of the book.

Overall, I really enjoyed the story. I found the initial first chapter very gripping and I instantly wanted to know more. After this I found that the book was a bit slow for the first 20-25 percent after this. I thought that I had the plotline of this book sussed however I was wrong and I am pleased that I was wrong as I thought that the last 30-40 % of the book really made it and I was hooked, desperate to know if I had been right. I liked the characters of this book and I felt that the book was very well written.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK for the opportunity to read this book before its release.

I love this author’s books and many of my reading friends have recommended it - but I found it too difficult to read. The dark sinister overtones made me really uncomfortable and the relationship with the mother, the victim/daughter and the witness/“friend” just too unsettling. Perhaps that’s the skill of the author, but with a child on the cusp of teenagedom, I couldn’t read on.

Has the makings of a great book, but just not for me!

I was looking forward to reading this book after reading the synopsis it sounded perfect. unfortunately I did find it fairly slow going but continued on and I am glad I did as the story picked up. It did take me longer to read than normal I found it to be one of those books that you put down and pick up at intervals.

Tessa is a woman with a lot going on in her life, her husband had left her for another woman 2 years earlier, she was going through the menopause, her eldest daughter isn't talking to her and is living with the father that reveal comes later in the book, she had been made redundant from her job at a magazine publishing business having worked long hours that has now gone. So she now freelances. Most of her friends have dropped her after she had had a total meltdown in public which under all these circumstances is easy to understand why. She has a webcam set up in her parents house as her mum has Alzheimers/dementia and her dad is getting old and is his wife's main carer. She checks the webcam frequently to check they are both ok and that its not too much for her father.

However, the story begins when her younger daughter Emma is attacked when walking home one evening by some man, she is punched in the head and he is trying to drag her off. Until a driver passing by rescues her this is when we are introduced to Frances. Both Emma and Frances are invited to go to the police station to do a video lineup. Tess is watching her daughters face to see if there are any signs that she recognises the person responsible. She is convinced her daughter had picked the person number 8 who she later finds out his name is Stephen. But Emma says afterwards she couldn't be sure and when Frances comes out she also says she wasn't sure but she thought it was leaning towards number 8. Tessa wants to see the man punished for what he has done to her daughter. But her initial concern is her daughter who is struggling with the aftermath of the attack. A few days later Emma sees the same man coming out of a building near the tube station Tessa was with her and saw her reaction to him and took his picture on her phone. From then on she becomes obsessed with getting this man even if it could put herself and her family in danger. Frances has managed to involve herself in Tessa's life almost taking over she turns up at many places Tessa does and feeds her information about the guy who Tessa believes was the attacker. Frances has also become very friendly with Emma which initially Tessa understands but then begins to resent a little. But is Frances as good as she seems? Is there more to her story?

As the story progresses the pressure mounts up and strange things start happening. There is someone else in the story which I found confusing as I couldn't work out who it was or where it fit you just knew when it was that person as the writing went to italics. All is revealed later in the story.

I was a little bit disappointed with the way the book finished. As it seemed to be a little open ended it could possibly lead to another book or you could just be left to wonder. But that is probably just me I like things tied up neatly at the end.

This is a very well written story showing how far a mother is prepared to go for her children and I think most mothers would feel the same. Not sure whether I would rather rely on the police route though instead of going after someone who could or could not be the perpetrator. But that could be something you never know unless you are in that situation.

I would recommend this book if you like psychological thrillers if you find it a little slow stick with it as the pace goes a little faster later. Obviously this is just my opinion many people like a slower paced book.

Thank you #Netgalley #Transworld Digital for letting me read and review an ARC This review is my own unbiased honest opinion

How does a mother react when her daughter is attacked and saved by a woman passing by.
Frances helped Emma and her mom, Tessa is so very grateful. But this is just the beginning of this book and all it’s twists and turns.
Will Emma get over the attack? Will they find the man who attacked her? Will Frances become a real family friend, or is there more to her than seems at first sight?
Read and find out.

This read hooked me from the start and didn’t let go until I could finally draw breath at the end. It’s a well-written page-turner that pulled me off in one direction only to thrust me along a totally different path, complete with a mysterious unknown commentator and loads of misdirection.
When her daughter, Emma, is attacked, Tess becomes convinced her assailant got off scot free and is living in the neighbourhood. On top of that, Emma now seems to confide in her rescuer, the kind and gentle Frances, rather than her mother. Tess starts to come unhinged. She’s already alienated her husband and her older daughter, Rosie, refuses to talk to her.
I was torn between enormous empathy for her and total horror at her seemingly deranged behavior. Tess will stop at nothing to protect her daughter, but the way she goes about it had me shaking my head in disbelief. She’s totally out of control. I wanted to tie her down before she did something even more irrational. On the other hand, I could sympathise absolutely. I admired her for wanting to take control, but not the way she went about it.
Stop at Nothing is tension-filled, clever, twisty and ultimately horrendous. Although you may well predict some of the twists, you’ll never guess exactly how the story unfolds.

Tess' daughter Emma is attacked coming back from a party but fortunately a passer-by, Frances, intervenes. However when both Emma and Frances fail to identify the attacker in an identity parade, Tess becomes obsessed with a man she believes to be the perpetrator, gradually drawing herself and her family into danger.

