I don't know where you are...
I don't know what I've done...
Teenager Abigail Ryder is devastated when she gets home from school to find her family gone. Nothing makes sense. Things are missing from the house and her stepsisters' room is completely empty. But the police think she's trouble, and when grandmother Eleanor tells her to forget them all and move on, there's no choice other than face the future - alone.
Fourteen years on, Abi and Adam are a happy couple on the verge of parenthood. But when the past comes back to haunt Abi, the only way forward is to go back and uncover the truth - and reveal the dreadful secrets a mother has been hiding all these years.
What did I think?
There was no hanging around in this book as we are transported back to 2001 and immediately plunged into the drama when Abigail returns home from school to an empty house. A house that is normally bubbling with the excitement and chatter of Abigail's two year old twin sisters, Hannah and Lauren. As Abigail makes her way through the house in search of her mother and sisters, she makes a startling discovery; the twins' room has been stripped bare and, apart from a stray teddy that seems to have been overlooked, there is no trace that her little sisters were ever there at all.
Where has Abi's family gone? What kind of mother would leave her daughter? Why does her strange, controlling grandmother not help Abi? So many questions were flying round my head as I tried to unravel the mystery surrounding the disappearance. All of my questions were answered superbly after I was shocked, surprised and moved to tears as the story unfolded 14 years later in 2015.
Hooked does not even begin to describe how I felt about this book. From the opening page, I was drawn into the tangled web of Abigail's life. I couldn't put the book down until I found out what on earth had happened to make a mother leave her eldest daughter behind and start a new life with her young twins. Also throughout the book, Abi is writing letters to her husband, Adam. It is clear that Abi and Adam are having some marital problems, due to events that Adam is unaware of in Abi's past. The letters are so poignant and personal that I felt like an eavesdropper as Abi's heart is poured out on the page.
I was so emotionally invested in this book that I could barely read through my tears as the story drew to a close. I was so completely immersed in Abi's life that I wanted to keep on reading about her long after the final page had been turned. Beneath the Surface is an absolutely outstanding debut novel from Heidi Perks and I can't wait to see what she has in store for us next.
I received this e-book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
My rating:
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