The July Girls by Phoebe Locke | @phoebe_locke @Wildfirebks @headlinepg @JenRHarlow | #RandomThingsTours

Thrilled to host a stop on the blog tour for The July Girls by Phoebe Locke today! My thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for the opportunity to join and to the publisher for my review copy!

Author : Phoebe Locke
Title : The July Girls
Pages : 340
Publisher : Wildfire Books / Headline
Publication date : July 25, 2019

| ABOUT THE BOOK |

Every year, on the same night in July, a woman is taken from the streets of London; snatched by a killer who moves through the city like a ghost.

Addie has a secret. On the morning of her tenth birthday, four bombs were detonated across the capital. That night her dad came home covered in blood. She thought he was hurt in the attacks – but then her sister Jessie found a missing woman’s purse hidden in his room.

Jessie says they mustn’t tell. She says there’s nothing to worry about. But when she takes a job looking after the woman’s baby daughter, Addie starts to realise that her big sister doesn’t always tell her the whole story. And that the secrets they’re keeping may start costing lives…

| MY THOUGHTS |

When I read The Tall Man a while ago, I immediately somehow felt Phoebe Locke would be my kind of writer. So when I heard The July Girls was coming, I signed up for this blog tour without even knowing what the book was about, confident that I would like whatever Phoebe Locke came up with this time around. And I was right. (I usually am, OH hates it 😉)

Every year, on the same day, a woman disappears without a trace from the streets of London. That day, July 7th, is Addie’s birthday. Coincidence or not? On her tenth birthday, her father arrives home with his clothes covered in blood. It’s July 7th, 2005. Addie thinks maybe her dad was hurt in the bombings that rocked London that day. Until her sister, Jessie, finds a purse belonging to a missing woman hidden in their dad’s bedroom. Is Addie’s dad a killer?

This story is told through the eyes of Addie, whom the reader follows throughout her teenage years as she struggles to deal with all the secrets she carries and the burden on her shoulders seems to grow with each year. I really enjoyed watching Addie develop throughout the story, how her voice changed as she grew up, how the things she just accepted as a ten year old suddenly didn’t seem to fit as she got older and matured.

You may think having a story told through a ten year old would come across as childish but you’d be awfully wrong. It was actually quite refreshing to see the world through innocent eyes, that little dash of naivety Addie still has, amidst the darkness in the world and then to sadly see that innocence shattered as she gets older.

The July Girls is immensely absorbing and extremely suspenseful. It’s one of those books that draws you in from the very beginning and just won’t let go. Now, I am awfully suspicious by nature so apart from Addie, I found it hard to trust anyone in this story as the characters were highly intriguing and constantly seemed to have something to hide. And yes, there is a mystery or a few murders to solve, one I couldn’t figure out at all. But that’s not the be all and end all of The July Girls. This is a story about relationships, family dynamics and secrets with a sense of impending doom hanging above it. That feeling you get when you know something is coming but you can’t figure out what that is.

I fear my review isn’t doing this book any justice. Sometimes words are just so hard to find. It isn’t just the storyline that had me hooked throughout but Phoebe Locke’s writing is really something else. Incredibly immersive and beautiful, it adds an extra layer to this story and all I can really say is : I’m a fan and I look forward immensely to whatever Phoebe Locke comes up with next!

The July Girls is available to buy!

Affiliate link : Bookdepository
Other retailers : Amazon US | Amazon UK | Kobo | Waterstones | Wordery

| ABOUT THE AUTHOR |

PHOEBE LOCKE is the pseudonym of full-time writer Nicci Cloke. She previously worked at the Faber Academy, and hosted London literary salon Speakeasy. Nicci has had two literary novels published by Fourth Estate and Cape, and also writes YA for Hot Key Books. She lives and writes in Cambridgeshire. THE JULY GIRLS follows Phoebe Locke’s debut thriller THE TALL MAN.