Title: Bring Me Back
Author: B.A. Paris
Pub. Date: June 19th, 2018
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Pages: 304
Pub. Date: June 19th, 2018
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Pages: 304
Genre: Adult, Thriller, Mystery
Rate: 3/5 stars
Synopsis :
A young British couple are driving through France on holiday when they stop for gas. He runs in to pay, she stays in the car. When he returns her car door has been left open, but she's not inside. No one ever sees her again.
Ten years later he's engaged to be married; he's happy, and his past is only a tiny part his life now. Until he comes home from work and finds his new wife-to-be is sitting on their sofa. She's turning something over in her fingers, holding it up to the light. Something that would have no worth to anyone else, something only he and she would know about because his wife is the sister of his missing first love.
As more and more questions are raised, their marriage becomes strained. Has his first love somehow come back to him after all this time? Or is the person who took her playing games with his mind?
Ten years later he's engaged to be married; he's happy, and his past is only a tiny part his life now. Until he comes home from work and finds his new wife-to-be is sitting on their sofa. She's turning something over in her fingers, holding it up to the light. Something that would have no worth to anyone else, something only he and she would know about because his wife is the sister of his missing first love.
As more and more questions are raised, their marriage becomes strained. Has his first love somehow come back to him after all this time? Or is the person who took her playing games with his mind?
Review:
Bring Me Back is one of the most anticipated psychological thrillers of 2018. B.A. Paris is new to the scene, with hits like Behind Closed Doors and the Breakdown. Bring Me Back visits Finn, after his girlfriend, Layla, disappeared in the middle of the night while he was in the bathroom at a rest station. Almost a decade later, he is healing and engaged to none other than Layla's sister, Ellen. Suddenly, relics of Layla's past start popping up. Has Layla come back after all these years or is somebody playing a cruel joke?
I've been getting more and more into psychological thrillers, so I couldn't wait to dive right in when I found a review copy in the mail. What I love most about them is the need to keep turning the page to find out what is really going on. I definitely had that same feeling with Bring Me Back. My mind was turning and turning and wonder if Layla was truly back or if someone close to Finn is mentally unstable. How the story is told in alternating past-present chapters helped build the tension. While I ultimately found the end surprising, there were some inconsistencies in the story that kept me from giving this a full 5 stars.
With extreme anger issues and not being able to recall what happened the night Layla disappeared, I 100% pinned Finn as a sociopath from chapter 1. I felt bad for Layla and what could have happened to her - her story is what kept me really interested. Ellen was, for the most part, apathetic. I could take her or leave her, but I found her boring for the majority of the story. I couldn't really connect with Finn until the end of the book, when I finally found some underpinnings of an empathetic soul. This book definitely lacked some character development, but it also was only 240 pages. So, considering that fact, it's pretty decent.
While not my favorite psychological thriller, this book was surprisingly dark. With elements of severe delusions and mental instability, Bring Me Back is a creepy read that is perfect for beach reading when you've burnt out all of the summer chick-lit you've been binging. I already have her other hits, Behind Closed Doors and The Breakdown on hand - and I'm ready to see what her other thrillers are about. Have you read any of her previous thriller novels? What did you think?
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| Thank you to St. Martin's Press for providing this book in exchange for my honest review |
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