It took me a good while to get through this one. I found the pace of the story quite slow, the whole way through and it didn’t really pick up even towards the end.

Character wise, most in the book are unreliable and suspicious, including the MC Annabelle. So from the offset, I had no idea where the story was going and I was doubting everyone. There’s a definite level of unease and tension throughout the whole book, which did keep me intrigued and eager to know how the story was going to progress.

Check the TW before picking it up… this won’t be for the faint hearted! If you can’t stand blood, the sight of it or descriptions of it, then this one won’t be for you! 🩸

For me, it was a little longer than it perhaps could have been and at some points felt quite repetitive, so I definitely lost interest in some parts of the book.

I was pleasantly surprised with the ending, which I guess made up for the slowness and other parts I didn’t necessarily love. Having said that, I have seen a lot of great reviews for it so I could be in the minority of those who found it just okay!

I loved this book although it was a slow burn to start with it finally got going and had lots of twists and turns throughout. It's not what you expect.

Slow burn with a twisted ending!

A Londoner of proud Italian and Greek heritage, Sophia Spiers grew up on the Lisson Green Council Estate, which informed the depiction of her protagonist's childhood. She studied Film at university, and in her twenties and early thirties worked in TV and post-production before turning her attention to her true passion: writing. Sophia was one of the six outstanding mentees chosen from over 1500 entrants to be part of the inaugural Madeleine Milburn mentorship scheme and has been honing her craft ever since.

I enjoyed this domestic thriller and its steady build of suspense throughout. It was easy to follow and the characters felt very real. It definitely kept me guessing, but more than anything, I wanted Annabelle, the protagonist, to get over her issues and function better in her life. Her back story was very sad, and I couldn't help but also feel awful for her mother. The scenes were written well, and what shone through the hardest was Annabelle's anxiety-something I could personally resonate with. I also liked the setting in London and could easily picture the high-rise flats where she grew up.

One particular scene that pulled me in was the hypnotherapy session with Cassandra during the two-week intensive. Annabelle is regressed back to her childhood when she witnessed a brutal crime against her mother by three men inside her flat. It was so shocking and I raced through it to the end, wanting to find out what happened. Cassandra's character was a mystery to me, and something felt off from the start. Especially since she was so invested in treating Annabelle, while not really knowing her, and inviting her to stay in her home. It all felt very isolating to me. After the midpoint, I found the story gripping me more and picking up pace.

Annabelle was the only character I was rooting for, but it was also difficult to like her at times. Uncle Jack's supportive character was a nice break to read since everyone else seemed to have an agenda of their own. The ending, being a bit of a cliffhanger, actually worked for this novel. After everything that happened to the protagonist, by the end it was very clear what she wanted, and what her motives were for getting it. I felt myself breathe a huge sigh of relief after turning that last page.

3/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

For readers who enjoy slow-burning suspense, and domestic thrillers with twisty endings and dark secrets.

This was a great psychological thriller the surrounds the plot around a woman trying to survive in the world despite her psychological struggles which can hit home for a lot of readers! Annabelle decides to seek help and Cassandra provides it through hypnosis. What will happen when her childhood traumas start to reveal themselves? How will Annabelle cope with the realizations while trying to maintain as a wife, mother, daughter and deal with the moms at school? This book was full of suspense with an ending which I didn’t see coming!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for my ARC !!

