Helpful Score: 2
I'm late to the party with The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth, so many readers are familiar with its premise. A perfect family (dad, mum, and two adorable young daughters) move into a lovely seaside cottage in a coastal town in Australia. But they don't live there happily ever after. Gabe and Pippa soon discover their dream home is near The Drop, a popular place for people to end their lives. Gabe has uncanny success in saving many visitors ... until the evening when a woman named Amanda comes to the cliff.
A queen of domestic suspense novels, The Soulmate is firmly in Ms. Hepworth's wheelhouse. It's written in first person from Pippa and Amanda's points of view; each tells their story now and then. The chapters are short and quickly propelled me through this 320-page story. As the story of two marriages progresses, readers learn the many ways these four adults were intertwined. A few of the reveals were surprising while others were fairly obvious.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Barrie Kreinik (who's narrated several of Ms. Hepworth's novels) and Jessica Douglas-Henry. Having a separate narrator for each of the primary woman characters enhanced my listening experience.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the review copy of this novel
A queen of domestic suspense novels, The Soulmate is firmly in Ms. Hepworth's wheelhouse. It's written in first person from Pippa and Amanda's points of view; each tells their story now and then. The chapters are short and quickly propelled me through this 320-page story. As the story of two marriages progresses, readers learn the many ways these four adults were intertwined. A few of the reveals were surprising while others were fairly obvious.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Barrie Kreinik (who's narrated several of Ms. Hepworth's novels) and Jessica Douglas-Henry. Having a separate narrator for each of the primary woman characters enhanced my listening experience.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the review copy of this novel
Helpful Score: 1
This is a story about marriage, betrayal, and the secrets that push us to the edge. There's a cottage on a cliff. Gabe and Pippa's dream home in a sleepy coastal town. The tall cliffs have become a popular spot for people to end their lives. When Pippa discovers Gabe knew the victim, the questions spiral...Did the victim jump? Was she pushed? And would Gabe, the love of Pippa's life, her soulmate...lie? As the perfect facade of their marriage begins to crack, the deepest and darkest secrets begin to unravel. This is a fast-paced entertaining novel with twists and turns that kept me reading to the very ending. It is a character-driven book with alternating chapters with POV from Pippa and Amanda. I like Hepworth's writing and would definitely read another book by her. If you like intriguing domestic thrillers then you would love this book. I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy for an honest review.
What a roller coaster ride reading this domestic thriller was! Revelations around every corner, none of which I'd suspected. I was rapt almost all the way through, but disappointed in the ending, which didn't seem to emerge from the characters but rather from a pre-ordained idea of the author. Nevertheless, I'd definitely read another Hepworth novel.
written in the format of then/now--I don't read books written like that
