A very original, twisty thriller that will bring you to some very dark places. Disturbing at times, gripping and atmospheric.
Nothing is what it seems and a lot of secretes. Sex, lies, obsession.
The author delivers and this story kept me hooked
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

better than the first!!! ruth kelly is fantastic and i am obsessed with her writing. i read this is under 24 hours and i already need more!!

At first this book had me hooked, I loved the style and the switching between the blog and Erin’s narrative.

It was obvious the chateau was too good to be true but u was not expecting the sordid secret that was uncovered.

There is a twist towards the end that was interesting but not explosive.

I would have liked more focus on the relationship between Adele and Erin.

3.5 stars

Woweeeeee!! Ruth Kelly has just shot to the instant auto buy list. This book is brilliant and quite possibly my new favourite (although I still love The Villa).

As soon I saw this announced I knew I had to slide into the lovely Chloe’s emails and I was lucky enough to get a spot on the tour for this one. This book has been completely worth the wait.

The Escape has delivered on every level and been a book which I have been instantly pulled into. I then became completely unwilling to put this down. This has resulted in me devouring this gem in one afternoon sitting. My only regret, I can’t experience this as a first read all over again.

This is Kelly’s second book and another brilliant book. This time we are whisked off to France after a mystery donor buys a chateau for influencer Adele and her partner Jack. However, this does come with some terms and conditions. These have been nothing like I expected.

This truly is a book which is addictive and electrifying. Kelly has created a plot which has been perfectly paced, unforgettable and completely impossible to predict. I thought I’d figured it out a few times then BANG, Kelly would throw something in to completely pull the rug from under me.

This is a gem from a highly talented author. The best way I can describe it, Kelly will invite you in (imagine a dinner party) but then you will be held hostage until you’ve savoured every last moment. Only then will you be able to stop thinking about this one. A sign of a really great author.

There is absolutely nothing I can say about this one. Kelly has created a gem and this follows a brilliant debut novel. The Escape is a book worthy of all the praise and I definitely cannot wait to see what is coming next from this author.

This is a must read and a book I will be recommending to everyone who will listen (and I’ll try with those who don’t).

I liked the premise of the.book but I didn't really gel with the characters of the sisters and I found the idea of taking on a chateau a bit far fetched and a lot of the scenarios in France felt stereotyped.
Once Erin was in France it seemed to be fairly predictable despite the mystery and I didn't feel invested enough in the characters to worry about whether the mystery would be solved.

Not for me I'm afraid.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ruth Kelly has undeniably become one of those authors whose works I instinctively purchase. After immersing myself in "The Villa," a chilling suspense that delves into the murky world of reality dating shows, I found "The Escape" equally riveting, masterfully capturing the menacing aspects of social media.

The tale begins with an intense prologue. Adele, a popular YouTuber, hastily records a video, hinting at lurking danger. The once dreamy mansion now seems like a web of deceit and horror. What exactly transpired?

The story then adopts a dual timeline - taking us back to Adele's past, recounting a video mishap and the intriguing offer from an anonymous benefactor: a majestic chateau in Burgundy, laced with strings attached, including a Non-Disclosure Agreement. Meanwhile, in the present timeline, Erin, Adele's elder sister, searches for her, compelled by their ailing mother's waning days.

Both timelines eventually converge, escalating tension and peril. While the narrative occasionally veers towards the dramatic with some over-the-top antagonists, the book's brisk pace, combined with cliffhanger chapter endings, ensures readers remain hooked, eager to unravel the mystery. In the end, it's a thoroughly satisfying and unpredictable psychological thriller. If you're craving an evocative journey set amidst the snowy landscapes of France, this book is a perfect pick. Hauntingly atmospheric! 📚❄️

Loved this book!!!

4.5 starts really good mystery didnt see the ending coming and kept me wanting to pick the book up another great book by Ruth Kelly.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy of The Escape. I wasn't sure about the book at first as I have an immediate aversion to anything that starts with social media talk. However I'm pleased to say it soon developed into a cracking story. Adele who seems very dissatisfied with her life, and her partner Jack are 'gifted' a château in France after she sets up a GoFundMe site to buy one! Unsurprisingly certain, distinctly dodgy clauses are written into their contract by their rich benefactor. Alarm bells ringing for anyone??? For the first few months things appear to go well then the benefactor wants to throw a New Year's Eve party, moving them out for the duration much to Adele's disgust.
Now the trouble really starts!! From this point the story goes from strength to strength with the surprises and twists coming thick and fast! A thoroughly enjoyable read well deserving of 5 stars.