Abused and self-harming girl from a single parent family on the wrong side of town marries rich entrepreneur. What can possibly go wrong? Well, on the face of it, nothing – ten years into the marriage they live in luxury with their six-year old son, who attends a private day school. All seems sweetness and light. She, Annabelle, loves her husband, Matt, and her son, Joshy, and they have a housekeeper, Rosita, a long-time servant of Matt’s family, who basically does everything for her. But underneath things are not quite so blissful. Matt is working late most days, and often away overnight on business, possibly being unfaithful – or is that just paranoia? Annabelle feels isolated and can’t make friends with the other mums (who are all from more affluent backgrounds than she is); her mother, who is calling her repeatedly, is reported to be dying, but she can’t face returning to the squalid flat on the sink estate; there are nightmares and hidden traumas from her past which the wine she is knocking back (premier grand cru, of course) can’t block out. And now she has started cutting again! Then a publicity leaflet drops through her letterbox from Clinical Hypnotherapist Cassandra Rose, promising to change the reader’s life forever. At first she ignores it, in fact bins it, but under increasing pressure from Matt’s worries, her mother’s phone calls and her own insecure memory, she finds the leaflet and calls the number. A series of sessions follow.
This psychological thriller is told in the first person by Annabelle, with some interpolations. This style gives a tight focus because it makes the reader more committed to the protagonist, makes it easier to relate. The downside is that we only have one point of view and the narrator can be unreliable – especially in cases like this where we are aware that she is hiding a number of secrets (subconsciously or consciously). The sessions with Cassandra, which form a large part of the story, are very well constructed, particularly the earliest ones where Annabelle is being conditioned over a number of weeks. The writing is very effective and it is easy for the reader to feel drawn into the hypnotist’s web. The later sessions continue to work in themselves but the story gets a bit bound up in iterations, which can be tense but sometimes feel intrinsically unlikely. It is , of course, a mystery story – not just the mystery of her supressed childhood memories but also of her married life and her relationships with her husband and others. It is easy to hypothesise about what is really going on, but a number of rationales are possible and certainty will come late, if at all. Not quite an unquestionable 5 but certainly a 4.5 so 5 on the rounding.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

What a read! This story follows Annabelle who is struggling with her mental health whilst seemingly living the perfect life. Her husband Matt is working late, her estranged mother has started calling again and she’s struggling with how overwhelming being a parent is. Then she meets her hypnotherapist who promises to help and she’s becomes very quickly reliant upon to get through each day.

The unreliable narrator aspect was done really, really well and I truly had no idea who was guilty/telling the truth/an absolutely lunatic and in all honesty, I’m not 100% sure if I actually know now. My first time enjoying reading an unreliable narrator storyline.

My only criticism of this book is that when I was reading the second half of the book, the first half felt irrelevant. Almost like it could have been included in the second half (storyline wise) and that would have added more to the unreliable narration aspect and making it mess with your mind more.

Outlier alert!

This book started off a little slowly for my liking. Poor Annabelle from a disadvantaged and dysfunctional background meet the older, handsome and very wealthy Matt. Soon she is pregnant - oops and they get married. It is not long before the gaslighting starts. She is out of her depth, socially awkward and has no confidence in her value. It is not long before Matt is calling all the shots. After all, what else can she do? She even suspects him of having an affair. The only bright spot in her life is 6 year Joshy, their son.

If all this sounds very familiar that’s because it is! There are any number of books that start like this. The three main characters - Annabelle, Matt and Cassandra (we’ll get to her in a minute) are all unreliable narrators and they are all pretty unlikeable. I think we are meant to root for Annabelle but really, she is no naive and kind of pathetic. She also has a dark secret in her past, of course she does! But she can’t remember the details so Annabelle starts seeing a hypnotherapist - Cassandra. Straight away I picked up a whole bunch of red flags which the hapless Annabelle did not.

Soon Annabelle sees Cassandra as her friend and saviour which, of course, couldn’t be further from the truth! The story got more interesting from that point on and I did want to see how it all panned out. So while I mostly enjoyed the read it was hardly anything new or revelatory. However, there are many 4 and 5 star reviews for this book so take mine, as a jaded reader, with a grain of salt. Many thanks to Netgalley and Lume Books for the much appreciated arc which I reviewed voluntarily and honestly.

3.5/5

Annabelle turns to self old self harm habits when she suspects her husband of having an affair, feeling like shes a bad mother and having her past come back to haunt her. She then starts seeing hypnotherapist Cassandra Rose to try and fix herself.

