Confess to Me

‘It’s no use going back to yesterday because I was a different person then’ says Alice. ‘We’re all mad here ... you must be ... or you wouldn’t have come here’. The Cheshire Cat.

Heather Horne, husband Trevor Bishop, their six year old daughter Emily and her stepson Sawyer are temporarily renting in Hunther, Wisconsin in order to care for Trevor’s dying mother. Heather left the town when she was six years old. This book is about confronting a traumatic past and that’s all I’m going to say as this is one to dive into blind. Trevor and Heather narrate alternately which works extremely well as their insights illuminate each other’s past and present.

There are so many things you could comment on in this powerful novel but one of the aspects that comes across strongly is the sense of place. Hunther is weird, it’s rotten in a multitude of ways even down to the mouldering home they rent (Moldy Mildred) which reinforces the smell of something festering at its core. It’s full of characters that back that up (can you hear the twanging ‘Deliverance’ banjos?), their strangeness even down to their ‘pets’, their out of kilter actions that builds an atmosphere of unease, of waiting for something awful to happen which of course, it does. It has a dreamlike quality to it and I’m talking nightmares, hallucinatory ones that are macabre and surreal and like Alice I feel like I’ve dropped down a rabbit hole into an alien world that makes no sense. Let’s add another layer in of debunked, highly dangerous psychiatry and mislabelling, of manipulation and control which is so evil it beggars belief and this lies at the heart of the premise as it allows more evil to flourish. Little by little we get the backstories and see the truth and it’s shocking in the depth of the malignancy and toxicity of people in Hunther. The novel is a very well written and pacy thriller with unbelievably big secrets and lies, buried memories and tragedies that are confronted and laid to rest. It’s chilling in places, it’s seriously messed up, there’s breathtaking suspense and some very good plot twists.

Overall, it’s an excellent, clever read, yes, it’s dark but also absolutely compelling and I found it and to put it down. It would make a brilliant film but I may peep from behind the sofa on occasions!

Ps. It’s a tad steamy in places too!! 😳

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Titan Books for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

This book is WILD! 😧 Once I sunk my teeth in, I couldn’t tear myself away from this story! It is a quick and unique read with excellent characters. Go get your paws 🐾 on a copy today!

(😏 all puns intended. I had way too much fun chuckling at myself while writing this review.)

Happy pub day to @sharondoering’s Confess To Me! This baby it OUT TODAY!

And holy hell…it’s a good one!

“People didn’t pass through Hunther; they were born here and died here.”

This dual-narrative thriller is a must-read, with an easy and addictive flow that keeps the reader turning pages one after the next. I seriously could not stop reading (in fact, I was annoyed when life got in the way and I had to set it down…). It’s fast-paced and witty, with a stunningly suspenseful plot. This book completely and utterly kicked my ass.

I wasn’t prepared for it—the brilliant writing, front and center foreshadowing, and characters that make you question just about everything. If this isn’t already on your TBR, Put. It. There. Now.

Thank you @NetGalley and Titan Books for the gifted ebook in exchange for an honest review!

This was a dark and twisty thriller that left me with some ambivalent thoughts. I didn’t hate it but I also just didn’t love it either and I can’t quite pinpoint why!

I found it to be a slow burn but I did love diving into Heather’s dark past alongside of her and experiencing the twists as she did! It was fun to join her on her discovery back to the town she grew up in and it was engaging to rediscover what she seemed to have blocked out.

I was certainly intrigued throughout and I’ve been seeing some rave reviews out there so make sure to check out for yourself!

3.5 ⭐️ rounded to 4 for goodreads

I really enjoyed this book. It was well put together with an interesting range of characters and a strong plot. Great storyline which kept me engaged all the way through. I read this in an afternoon as every time I put it down I just wanted to pick it back up and find out what happened. Highly recommend this book. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, wow, wow! Don’t want to put much, as I don’t want to give anything away, but will say it’s brutal, demented, and deliciously dark! Chilling, thrilling, and shocking, with phenomally developed characters! A must read for my fellow thriller lovers, as it’s sure to blow your mind! Highly, highly recommend!