Great premise but I really couldn't get behind either narrator. I might give it another go, but for now I don't think it's for me.

When Adele and Jack, a struggling influencer couple, share a crowdfunding video online, they are astonished by the generous offer of an anonymous benefactor: to purchase for them a charming 17th-century French château. This opportunity serves as a much-needed lifeline for Adele and Jack, allowing them to escape their troubles and heal their strained relationship.

For Adele, this is a dream come true. She plans to document their journey through captivating videos, as they restore the magnificent building, captivating thousands of online subscribers. However, the château is not quite what it appears, and the local community proves to be far from welcoming. Adele can't help but feel a peculiar energy within the old rooms of the creaky, dark building, as though she is not alone. Even Jack's behavior has become increasingly peculiar, leaving Adele suspicious that he is keeping secrets—secrets he refuses to disclose.

Unexpectedly, Adele ceases to upload videos, and her online presence dissipates into silence. Concerned for her sister's well-being, Erin embarks on a journey to France to ensure Adele's safety. However, Erin is met with a disconcerting combination of Adele's obsessed fans, an unsettling history surrounding the château, and the stifling secrecy enveloping the nearby town. Yet, before Erin can accomplish her mission of locating the missing couple, she must uncover the shocking truth: why did the anonymous investor gift Adele and Jack their dream home?

To complicate matters further, Erin struggles with her own internal demons—feelings of envy. She longs for the idyllic life that Adele and Jack have effortlessly embraced, escaping their troubles and starting anew. For years, Erin has endured a hand-to-mouth salary, perpetually sacrificing her desires for financial security. In stark contrast, Adele now lives a lavish life seemingly devoid of financial concerns. How did she acquire the means to purchase such an extravagant château? It simply doesn't add up. Amidst it all, there is one element of Adele's newfound life that Erin wouldn't trade for anything: Jack. Jack, who has become the catalyst for the rift between Adele and Erin, their once-close bond now severed due to his poisonous influence. Did Adele use Jack as a convenient excuse to sever their sisterly bond?

Amidst this tale of intrigue, passion, and mystery, the haunting setting captivates readers with its contemporary yet gothic atmosphere.

Supporting characters exude an unnerving aura of menace, while the novel delves into dark themes, reminiscent of the enigmatic film "Eyes Wide Shut." The well-drawn and believable characters heighten the palpable tension, maintaining a flawless pacing throughout the narrative.

Although there are instances when events unfold at a slower pace, overall, it remains a delightfully engrossing read, with twists both predictably satisfying and astonishingly jaw-dropping.

Everything comes with a price. When Adele uploads a video to a crowdfunding site asking for money to buy a French château, the first reactions are derision and contempt. Then a lawyer contacts her offering the château for free. Of course, there are rules. She can create a vlog about her life in the French countryside but she can’t have guests or do major or unapproved alterations. The costliest price has been left unsaid. So Adele and her partner Jack move to France and the massive, historic and somewhat creepy château. The villagers are sullen and resentful, the gardener not so secretly spies on Adele and Jack is preoccupied with…what?

This is Adele’s story. Her sister Erin, narrating alternate chapters, has come to France to search for Adele and Jack, missing since New Year’s Eve. Not surprisingly, no one wants to help her. The villagers are, of course, unfriendly and the local police ignore her. She must unravel the mystery of Adele’s disappearance by herself. She will discover that the château holds many secrets. Most should stay hidden.

The Escape is a fast-paced wild ride full of surprise and tension. Who thought “Escape to the Château” repackaged as an influencer vlog would have mystery, terror, sex, drugs and murder as themes? Don’t miss this one! 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Pan Macmillan and Ruth Kelly for this ARC.

Influencer Adele dreams of a new life in a French chateau with her boyfriend Jack and is shocked when a mystery person offers to buy them their dream home. Adele believes filming her new life in the chateau will kick off her influencing career, however when she arrives the locals are hostile. Suddenly her videos stop and it’s down to sister Erin to travel
To France to fight for the truth about what has happened to the couple and why a random investor would gift the home in the first place.