The book started off really strong and I raced through the first half really quickly. After that the book takes a turn or events and becomes bizarre. The book gets weirder and weirder as you go on and it comes to an abrupt end. I’d give the first half of the book a 4 out of 5 and the second half a 3.

I was super excited to read this novel by Sophia Spiers as it sounded like an interesting novel.

The blurb reads

"Annabelle seems to have it all. The perfect house, a successful husband, a darling son. But Annabelle is troubled.

Trapped in an unhappy marriage, failing at motherhood, and at odds with her new privileged lifestyle, Annabelle begins to self-harm, a habit resurrected from her traumatic past.

When she meets the alluring and charismatic hypnotherapist Cassandra Rose, she is offered a way out.

Through hypnosis, Annabelle is encouraged to unearth her painful repressed memories and face her childhood demons. But as the boundaries between her hypnotic trance and reality begin to dissolve, Annabelle becomes increasingly vulnerable to much darker forces."


I found Annabelle quite a complex and difficult character to warm to but she is nonetheless an interesting one. Annabelle is not happy in her privileged lifestyle that she leads and her husband is not the nicest to her at all. One could say they are not really living their full potential. Annabelle has had a difficult past and when she finds out about a hypnotherapist, Annabelle decides to give it a go.

This novel is twisty, dark and intriguing. I do not want to give too much away but if, as a reader you enjoy a really good thriller then this novel is definitely a good read.

Thanks to Sophia Spiers, Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Lume books for the opportunity to read this Arc.

I'm a big fan of thriller and mystery books - I loved the psychological aspects of this book with regards to Annabelle and her hypnotherapy treatment.

The book begins with mystery and has a dark and gloomy atmosphere throughout it. Lots of unpredictable twists in this book. Sophia Spiers is a skilled author who had me questioning my own conclusions, diverting and changing my theories and kept me in suspense!

This story is a brilliant example of how you can't always escape your past and facing it is more therapetic in order to move forward in life. I commend Sophia on how well she handled the sensitive topic of self-harm.

The book was well written, had good story development and kept me reading to the end. My only criticism is the ending - there was so much build up throughout the book that I was expecting more from the ending.

A brilliant, dark, atmospheric read which handles sensitive topics well. Thanks once again.

Thank you for NetGalley for providing me with this book for review. Wow what a read, totally gripped from the start to end, read in one day. Hoping for more from this author.

Unfortunately, I just couldn’t get into this book, I found it slow-moving and I didn’t really like the characters or relate to any of them. I don’t think it was what I was expecting, which sometimes is a good thing, but other times it’s not. Looking at other reviews I think I’m completely in the minority, so if you like the sound of the blurb, please don’t let me put you off.

I always appreciate the hard work an author puts into writing a book and thank you so much to the author, publishers and NetGalley for my copy of this book, sadly this one just wasn’t for me.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, LumeBooks and Sophia Spiers for the advanced copy!

Let me tell you, this book has all of the elements you want from a psychological thriller; unreliable narratives, an eerie atmosphere, a claustrophobic feel, a past shrouded in mystery, an unstable MC at her wits end, a creepy therapist and questionable hypnosis.

This was such a fast read for me, I think I devoured it in about a day. Through a combination of good storytelling and duel timelines, Spiers creates this weaving narrative that leaves the reader compelled to find out what's around the next corner, it's so hard to put it down! The second half of this novel is explosive. So much goes on and the revelations that come to light are just jaw dropping. I had my suspicions but nothing near the truth of what was coming!

An addictive psychological thriller you won't want to put down, don't miss The Call of Cassandra Rose.

* Please research any trigger warnings before reading *

Annabelle the main character in this twisty debut novel seems to have the perfect life. She has a beautiful home successful husband and is mother to her treasured son.

Behind the facade lies a woman who is troubled resorting to self harming as a means of escape. With her husband despairing of her behaviour and her own doubt and worry about her mental state she tries to self heal . When she receives a flyer from therapist Cassandra Rose she feels that this may offer her the answer to she has been searching for.

