3.2.20

BLOG TOUR,BOOK REVIEW - The Leaving Party by Lesley Sanderson



Wow...just wow. The Leaving Party is a gripping,chilling tale of secrets,manipulation,obsession,lies and revenge. The numerous twists and turns kept you guessing and trusting no one and the ending leaves you feeling chilled to the bone.

Thirteen years ago,best friends Ava and Lena went to a party at the home of a boy who Lena fancied. A tragic incident happened on the road outside the house and Lena ended up saving Ava's life.

Every year,on the anniversary of that tragic night, Ava has received a black rose,dredging up memories that she has worked so hard to forget.

Now they are having their own party,one that Lena has organised for Ava, a celebration to say goodbye because Ava is moving to New York to live with her boyfriend Ben.

But not long after the guests arrive,strange things start happening, black roses appear in the house and Ava's passport and phone mysteriously disappear.

It becomes obvious that Ava's tormentor is at the party and that they have escalated their campaign against her. The party and move were supposed to be a fresh start, a chance to escape her past but it is beginning to increasingly look like the past is destined to catch up with her and she might not live to see tomorrow.

The chapters of this gripping thriller are short and snappy,alternate between Ava and Lena and flip back and forth between the present day and 2005. I did  feel a lot of sympathy for poor Ava but I also thought she was very naive and needed to lighten up a bit at times especially when she was younger. The secondary characters who attended the party were a mixed bag of diverse personalities,any one of whom could have been Ava's tormentor. But who was it and could there possibly have been more than one?. Was it my favourite character Martha who was Ava's feisty sister or Ava's obsessive ex boyfriend Gareth or her bully of an ex boss Pete? And what about Lena, could she possibly know more than she is letting on? One of the characters in this book was very obsessive,deluded and suffered from some major mental health issues.

The Leaving Party is a chilling,extremely well written page turner that had me hooked in from the shocking prologue. Both time frames are equally intriguing, the changing of the time frames at no point impedes with the flow of the story which holds the readers attention throughout the whole book.The short snappy chapters give you a very bad case of just one more chapter syndrome. I love Lesley Sanderson's brilliant thrillers,she is a very talented author who's books are always unputdownable and this one was no exception. Worth far more than five stars and definitely one of my favourite reads of this year. Very very highly recommended

                                                                             AUTHOR BIO


Lesley spends her days writing in coffee shops in Kings Cross where she lives and also works as a librarian in a multicultural school. She has lived and worked in Paris and speaks four languages. She attended the Curtis Brown Creative novel writing course in 2015/6, and in 2017 was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish fiction prize. Lesley discovered Patricia Highsmith as a teenager and has since been hooked on psychological thrillers. She is particularly interested in the psychology of female relationships.
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WEBSITE: https://www.lesleysanderson.com
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