** My thanks to damppebbles blog tours and Killer Reads for my copy of this book and for inviting me to be part of the blog tour **
Description:
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer…
An addictive and shocking psychological thriller, full of twists you won’t see coming, perfect for fans of FRIEND REQUEST by Laura Marshall.
A friend who won’t let you escape.
When Karin is taken on a romantic break by her loving partner Aaron, she can’t wait for him to propose. But her surprise weekend quickly becomes a nightmare from which she may never escape.
Who wants everything you have.
They are staying by the beach at the Midland – a grand hotel where Karin used to work. And where Karin’s dangerous and obsessive ex, whom she has been trying to leave behind for years, is waiting patiently for her to return.
Who won’t stop until your life is in ruins.
Now all of Karin’s darkest secrets are being dragged into the light and her friends are turning against her. When one of them is murdered, Karin begins to realise just how treacherous relationships can be…
My Thoughts & Review:
The moment I read the description of this book I knew that I needed to read it, this sounded so intriguing and exciting!
With a creeping unease, June Taylor slowly gives readers breadcrumbs of information as she reveals the details in Keep Your Friends Close. The opening chapter is deceptively vague, giving no solid information about characters and the connections between them, something I found that made me even more intrigued. I needed to find out about the characters and their connections. I needed to find out more about Karin and where she came from, and what the significance of her twenty second birthday was!
Taylor has created some fantastic characters in this book, whilst not all readers will like all characters, there are definitely ones here that have you squirming uncomfortably in your seat. The real tricky thing is working out which characters to trust, or more, which parts of the story to trust … it certainly does make for an engrossing and exciting read.
Karin has a history steeped in secrets, there are very few people who know everything about her and that’s the way she wants to keep it. Knowing her secrets gives people power over her and that’s something she cannot let happen. She realises all too late that it might have been a good idea to share some more of her secrets with her boyfriend, especially after arriving on the doorstep of the hotel where her abusive ex works. Unfortunately, this is the beginning of Karin’s carefully constructed new life unravelling.
The pacing of the book was spot on for me, I felt that I was pulled in with the good use of short chapters and found that I almost managed to read this in one day.
Purchase Links:
About the Author:
June Taylor is a UK psychological thriller writer. For many years she was a TV promos writer/producer before turning to writing plays and fiction. She was runner-up in the 2011 Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction competition with her YA novel. Her debut Adult psychological thriller Losing Juliet was nominated for the Not the Booker Prize 2017.
Keep Your Friends Close is June’s second psychological thriller for the HarperCollins Killer Reads imprint. The ebook comes out on 26th October 2018 (paperback 10th January 2019).
June is active in her local writing scene, including serving on the Board of Script Yorkshire and taking part in Leeds Big bookend.
When she’s not writing she likes to shrink her life down into a campervan and take off on some adventure with her husband. She lives in Yorkshire. You can also find June at her website. On Twitter and Facebook and occasionally on Instagram too.
I think you’d enjoy this one Meggy!
Anything that has to deal with trust must be read by me! I love your review, and I’m adding this to my TBR!