The Patient tells the story of a 49 year old GP, Rachel Goodchild, and how her life takes a dramatic turn after meeting patient, Luc. It is difficult to explain the plot in more detail without giving away spoilers, but there is a tangled web of mystery surrounding Rachel, Luc and both of their families.

This book was a slow burner and it took me a little while to get into as it was lacking the pace and drama that I usually go for. However, I enjoyed the writing style and quickly got to grips with the characters; although none of them were overly likable, apart from the bit-part character of Victoria, who I adored.

There were plenty of twists and turns towards the end and I loved that the epilogue summed everything up, leaving no annoying loose ends.

My thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for sending me this ARC in return for an honest review.

Even if there's potential I couldn't care for the characters and the very slow burning plot didn't keep my attention.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I always talk about how blurbs and taglines are so important to the expectations of a new book. The Patient by Jane Shemilt is no different - from the blurb I expected a Doctor/Patient relationship gone wrong, perhaps questioning ethics of the job or maybe something to do with drug dependencies if you study the cover. The Patient only really hits this brief slightly; our main character Rachel is in fact a GP and her lover Luc is her patient, but only for one-hour long consultation before she passes him back to his normal practitioner. From there it’s more like a standard domestic love affair story which was quite disappointing.

The plot itself very much drags and nothing really properly happens until the very last quarter of the book. There’s a lot of foreshadowing phrases to end chapters before this point but the first three quarters are mainly just about an unlikeable woman’s infatuation with a neighbour and their love affair. My main issue with the book was that there is no-one to really root for. Rachel herself is unpleasant – she makes some really stupid mistakes and she doesn’t seem to care very much about those around her, whether that be her colleagues or her family. Her husband is a wet blanket who refuses to take her side or back her up in any argument and doesn’t seem to believe in parenting as a team. Her daughter is horrific – a spoiled brat who is openly rude to her mother at all opportunities for seemingly no reason. Even the subject of the affair Luc is painted vaguely and I didn’t really understand his appeal. Most of the scenes with the two of them together are focused on what Rachel is thinking and feeling as opposed to learning anything new about Luc.

The ending did come as a bit of a surprise although I had guessed the culprit even though I didn’t really understand their motives. The reveal came as two monologues which is always a truly boring was to wrap up a plot. It also left me with a lot of questions and didn’t really make sense with hindsight to the whole story. I also really didn’t understand why certain characters acted the way they did at the end – it made for a very confusing conclusion.

Overall, The Patient is not really a story about a GP and a patient, more a domestic love affair that goes wrong with unlikeable characters and an ending that left more questions than it answered. Thank you to NetGalley & Harper Collins UK – Harper Fiction for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher HarperCollins UK for the ARC.

I quite liked this book but it does have a slow start and I was tempted not to finish it early on, but I persevered, and was rewarded with a rather cleverly constructed multi-layered plot.

Set in Salisbury, Wiltshire, Dr Rachel Goodchild works at a busy health centre and husband Nathan is a local school teacher. They have a grown up daughter Lizzie who has her own flat in the city. Rachel's been convinced for months that she's being followed, although Nathan dismisses her concerns. Late one evening, after her rounds, Rachel returns to the health centre to find she needs to see a patient, new to the area, who poses a suicide risk, Luc Lefevre. She's haunted by the death of a young patient who committed suicide a year ago, and she had misconstrued the distress he was in, so, she's determined to give Luc as long as he wants, to talk. However, Rachel is a menopausal 49yr-old who is restless with her life which she feels is slipping away, and when Luc pays her compliments she feels an instant attraction - but this is a doctor-patient relationship. and cannot be anything else. Until........Rachel's family are invited to a housewarming at a rather grand and historic house where she finds Luc, married to Ophelia, 10yr-old Oscar, and Ophelia's brother Blake. Luc is an architect but his passion is for painting. He has inherited a house in France and that's where he really wants to be.
Cue........ Rachel and Luc's blossoming romance. BUT there are lies, deception, and intrigue, together with betrayal and murder in this twisty story, as only nearing the end do all the various strands of the plot converge.
..................................................
Yes, the plot is good and cleverly obscured, however, I didn't warm to any of the characters and found passages of Rachel's personal thoughts and musings to be tediously whimsical I did like the conclusion though.

I enjoyed this story and thought it was cleverly written. It tackles some sensitive subjects about mental health as well as women ageing well. There were several twists and turns which I thought largely worked very well. For a novel with a long slow burn, then ending felt a little rushed to me but that didn't detract from my enjoyment overall.

Very slow moving , not my scene . I couldn't seem to get into the story and didn't like the characters. Got interesting for the last 2 or 3 chapters .

This was quite slow going, but I am glad I persevered with it.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

This book was one of the ‘quiet’ reads that I sometimes enjoy. It was a slow burn but this time it worked for me. Rachel Goodchild is a 49 year old GP whose life is in a bit of a rut. She is married to teacher Nathan and has an adult daughter, Lizzie, who doesn’t really get on with her mother.

One afternoon she gets a late patient, Luc Lefevre, who is crying his eyes out in her room. She listens to him which is all he really wanted and she prescribes some anti depressants. She feels strangely attracted to him but will never see him again. Soon, she and Nathan are invited to a housewarming party in the newly renovated canonry in old Salisbury. Rachel is surprised to learn that Luc and his wife Ophelia are the new owners. Luc draws Rachel out into the garden and it is clear these two are hot for each other even though Luc is younger and they are both married. They start a brief affair which has far reaching and disastrous consequences.

This was beautifully written and the characters came alive for me. Most of them were not that likeable although I did have some some sympathy for Rachel. It is so easy for women of that age to feel invisible and undesirable. The story is set in Salisbury, England and a small village in Provence, France.

