I had high hopes for this but unfortunately I was disappointed.
'Sweat' dives into the intense relationship between Cassie, a personal trainer, and her abusive ex-boyfriend, Liam. The story alternates between the past, showing how Liam controlled every aspect of Cassie's life, and the present, where Cassie is now in charge, training a blind Liam. This shows a stark contrast between Cassie's former helplessness and her current position of power.

The idea behind 'Sweat' is gripping, offering a tense look at revenge and power shifts. However, the book doesn't quite deliver. Cassie, the main character, is tough to connect with. Her actions, driven by revenge, don't make her very likable or easy to root for.

The story also moves at a pretty slow pace, never really building the tension you’d expect from such a premise. The potential for an exciting, emotional journey is there, but it doesn't fully come through.

'Sweat' could have been a powerful story about taking back control and facing past traumas, but it falls short of its promise. It's an interesting read but doesn’t quite hit the mark as much as you’d hope based on the intriguing synopsis.

What would you do if your ex turned up at your work place....? but completely blind? (probably kick him in the shin, then run away) Cassie and Liam broke up a while ago, after a very abusive and controlling relationship left her with a lot of trauma and paranoia to work through. Cassie ends up personally training her ex without him realising due to her changing the tone and accent of her voice ... if you can push that to the side it's incredibly gripping, As soon as I started it I couldn't put it down. It's full of dark humour and twists, how far will Cassie push Liam ... spoiler alert pretty far!! I really enjoyed this book and would 100^% recommend. I just feel like you had to really believe he didn't recognise her voice. Also absolutely loved 'Elizabeth is missing' and can't believe these books are written by the same author. I would definitely say it comes with some trigger warnings - abusive & toxic relationships, as well as eating habits
Thank you so much for this copy Net Galley Loved it!

A brilliantly written book about keeping supremely fit & being in a toxic & controlling relationship. The characters are well written and somewhat disturbing. It has put me off going to the gym and eating Quality Street in equal measure. A good read.

It has been a long time since i’ve read a new Emma Healey release. Her quiet angsty words burrow down into your heart. A writer everyone should read.

Dieses Buch hat mich in seinen Bann gezogen und mir ein unangenehmes Gefühl gegeben. Die Charaktere waren mit Fehlern behaftet und es war unglaublich schwierig, über sie zu lesen. Cassie war paranoid, und das zu Recht, angesichts ihrer missbräuchlichen Beziehung zu Liam. Ich mochte Cassie nicht unbedingt als Hauptfigur, aber ich konnte ihre Angst und Panik nachempfinden und mit ihr mitfühlen. Das Buch wird in zwei Zeitebenen erzählt, da Cassie ihre missbräuchliche Beziehung zu Liam durch ihre heutige Beziehung zu ihm noch einmal durchlebt. Ich war wütend beim Lesen dieses Buches und habe innerlich geschrien, dass jemand Cassie zuhören und ihr glauben sollte. Liam war so unglaublich wütend und ebenso erschreckend mit seinen missbräuchlichen Taktiken und seinem kontrollierenden Verhalten. Ich konnte das Buch nicht aus der Hand legen, ich musste wissen, wie es weitergeht, auch wenn ich beim Lesen so wütend war. Eine erschreckende Erinnerung an die Kontrolle, die Menschen über uns haben.

This book was a dark, wild ride!

Sweat was uncomftable to read in lots of places but I could NOT stop reading! I've read alot of books about toxic, abusive relationships but never one that centres around food/ calorie control.
I wasn't really sure about Cassie to begin with tbh, but once you delve backwards into how Liam treated her, I can see just why she reacted the way she did! I thought the plot was cleverly done and despite being horrified by both of their behaviours at times, I could also understand it.

Also, can we talk about the ending?! I wasn't expecting it to go down that way at all! I was literally gripping my Kindle wondering what was going to happen next!

Despite this being full of difficult, triggering subjects, it was actually quite funny in places. I think it needed then little touches of droll humour to balance out the seriousness of Liam & Cassies troubled story.

I think this one may be alittle bit like marmite. But I really enjoyed it and I'm grateful I got the chance to read an early release of Sweat!

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Random House UK, Cornerstone for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

This book was so uncomfortable to read but I couldn't put it down. Cleverly written to show both the aftermath of this controlling and abusive relationship and how it developed in the first place from overly romantic gestures to absolute control.

Cassie is a flawed and at times unlikeable character but thisnis a project of the abuse and gas lighting she's experienced, not only at the hands of Liam, the abuser, but her parentsis too. It's psychologically thrilling to see her behaviour as a direct correlation to the abuse she suffered. Wouldn't you go a little off kilter and seek revenge if you'd been abused and controlled mercilessly, too?

Overall a thrilling read that's left me sad an angry at the way we as a society treat abused women and how often the men get a free pass.

