Great story, thrilling plot that I could not put down. Well worth a read, and would recommend to others. Could not put it down!

C L Taylor is another amazing author that I discovered on NetGalley. "The Escape" is a thrilling, suspenseful novel that will keep you guessing until the end. Wow, just wow!

A mother will do anything to protect her daughter. Another solid twisty novel from C.L. Taylor - gripped me from the start and had me hooked. With a hint of menace on every page, it was an edge-of-your-seat thriller.

Really enjoyable read. Good characters and a Good story. Well worth a read. Think others will enjoy.

Twisty goodiness. There are some stand out thrill moments in this one. Really crazy and top notch. Thank you for sending this book to me.

A great concept however, I found I lost interest in the characters quickly and soon put the book down. Not for me unfortunately.

An easy and enjoyable psychological thriller which I read in a day on holiday.

Without giving anything away this is a book of 2 parts. The first is a gripping and twisty psychological thriller which kept me guessing and doubting myself throughout, but the second half almost changed genre and became a completely different story.

I will admit to getting rather (!!!!) annoyed at the main character Jo and her phobias and anxiety and wanted to shout at her a couple of times, but overall this is an easy if slightly predictable story

So first off… I’m back! Apologies for the absence in reviews over the last few months, reading had taken a backseat whilst I was on maternity leave. However I’m now back on the commute and reading is back on, and I thought what better way to kick off 2018 then revisiting one of Compelling Reads favourite authors C L Taylor.



As regular readers of our blog will know we’ve lost ourselves in C L Taylor’s books before and love it when she releases a new one! The Escape is no different…



Here we meet Jo, Jo suffers from anxiety and agoraphobia, we learn that this stems from the loss of her first child. Although she is still plagued by her anxieties she has set up coping methods which enable her to carry on with her job and look after her daughter Elise. Jo’s anxieties are heightened however when a rather startling meeting with a woman she meets on the way to picking up her daughter from nursery who makes a thinly veiled threat to her daughter.



As the book progresses the strange woman Paula seems to trouble Jo more and more as it’s clear she is after something, something to do with Jo’s husband. Although her husband appears at first to be long suffering and doing his best to settle Jo’s anxieties, soon Jo’s world seems to tumble around her as the threats turn to actions and even her husband loses patience with her “anxiety” and makes a case to have her daughter taken away.



As Jo goes on the run with her daughter determined to prove her innocence the book is gripping, we find ourselves in a tension filled page turner that hurtles towards it’s conclusion. C L Taylor really knows how to make a thrilling read from a domestic viewpoint, always allowing you to identify with the main character in some way and get you routing for them. The Escape is once again an unputdownable read! More like this please!

C L Taylor is a fabulous author - her psychological thrillers keep you on the edge of the seat for the whole book, with many twists and turns throughout the book, which keeps you guessing to the very last moment. I loved this novel and it is definitely one of my must read books of 2017.

The story is told in the present day, with little snippets of information given about Jo's past entwined, leading the reader on a road to discovery. There is a strong mental health storyline throughout the book, an important theme which is prevalent in today's world and Cally has tackled it head on and The Escape is a great example of how people live with it everyday.

There is one thing that I must mention in this review, is the author's descriptive writing of Jo's panic attacks. I suffer from them myself and while reading this book I found myself living through each of Jo's attacks with her. Cally's writing was spot on, panic attacks are scary episodes and I felt every moment of Jo's attack as she worked through it. This all added to the fantastic storyline and meant I had to read just one (or two) more chapters each night. Also the scene of the beach, which I won't speak much of as I don't like to do spoilers, was expertly written and I found myself on that beach with the characters, living through the terror as the story neared its end.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants a book that grabs your attention from page one and doesn't let go. It is a brilliant psychological thriller which is definintely going to be one of my must reads of 2017.

When a stranger asks Jo Blackmore for a lift she says yes, then swiftly wishes she hadn't.

The stranger knows Jo's name, she knows her husband Max and she's got a glove belonging to Jo's two year old daughter Elise.

What begins with a subtle threat swiftly turns into a nightmare as the police, social services and even Jo's own husband turn against her.

No one believes that Elise is in danger. But Jo knows there's only one way to keep her child safe – RUN.
This is the first but not the last of this authors book I have read-edge of your seat thriller - read in 2 sittings and only then because I had to go to work-did not want to put it down.

I thoroughly enjoyed this thriller which pulled me in from the first page and kept me turning the pages.
Brilliant.

Review by Amy - So first off… I’m back! Apologies for the absence in reviews over the last few months, reading had taken a backseat whilst I was on maternity leave. However I’m now back on the commute and reading is back on, and I thought what better way to kick off 2018 then revisiting one of Compelling Reads favourite authors C L Taylor.

As regular readers of our blog will know we’ve lost ourselves in C L Taylor’s books before and love it when she releases a new one! The Escape is no different…

Here we meet Jo, Jo suffers from anxiety and agoraphobia, we learn that this stems from the loss of her first child. Although she is still plagued by her anxieties she has set up coping methods which enable her to carry on with her job and look after her daughter Elise. Jo’s anxieties are heightened however when a rather startling meeting with a woman she meets on the way to picking up her daughter from nursery who makes a thinly veiled threat to her daughter.

As the book progresses the strange woman Paula seems to trouble Jo more and more as it’s clear she is after something, something to do with Jo’s husband. Although her husband appears at first to be long suffering and doing his best to settle Jo’s anxieties, soon Jo’s world seems to tumble around her as the threats turn to actions and even her husband loses patience with her “anxiety” and makes a case to have her daughter taken away.

