Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough #20BooksofSummer

Author : Sarah Pinborough
Title : Cross Her Heart
Pages : 400
Publisher : Harper Collins
Publication date : May 14, 2018

SOMEONE IS LIVING A LIE… BUT WHO?

Is it Lisa?
Haunted by a tragic past, all Lisa wants is a quiet life with her daughter, Ava. And when she meets a new man, things seem to be falling into place. But Lisa is hiding a secret so momentous it could shatter her entire world…

Is it Ava?
When sixteen-year-old Ava saves a young boy’s life, she becomes a local hero. But never in a million years could she have anticipated the fallout of her actions…

Is it Marilyn?
Marilyn has the perfect life. Her husband, her job, her house—she seems to have it all. But she could never admit to her best friend Lisa the lies she tells herself to get through the day…

One moment will change these three women’s lives forever. And the secrets they’ve been keeping could destroy them all.

After being blown away by Sarah Pinborough’s previous book and that #WTFending, I was curious to see what she’d come up with next. I had high hopes and expectations but I’m sad to say, they weren’t quite delivered.

The book is divided up into three parts and I must admit part one had me wondering if I had the right author. It all felt incredibly slow, too much time spent on setting the scene and being introduced to the various characters. It’s obvious early on that Lisa is hiding from her past and I felt like shouting “just bloody tell me what’s going on already!”. Patient, I am not.

I desperately needed something, anything, to happen. Luckily, the last page of part one finally promised something exciting around the corner but up until that point, it all felt a bit like pretty much any other psychological thriller out there.

And …. that didn’t really change. Not in part two and not in part three. Sure, there are a few surprises and a red herring or two but overall, it wasn’t the addictive page-turner I was expecting and it wasn’t anywhere near the brilliance of Behind Your Eyes. Some of it was rather predictable and some things were a bit too much out there, losing believability along the way and causing me to roll my eyes once or twice. And all of this ended in a massively disappointing reveal.

So no, Cross Her Heart didn’t quite work for me. It fails immensely at standing out from the crowd, which I very much expected it to. Now, it’s not all bad. She says way too late. I do enjoy Pinborough’s writing style and I think she handled the character of Ava, particular, extremely well. All that teenage angst and secrets. Overall, there is a good plot here and it never occurred to me not to finish the book. I just read too much in this genre, I think, and I fully admit that my constant comparison to her previous book didn’t do me any favours as I was constantly awaiting a special kind of BOOM.

So, please don’t take my word for it. This is getting some rave reviews so grab yourself a copy, read it and feel free to come back and tell me how wrong I am 😂.

[I normally wouldn’t have posted this review but since this book was on my 20 Books of Summer list, it only seemed like the right thing to do. Also, thanks to Janel @ Keeper of Pages for another fun buddy read!)

Cross Her Heart is available to buy!

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Kobo | Goodreads

Book 18 from my 20 Books of Summer list.