Tess is I'm afraid,, a most unsympathetic character. She consistently makes poor choices which are so bad as to be laughable. I have read several of Tammy Cohen's previous books and really liked them so I was especially disappointed in this one. I found it to be quite a tedious read and struggled to finish it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

I’ve been fortunate to have read some of Tammy Cohens other books! This one didn’t disappoint. It had so many twists and turns and left me going from one character to the next in search of answers! The ending left me shocked and again another twist that was unexpected. A thoroughly enjoyable book, that kept me on my toes, had me guessing right up to the very end.

Tammy Cohen is one of my favourite thriller authors and I was looking forward to reading her latest. Having finished, I must be honest and say it is not my favourite of her books, but it is one of her most personal – her reasons for writing it are at the end of the novel – and it is certainly very emotive.

Tess is asleep when a stranger brings back her daughter, Emma, sixteen, who was attacked after getting off a bus and walking home. Soon, she has a crying daughter, an unknown woman, Frances, who brought Emma home, and the police in her house. Before long, Tess is feeling powerless, and judged. Recently divorced, her career in women’s magazines damaged by the internet, and with her other daughter, Rosie, not currently living with them, she is vulnerable and horrified by what happened.

What follows is Tess’s attempts to make sense of what happened and to protect her daughter. This leads to her making some very, very bad decisions, which cause a bad situation to get much worse. I do not wish to give away the plot, so I will just say that it is full of twists and turns. Although you question Tess’s behaviour, as a mother, I completely understood her desire to protect her daughter, in the way she thought best and had a lot of sympathy with her and the situation she found herself in.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

An OK book, but the main character is so irritating and unlikeable that it is hard to engage with the story. It was obvious what was going on from the beginning, and I really didn't enjoy this book much at all.

I've not read a Tammy Cohen book before so had no idea what to expect but I'm so glad I did.
This is a great thriller, beautifully written with enough pace and suspense to make me reluctant to put it down.
I could easily empathise with the main character, being a mum myself and the description of her parents situation is exactly what mine are going through at the moment so I found myself reading parts out to whoever I was being unsociable enough to ignore.
Well worth a read and I'll be recommending this one. Many thanks.

This was a solid psychological thriller if fairly predictable. I didn’t find the main character all that likeable for large parts of it, which made it somewhat harder to click with the story but all in all this is a good effort - and whilst not entirely my cup of tea I’m sure genre fans will love it.

Gripping read of a Mother’s many dilemmas.

Can Tess's life get any more difficult? Recently divorced, made redundant, had to move house, her oldest daughter has disowned her, her mother has dementia and is being cared for by her ageing father and then one night her 16-year-old daughter is attacked.

The book starts with the identification parade, Em has to see if she can identify her attacker. The descriptive writing of a mother looking on unable to say or do anything to support her daughter at this most distressing time had me hooked.

No identification is made so no one is arrested for the crime, the attacker remains on the loose, Tess is convinced it’s a local man and in trying to protect her family everything spins out of control, frightening events occur which supports Tess's suspicions.

However her friends and family grow concerned about her obsession and things happen to make her question whether she is she losing her grasp on reality, the only person who seems to support her suspicions is Frances who saved Em from the attacker.

Frances unknown to the family until the attack soon becomes a trusted confidant for both Tess and Em and ingratiates herself into their lives. But over time Frances is becoming too needy and Tess tries to distance herself with disastrous effects.

My first Tamar Cohen read and won't be my last, thoroughly enjoyed the book, just a few aspects didn't seem necessary but that didn't detract from my enjoyment. I would happily recommend.

Taramindo.

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

I’m afraid I just didn’t enjoy this one. I didn’t sympathise with the characters, & I could tell what was going to happen from very early on. I’m sure it’s one I’ll still be able to recommend to people who enjoy similar reads, it just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Tessa's marriage has broken up and her husband is with another woman, her daughter Rosie wants nothing to do with her and she lives with her other daughter Emma. One night Emma is attacked on her way home and Tessa becomes fixated on who did it. She is convinced she has seen him near by and will do everything to keep hr family safe.
But will her family end up in more danger by her actions?
This is a gripping book and I couldn't put it down.

Read and reviewed in exchange for a free copy from NetGalley. I've read several other books by Tammy Cohen so was excited to read this one, and it didn't disappoint. I felt the plot of a mother seeking justice for her daughter make it different from a lot of other domestic thrillers, and the plot was gripping and well-paced. I was invested in the characters and storyline, although felt the ultimate reveal was in part predictable.

Rating: 4 stars

Tessa is a loving mum to two daughters, Rosie and Emma. When Emma is attacked on her way home from a party, and then the identity parade falls apart, her world falls apart too. When Tessa sees her daughter's attacker on the street nearby, living just around the corner from herself and Emma, how far will Tessa go to keep her daughter safe?

I really loved this book. It was a proper page-turner, and when I hit 90% through on my lunch break today, I was furious that I had to go back to work instead of finishing the novel. Cohen had me totally invested from page one. Tessa made some really stupid decisions, but they felt realistic and characteristic of a scared woman on her last resort to protect her children. From the summary, I was curious about how the novel would progress when the attacker was known from the start, but there was enough threat and mystery to make this an addictive read, with secrets and hidden histories cropping up all the time. Cohen left breadcrumbs throughout the novel, so I felt like a conspiracy theorist frantically putting clues together to find my own narratives. I was wrong about some of them, and right about some of them (one of which I'm extremely smug about calling as early as I did).