As Jo goes on the run with her daughter determined to prove her innocence the book is gripping, we find ourselves in a tension filled page turner that hurtles towards it’s conclusion. C L Taylor really knows how to make a thrilling read from a domestic viewpoint, always allowing you to identify with the main character in some way and get you routing for them. The Escape is once again an unputdownable read! More like this please!

The Escape is the first book I've read by C.L. Taylor and to be honest was I a bit unsure when I started the book if it would work out for me. Once again we have a woman with psychological problems, in this case, agoraphobia and I've lately felt a bit tiredness towards psychological thrillers with a woman who is mentally unstable as the main characters. So. why do I keep reading them? Well, because I have a lot of them to read.

The Escape for me was a book that I was for a long time unsure if I should continue listening to or not. I often pick the audio version of books since then I could do other things while I listened to the book, like working. And, I want an audiobook that keeps me entertained. This was on the borderline, neither bad enough to DNF nor really suspenseful to truly captivate me. However, it was interesting enough that I wanted to know the end. And, thankfully short enough with a straightforward story that at least never got really boring.

Yeah, I know I sound very negative towards the book. But, it's not that bad, it's the middle road kind of book. Not gripping enough to really make me take to the story and its characters, but still a good book that takes not a long time to listen to or read if you do that instead.

The Escape is a so-so book, but I bet if you like the author's previous book will you probably like this one too!

‘The Escape’ by CL Taylor fairly gallops along without time to take a deep breath. It is a tale of escape, pursuit, lies, vulnerability, long-hidden secrets and selfishness. At times I didn’t know which character to believe and I didn’t particularly like any of them. I wanted to sit them down at the kitchen table with a mug of tea and a plate of biscuits, and bang their heads together. There appear to be so many lies it is difficult to sift out the truth, which became a little frustrating after a while. In the end, there are many types of escape.
Jo and Max have a toddler daughter Elise. Max, an investigative journalist, has just completed a long-running story which resulted in a conviction, and he is jubilant. Jo, who became agoraphobic after the loss of their first child Henry, lives from day to day, her small world surrounding Elise. Jo feels Max is less sympathetic to her condition than he used to be. Max tries to be patient but is finding it increasingly difficult. Into this fragile world steps Paula, a stranger, who threatens Jo and Elise. The first crack appears as Max doubts Jo’s judgement of the threat. Is she panicking again, exaggerating it, imagining it?
Faced with danger to her child, Jo runs. That is the escape of the title. The agoraphobia which made it a trial to take her daughter to nursery every day fades as, driven by her maternal defence mechanism, she packs Elise into her car and flees to Ireland. Ireland, we know vaguely, is where her mother came from years ago but of which she will not speak. More mystery. As she runs, Jo appears more unbalanced, sees threats on all sides and is forever planning escape routes. But where is the danger actually coming from? Is she seeing clearly, could it be that some of the lies which frighten her are actually the truth? And vice-versa. Is she a reliable witness? The need for flight seems to over-ride all historic connections of love and trust, she runs from the people who try to help her. So, is she misguided, confused? Or correct? And in escaping with Elise, in all good intentions to protect her daughter, is she putting her two-year-old daughter in further danger of her life?
This is a psychological thriller which asks some difficult questions. About how we react to stress, how our judgement of others can be influenced, and when to trust your own deep-seated instincts.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

This is another brilliant, twisty turny, edge of your seat read from Taylor!

Wow, what a strangely addictive book that I could not put down. I could not wait to see what Jo's husband is hiding from her and where Paula fits into everything. Brilliant, please try it yourself, you won't regret it.

This book is definitely better in the second half. There are a few twists I didn't see coming, I wasn't always empathising with Jo, she frustrated me at the beginning, and I'm sure there were things she could have done to help herself. But I'm glad I stuck with it.

The Escape gripped me from the start and I read the whole book in one sitting, I don't think I even stopped for a quick comfort break. I have read a few C.L. Taylor books and this is definitely my favourite one so far - it is so enthralling, gripping and nerve-racking that my eyes felt as if they were superglued to my kindle.

My heart was pounding from the first few pages as the footsteps following Jo were described and I almost jumped out of my skin when they caught up. Ah, it's only a harmless female stranger wanting to ask for a lift. It's definitely unusual and not terribly British but she asks so forcefully and Jo is running late, so she has no alternative but to agree to give her a lift. The stranger identifies herself as Paula and once she is in Jo's car, her behaviour changes and it becomes clear that this isn't a chance encounter. Paula knows who Jo is, she knows her husband and she warns her to look after her daughter.

Jo already has a history of panic and fear of leaving the house, so this sends her head into a spin. Naturally, she wants to call the police but her husband, Max, isn't very supportive and he claims that he doesn't know Paula. Max works as an investigative journalist and Jo is convinced that, through one of his investigations, he has put her and their daughter, Elise, in danger. When things start happening that Jo can't explain, Paula's threat may be about to come true as Jo's fitness as a mother is called into question. With Max spending all his time at work, Jo does the only thing she can do to keep Elise safe - she goes into hiding.

As the search for Jo goes on, she goes to the one place that she thinks nobody will look for her. A place that has been erased from her family history but where the family secrets remain, and we all know that secrets don't stay buried for long. I found myself holding my breath as this fast-paced book drew to a close; the writing is so vivid and I was so immersed in the book that I'm sure I could hear the roar of the sea in my ears.

The Escape is superbly written, no wonder C.L. Taylor has such a huge following that keeps her firmly and well-deservedly on the top of the bestseller listings.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

Another roller coaster of a read from C L Taylor. Exciting thriller, full of suspense and secrets,.

This story is a bit of an odd one - even half way through the book leaves the reader unsure of where this is going. It then takes off at a terrific pace, leaving the reader struggling to catch up and ends with an okay ending.