Brilliantly unsettling, with characters so deftly woven that you never quite know who – if anyone – you can trust. Another riveting and powerful psychological thriller from this talented author.
There's something about the way the author writes that makes the words flow easily, and the pages turn themselves!

I loved this book, very well written, so much happening and of course a romance, but maybe no happy ending, that threw me, so much detail, well researched, great!

Cut Adrift is the follow up to Jesmond's brilliant debut novel, On the Edge. It's every bit as good as the first book in the Jen Shaw series - this time set around the contentious issues of refugees crisis and trafficking. Jen has a real knack for finding exactly the wrong situation and getting involved, whether she intends to or not, and this book is no exception.

What I especially appreciate about Jesmond's books is that sge writes thrillers that are fast paced and action packed without sacrificing setting or characterisation. You feel as if you've been on an amazing and slightly scary adventure by the end. Jen is a relatable character, an adrenaline junkie with plenty of intellifenve and compassion; flawed but likeable. The supporting cast is equally strong.

Considering the subject matter, this book could have easily fallen into preaching about comtemporary issues, but Jesmond steers a straight course and uses those details to support the story without overwhelming it.

I enjoyed this as much as the first book - seriously, these are thrillers I would reread; a neat trick to pull off for that genre which relues heavily on the reader not knowing what's coming. This is adventure fiction at its best. I hope there is more to come in this series.

This was a great thrilling novel. It did take a little time to get into, as this is the second in the series. It was written well to work as a standalone as it caught me up on the important points from the previous book. I was actually expecting the whole book to be set at sea with its fantastic cover. It was an exciting story with some great seafaring elements. It was definitely an interesting book. There was some great edge of your seat moments. I really liked the flow of the book. I really like the vulnerability of certain characters. It was great not knowing who you could trust it was very gripping. I definitely recommend reading this action-packed story. I loved the female James bond type story. I also loved all the outdoor recreation elements, especially the climbing. I can't wait to read more from this author. 

So much praise goes out for creating an exciting story that had my pulse racing. 
The above review has already been placed on goodreads, waterstones, Google books, Barnes&noble, kobo, amazon UK where found and my blog https://ladyreading365.wixsite.com/website/post/cut-adrift-by-jane-jesmond-verve-books-4-stars and my new blog
https://ladyreading365.blogspot.com/2023/05/cut-adrift-by-jane-jesmond-verve-books.html under my name ladyreading365

I really enjoyed our first outing with Jenifry (Jen) Shaw so I jumped at the chance to read the second outing for this daring and independent woman. Jen is taking time off to go climbing and has chosen Spain as her destination, drawn by a mysterious postcard showing a bar with decorative cork tiles on the ceiling. We met the shadowy undercover police officer Nick back in Cornwall and in the brief time they met their combined skills kept each other alive. There was also a connection between them that couldn’t be explored due to Nick being pulled straight back into another case. So when the postcard arrived with ‘wish you were here’ as the only message, Jen decided to take a chance and find the bar hoping this might be the right time to connect properly. Their time is limited though and it’s not long before Nick is off on another case. Jen does have a family issue to sort out though. Her brother has called in a panic to say that their father is planning to sell the family farm in Cornwall and the only person who can stop him is their mother. As usual their mother is elsewhere and not easy to contact, apparently teaching yoga to refugees in Malta. Jen takes advantage of Nick’s absence to fly to Malta in the hope of explaining to her mother what she needs to do to save the farmhouse where Jen and her brother grew up.

