This is my first read by Laure Van Rensburg and I literally could not wait to start reading it.

The blurb sounded interesting and right up my street. We meet Ellie and Steven who are going away on their first romantic getaway. Both very different people - Ellie is a student and Steven is a teacher. Both are not really who they appear and hold very dark secrets.

The secret soon appears to light and we uncover a hidden secret that is horrendous - I am not going to say who.

This novel kept me hooked, quite a different style of writing from what I am used to but still a good and thrilling novel.

Thanks to NetGalley, Laure Van Rensburg and the publishers for allowing me a copy of this novel, in exchange for my honest review.

I received an E-ARC copy with a request for my honest review.

This book follows Ellie a 23-year-old student at NYC and Steven a professor at Richmond Prep. They are leaving New York for an anniversary break away in an isolated cabin.

Ellie starts to get a little spooked out as they arrive and start to get used to the noises in the cabin.

Soon the snowstorm means they are cut off from the outside, and with no phone service they are hoping nothing sinister will happen.

What they don’t know is they both have their own secrets they are hiding from each other.

Will they get their romantic break, or will learning the truth about each other come between them?

I like stories like this that are set in a room or a place where there isn’t any real way of escaping. It adds to the tension of the storyline as you feel the characters are trapped.

I must admit I wasn’t really expecting the truths that emerged and I also felt a great disliking to Steven’s character and a level of arrogance which I hate.

I would say that the intense storyline starts quite quickly with only a small introduction, which I do like as I find that some books do drag it out a bit to build to the action/shock.

Overall, an intense and dark thriller where a couple discover neither of them are who they thought they were.

A well written and timely reminder that #metoo is a real movement highlighting the physical and psychological harm that men have previously, and continue to, inflict on women
thank you to netgalley and Penguin Books for an advance copy of this book

Thanks to netgalley for the arc ebook to read.
A dark and rather brutal tale told between the narratives of the two lead characters. A gripping read.

This book centers around a "romantic" getaway weekend between a predator professor and a young impressionable student that goes awry. The book started well, but lost its pace and I found myself scanning the pages to get to the predictable ending. Another book with lots of unnecessary, repetitive detail that felt like filler to make it a novel, when it fact it would be better suited to a novella format. 2.5 stars, rounded up to a 3, mainly due to the author tackling the subject matter well. Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

For all those readers who have recently enjoyed Verity and are looking for another novel about a dysfunctional relationship with a catastrophic ending… this may be your next great read!

Ellie and her boyfriend, Steven, head out for a romantic break away from the hustle and bustle of the city. They are in love and looking forward to spending some time alone. Ellie is an NYU grad student. Steven is a wealthy, privileged teacher at an elite Manhattan school. They appear to be the perfect couple on the verge of spending the rest of their lives together.

At least, that’s what one of them thinks is going on. It turns out that both Ellie and Steven are not quite who the world thinks they are, and as a snow storm leaves them stranded in their holiday home, the weekend takes a dark twist and their secrets are slowly revealed.

Advertised as a novel featuring ‘this year’s most f*cked up couple’, I’d say that it delivers on its promise. The book’s opening chapters are rather disorientating and it took me until at least a third of the way through to work out what on earth was going on. Stick with it though as all will become clear in the end.

Not one for the faint-hearted, or anyone who’s looking for a lovely romance about a weekend in the countryside. I struggled to connect with either of the characters – I hated Steven by the end of this, and I’m not sure that I liked Ellie any more. Was I supposed to though?

This is a psychological thriller with twists and turns coming at you from all directions. The descriptions of place are claustrophobic and the unpredictability of the characters will keep you gripped until the novel’s climax.

Loved this book and finished it in two days. A great plot, page turner and fantastic thriller. Definitely worth reading.

What a fantastic read, I enjoyed this book from start to finish and wanted more.

The characters were set out very well.