Would recommend if you want a psychologically difficult but thrilling, quick read and you don't have any triggers

Cannot stop thinking about this book even a week after finishing it! So brilliantly written and such a different voice from the author's other book. Somehow this book manages to be dark, funny, pacey, complicated and memorable, I wish it was out sooner so I could talk to other people that have read it!

‘I was a cross trainer. Cross with myself. Cross with him.’
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I'm on a roll lately and apparently, I'm only reading books about toxic relationships. Pray for me. I'm actually a super happy person, I swear!
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You know how sometimes you go to one of those indoor cycling classes and the trainer is motivating you to cycle on that imaginary hill, pushing you to go further and furtherrrrr and always do more? Now, imagine you had that guy at home as well, 24/7, and the "Go on, sweetheart, I have faith in you" turns into "Don't eat that piece of chocolate, make me proud. Do you want to disappoint me?" That’s basically Cassie’s life while she’s in a relationship with Liam.
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I really liked the wild ride this novel took me on, never knowing what was going to happen next and how far both Cassie and Liam could go. Some parts will make you sweat, but others will also make you question people's intentions and our own moral limits. Oh, and also your calorie intake.
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The book is out in January 2025, so put it on your TBR and read it! Thank you, Hutchinson Heinemann, for the copy!

This book should be covered in trigger warnings, more for the food controls and obsessions even than the abusive relationship that it portrays I think. I personally really love a slice of cake, but I could feel it worming its way into my head as I read, making me wonder if cake is bad...No! Cake is not bad! Anyway, it was a difficult read and although I wanted to finish the story I was reluctant to pick it up at bedtime each night because of what was happening and how it made me feel.
I didn't much like Cass, but I think a lot of that had to do with how she was behaving around Liam at the start of the story. We don't immediately see her abusive relationship, we don't fully understand it's awfulness until quite far into the story. So although it's intimated, she just seems like she's a bit crazy with the way she's behaving around this new blind client who happens to be her ex. And what was she doing anyway...trying to get revenge but not getting revenge very well? I struggled a bit with that side of things to be honest, and the idea that Liam wouldn't recognise her.
But still, in spite of the niggles as I read there was that compelling edge...Liam was awful. Just really, really awful. So I was invested in what would happen.
I don't know that I liked the ending. My favourite characters were Tanya and her daughter Ashlie. Definitely dark and unsettling, if that's your kind of thing.

Sweat was unlike any other book I’ve read this year. It was a difficult read due to the subject matter and themes, but it was strangely enjoyable all the same. The book follows Cassie, a personal trainer working at a gym. One day, her controlling, abusive boyfriend comes into her gym, looking for a trainer. The twist here is that Cassie’s ex is now blind, leading to an interesting reversal of power. The book explores Cassie’s abusive past and how she is moving on from her trauma. There is a lot of discussion of food restriction and exercise obsession in here, so I would avoid if these are triggers for you. Despite the dark subject matter, there were certainly parts of the book that made me laugh. Overall, a page-turner that touches on a difficult but important subject, I would definitely recommend reading if you can.

It took me a really long time to write this review once I finished the book, I think part of me was hoping that if i took a step back, I would have better things to say about it.
In truth, there is nothing particularly wrong with this book, and especially considering how fast I tore through it, I don’t understand why it left me so cold.
I think I didn’t like the framing, mainly. Everything was happening so fast, there was no enjoyable escalation, you were just part of the action from the start until the end without any breathing room, change of rhythm or particularly effective twists and turns. It all felt a little one note I suppose, and I didn’t particularly care about the main character.
I’ve actually been thinking that if the story had been told from the courtroom perspective, slowly dissecting the case and uncovering the facts one by one (and thus allowing a slow painting of the main character’s downward spiral) it may have worked better for me.
That said, this book is still highly readable and I think it will find its audience and do really well. The very specific kind of orthorexic abuse it depicts was absolutely fascinating and was the main reason it kept me interested - but because the way it was delivered did not work for me, it really only left me hungry for more and disappointed.
I don’t think this is a bad book but I just really think it could have been so much better with a pinch more subtlety, more warmth, and above all a (relatively) slower and more varied pace.

TW for this book around domestic abuse, coercive control. I think this might be a difficult read for anyone who has ever been in a controlling, abusive relationship.

Before beginning this review, I have to say Emma Healey is an author who is difficult to categorise. I have read all three of her novels and it would be difficult to believe they were all written by the same author. Many will be familiar with [book:Elizabeth Is Missing|18635113] a tale of a woman spiralling into dementia trying to solve the mystery of her missing friend but I actually think, as a parent, [book:Whistle in the Dark|35068416] was a better book - a parent's struggle to understand what caused her daughter to disappear.

