Open Your Eyes by Paula Daly @PaulaDalyAuthor @TransworldBooks #blogtour #RandomThingsTours

Delighted to welcome you all to my stop on the blog tour for Open Your Eyes by Paula Daley! My thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for the invitation to join and to the publisher for my review copy!

Author : Paula Daly
Title : Open Your Eyes
Pages : 356
Publisher : Transworld
Publication date : July 26, 2018

Jane Campbell is living a quiet existence as a mother and budding author in the Liverpool suburbs when her husband falls prey to a violent attack. Two shots to the head result in a traumatic brain injury and period of coma for Leon Campbell. When he wakes he is a very different man. He is definitely not the man Jane married. Leon’s behaviour has totally changed and, as can be common after brain injury, he is now erratic, unpredictable, sometimes violent and often sexually inappropriate.

Just trying to get through the days and navigate this new set of circumstances, Jane doesn’t much care who did this to her husband. That is until he blames her for the attack. Then she has no option but to become a reluctant detective, trying to piece together what actually happened on that day that sent their lives on the roller-coaster trajectory that was to change everything.

What starts as a normal day soon ends in disaster. Leon and Jane are off to visit his mother who’s throwing Leon a birthday party. There’s a bit of an argument, nothing serious, and a neighbour with a grievance. Having forgotten to pick up beer, Jane is glad when she can go back into the house and step away from the confrontation for a while. But when she returns to the car, things are not quite the way she left them.

From that moment onwards, life for Jane and her family changes forever. Not only is there a “who and why” mystery to solve, but the family dynamics and circumstances are incredibly hard to deal with on a daily basis. I couldn’t at all imagine what it would be like but the unsettling vibe throughout the story was done brilliantly as behaviours and attitudes become increasingly unpredictable and erratic.

Leon and Jane are both authors and through them, we get a glimpse into the literary world which I thoroughly enjoyed. While Leon has been quite successful, Jane has been struggling to get anything published, which is seriously affecting her confidence. Yet she must somehow find it within herself to protect her family and get them through this dark period, all the while trying to come to grips with this “new” husband and maybe realising she didn’t know him as well as she thought she did before all this happened.

I find it hard to explain why I enjoyed this book as much as I did. There was just something about it that captivated me so much that I couldn’t put it down. I found myself caring less about trying to figure out who the culprit was, but more about the characters themselves and the way they were adapting to this massive change.

This is one gripping read full of suspense and red herrings that left me suspecting just about everyone. I couldn’t figure things out at all but I must say, that was one satisfying conclusion! Open Your Eyes is a psychological thriller with a difference and really stands out from the crowd. It has the thrills you expect, it has the twists but it also has quite the heartbreaking premise and it all makes for an intense and compelling story.

Open Your Eyes is available to buy!

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Bookdepository | Kobo |  Goodreads

Paula Daly is the acclaimed author of five novels. Her work has been sold in fifteen countries, shortlisted for CWA Gold Dagger Crime Novel of the Year award, and her books are currently being developed into the ITV drama – Deep Water – set to air in 2019. She was born in Lancashire and lives in the Lake District with her husband, three children, and whippet Skippy.

Author links : Twitter