Review: Your Closest Friend by Karen Perry

Your Closest Friend by Karen Perry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

                                      THE BLURB

On her way home after a illicit meeting with her ex husband,Cara Jameson finds herself caught up in a terror attack on the streets of London.She is staring down the barrel of a gun when suddenly a hand reaches out and drags her into a stairwell.She finds herself spending a number of hours trapped in a shop storeroom with a young woman called Amy.Fearing that the terrorists could burst in at any moment and kill them,they end up sharing secrets about themselves,some of which Cars hasn't even shared with her husband.Eventually they emerge and go their separate ways having formed a bond due to the trauma that they have shared.

Cara tries to put the experience behind her but she is plagued by worry and guilt,unsure of how much information she shared in those hours of darkness.As Cara`s perfect life and marriage start to crumble around her,Amy reappears - set on pursuing a friendship.

But Amy isn't what she seems,and she is prepared to do anything to get what she wants,and she wants Cara....

                                                                MY THOUGHTS

After a opening chapter that has heart pounding,terrifyingly realistic descriptions of a terror attack on the streets of London,the story continues in chapters that alternate between Cara and Amy`s points of view.I struggled to feel any sympathy for Cara as the story unfolded because she was so selfish and self centred.For a supposedly intelligent woman she made some seriously stupid decisions.Why would a parent ask someone they hardly knew to take care of their apparently beloved child? Why did she take so long to wonder if maybe Amy was behind her sudden problems? She was quick enough to suspect everyone else in her life,I kept expecting her to start having suspicions about her five year old daughter Mabel who was my favourite character in this book.Poor kid,stuck with a psychopathic Nanny,a neglectful mother and a father who was always away on business.I liked Mabel`s older step Sister Olivia because of her obvious dislike of Cara,I wish there had been more heated confrontations between the two characters.As for obsessive,delusional,manipulative Amy,she gave the chills everytime she appeared in the story especially during her interactions with Mabel.To a certain extent her motivations where understandable but there was no excuse for her actions and behaviour.I know there isn't always a reason for a person's thoughts and behaviour but I would have liked there to have been more background information on why she thought and acted the way she did.

The beginning and final confrontation where gripping and intense, but despite the author added a couple of attempts at misleading the reader,the identity of Your Closest Friend is fairly obvious.Despite the totally unexpected last line,I was rather disappointed with how the story ended.Although I struggled at times,I did enjoy this book enough to finish it and would happily read more books by this author in the future.

PUBLICATION DATE : 1st June 2018

PUBLISHER : Penguin Random House UK / Michael Joseph

GENRE : Pscyological Thriller

PURCHASE HERE.....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Your-Closest-Friend-Karen-Perry-ebook/dp/B078SLBS9T/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1528555758&sr=1-1&keywords=your+closest+friend+perry