I enjoyed The Villa, the author’s previous work so was looking forward to trying The Escape. This was another enjoyable read. There is a dark, foreboding atmosphere throughout the book and I enjoyed the cold, French setting as this added extra tension to the story. The characters were well written and I liked the two perspectives, including the chapters written as vlogs. The story starts off fairly simple but then takes a strange turn which adds an interesting, unique element. There were plenty of twists and turns which made the book very entertaining. Overall this was another fun, well written (although slightly crazy) story by this author which I will recommend. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this copy in return for an honest review.

The Escape was my first read by author Ruth Kelly (at least I think so, she is a prolific ghost writer!) and I knew from the first few pages that I would be in good hands. The Escape tells the story of Erin whose sister has disappeared shortly after moving to her dream-home: a fairytale castle in France. However, there are lots of questions to be answered - such as how has she managed to afford to live there, why has she stopped her regular vlogging and where are her and her husband now?

The book jumps between two main perspectives – Erin in the present on her quest to find her sister and sister Adele in flashback telling how she moved to France and her discoveries in her dream home. This is also intercut with Sky News transcripts which are happening in the present day and this worked to drip-feed information and keep the tension high. I found myself immersed in both timelines; the plot is perfectly paced to keep you hooked and I finished it in just a few sittings.

A lot of Adele’s chapters are written as transcripts from her Vlogs as she is a social media influencer, which also includes ‘stage directions’ in bold. I thought this really worked well and was an interesting mechanic. The book in general shows the darker side to social media and the price of opening up your personal life to be an Influencer which I thought was well integrated into the plot.

The plot itself took a turn into a place that I was very much not expecting (no spoilers!), but it was an interesting twist. Although the ending ties up the main story, there is a bit of a cliff-hanger and potential for some of the characters to work together on solving the over-arching threat that is introduced in this book. I will certainly keep an eye out for more books by this author and would be very interested to hear more about the characters of this book as well!

Overall, The Escape is a perfectly paced and gripping read – highly recommended. Thank you to NetGalley & Pan Macmillan for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 4.5/5

Ruth Kelly may well be a new name to many readers. It certainly was to me, until I read her previous (debut) novel, "The Villa". However, she is already an experienced and award-winning journalist who has also been responsible for ghost-writing a number of Sunday Times bestsellers. Having read "The Villa" I was so glad that Ruth Kelly is now publishing books under her own name and there was never any doubt that I was going to be coming back for her next book.

"The Escape" builds on the promise shown by this author in "The Villa" and delivers something even better. Adele Davenport is an online influencer - not an entirely successful one, but that doesn't prevent her from dreaming big. When she hits upon the idea of using crowdfunding to pay for a luxurious French château in need of renovation, she doesn't anticipate how poorly it is going to be received on social media. However, her surprise at the vitriol she is subjected to pales into insignificance compared with the shock of a mysterious anonymous benefactor offering to buy the château for Adele and her partner, Jack. Surely this is an offer that is just too good to be true ... isn't it?!

The setting works wonderfully well and even though it is a contemporary one, there is a sense of the Gothic about it and the supporting characters have a distinct du Maurier-like sinister menace about them. The novel deals with some quite dark themes and at times it put me in mind of something that might have been penned by Dennis Wheatley, such as "The Devil Rides Out". As in Ruth Kelly's previous novel, the characters are well-drawn and credible. The scenarios, whilst unusual, are still believable, which makes the growing tension are the more palpable. The pace of the novel is close to faultless. Yes, there are times when events develop a little more slowly, but only when it is appropriate for them to do so. At other times it is genuinely edge-of-the-seat stuff.

If Ruth Kelly continues to deliver entertaining reading material of this standard then she is definitely going to become one of my "must read" authors. Her first two books have already set her off on that path.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for supplying an ARC in return for an honest review.

The Escape is a complex, psychological thriller with dark undertones. Adele a social media influencer, starts a crowd funder so she and her partner Jack can purchase a chateau, taking their followers through every step of them doing it up. Before the crowd funder gets off the ground, however, an anonymous and mysterious benefactor offers to purchase the chateau for them in exchange for some not-too-onerous conditions.. Then, in a separate timeline, Adele’s sister, Erin travels to the chateau, because she has not heard from her sister and wants to give her some upsetting news. She finds both Adele and Jack have disappeared. Plus there does not appear to be any evidence that they have ever lived at the chateau. It soon becomes clear that the village where the chateau is located has some secrets it wants kept quiet and Erin finds herself up against a wall of silence and obfuscation.