While the build up was slow, there were definitely things happening. Rachel often felt that someone was following her, watching her. Only she is way off base about who it was. The story roars to a fast paced, shocking conclusion where murder is afoot, truths are told, lies are told and betrayals are rife. Just when you think you have worked out what is happening it gets twisted again.

The story is ultimately an elaborate ploy in the service of naked greed. I think after a couple of fast paced murder thrillers this book was a pleasant counterpoint. There was, however, enough tension to satisfy those who enjoy a psychological thriller. I really enjoyed it. Many thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK, Harper Fiction for the much appreciated arc which I reviewed voluntarily and honestly.

Give me all the English fiction! I am always drawn to books that are set in England. I frequently look at British books and authors to see what’s out and what’s coming out. In the novel, The Patient by Jane Shemilt, Rachel is a doctor who lives in a wealthy neighborhood. She meets a French painter, married to an American woman, named Luc. She is drawn to him and suddenly she finds herself in an affair. With a patient. This is wrong, isn’t it?

But is Luc who he says? Should Rachel be scared? (yes)

What price would you pay for falling in love?

Rachel isa respected doctor who lives in a picturesque and affluent English village where her husband Nathan teaches at an elite private school. Competent, unflappable, and nearing 50, Rachel has everything in her life firmly in her control, even if some of its early luster has worn off. But one day a new patient arrives at her practice for emergency treatment. Luc is a French painter married to a wealthy American woman who’s just bought and restored a historic home on the edge of Rachel’s posh neighborhood. The couple has only recently arrived, but Luc is struggling with a mental disorder, and so he goes to the nearest clinic…to Rachel.

Their attraction is instant, and as Rachel’s sense of ethics wars with newly awakened passion, the affair blinds her to everything else happening around her. A longtime patient appears to be following her every movement, turning up unexpectedly wherever she goes. Her somewhat estranged adult daughter Lizzie is hiding a secret—or at least, hiding it from Rachel. Nathan has grown sour and cold as well—or is that merely Rachel’s guilty conscience weighing on her? But when one of her colleagues winds up murdered and Luc is arrested for the crime, everything Rachel didn’t know about her life explodes into the open—along with her affair with her patient—a disgrace and scandal that will have consequences no one could have predicted.

Coming out on May 3!

When Rachel, a GP at a surgery in Salisbury, meets Luc, he is sitting in her Dr's room professing potential suicidal thoughts. She treats him and thinks nothing more of him until they meet again at a new neighbours housewarming party. Luc is the new neighbours husband.
When Rachel starts feeling as though she is bring watched she can hardly imagine how get life is hoping to implode on her and the effect it has on others.
A quick enjoyable read for me, lovely descriptions of Salisbury City Centre and the Cathedral Close. Fairly predictable story line but an interesting one nonetheless.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for the opportunity to read this advanced copy, my opinions are my own and I'm under no obligation to leave them

Thank goodness the book is beautifully written with an intriguing story as the main character, Rachel, is not likeable and medically unprofessional.

She is a 50 something year old GP in Salisbury. and one evening a good looking man turns up at her surgery with an emergency mental health issue. Her way of helping him, Frenchman Luc, seems to be falling in love with him and giving him drugs! He is also married.

This is a real page turner with excellent twists, lurching from Salisbury to France and involving French art masterpieces. Inevitably it was 'happy ever after'.

Thanks to Net Galley and Harper Collins UK for the chance to read and review.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Collins for arc.

Rachel is a doctor and One evening Luc enters her surgery in a distressed state, he becomes her patient and that is the beginning of Rachel’s downfall.

The characters are not very likeable and I found it very hard to enjoy the book with such dislike for the characters, for me this was of putting and I found myself irritated by the main characters.

I found it to be a slow burner read for me, however it had a twist and I know this book will be enjoyable for many.

I would recommend giving this title a read as it was well written.

A slow burn with a light mystery thrown in. The storyline was ok, but it lacked something for me, the story just went along nicely and then it sped up during the last 10% of the book and then it ended. I was waiting for the wow moment but it just wasn’t there for me.

This book was obviously not for me but I’m sure other people will enjoy it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This drew me in right from the very beginning. The suspense and drama kept me hooked throughout. It’s a well crafted novel.

really enjoyed this book, it’s a really atmospheric and broody read.

I found Rachel so annoying, so unprofessional and meh 😂, to be fair most of the characters were annoying.

The storyline was really good, a slow burner which ended with a bang, tho some parts were a tad repetitive, over all this is a good domestic thriller and I plan to read more by the author.

Rachel Goodchild is a doctor in a community surgery. Married to Nathan who is chasing promotion at the local school where he teaches.
Luc is the patient that is Rachel's downfall.
I wasn't sure where this was heading to be honest and got a little bored. But by two thirds of the way through it really picked up pace.
The setting by Salisbury Cathedral made it feel very eerie, all those dark shadows had me holding my breath. The tension was palpable.
There were plenty of twists and red herrings to keep the reader guessing.
None of the characters were particularly likeable. Only Victoria, Rachel's friend and neighbour was likeable.
Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins UK for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Rachel is a doctor and Luc her patient but there is an attraction between them .
He wants drugs and she gives them to him.
But what will happen if they are found out?

Couldn't get into this book,couldn't sympathise with the characters and the storyline was fairly predictable.

Too slow moving for me I’m afraid, with unsympathetic characters. The mother and daughter relationship was not at all believable and neither was the doctor/receptionist one. I’m afraid I guessed ‘whodunnit’ very early in the book. I stuck with it until the end, but it wasn’t for me I’m afraid.

Interesting characters, a compelling storyline and unexpected ending.
What more could you want?
I was really drawn into this story