In Sweat, we meet Cassie, who has previously been in an abusive relationship with Liam. However, when Liam comes back into her life, Cassie has gained something of the upper hand (I won't explain why) but this causes her to behave in a difficult, but understandable, way.

The book is told across along two timelines - Cassie and Liam's previous relationship - and how they have met again in the present day. Whilst some of Cassie's behaviour does appear to difficult to understand, I am really not qualified to judge it. This is a difficult but powerful book to read.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone | Hutchinson Heinemann for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Thank you for the opportunity to review this book. I was initially sceptical about the premise that someone wouldn’t recognise their ex partner but Healey manages to pull it off admirably. The gut-churning details of an abusive relationship were superbly woven into what I suppose was a standard Mystery format.

Possible spoilers

An uncomfortable read at times, the way Liam extends his control over Cassie. There's a growing sense of dread as the story unfolds and his actions become more extreme.
Also, the way Cassie exerts control over her own life. Exhausting.
What struck me as very realistic was her parents reaction to the whole thing.
Tanya was a great character, and a great friend, like the only sensible person in the book.
Very enjoyable.

This is a really interesting take on coercive control and the narrow line between showing you care for someone and then you're actually controlling them. Instead of the story being about a male trying to stop a female seeing their friends or making them stop work and focus 100% on the man, this is instead about how a man tries to manipulate the woman's body, how he controls everything she eats, makes her feel disgusting if she even talks about chocolate. It shows how he breaks her down, makes her not be able to have any fun, and in turn her friends can't bear to be in her presence anymore. It's a very different take and was so interesting to read.

And then when Cassie, who Liam has tried to control with food, gets a chance to get her own back we see the lengths she goes to.
It makes hard reading. I didn't particularly like Cassie at all and thought her revenge tactics were crazy, odd and of poor taste, but through flashbacks we get to see why, what's made her act like this. Although I felt sorry for her, I still didn't like her so it made it a bit of an odd read for me...

It was very readable, it was exciting at times and it did make me think about my own relationship with food and exercise and how it can dominate my mind at times, so that was a great angle, so unusual in books. But I didn't really like the main character so it was hard to be fully backing her and willing her to get away with it - which did take away the tension.

Overall, four stars, it's refreshing to read a story which is focused on fitness and food.

I got sold on this book with the tagline “I stared at him the way that women never get to stare at men; without fear” - but I felt that this book fell short. I’m not sure what I expected but this wasn’t it. The book immediately introduces you to an abusive relationship that is heavy and eye opening. But as soon as Cassie is in the situation where the roles are reversed, she doesn’t back down and walk away from the situation, so she effectively puts herself right back into that awful relationship. Cassie wants revenge but a lot of what she wants to do doesn’t materialise and instead she puts toilet water in his water bottle, and personally trains him with uneven weights! I enjoyed parts of this book, but ultimately I felt that it took us round and round in circles the whole book with no real end goal or closure to the story which didn’t feel completely unrealistic.

📚 Book Review 📚

In this twisted and macabre tale, we meet Cassie, a PT who works at a gym and the relationship that develops between her and her new client, Liam.

Cass is obsessed with body image, body fat, fitness and calorie counting and very soon, we learn that she has previously been in an abusive relationship. The dual timelines show us very quickly the depths of coercive control and abuse she suffered from the man that was her boyfriend. So how will Cass react when he walks into her workplace? We learn that pretty quickly.

The description of abuse and control is graphic and can be upsetting at times. It is brilliantly juxtaposed with the effect this has had on Cassie and how it has twisted her state of mind and changed her personality, as she seeks revenge.

For me, I wanted more from the majority of the book. We meet other characters, such as friends and Cassie’s parents who are blind to the very dangerous situation their daughter is in, I wanted to jump into the pages and shake them. Tania, Cassie’s best friend, is a great character; level headed and direct. A gripping cat and mouse struggle ensues at the very end, which brought the story back up for me. Although I had kind of guessed what would happen, it was still nail biting and deserved.

I think that when this book is released, check trigger warnings will need to be included as scenes are graphic and realistic. Some descriptions are very close to the knuckle, although integral for the story.

I’d like to thank Random House UK, NetGalley and the author for the arc and the fantastic opportunity, in exchange for my honest feedback 😊
Book released on 30th January 2025

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This was such an interesting and unusual read. Liam was a fitness and health fanatic when he got together with Cassie and he used his techniques to push her into a healthier lifestyle. It quickly became controlling and abusive. Now Cassie is working as a personal trainer and Liam turns up as a client- blind thanks to a recent illness. Cassie uses her new found power over him to make him sweat. The narrative jumps between her training him and his past abuse and it's a really gripping read.

Whilst quite an uncomfortable read, I couldn’t stop reading. It was all written very well and in a sensitive way despite the topic. I haven’t read anything like this before and I was very intrigued throughout.