12 July 2017

Review #625: One Little Mistake by Emma Curtis



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you.”

----Friedrich Nietzsche



Emma Curtis, a British writer, pens her debut psychological thriller called, One Little Mistake that revolves around a woman, who is a mother of three beautiful children, wife to a husband who loves her a lot and with a job she loves, but her perfect life has cracks and those cracks make her slip, as she commits one tiny little mistake, which she later confides to her beat friend, who in turn, asks her to keep lying in order to save her kids from child protection services and little did this woman knew that a terrible calamity was waiting at her front door, the moment she confided in her best friend. A story about two best friends and a little girl, who just lost her mother and is forced to go to foster care.


Synopsis:

Vicky Seagrave is blessed: three beautiful children, a successful, doting husband, great friends and a job she loves. She should be perfectly happy.

When she risks everything she holds dear on a whim, there's only person she trusts enough to turn to.

But Vicky is about to learn that one mistake is all it takes; that if you're careless with those you love, you don't deserve to keep them.



Vicky Seagrave has everything that a woman can ever ask for, a loving husband, three children, among which one is a newborn baby boy and the rest are pretty daughter, a stable teaching job at the local school and a lovely house. Yet the birth of her last child has taken a toll on her, waking up at odd hours to spending sleepless nights to taking care of the baby, everything has left Vicky stressed out thoroughly. As a result, she breaks down and makes a slip, when she leaves her new born baby at home alone just for few minutes, only to later discover that her baby has been hurt physically. Scared of the child protecting services whisking away her kids from her for her slight mistake, she confides this slight mistake of hers to her best friend, Amber, so that she can live with the guilt. Unfortunately Amber has other ideas and schemes to destroy her friend's perfect life. And little did Vicky knew that Amber would hold so much over her life and her decisions that ultimately would make herself as the worst criminal in the world.

A gripping and an extremely absorbing psycho thriller, that only promises to surprise its readers with one twist after another, which are also hard to predict. The author captures the undertone of marriage, infidelity, jealousy, rage, anger and finally friendship so strikingly, that the readers will be forced to think about the bond they share with their own best friends. Yeah, this book will have that effect, I began questioning the trust, loyalty of my own best friends. And not once, I felt like reading a debut book by the author, since story is so polished and well concocted.

The author's writing style is eloquent and magnificent, as she laces the whole plot with tight suspense and edgy tension that will arrest the readers' attention right from the very first page itself. The narrative is equally engaging enough and often emotional to let the readers contemplate with the characters' plight. Since there are two stories running parallelly that gradually intersperse with one another, hence the author has kept the best twists and the reason behind 10 year old foster girl's story tightly wrapped under layers of anticipative drama. The pacing is bit slow, but it is worth it, since the mystery unravels gradually after much development of expectation in the readers' hearts and minds. And the twist is bound to throw the readers off their edges.

The characters from this book are really well sketched, and almost all the time, they will have a tight psychological grip on the minds of the readers. The main character of Vicky is portrayed with lots of flaws and with her demeanor of being careless, most of the times, the readers will find it hard to sympathize with her situation or her plight. Vicky is the one who keeps telling the lies, until the day comes when the mountains of lies explode and her steady and happy life comes undone. Every one can have their moment of weakness and Vicky certainly becomes a victim of that situation, when she tells about it to Amber. Amber on the other hand, initially will strike as someone very kind and thoughtful, but gradually, author peels away one layer after another, thus unraveling the dark shade of Amber. Both the characters are drawn with enough depth to allow the readers to comprehend with their lives. The supporting cast, like Vicky's husband, Tom, 10 year old girl Kataya, all are depicted in an interesting manner.

In a nutshell, this is a brilliant story that is a must read not only for the mothers, but also for those who trust easily.

Verdict: A perfect and a riveting thriller to curl up with on a rainy, lonely afternoon!

Courtesy: Thanks to the publishers from Transworld for giving me an opportunity to read and review this book.
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Author Info:
Emma Curtis was born in Brighton and brought up in London. Her fascination with the darker side of domestic life inspired her to write One Little Mistake, her first psychological suspense. She has two children and lives in Richmond with her husband.
Visit her here



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