When a nightmare isn’t really over…

Synopsis

I want to be ordinary. To fade into the shadows where no one notices me and live a quiet life. A normal life.

But I am not ordinary. Not anymore.

I’ve been keeping a secret. From my colleagues, my friends and most importantly, my husband – who knows nothing of my past life.

Twenty years ago, at college, a boy became obsessed with me. Craig Lane believed he could make me love him back if he just tried harder. When I rejected him, he did something so horrifying, it’s the stuff of nightmares. All my nightmares.

Now I’ve been informed by Victim Support Services, that boy – now a man – has been released from prison. The news terrifies me.

Am I safe? Or does Craig still carry the same obsession he did when we were seventeen? I don’t know. I’ve ignored every letter he’s ever sent me.

Now strange things have started to happen: flowers have been left on my doorstep, my cat keeps going missing. Someone is watching me. Knows where I live. I am sure.

Worse, something even more sinister could be stalking me from the shadows. Because I have another secret…

My past is coming to get me. One way or another.

My review

Twenty years ago, Soriah went through something terrible. Craig Lane suddenly became obsessed with her, not understanding her rejections. Even when he did something unthinkable, he didn’t understand that it was all oh so wrong.
Now Soriah is living a married life, with attempting to get pregnant. But even her husband does not know what happened to her all those years ago. Because all that Soriah wants, is to be ordinary and have a normal, quiet life.
But when Victim Support Services informs her that Craig will be released, Soriah is terrified. Terrified that he will find her again, as she does not believe that his obsession has gone. And when strange things begin to happen, Soriah knows that she is being watched…

Isn’t it terrifying, when you just want to have a quiet and calm life, and it turns out to be the complete opposite? Especially when you have already been through something horrible in the past, you just want to put everything behind you and move on…

At the start of this thriller, we don’t know what happened to Soriah, but it’s clear that it’s something terrible, something that truly scarred her, and those demons are still haunting her.
And while I could understand that Soriah wouldn’t proclaim to everyone what happened to her, I would at least think that she would have told her husband that.

Beside the fact that Soriah feels that she is being watched, and that the news of Craig’s release is haunting her, it’s clear that her life isn’t a happy one, even if she is married and trying to get pregnant. From the start, I saw several red flags, making me doubt the sincerity of not just her husband, but most people around Soriah.

Slowly, we get to understand what happened in Soriah’s past and what Craig actually did. Not only was I left flabbergasted that even my imagination didn’t go that far as what Soriah had to endure. But I was shocked to read the depth of deceit, betrayal and hurt she has been through. Saying I pitied her, is for sure an understatement…

When in the present Soriah, feels herself in danger again, it was easy to think in one direction. Yet there was something telling me that it wouldn’t be that straightforward. And once I knew all of her past, I already had a feeling what truly was going on. And my gut feeling proved me right.

It angered me reading that Soriah is being betrayed by several people that should be in her corner, fighting alongside her, and not against her. Only shows once again that in fact, can you ever trust someone for the full 100%?

Perhaps this thriller wasn’t the kind that had me sitting on the edge of my seat in fear, with the absolute need to know it all. But that doesn’t mean that I found myself easily putting this book away. Because the need for knowledge was still there. And when finished reading, the realization of how ugly and nasty people can be, and how deceitful, put me back in my place, as not everyone is the good kind of people…