Unfortunately this book wasn't for me. I should have taken more notice of the plot - online grooming and sexual abuse of young girls. I tried but could get into the book so I gave up before the end. I'm sure many younger than me will enjoy and appreciate the story.

This book was a 2.5 stars for me, rounded up. I really wanted to like this book more, but the writing and characters were lukewarm to me and had potential for more. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance digital copy.

I did enjoy this. I don't think that it particularly well written, it was a little too dramatic in places and the characters hadn't been fleshed out enough. It was a little unrealistic and also a little predictable in places. Having said that, it did keep me interested right to the very end and I enjoyed the story.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It's not an easy subject to tackle, but the author does it well, a great achievement for a debut novel. Recommended.

The Prologue tells us immediately that Rita Marsh has killed a man - not intentionally and not premeditated but nevertheless she has killed a man!
So this is not technically a mystery, but an explanation of why such an obviously 'good' and kind person has committed this crime.
Rita's character is so well portrayed in this story. I felt nothing but sympathy for her and her predicament. Her methods to do good are criticised by the police on the one hand but they want to use her for their own purposes on the other.
Leila is a damaged character, but also a very selfish one.
Javid is her only true and loyal friend, the only one who supports her regardless of what she has done in life.
Not the easiest read, many issues addressed.
A good debut and I look forward to reading more by this author.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Nilesha Chauvet/Faber & Faber for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

Rita Marsh runs a Care home by day but, by night she is a vigilante. She is part of a group of people that pretend to be young girls to snare paedophiles online. She takes it kind of personal after what happened in her own childhood and to her friend Leila who was groomed by one of their teachers whilst at school.
This is a dark and complex read and maybe deter some readers for its difficult subject. I found it to be intense, compelling read. I am not sure about the characters though. Especially Rita, I found her quite delusional thinking that she was doing the right thing. But I would be interested to see a continuation of this story after the ending. 4 stars from me

I wonder if you would want Rita as your friend?!

Rita is out to get men who do wrong by children,

Things take a very wrong turn after a school reunion, when memories, both good and bad, are stirred.

Trapped in a downward spiral, Rita is making decisions that will change lives forever.

The pace in this read picks up at a great pace and you will want to find out how things turn out for our titular character.

Dark and not for the faint hearted.
This is definitely not a cosy read. It deals with some very disturbing subjects like sex with minors, child grooming and trafficking, mental illness and a killing.
Rita Marsh is a thirty five year old single woman, who runs care home for the elderly and infirm that she had inherited from her now deceased parents. She also runs Raven Justice where she and two others hunt down paedophiles, entrapping them and then turning them over to the police.
When one of these cases tragically goes wrong she starts to re-evaluate her life. She comes across a grooming case a lot closer to home and then the story gets a lot darker and disturbing.
This is not an easy book to read, but it is well worth persevering with. The author crams a lot into this book which raises a lot of issues.

Wow what a wild ride. I can’t believe this is a debut novel!

This tells the story of Rita who is trying to take down pedophiles by posing as children online. But Rita is such a complex character, and things begin to unravel, and things and get dark and weird.

This is not much of a mystery to this book, but it sure was thrilling. I couldn’t put it down. And being inside the mind of Rita really made the book all the more scary and thrilling.

Hard to say much more without spoiling it but if you like dark and twisty characters with a thrilling plot, read this.

So well written and well paced, I will definitely be reading more of this authors work. Thanks to netgalley and publisher for the arc.

This is a book with very complex characters and very dark subjects which may well need trigger warnings for some people.
The writing is very emotional, deep, about people and the characters we become and how, despite the best of intentions, things do not always work out as we imagine.
My only criticisms of the book is that I felt it sometimes dragged on a little, however this may have been intentional by the author as it builds tension and gives the reader the opportunity to process the situation. I also feel that the cover comes over as a cosy crime type of book which it definitely isn't. This is a complex, thought provoking psychological thriller.
For a debut novel the author has done a brilliant job with her style of writing, the progression of the characters and building of tension within the story, and her direct way of dealing with quite controversial subjects. I look forward to seeing what comes next for her.

