Forgive Me - Susan Lewis

Description

I can’t forgive myself. Not after what I did.  Could you?

 
This is Claudia Winters’s last chance for a fresh start. Changing her name and leaving her old life behind, she has fled to the small town of Kesterly with her mother and daughter. Here, she hopes they can be safe for the first time in years.

But the past can’t stay hidden forever. And even as Claudia makes new friends and builds a new life, she can’t help feeling it’s all about to catch up with her… Until one disastrous night changes everything forever.

Tense, emotional and gripping, Susan Lewis’s latest novel is a spellbinding story of love, family, and the price of forgiveness.

Review

I'm not sure what I was expecting from this book but it certainly wasn't the very emotional story that unfolded before me.  I think the book has a unique storyline that gives food for thought. This is the third Susan Lewis book I have read and her plots are far from formulaic. 

On her second marriage Claudia thought her new husband was a caring man and a step father for her daughter, unfortunately instead it turned out to be a living nightmare. She has a chance for escape and takes it, changing her name and taking both her daughter and her Mother with her to begin a new life.

I really enjoyed reading about Claudia and her new life, but I was on a bit of a knife edge the whole time, expecting her past to catch up with her. I became suspicious of every new person she met and feared she was walking into a trap.

Letters began to be interspersed into the chapters from an unknown author and to an unknown person. It was intriguing - how do they fit into the story? Meanwhile Claudia and her Mother attract new romantic partners - but are they ready to trust anyone again?

Once the author of the letters and the recipient became clear I couldn't put the book down. The letters had a unique voice and felt different to the other voices in the book. How was this all going to end, and what would I do in this situation? As I finished the book the subject stayed with me and the questions I asked myself are still hanging there...

I'm giving this book five out of five stars. My thanks to Random Things Tours, netgalley and HarperCollins publishers for the ARC to review. 

 

Susan Lewis is the internationally bestselling author of over forty books across the genres of family drama, thriller, suspense and crime, including One Minute Later and Home Truths and My Lies, Your Lies. Susan’s novels have sold nearly three million copies in the UK alone. She is also the author of Just One More Day and One Day at a Time, the moving memoirs of her childhood in Bristol during the 1960s.  

Susan has previously worked as a secretary in news and current affairs before training as a production assistant working on light entertainment and drama. She’s lived in Hollywood and the South of France, but now resides in Gloucestershire with husband James, two stepsons and dogs.