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Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce 

By  BookishBearx

I’ve had a very busy week when it comes to reading! I’m on my fourth book this week. And I genuinely can not wait to share my thoughts with you about them. I will also have a little book haul post coming sometime next week as well, as it is my birthday. Which means another large pile of bookish gifts. Today’s review though, is for a book, that has been very popular lately. I have seen it on a lot of instagrams of readers and book bloggers. I picked it up cheap a few weeks ago on the Kobo app and thought I’d finally give it ago. It is Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce.

Blood Orange is a popular thriller, first published in January 2019 by a publisher called Wildfire. It is Harriet Tyce’s debut thriller and is described to be a book for fans of Anatomy of a Scandal, Apple Tree Yard, and Gone Girl. Before we get into it, I’ll leave the synopsis below for you to read.

Alison has it all. A doting husband, adorable daughter, and a career on the rise – she’s just been given her first murder case to defend. But all is never as it seems…

Just one more night. Then I’ll end it.

Alison drinks too much. She’s neglecting her family. And she’s having an affair with a colleague whose taste for pushing boundaries may be more than she can handle.

I did it. I killed him. I should be locked up.

Alison’s client doesn’t deny that she stabbed her husband – she wants to plead guilty. And yet something about her story is deeply amiss. Saving this woman may be the first step to Alison saving herself.

I’m watching you. I know what you’re doing.

But someone knows Alison’s secrets. Someone who wants to make her pay for what she’s done, and who won’t stop until she’s lost everything….

A disturbing, toxic and compelling novel that explores the power of fear and desire, jealousy and betrayal, love and hate, BLOOD ORANGE introduces a stunning new voice in psychological suspense.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37912970-blood-orange?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=GltyA36Nfg&rank=1

The synopsis that I included is from the book’s Goodreads page, I have left the link below it incase you want to see more that the page offers! So, in this book, we follow a barrister called Alison. Her career really seems to be taking off when she arrives at work one morning to be told that she has been given her first murder case. However, the solicitor she is working with, Patrick, has also been involved in a secret affair with her for the past year. While working her first big case, Alison balances the secret of her affair with he crumbling marriage. But among that a lot of things aren’t as they seem. Alison is scared of losing her family, of being a bad mother, she also worries that someone knows her secret, and on top of that, her first murder case isn’t as cut and dry as it first seemed.

Blood Orange is riddled with twists and turns. Some of the twists were predictable while others were quite surprising. I did enjoy the plot, I thought it was well planned. Everything was described so well, that the book seemed credible and plausible. It felt real, rather than forced, cliche fiction. This, I like in a thriller. If it is meant to be based on events that could actually happen in this life, I want the book to portray it like that, like it actually happened and not like it’s made up. I find a book that does this really draws you in more. Tyce really did a great job with that.

I liked the characters in the book too. I think the way she created them, and really took in their emotions, gave them so much life on the page. I find that in some books, character emotions aren’t portrayed in a manner that seem plausible. They don’t show a big enough reaction, or give the characters any ounce of anxiety or insecurity and this makes them feel 2D. But in Blood Orange I found that the characters seemed very life-like. Their reactions, emotions and actions matched well with what was happening with the story. They were well communicated to readers, without getting lost somewhere or being over-done.

All in all, I did quite enjoy this book. I didn’t love it, in the sense that I couldn’t put it down, but it definitely grabbed my attention. The characters and plot were great, and the writing too. I was a little disappointed that a few of the twists were so predictable but the ones that surprised me made up for that. I’d definitely recommend if you like thrillers and mysteries. I think this would be right up your street.

Star Rating /5

⭐️⭐️⭐️

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