Covering some really complex and difficult subject matter this thriller has lots of atmosphere and edge, with other parts a bit slow or harder to follow
I enjoyed the ending

This was such a great read. I really enjoyed hre unravelling of Rita in both the sense of getting to know her and her actual undoing. As the story progresses we learn a lot about what people will do in their fight for justice and their own morals.

I should've known what to expect from this book from the blurb, however, it went much deeper and darker than I originally anticipated.
The first third or so of the book, I found it hard to put down. I loved getting to know Rita and her story of why she does what she does. I love a story about women taking revenge on men, however, I found this one quite different from others. The seriousness of the topic wasn't shied away from at any point, which I utterly appreciated. Some areas of the book were highly triggering and felt like Rita was talking to me directly. Had I not been in therapy for the issue at hand, I may have found this too hard to read, but instead I found it highly impactful at times. Other times, it felt like the issue could've been handled a little better, especially with what felt like the author was pushing the reader to feel empathy for the abuser.
The story dwindled for a short while around the halfway mark, but came back punching shortly after.
Definitely worth a read for any woman.

I was struggling to get into this story. The formatting inconsistencies - sometimes in separated paragraph blocks and sometimes in huge chunks of un-indented text - made it hard to read. In addition, I didn't find the main character at all sympathetic.
Once I got past that, I found a cleverly plotted, well-written story that dealt deftly with an uncomfortable subject.

Thanks to NetGalley and Faber & Faber for this ARC.

Rita Marsh is a good person. By day, she runs a care home, by night she’s a vigilante posing as young girls to ensnare men who are preying on them. But an old classmate who she’s stayed in touch with invites her to a reunion and it sets off a tidal wave of events that change Rita forever, forcing her to choose between justice and revenge.

The book is well written and Rita’s character is strong, relevant and engaging. It isn’t a comfortable, easy read however, it boldly challenges ethics and moral thinking. I didn’t particularly like the character of Leila although I understand her need to be so prominent in the book. This book will definitely stick with me but I wouldn’t say it was an enjoyable read due to the subject matter.

TW for the book: child sexual contact, grooming, violence

Rita is a good person. By day she runs a care home and by night she runs a vigilante group to snare men praying on children and exposing their crimes. When Rita is invited to a school reunion and old friend returns and her 2 worlds end up colliding. Is Rita going to choose justice or revenge.

This book is an insight into the world where adults use the internet for their own enjoyment and to ensnare children. I couldn’t help but agree with the majority of what the main character, Rita, did but then also be shocked at some of the other things that she did. The ending was a bit of a wow moment and then it in my opinion could lead to possibly a second book? Who knows but what I do know is that I for one will reading more by this author.

Firstly thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my ARC of this book.

Firstly this is very dark and delicate subject matter which I feel the author handles very well. The plot is current, engaging and well constructed.

The characterisation in the novel is good, the main character Rita being the most well written as you would expect however the cast of supporting characters were not as strongly written.

I did enjoy however was a challenging read due to the difficult subject matter

This was an unusual book which felt almost like a passion project for the author with a number of contemporary issues running through it, including vigilante paedophile hunters, grooming of young people and the crisis in social care to mention just a few! However, Ms Chauvet managed to bring it all together in a fictional story with no obvious heroes or anti heroes and make the reader think the classic " what would I do in that situation?"
Thank you to netgalley and Faber and Faber for an advance copy of this book.

This book is not an easy nor light read but I did enjoy it. The subject matter is dark and controversial, almost all the characters have flaws, which do not endear them particularly to you as a reader but, nevertheless, make you want to continue getting to know and understand them. Well written, once you start reading you are compelled to continue.
Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

This is the first book I have read by this author, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. What I got was an unusual story featuring a complex and clearly disturbed main character – Rita, who runs a care home by day, and hunts paedophiles at night. I liked the premise, it appealed to me as it deals with controversial topics. Sadly, I found it hard to warm to the characters, including Rita and I really struggled with some of her foolhardier decisions. The subject of child grooming is sensitively handled, and the overall theme is original - the author is clearly talented. Unfortunately, it just didn’t do it for me, however, I fully expect to be in the minority.