BLOG TOUR: Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough @sarahpinborough @tlcbooktours @wmmorrowbooks #bookreview #crossherheart

Don’t make plans once you start reading Sarah Pinborough’s Cross Her Heart because once you start, you won’t want to stop reading until the final page! I’ve been hearing about Sarah Pinborough for awhile now. She’s a book of the month darling, well-respected thriller writer, and her books seem to cause that buzz in the book community that authors dream about. I was not disappointed by my first book of hers, and I’m already excited about her upcoming release this spring!

About the Book

Lisa lives for her daughter Ava, her job, and her best friend Marilyn, but when a handsome client shows an interest in her, Lisa starts daydreaming about sharing her life with him too.

Maybe she’s ready now.

Maybe she can trust again.

Maybe it’s time to let her terrifying secret past go.

Then her daughter rescues a boy from drowning and their pictures are all over the news for everyone to see. Lisa’s world explodes, and she finds everything she has built threatened. Not knowing whom she can trust, it’s up to her to face her past to save what she holds dear.

But someone has been pulling all their strings. And that someone is determined that both Lisa and Ava must suffer.

Because long ago Lisa broke a promise. And some promises aren’t meant to be broken.

Reflection

I definitely want to keep this vague so I don’t spoil any of the twists here—and there are several! Told by several narrators and alternate timelines, this is the type of story that builds a foundation and then tears it all down with a single event. And the more you learn, the more complex it gets. Secrets can’t stay buried forever!

Lisa is a bit of a helicopter parent, but it Is clearly out of love and protection for her teenage daughter Ava. Lisa is also a bit of an enigma. She has some secrets she has kept for so long, and she has done her best to live a quiet life away from her past.

Ava is on that cusp of adulthood that is probable terrifying to parents. She is sneaking off with her first boyfriend, planning to lose her virginity, and she has her own secret that she is keeping from even her closest friends. Another relationship she is in that she doesn’t dare tell anyone about.

When Ava saves a child and the media gets ahold of it, everything will change. Lisa’s past comes crashing to the surface, and their entire world is rocked. Because Lisa has been keeping secrets, and now they have been exposed. Even more troubling, someone seems to know all of her secrets, and that person has been pulling the strings all along.

I can’t say much more without spoiling, so I’ll say that this book has a slow build through the first third that sets the foundation. I could feel the tension of what might be to come. Then when the first twist hits, the final two thirds will rush forward at break-neck speed until all is revealed…

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for my copy. Opinions are my own.

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

About the Author

Sarah Pinborough is the number one Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of the psychological thriller Behind Her Eyes, and more than twenty other novels and novellas, including The Death House and a young adult thriller, 13 Minutes. She has also written for the BBC. She lives in England.

Find out more about Sarah at her website, and connect with her on Twitter and Instagram.