Book: The Birthday Party
Author: Wendy Dranfield
Pub Day: Jan 7th 2022
About the Book:
Charlotte waves at her mother across the crowded lawn. Little red boots on, cowboy hat crooked over her blonde pigtails, she’s been looking forward to this party for weeks. Moments later, she disappears without a trace…
Kathy Hamilton drives away from her sister-in-law’s pristine-white suburban house in Maple Falls certain she’s left her daughter in safe hands. On the hottest day of the year, a birthday is the perfect excuse to gather friends, family and neighbors around the pool for a barbecue. But when she returns hours later to find her little girl has vanished, her world shatters.
Nobody laughing and drinking in the garden that day saw anything unusual.
Kathy’s eldest daughter is anxious and hardly eating. Is she sick with worry for her sister, or hiding a terrible secret?
The phone rings and rings, but why can’t Kathy get hold of the babysitter?
And is she imagining it, or when her husband rushed from work to join the search, was he wearing a different shirt to the one she saw him leave the house in that morning?
As the temperature rises, and long-buried secrets begin to surface, it’s clear that even the most perfect families keep devastating secrets. But in a town as small as this, is there anyone you can trust?
A totally gripping and utterly addictive page-turner that will have you racing through and reeling at the twists. Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Gone Girl and Teresa Driscoll, it will keep you up reading all night long!
BLOG TOUR REVIEW
Review for 'The Birthday Party' by Wendy Dranfield.
Read and reviewed via NetGalley for Wendy Dranfield, Bookouture publishers and Bookouture anonymous
Publication date 7th January 2022.
This is the third book I have read by this author. I have previously read 'Cry For Help' which is the second book in the 'Detective Madison Harper' series and 'Little Girl Taken' which is the third book in the 'Detective Madison Harper' series and which I would highly recommend.
I was originally drawn to this book by its beautiful eye catching cover and its intriguing synopsis and title. The synopsis stated that this book is 'Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Gone Girl and Teresa Driscol. ' I am a huge fan of Lisa and 'Gone Girl' so am looking forward to seeing if this lives up to this statement. I am also a fan of Wendy Dranfield and if this is half as good as 'Cry For Help' and 'Little Girl Taken' it is sure to be a page turning read. I must admit I was also biased due to the publisher being Bookouture. I have yet to read a book published by Bookouture that I haven't enjoyed. Hopefully this won't be the first... Watch this space! (Written before I started reading the book).
This novel consists of 66 chapters and an epilogue. The chapters are short in length so possible to read 'just one more chapter' before bed...OK, I know yeah right, but still just in case!
This book is based in Vermont, USA 🇺🇸.
This book is written in third person perspective and the main protagonists are Kathy Hamilton and Detective Chase Cooper. The benefits of third person perspective are that it let's you see the bigger picture of what's going on and you get to know more characters more, what they are thinking and what they are doing. It feels like you get to see the whole picture and not miss out on anything.
'The Birthday Party' discusses some topics that may trigger some readers or may not be suitable for others. I like to point this out ahead of time in my reviews so you can judge if this book is for you or not. In this book Wendy discusses/includes a abuse and assault. I wasn't sure whether to include a trigger warning as I don't want to give too much away but I think it's important to state that some triggers include a child so felt it important to include.
Wow!!!! Just flipping wow!!!! What an absolutely epic page turner!!! Well done Wendy you done it again!! Absolutely smashed it!!!!!!! YOU HAVE JUST HIT NOT ONLY MY TOP 3 PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER BUT MY TOP 5 AUTHOR LIST!!! LOVE, LOVE, LOVED!!! JUST OMG READ THIS NOW!!!
This books is very well written with vivid descriptions creating the perfect atmosphere for the storyline. The book cover and synopsis works perfectly with the book plot and I am most definitely looking forward to reading not only the next book in the 'Detective Madison Harper' series but also the next heart racing page turner!!