Casandra offers hypnosis which makes Annabelle re-examined her past. The repressed memories of her childhood are laid bare and she finds herself struggling with panic and fear. I was on the edge of my seat ( sometimes with a feeling of dread ) when I read the hypothesis sessions. It is something I am intrigued and frightened by, the ability to access the subconscious.

This book was a slow burner for me but I soon became a invested in Annabelle's story and willed her to have a happy ending. I really enjoyed how her character grew and the personal courage she displayed in trying to face and fix her demons.

Childhood trauma can affect your whole life and this was brilliantly portrayed. This book was full of suspense with an ending which I didn’t see coming . Gripping and shocking in equal measures it was one I really enjoyed.

The Call of Cassandra Rose is an unforgettable tale, that sits somewhere in the blurry area between life and fiction. At points it reads like a cinematic thriller, but is painfully grounded in the harsh truths of reality and the way people suffer. As we explore our MC and their relationship with their therapist, it's impossible not to develop a relationship full of understanding and empathy.

I really enjoyed this novel.

I found Annabelle the protagonist extraordinarily complex and a difficult character to accept at times but the plot, pace and characters made this a joy to read. I enjoyed disliking the main character from time to time as it made it such a unique read.

Thank you Lume Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. IYKYK, my reviews are always honest.

BIG ASS TRIGGER WARNING: self-harm

SYNOPSIS

Annabelle is going through it - marriage, motherhood, and friendship are all a struggle for her. After she starts self-harming again, she decides to see Cassandra, a hypnotherapist who promises to unlock Annabelle's darkest memz so she can move tf on. But are Cassandra's intentions as true as they seem?

MY OPINION

LE. SIGH. Now ya'll know I'm gonna keep it real... I was vibing aggressively with the first 50% or so. Yes, the struggling rich new mom is very passe, but Spiers' writing elevated this to a new level. I could feel Annabelle's insecurity and anxiety radiating off the page; Spiers does a fantastic job of showing not telling.

Full disclaimer, I know jack shit about hypnotherapy. However, I did like how Spiers' wrote these scenes. Adopting a "childish" tone when Annabelle travelled back to her younger self under hypnosis was clever - again, showing not telling.

So up until 50% I was thinking, damn we've got a solid 4 stars on our hands. Then Annabelle started the two-week program at Cassandra's house and things started to go sideways. At 60% I was clinging to that Honda Civic Reliable 3-star rating for dear life, but unfortunately it slipped into 2-star territory as the plot began to crumble like feta cheese.

From 60% onward, Annabelle goes full dumbass and gaslights herself about 45 times. We read about the same cycle of "Cassandra is crazy! But wait, I need her because she makes me better even though I am beyond miserable!" again and again and again until fina-fucking-ly something different happens. Also the ending was sooooo bleak I literally yeeted my kindle at my husband in annoyance.

NOW if the editor or publisher or whoever tf is responsible for this could tighten up the last 40% by cutting down the Cassandra program scenes in half (at least) and then change the direction of the ending, this would be more solid than a slab of concrete. However, as it stands, *fart noises*

PROS AND CONS

Pros: first half was fantastic - writing was on point, emotions were emoting, the suspense was suspenseful... loved the hypnotherapy sessions, very interesting (cannot comment on the accuracy)

Cons: last 40% was repetitive and boring, the big twisty twist and ending seemed random af

I was initially drawn to the cover of this book and the premise intrigued me. I was captivated at first. But I found myself bored after only 30%. I would still recommend this to specific people.

Wow, what a debut. This book was stunning. I thought in some areas it dragged but I really loved the way it was written and how unique it was.

This book was a slow burn. Annabelle is a younger mother in London who has a troubled childhood. She has blocked off the memories so she tries consulting a hypnotherapist. I got weird vibes throughout the whole book, knowing something was way off with the characters. The buildup was very gradual but I had to know how it ended.
I gave this 3 stars because how slow it was. It was a good read though.