When Jen arrives though, her mother seems to be in the middle of a crisis with a family of refugees. The mother Nahla is an old friend and she’s with her two children Aya and Rania in a state of distress. This links back to a heart stopping prologue where we see that Nahla’s husband has been killed in Libya and the family have fled the country in a boat bound for Malta. Aya is so traumatised that she’s silent and both Rania and her mother are displaced and shellshocked by their experience. Now forced into a refugee camp where disease, crime and trafficking are rife and no one can be trusted. Jen knows her mother and there’s no point trying to bring Morwenna’s mind back to home when she’s on a crusade. She’s now committed to helping Morwenna bring her friend and her daughters out of the refugee camp and settle them into a new home. The story is both heart stopping and heart rending. The author knows exactly how to pace her story with thrilling, fast paced set pieces followed by periods of calm that gave me chance to breath and think about what’s just happened. The scene with the fire in the clinic on the refugee camp had me gritting my teeth with anxiety, as Jen desperately tries to save those inside through the roof. Jen’s climbing skills are always at the forefront of the action and I trust her skills, but a part when she’s having to free climb a cliff with a complete novice was nail-bitingly tense.

The Maltese setting is fascinating with a sharp contrast between the picturesque streets with bougainvillea cascading prettily from the walls and the squalor of the camp. The distance between the Malta of the tourist trail and the Malta of those who arrive in the trafficker’s boats is vast. Morwenna is living across the two worlds, set up in a beautiful home with her lover Peter but entering the camp every day to teach yoga and help out at the clinic. The desperation of the refugees is made very clear and the way the traffickers ruthlessly exploit that desperation is horrifying. Nahla expects their escape from Libya to be uncomfortable and frightening, but she doesn’t expect their belongings to be discarded, to be forced into fighting others to make sure her and her children are on the boat, or to have her youngest child Aya hit when she can’t help but cry. Aya’s behaviour from there on is that of a deeply traumatised child, who automatically folds herself into tiny spaces without complaint knowing not to make a sound until she’s told to come out of hiding. Both girls are so vulnerable, clinging to the only person they recognise and so open to exploitation. It is so difficult for Jen to get to the bottom of who is behind trafficking from the Maltese camp and when it becomes clear that secret services are also embedded in the camp it becomes even more complex. They have an entirely separate agenda, trying to separate potential terrorists using large movements of people from the Middle East and North Africa to slip into the UK undetected.

Jen is even more of a force to be reckoned with in this second novel and seems surprised at the connection she makes with Nahla’s daughter, particularly Rania. She’s more than an equal for the refugees stirring up trouble in the camp and her fitness skills mean she can escape many tense situations, but there were times when I was very worried. Her urge to protect the girls left her very vulnerable at times, luckily there was help from others but there were a couple of occasions when this was resolved by coincidences that stretched my credibility a little. Despite that I understood why the author had made those choices, for the development of other aspects of the story. Overall this was a page turning thriller, with a heroine I really enjoyed spending time with.

We find our heroine Jen climbing in Spain. Still battling her addictions and self-destructive streak, she finds solace and the opportunity to clear her mind through climbing. She has a mysterious postcard of the cork ceiling of a bar, a postcard that can only be from one person, Nick, the undercover operative whose life she helped to save. They only met briefly but there was a chemistry between them, enough for Jen to go and search out Nick to see if something may develop. A whim perhaps but Jen’s life is currently unanchored, she is drifting, looking for something to cling to, to enable her to start to rebuild.

Jen finds Nick and they spend a few blissful weeks in each other’s company as he shows her the sights of that part of Spain. A romance is blossoming. Then after an amazing evening stargazing things start to crumble as Nick is called into action again. A distraught Jen wonders if a real relationship is even possible with a man who must be a chameleon to survive undercover, when she gets a call from her brother Kit who is in a panic. Their father wants to sell their large family home and the only one who can stop him is their mother Morwenna, who cannot be located as she is off on one of her do good missions. Jen must stop moping about Nick and find her mother, no easy task as Morwenna is somewhat ethereal.

After a gentle start we have a great set up for another skin of the teeth adventure, that is a search and rescue one which includes an against the clock chase and plenty of danger. On several occasions, the tension is built up only to be released and then wound up again towards a gripping finale on a treacherous stretch of the French coast. Fast paced and frantic at times, danger abounds, people are murdered, and all the while Jen is unsure who she can trust. The action and climbing scenes are excellent and any failings in realism, such as the undercover work, are more than made up for by sheer enthusiasm in a story that drags you along.