The location of the chateau in the middle of winter is very eerie and this seems to add to the closed-off atmosphere within the village. There is a good twist at the end, I liked the social media angle which made it feel fresh and all in all it was quite well written.
The only thing that stops me from giving a very high score is it's apparent that the author has seen the film Eyes Wide Shut with Tom Cruise as have I and I found that slightly disappointing and a bit intrusive.

The Escape has a publication date of 23rd November. My sincere thanks to NetGalley, Ruth Kelly, and Pan Macmillan for the ARC in exchange for an open and honest review.

Ruth Kelly's novel, 'The Escape', follows the story of Adele, an influencer going through a rough patch with her partner, Jack. They receive an offer from an unknown benefactor who provides them with a French chateau. Adele and Jack see this as a chance to start fresh and escape their troubles. Adele intends to document the process of renovating the chateau for her followers on social media. However, the dream quickly turns into a nightmare as Adele's videos suddenly stop, and she and Jack vanish.
Erin, the sister of Adele, delves into the couple's disappearance and uncovers unsettling truths about the chateau and its surrounding town. The story is enthralling, filled with surprises that keep you on the edge of your seat. The characters are intricately crafted, and the plot is perfectly paced, with the tension steadily increasing.
Although some aspects of the plot may appear improbable, like the sudden gift of a flawless French chateau, the narrative is good, making it effortless to disregard these minor discrepancies. The Escape is an exhilarating piece of literature I recommend to anyone who appreciates a compelling mystery. Ruth Kelly has achieved a remarkable feat with this book, and I am excited to explore more of her writing in the future.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this thriller. The characters and the plot were well thought out. The plot was well paced with a few twists.

'The Escape' is a psychological thriller that sees twenty something social media influencer, Adele, 'go live' asking her followers to crowdfund her purchase of a French chateau. Opinions and feelings run high following this controversial plea, leading Adele to remorse as she receives more than her fair share of trolling. In a surprising twist of fate however, a mysterious donor offers to fund Adele's dream purchase - in return all that is required of Adele and partner, Jack, is that they agree to a few fairly standard conditions. Next thing we know, Adele's sister, Erin, is visiting the chateau in a mercy mission to take Adele home to visit their dying mother before it is too late. Erin discovers the chateau is deserted, with no sign of Adele and Jack having resided there at all.

This book features 2 distinct timelines, one is Adeles' pre new-years eve timeline documenting her new life in France. The second is a post new years eve timeline in which Erin reports Adele as missing and goes on her own mission to locate her sister.

This book reveals some dark secrets, and delightfully there are some plot twists along the way. I found the book to be well written, intriguing and have finished the book feeling thoroughly entertained!

My thanks to NetGalley, author and publisher for the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an advance copy.

"The Escape" by Ruth Kelly is a suspenseful and captivating thriller that keeps readers on the edge of their seats. Adele and Jack's journey from struggling influencers to the owners of a French château takes an ominous turn as they disappear, leaving Adele's sister Erin on a quest to uncover the truth. Kelly masterfully weaves a web of mystery, secrets, and a hostile town that adds layers of tension to the narrative. The novel explores the dark side of online fame and obsession while delivering a gripping and unpredictable plot. As Erin delves deeper into the château's history and the enigmatic benefactor, readers are taken on a thrilling ride filled with twists and turns. "The Escape" is a page-turner that will keep you guessing until the final revelation.

The Escape by Ruth Kelly

This was my first Ruth Kelly book, after seeing the hype around The Villa I had to request this when I saw it was on Netgalley. I'm really looking forward to picking The Villa up as its love island vibes 😎❤

Back to this one ...
I thought the concept of this book was original, not too many thriller books out there including the influence of social media. I enjoyed the dual narrative between the sisters. I did think the storyline was a little bit far fetched and could have done with toning down a tiny bit. That's just me though I prefer my thrillers to be realistic to a extent. For me The Escape dragged a little bit but I did enjoy it over all.

As always thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for ARC.

⭐⭐⭐