Hellooo, I am here with more thrillers to review for you! Todays is The Gift by Louise Jensen. I have read a few of her books in the past and I loved them so I had high hopes for these!
The Gift is a mystery thriller that was first published in December 2016 by Bookouture. It is available in paperback, hardback, eBook and also audio book also. Louise Jensen is well known for her thrillers, other books include The Date and The Surrogate. I will pop the synopsis for The Gift below so you can have a nosey to see what it is about…
Jenna is given another shot at life when she receives a donor heart from a girl called Callie. Eternally grateful to Callie and her family, Jenna gets closer to them, but she soon discovers that Callie’s perfect family is hiding some very dark secrets …
Callie’s parents are grieving, yet Jenna knows they’re only telling her half the story. Where is Callie’s sister Sophie? She’s been ‘abroad’ since her sister’s death but something about her absence doesn’t add up. And when Jenna meets Callie’s boyfriend Nathan, she makes a shocking discovery.
Jenna knows that Callie didn’t die in an accident. But how did she die? Jenna is determined to discover the truth but it could cost her everything; her loved ones, her sanity, even her life.
A compelling, gripping psychological thriller with a killer twist from the author of the Number One bestseller The Sister.
In The Gift we follow the story of Jenna, who gets a second chance at life after suddenly falling ill with heart problems. As time passed in the hospital, Jenna was sure she was going to die before they found her a heart to transplant, but luck was on her side. The transplant is a success but Jenna feels she desperately needs to thank the family who agreed to donate the heart of their lost loved one. After feeling like the letters that the hospital agreed to send were too informal and not enough of a thank you, Jenna decides to find the family and meet them in person to say thank you. Everything seems like it is looking up. It isn’t until later, where she starts experiencing weird memories and dreams that she starts to worry that things aren’t as they seem. Jenna keeps experiencing intense feelings of panic and fear, dreaming about family holidays that she never attended. Could this be someone else’s memories? Someone else’s feelings? Is she in danger, like the feelings and memories suggest? Will Jenna find out by diving in to her donors past?
I have got to start by saying that this storyline is very unique. It’s something that I haven’t come across before. I like that about the book. I definitely can tell that Jensen has done her research as when the book delves into the process of heart transplants and cellular memory you can tell that thought has been put into it. The process that Jenna goes through for her operation seems believable and plausible, there’s not any embroidery around the process to make it fit with an ideal of the book, it rings true to real life.
I found the characters to be likeable and believable and you could really empathise with them individually to understand why they were like they were. The donor’s family’s grief was clear and concise. It wasn’t over dramatised or played down. You really felt for them as you would if you saw someone in real life grieving. Everything and everyone in the book was portrayed in such a real way, which I feel is important. A book like this always hits harder if it feels real, as it isn’t sci fi, it’s meant to be based in the real world. You definitely get that real world sense when reading this.
The only thing that I had to criticise, is that it felt a little slow in places. Which some people may like but I personally struggle with slow paced thrillers. I have quite a low attention span so I really need to grab my attention and keep it. So fast paced books tend to serve me well as the constant changes and developments stop me getting bored. But a person with more patience and better focus probably wouldn’t struggle much with the book. Especially as there are only slight lulls here and there in the speed of the book. Which I guess could even bring a nice aspect to the experience of reading this book for many readers, after all real life isn’t all one speed so it could contribute to making the book make it feel even more real.
All in all, I did like the book. It had a nice depth in its characters, the plot was one of uniqueness and was something that I hadn’t come across before. It was interesting and real. I wanted to know what happened. I wanted to know all the ins and outs of the book and the characters. It just lost a couple of points for me due to the pace and the fact that I did actually guessed the ending before it happened. But I think people who can deal with that slightly slower pace would enjoy this book so much more. It’s just my bad attention span doing me a nasty again! I would definitely recommend this book and Louise Jensen’s other books too. She is an amazing author!
Star Rating /5
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Hellooo, I am here with more thrillers to review for you! Todays is The Gift by Louise Jensen. I have read a few of her books in the past and I loved them so I had high hopes for these!
The Gift is a mystery thriller that was first published in December 2016 by Bookouture. It is available in paperback, hardback, eBook and also audio book also. Louise Jensen is well known for her thrillers, other books include The Date and The Surrogate. I will pop the synopsis for The Gift below so you can have a nosey to see what it is about…
In The Gift we follow the story of Jenna, who gets a second chance at life after suddenly falling ill with heart problems. As time passed in the hospital, Jenna was sure she was going to die before they found her a heart to transplant, but luck was on her side. The transplant is a success but Jenna feels she desperately needs to thank the family who agreed to donate the heart of their lost loved one. After feeling like the letters that the hospital agreed to send were too informal and not enough of a thank you, Jenna decides to find the family and meet them in person to say thank you. Everything seems like it is looking up. It isn’t until later, where she starts experiencing weird memories and dreams that she starts to worry that things aren’t as they seem. Jenna keeps experiencing intense feelings of panic and fear, dreaming about family holidays that she never attended. Could this be someone else’s memories? Someone else’s feelings? Is she in danger, like the feelings and memories suggest? Will Jenna find out by diving in to her donors past?
I have got to start by saying that this storyline is very unique. It’s something that I haven’t come across before. I like that about the book. I definitely can tell that Jensen has done her research as when the book delves into the process of heart transplants and cellular memory you can tell that thought has been put into it. The process that Jenna goes through for her operation seems believable and plausible, there’s not any embroidery around the process to make it fit with an ideal of the book, it rings true to real life.
I found the characters to be likeable and believable and you could really empathise with them individually to understand why they were like they were. The donor’s family’s grief was clear and concise. It wasn’t over dramatised or played down. You really felt for them as you would if you saw someone in real life grieving. Everything and everyone in the book was portrayed in such a real way, which I feel is important. A book like this always hits harder if it feels real, as it isn’t sci fi, it’s meant to be based in the real world. You definitely get that real world sense when reading this.
The only thing that I had to criticise, is that it felt a little slow in places. Which some people may like but I personally struggle with slow paced thrillers. I have quite a low attention span so I really need to grab my attention and keep it. So fast paced books tend to serve me well as the constant changes and developments stop me getting bored. But a person with more patience and better focus probably wouldn’t struggle much with the book. Especially as there are only slight lulls here and there in the speed of the book. Which I guess could even bring a nice aspect to the experience of reading this book for many readers, after all real life isn’t all one speed so it could contribute to making the book make it feel even more real.
All in all, I did like the book. It had a nice depth in its characters, the plot was one of uniqueness and was something that I hadn’t come across before. It was interesting and real. I wanted to know what happened. I wanted to know all the ins and outs of the book and the characters. It just lost a couple of points for me due to the pace and the fact that I did actually guessed the ending before it happened. But I think people who can deal with that slightly slower pace would enjoy this book so much more. It’s just my bad attention span doing me a nasty again! I would definitely recommend this book and Louise Jensen’s other books too. She is an amazing author!
Star Rating /5
⭐️⭐️⭐️