Will buzz around platforms and use top Amazon reviewer number on release!

A rocking thriller by author Sharon Diering, it kept me at the edge of my seat. The book started off so innocously with Heather going back home after a couple of decades to get some answers about her estranged mother and herself

The story was completely atmospheric with the author building up a sense of impending danger with each page. Fast paced, the prose was banging with the scenes enmeshing seamlessly, secrets and lies along with old hidden memories joining them.

At some points, I had to hold my breath as the author put me through the wringer, keeping me enthralled. I loved how I was completely immersed in the twisty plotline with altered famuly dynamics and a death of a child .

I read it on one sitting over the afternoon. Wow

This was a thrilling novel!

Heather Hornne returns to her hometown of Hunther, Wisconsin with her husband, Trevor, whose mother has fallen ill with cancer and only has a short time left to live. Here they rent a house with Trevor's teen son and their young daughter Emily. During her stay in Hunther, events begin to happen that bring up her family's shattered past and she remembers why she ran away from them to begin with. Discoveries are made about her mother and a death that occurred in Hunther when she was just a young girl.

I really enjoyed this book, it was very engaging. The author did a great job building up the suspense and left me with a satisfying ending. If you enjoy a good mystery/suspense, then this one is for you!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Titan Books for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This review will be posted to my Instagram Blog (@coffee.break.book.reviews) on June 15, 2021.

Confess to Me is a taut exciting thriller about lies, buried secrets from the past, murder, and complicated family relationships. Full of twists and turns and complex characters with scarred pasts, the plot unfolded at a good pace leading to an amazing and thrilling ending. I also found the writing to be sharp and descriptive which really pulled me into the story.

This is Sharon Doering’s sophmore novel and wow am I impressed!

Thanks to Titan Books and Netgalley for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Heather returns to her hometown with her husband and children. Her hometown is the source of childhood trauma and Heather wants to figure out what exactly happened. Many twists and turns, plenty of drama and characters that I loved. 4 starts. Quick read. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a quick read with an interesting story line. The story pulls you in with some vagueness and you’re not sure who to trust!
The kind of book that leaves you satisfied ! Thanks NetGalley!

It’s hard to describe the premise of this book without giving too much away—and that’s a good thing. The bit-by-bit discovery of the main character’s past is such an exciting and delicious part of the story, but I can safely say this: Heather Bishop returns to her hometown, the setting of a trauma that still haunts her, with her husband and children in tow, and she’s determined to piece together the bits of her childhood she no longer remembers, including a local girl’s murder and her family’s possible involvement. In the process, though, she learns so much more than she ever bargained for, and finds herself in more danger than she ever could have imagined. After I read her debut, SHE LIES CLOSE, I knew Sharon Doering was a writer to watch, and her sophomore novel, CONFESS TO ME, has made me even more of a fan. It’s enticing and exhilarating, how Sharon unspools Heather’s history for the reader—and for Heather herself—giving us just a bit more to hold onto by the end of each chapter. The twists surprised me every time (in fact, my jaw dropped open more than once), and the story is infused with palpable atmosphere, making it easy to lose yourself in its pages. I loved the exploration of a multitude of family dynamics, and the ways in which Heather has to reconsider everything she thought she knew about her mother, her siblings, and even herself. The writing is sharp, witty, and thrillingly fast-paced, and the story, with all its dark secrets and suspicious characters, is one you can’t help but devour.

Heather Hornne is going home to Hunther, WI. She is estranged from her family and haunted by her childhood traumas. She is hoping to put her last to rest but ends up befriending and getting hoodwinked by a beautiful young woman how happens to know her family secrets. To survive, Heather must piece together her toxic history even if it’s something she wants to forget.
 