This was a slow burn of a book for me, starting off with an apparently everyday couple going for a weekend break together, then slowly and surely the underlying story appears. We soon realise that they are a college professor and student, with a significant age gap between them - but they're both adults and happy with the age difference, so that's fine. Then things start turning a bit darker, and the weekend isnt exactly what they might have first thought.
I prefer a book with more dialogue than this - there is a lot of descriptive set up which isn't my personal taste - but the developing storyline kept me engrossed and I was keen to find out more about what was going on until the very last page.

This is such a relevant novel for now. And it is so difficult to review without giving anything away. The plot is amazing. The characters are so well drawn. The atmosphere is chilling. There is tension in droves.

There's a paragraph where Steven is describing the trees, it's amazing, it's bleak, it's terrifying. I would include it but I think it'll give some spoilers.

I raced through the last quarter of this novel, holding my breath for most of it.

A taut thriller but...
A couple take a three-day romantic break somewhere south of New York but it's all illusory - once the gloves are off, there's very little romance. Instead, what we get is terror, violence, a lot of blood and mayhem. It is certainly good but it did go on and on. And it's a book that paints men in a terrible light. The author isn't saying all men are despicable, lowlife, raping b*stards like Steven, but at times it felt like it. I finished it with an unpleasant, icky feeling and rather wished I'd never read it.

Not for me,if a book concentrates on 2 characters they have to be dynamic and interesting and unfortunately the 2 leads in this story are neither,confusing and repetitive

Things are not what they seem at first with these unlikeable characters. I wanted to know what was going to happen and found it hard to put down. Overall it was an enjoyable reading.
Thank you for the opportunity to read this ARC.

A gripping and chilling thriller!
This book hooked me in quickly with a horrifying crime scene opening, and then kept me there throughout.

A couple stay at a secluded house for a romantic getaway, but only one of them is there for love, the other for revenge. A great premise, told well through both of the characters points of view in an extremely uncomfortable and chilling way. Both are riddled with secrets that keep coming at a relentless pace.

A claustrophobic setting and a pacy, twisty story with a very real and important theme at its heart.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Penguin Michael Joseph for the opportunity to read this advanced copy.

This is a must read for anyone who enjoys a good thriller!!
Absolutely loved the characters, the plot, the tension - impossible to put it down

This was a brilliant book. I went into this blind and I am so glad I did. This story has so many secrets buried that are dying to come out. brilliant

An okay read, but not what I expected.

This book starts well and I initially had high hopes as the beginning was intriguing and the writing is incredibly atmospheric. Unfortunately, I lost interest a few too many times throughout the story and ended up skim reading a few pages as it didn’t manage to hold my attention and I think maybe the story was just a bit too long!

Steven has dated a lot of girls, most of his relationships are kept secret, but Ellie is different. He can see things working out with her and he’s more than happy to show this one off! They decide to take a mini-break for some proper alone time at a deserted cabin in the middle of nowhere! Not everything is as it seems between this pair and what was meant to be a romantic weekend away soon turns into something else altogether! Neither Steven nor Ellie are who they appear to be!

It’s not that I didn’t like the idea of this story and I do appreciate the author was inspired by her own personal experience as well as other women’s experiences with men; I also think it is very different to anything I’ve ever read before, but it sadly wasn’t for me. It seemed to go round in circles being quite repetitive. I found myself switching off and losing interest a bit too easily. Something would happen now and then to grab my attention again but it didn’t keep hold of it, unfortunately.

I didn’t really warm to Ellie or Steve. Steve was a total knob and Ellie I just couldn’t relate to, so I didn’t find myself rooting for her. I think with the kind of storyline being used in this book, we (the reader) need to like a character like Ellie to feel invested in the story.

On goodreads this book is labelled as a locked room thriller, I’m not sure if this is quite right as there’s only 2 characters, plus it is quite obvious which way it will go as the story progresses. I’d probably label it as a revenge thriller.

I’d say it is a pretty dark read and the atmospheric descriptions were very good and incredibly detailed, but possibly overdone a bit at times.

