The Dark Place by Stephanie Rogers @steph2rogers1 @BooksManatee @Tr4cyF3nt0n #blogtour #TheDarkPlace

Welcome to the final day of the blog tour for The Dark Place by Stephanie Rogers! My thanks to Tracy Fenton for the invitation to join and to the publisher for my review copy!

Author : Stephanie Rogers
Title : The Dark Place
Pages : 266
Publisher : Manatee Books
Publication date : September 27, 2018

When you look at those you love, what do you see?

When Issy, young mother and beloved daughter, seemingly kills herself her family is devastated.

Believing she would never leave son Noah willingly, Jon and Mel determine to discover what really happened to Issy. As they and the rest of the family struggle to come to terms with tragedy, Jon and Mel start to realise Issy’s secrets come from a very dark place…

Oooh, this is a dark one! You know, in case the title didn’t give you a clue. 😉

When Issy takes her own life, her parents’ lives are turned upside down. Not only do they need to deal with their grief, but they’re also raising Issy’s young son. Jon and Mel don’t for a second believe Issy would leave little Noah behind and they are determined to discover what really happened to her. Did she really commit suicide or was it an accident? And if she did mean to die, why? It soon becomes apparent Mel and Jon didn’t really know their daughter at all.

I must say this didn’t at all turn out the way I expected it to but that was a good thing! For some reason, I was thinking this story would be predictable and it really isn’t. I soon found myself fascinated by the family dynamics, watching Mel and Jon deal with their grief in their own ways and wondering how things would develop and if their lives would fall apart completely. But it’s not just Issy’s parents that are affected. There are an aunt and uncle, cousins and a lorry driver who was present at the scene where Issy died.

I wasn’t at all prepared for the range of emotions I went through reading The Dark Place. From anger and a sense of disbelief to having a massive lump in my throat and shock. The kind where you just have to sit back for a minute and go “shiiiiiiiit”. The journey Mel and Jon go on to find out the truth about their daughter isn’t a pleasant one. Issy was hiding some incredibly dark and disturbing secrets. Some of the sensitive topics may be uncomfortable to some readers. But I felt the author did a fabulous job tackling them.

This is a gripping, compelling and intense story about family, loss, grief and how well we know the people that are closest to us. It’s a harrowing read for sure and it had me second-guessing everything and everyone. This is a tense and sadly all too believable scenario and I will definitely not be forgetting Issy’s story in a hurry. What a remarkable debut from Stephanie Rogers.

The Dark Place is available to buy!

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Goodreads