Thoughts: Can we all say Cuckoo for Coco puffs because I feel like I just got off the crazy train with this one. Man do I wish I could spend a day in Sharon Doerings brain. I mean…Multiple Personality Disorder, DID, satanic cults, drugs, alcohol and cougars people?! Freaking cougars! That’s what is going on here. This book 🤯 blew my mind. From the first page you are hooked. Her writing and it’s pacing is perfect. Being a small town atmosphere you would think you would guess the twists but nope-Sharon just puts in some other crazy element and you are thrown! You don’t even see the foreshadowing. It just takes you by surprise. I loved the two narrators as it really just made it harder to figure out. Witty, crazy and edge of your seat fun! I loved it!

Haunted by a childhood tragedy and estranged from her family, Heather finds herself back in Hunther, Wisconsin after twenty years running from it.

She returns to finally put the past to rest, but uncovers another tragedy and finds herself in the beguiling grip of a young woman who knows more of her family secrets than Heather does.

To survive this homecoming, Heather must piece together a toxic history that she long tried to forget the author...

Huge thanks to the team at Titan who accepted my request to read 'Confess To Me', on Netgalley as I was the biggest fan of her debut thriller, the extraordinary,'She Lies Close'.

And this is in the same vein, it explores the relationship between parents and their children, the hereditary nature of 'evil', and the way that memories are not always what they seem, they are dependent on the prism through which they are viewed.

Having managed to shake the surname,Hornne, and the town which villified it, Heather returns home to Hunther, family in tow, to assist her husband in caring for his dying mother.

Anonymous texts have been arriving daily, forcing Heather out of the almost comfort zone in which she exists with her husband and children, and back into her childhood. The fact that only she and her estranged sister,Holly, are left of the 5 Hornne siblings hints at mysterious events in this back woods place. Her family were known as 'the weird ones', and fractured memories peck at Heather's brain as she seeks to establish a truth she isn't even sure she wants to know.

A long forgotten death, for which there was no culprit, a suicide, rumours of Satan worship and the period in which her mother disappeared, then returned, not quite the same, all combine to make a heady mix of past and present. Heather's narrative intersperses with that of her husband Trevor, who has secrets of his own.

As Heather digs deeper into the worn fabric of local history, she risks pulling a thread which could unravel everything.

The sharpness and reality of trying to create a blended family, raising children and acknowledging responsibilities based on blood ties, are so fragile, and spun so thinly that they can look like silk, yet they support such weight. At the heart of this novel, is how you create and maintain a family in safety against intrusions from toxic influences.

But, no matter how hard you work at it, there are influences outside the control of human will.

There is the strange man who lives down the road and keeps randomly turning up, not to mention the fact their neighbour keeps cougars as pets.

Added to that is the lush young woman who prowls the local swimming pool like a naiad, the appropriately named Desiree, who teaches Heather's younger child to swim.

This pool, the first point of contact which Heather has with Hunther, is immensely symbolic as the poorer population of the town are figuratively, and literally, swimming in the tiny percentage of the wealthier parts largesse.

The quasi-philanthropic nature of the community pool means that you could say both rich and poor are tainted alike by obligation and responsibility to each other, one showing their wealth by bestowing it on the other.

'Confess To Me' is a novel of soul searching, a story of a journey into the darkness of a woman's childhood which still has roots that may be rotted, yet stubbornly cling to her legs. If she can manage to shake them free, then she will be able to be the mother that she wishes she had.

Yet again, Sharon Doering manages to subvert the social expectation on women to put up and shut up by presenting women with a veneer covering dark, devious hearts. Beneath the laquer and the make up lie bitter souls...

Can family secrets really stay buried?

Wow…this book was one dark, twisty, wild ride! Heather’s family secrets gave me the chills and I felt as though I was alongside her in Hunther discovering her dark past. I loved how the chapters flipped back and forth between Heather and her husband Trevor’s perspectives. The ending was definitely not what I was expecting — couldn’t put it down until I finished it!

Sharon Doering mastered this thriller — unlike any other I’ve read! Highly recommend this book!

Thank you NetGalley and Titan Books for this ARC!

IG: @thrillersandcoffee

What a chilling, thrilling, and shocking book and the characters are amazing!! Grab a copy of Confess to Me today!!