I think this story was probably about 100 pages too long, had it been shorter and things hadn’t been drawn out so much it may have held my interest more.

I really do appreciate the hard work that goes into writing a book though and this review is just my personal opinion. I have seen many glowing reviews for this book and we can’t all like the same thing, so do read the blurb and other reviews as this may just be the book for you!

Thank you to Laure Van Rensburg, Penguin Michael Joseph and NetGalley for my copy of this book. This book will be published on 14/04/22.

Ellie Masterson a young student and her boyfriend Steven Harding a professor are going on a much needed holiday to celebrate their sixth month anniversary. Ellie has made all the arrangements for a romantic and secluded weekend away from it all in the middle of nowhere. One of them can't wait and is looking forward to spending secluded time together just the two of them.... The other is on a mission to destroy the others life forever. The
How well do they really know each other, what happened in the past for one of them to want such retrbution and who will get it? So many different avenues to go down in this novel including student/teacher relationships. No one will ever be the same again but just who comes out on top? And has it turned out the way it should?

Many thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this novel. Laura Van Rensburg what an explosive debut novel to come on the scene with!! I will be looking for more from you in the future and recommending to everyone I know. Would love to give more than 5 stars as it's more than worthy!!

I really thought I’d enjoy this as it seemed really dark and thrilling. Unfortunately, I struggled to finish it as it’s very repetitive and too long.

It follows Steven and Ellie who go on a romantic weekend-getaway for their six month anniversary. While one of them is looking forward to spending time together, the other has a much darker idea for how the weekend will pan out. Once they arrive they realise that neither of them is who they say they are and that they’re both keeping secrets.

Steven is a respected professor and Ellie is a student. While I think this is an important topic to discuss, there were so many times I nearly didn’t finish this. I probably would have enjoyed it if I cared about Ellie as it’s a very character-driven story, but I couldn’t connect with her at all even when her tragic backstory was revealed. Steven is just unlikeable from the start.

There’s a great twist near the beginning that gave me high hopes for the rest of the story, but then nothing happened until the end. Steven and Ellie spend so much time talking as she tries to convince him that what he’s doing is wrong, but he can’t see it. It’s so repetitive and I was skim-reading most of it. It just felt like we were going round in circles. The way the narrative flows isn’t very smooth either. It abruptly flips between the past and the present with some diary entries dotted throughout. I was disappointed with the ending as it felt very rushed and I thought it didn’t match up with the synopsis. I was expecting it to be so much darker.

While this is an important topic to discuss, I found the book disappointing and not what I was expecting.

Well-respected professor Steven Harding and his girlfriend, Ellie Masterson, a young college student, are embarking on their first holiday together. Three days in an isolated house, far from the city and its disapproving eyes. It should be a perfect, romantic trip for two. Except he isn’t who he says he is, and neither is she...

From the moment I first heard about this book its premise had me intrigued. It is so much darker than I ever imagined though, because of the secrets Steven and Ellie are keeping and as a result the story covers some really difficult themes. It is an extremely powerful and thought provoking book as a result!

I really liked how the story was told through the alternating chapter perspectives of Ellie in the first person, and Steven in the third person. There were also short flashback chapters interspersed throughout from an unknown narrator’s perspective which was clever, and I knew they were going to be pivotal to the secrets that were later revealed.

This is quite an uncomfortable and unsettling read because of the subject matter the story covers. I think the isolated setting of the house really added to the tension and unease I felt as I was reading too. There is also a real sense of foreboding given that the book opens with descriptions of the house as a crime scene with police present, before we are taken back in time to the day Steven and Ellie embark on their journey for their romantic getaway together. The ending of the book when all becomes clear and we see the aftermath of this day is particularly chilling, especially the final chapter!

The author’s note at the end also shows just how important it is for people to be aware of and feel able to talk about the matters at this story’s heart. It’s a very powerful book!