Jen remains an interesting and engaging character. Bold, courageous and daring she tackles problems head on whether properly equipped or not, as her recklessness returns to the surface at times. She is also rather frustrating too, failing to see the bigger picture and the danger she puts others in, but impulsiveness is much more fun for the reader. Strong but flawed, an ideal lead.

The reader knows that Morwenna is a well-meaning woman but not quite with the rest of us. Here though we see that is not the case. The plot centres on her love and loyalty to a Libyan friend, her determination to rescue the woman and her children as well as her empathy for refugees and migrants. When they are at sea, she comes alive as her love of sailing takes over and it is her skill, knowledge and determination that keeps them safe. She proves to be a substantial and grounded woman, at times prone to promising too much to people but one trying to deal with the harsh realities of life in a cerebral and spiritual way.

The central themes of refugees and migration, people trafficking, and exploitation are in our news every day. This may a thriller but the migrants within are treated as individuals with empathy and compassion whilst highlighting the dangers and obstacles they face. Malta is as much in the vanguard of the migration flows as Lampedusa, Sicily and southern Italy and some of its unique difficulties are highlighted amongst some wonderful descriptions of a uniquely beautiful island.

The finale is one where the reader thinks that’s it but then there seems to be a little more and even the conclusion sets it up for the next on in the series and if you get this far you are not going to want to miss that.

Climber Jen stretches every sinew to stay alive and save those she loves from being Cut Adrift in this excellent escapist thriller.

I was allowed access to a pdf review copy on Net Galley in exchange for a fair review. Thanks to the author and publisher for organising this.

Jane Jesmond brings back the offbeat adrenaline junkie, the unforgettable Jen Shaw, after the harrowing events in Cornwall in At The Edge. Jen has slowly recovered, learning to rediscover her passion as she becomes climbing fit, although she is a trifle more safety conscious. An enigmatic postcard has her travelling and climbing the mountains near Alajar, in Andalusia, Spain, as she wonders whether to reconnect with Nick Crawford, feeling ambivalent and uncertain. Nothing pans out as expected, and Jen finds herself going to Malta as the family home of Tregonna comes under threat, and the only person who can do anything is her hippy, free spirited mother, Morwenna. Morwenna is attempting to help her friend, the Libyan writer, Nahla Shebani, and her 2 young daughters, Rania, and the traumatised Aya.

Nahla, a activist facing dangers in Libya, escaped through a precarious boat journey to Malta, she has been released from detention, into the stressful conditions of a refugee camp, living in a container. A shocked Jen is out of her depth and cannot comprehend the horrors the refugees are living under, the heat and overcrowding, the state of the wasteland, the misery, despair, hopelessness, poor health, trauma, the suffering, the understandable anger and bitterness, and the tensions that result in riots. Events culminate in the suspicious death of Nahla at the Musaeada Clinic, and Morwenna far too preoccupied with trying to help Rania and Aya to do anything about Tregonna, leaving Jen having to contact a father she has been estranged from for years to prevent the sale of their home.

Jen and Morwenna find themselves on a terrifying people smuggling boat journey on the Mediterranean Sea in their efforts to protect Rania and Aya from nightmare fates, only to run across a familiar figure, but can he be trusted? Jesmond writes a harrowing story, of the grim=realities facing refugees, the evil criminals intent on stealing vulnerable refugee children, the dangerous boat smuggling enterprises, and countries that dehumanise people who have gone through the kind of terrors none of us can imagine, and which we gain insights into through Jen's reactions to the refugees and the camp they are forced to live in. Jen is a marvellous character around which this informative, suspenseful, gripping and adventurous tale is woven. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

This was fantastic crime thriller with an idyllic setting. A perfect, intruging mystery thriller. Well written characters too