An addictive, nail biting, page turning, heart racing and compelling storyline which had many layers of mysteries and crimes for the reader to be kept guessing throughout. This book just kept on giving and giving and giving and OMG the bombshells just kept on coming!!! Filled with twists, turns, shocks, tragedy and red herrings throughout I had no idea who did what until the end. This is an achievement in itself as it is definitely getting harder to surprise me with the amount of crime novels I've read. The plot was unique and realistic. It started straight in the action and kept you going on a roller-coaster ride of suspension throughout. I was almost in tears when I read certain things, absolutely heartbreaking and certain people got what they deserved in my eyes whilst others deserved so much more. I am so glad that another certain character got their comeuppance too, although I would have liked to see many tortured!!! It is so hard to say how glad I am and how gutted I was about certain events without giving anything away to future readers but I'm sure once people have read it they will know exactly what I mean. Each chapter just left me wanting more and more and I CANNOT remember when I was soooo addicted to a book. I was absolutely hooked. Seriously, don't start this if you have plans as I can guarantee you won't be making them!! Well done Wendy you did absolutely amazing and everything was tied up perfectly. Although certain aspects at the end were absolutely heartbreaking and devastating other endings were just as they should have been.
Before you start this make sure you clear your schedule because once you pick it up you are not going to want to put it down!!!!
I absolutely loved meeting certain characters which definitely included Charlie, Kathy and Chase!! I loved the fact that the main leads were a strong female with alot of background and yet having gone through so much and still going through so much and a very sweet, gorgeous detective whose story broke my heart! I also enjoyed Megan's character and my heart really did go out to her 😔 really liked Chase's character and how he still held a torch for Kathy and I hope he gets everything he deserves. I absolutely despised a certain character who was just complete and utter scum, evil, filth, I could go on and on, I cannot STAND them and don't understand how someone could be sooo despicable. I really can't say anything more as I don't want to give anything away but please when you read this get back to me as I need to rant to someone who knows how I feel. If you don't raad this then seriously your losing out!! I enjoyed that Wendy gave just the right amount of background information on the characters to let us know about them for it to be a standalone. I have never read any of her standalone books and as I've only read the ones in a series I was a bit wary but OMG as I hear many people say 'the girl did gooooooodddd'!!! I'd also like to thank Wendy for bringing certain topics to light, they must have been hard to write about and you've done an amazing job of portraying certain 'things', sorry I can't go into details, again not wanting to spoil it, but I'm sure this will help many people who are struggling so thank you.
Absolutely fantastic Wendy. My heart is still pounding and this story will stay with me for a long, long time.
Congratulations Wendy on yet another success and for absolutely blowing my mind time and time again!!! An absolutely addictive page turner that I would LOVE to see turned into the world's best psychological movie!!!
Overall a pulse racing, engrossing, addictive page turning psychological thriller thay will keep you on edge and will blow your mind over and over again!!
Genres covered in this novel include Thriller, Crime Fiction, Psychological Fiction, Suspense, Psychology Thriller and Mystery amongst others.
I would recommend this book to the fans of the above as well as fans Melissa Leigh,Lisa Jewell, 'Gone Girl', Teresa Driscoll Angela Marsons, C. L Taylor, Carol Wyer and anyone looking for a great read.
391 pages.
This book is just £1.99 to purchase on kindle via Amazon or free on kindle unlimited which I think is an absolute bargain for this book!!!
Rated 5 /5 (I LOVED it ) on Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon UK and Amazon US and on over 30 Facebook pages plus my blog on Facebook.
Feel free to add me on Goodreads or follow me on my website or Facebook for more reviews
@WendyDranfield @Bookouture @Bookworm1986 @bookworm86
Author Bio
Wendy is a former coroner's assistant turned crime writer who lives in the UK with her husband and 3 cats. Her first novel (The Girl Who Died) was longlisted for the Mslexia Novel Competition. Since then she has written two crime series - one follows Officer Dean Matheson on his quest to make detective, and the other is her current series which follows Detective Madison Harper as she tries to reclaim her life after spending six years in prison for a murder she didn't commit. As well as crime novels Wendy also has short stories published in various anthologies in the UK and the US, and she has been shortlisted and longlisted for various writing competitions. Wendy's social media: Website: https://wendydranfield.co.uk/
Twitter: @WendyDranfield | https://twitter.com/WendyDranfield
Facebook: Wendy Dranfield Author | https://www.facebook.com/WendyDranfield1
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Buy Link:
https://geni.us/B09KJKY6LLsocial
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