Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Open Your Eyes

Open Your Eyes by Paula Daly
Grove/Atlantic: 10/9/18
eBook review copy: 304 pages
ISBN-13: 978080212845

Open Your Eyes by Paula Daly is a highly recommended domestic thriller.

Leon and Jane Campbell live in Liverpool where Leon is a published crime fiction writer and Jane is a want-to-be published writer and a teacher of writing. The couple have two children and are by all accounts happy when the unexpected happens. While sitting in the car, arguing with a truculent neighbor, a horrible accident happens and Leon is rushed to the hospital. Thankfully Jane and the children are okay, but when Jane discovers what caused Leon's accident, and subsequent coma and brain damage, she needs to take care of her family and try to figure out who and why someone would want to harm Leon.

Jane is a likeable character and readers will be hoping she finds the answers she seeks and can manage to keep her whole family safe and together through the whole traumatic event. There are no easy answers for Jane as she begins to ask some uncomfortable questions and uncover some information Leon has hidden from her. Although Jane has to figure out who would attack her husband, her circumstances allow readers to bestow her character with understanding and sympathy as she slowly uncovers more information.

The writing is great and Daly keeps the novel moving along at an even pace. She slowly allows more information to be uncovered while Jane goes through the overwhelming struggle to keep it all together. Some of the twists in Jane's discovery are surprising and frightening while others are puzzling. The even pacing of the new information and twists allow your interest in the story to remain without flagging or feeling like the story is slowing down. I'm not a fan of the ending, but in totality, this is an entertaining novel. 

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Grove/Atlantic.

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