I Knew You Were Trouble by Paige Toon

Synopsis

Sunshine, rock gods and Hollywood hearthrobs! Jessie Jefferson is back in the next instalment from bestselling author Paige Toon. Perfect for fans of Geek Girl, Jessica Cole and Girl Online.

Life as the undercover daughter of a rock god isn't going to be easy. How will Jessie adjust to her old boring life again after spending her summer living it up with her dad in LA? With tough decisions ahead (and not just choosing between two hot boys), can she cope juggling her two very different lives? 

Summer may be over, but Jessie's story is just beginning…

Review

Firstly, let me say that the new covers that have been designed for this book and the first book 'The Accidental life of Jessie Jefferson' are absolutely fantastic, suit the book to a tea, and while I liked the original cover of book 1, this one is definitely more current and eye-catching, so kudos to the designer  Also this can be read as a stand alone easily, but I do suggest you read the first book as it is fantastic!

This book picks up a few weeks after book 1 and Jessie is starting another school year, and trying to keep the secret that she is the daughters of a rock god. Jessie seems to have settled down a lot in terms of how she is acting, especially with her step-father Stu, you saw a real bond there, which was really touching at times. 

She gets a new boyfriend, Tom who seems really charming and good looking, the dream guy you want as your school sweetheart. This does bring out some of Jessie's recklessness from book 1, so it's nice to see that she hasn't magically grown up overnight and matured more than her 15 years. The development is believable, and shows great progression in the short time we've known Jessie.

I think the scenes in the U.K. were my favourite, but L.A. certainly makes me envious of not being out there in the sun, eating at all the delicious restaurants and sitting out by the pool in the afternoon! Seeing Meg and Johnny again from Paige's adult books was also a treat, and I am still not sure I can get used to seeing Johnny act like a 'proper' dad and not the Rock star he is in those books. This doesn't effect the book at all, I just find myself smiling at times when he acts protective, and Jessie herself finds this ironic at times.

While in L.A. she meets up with all her old friends, including her crush, Jack. The tension between them is palpable, and I found myself fighting with myself who I thought would be best for Jessie.

It's perfectly summery, and this was the perfect sequel for Jessie, and I can't wait for the third in the series to be released. 

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Published by: Simon and Schuster UK
Gratefully received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The Daughter's Secret by Eva Holland

Synopsis

My daughter is a liar. A liar, liar, liar. And I'm starting to see where she gets it from.

When Rosalind's fifteen-year-old daughter, Stephanie, ran away with her teacher, this ordinary family became something it had never asked to be. Their lives held up to scrutiny in the centre of a major police investigation, the Simms were headline news while Stephanie was missing with a man who was risking everything.

Now, six years on, Ros takes a call that will change their lives all over again. He's going to be released from prison. Years too early. In eleven days' time.

As Temperley's release creeps ever closer, Ros is forced to confront the events that led them here, back to a place she thought she'd left behind, to questions she didn't want to answer. Why did she do it? Where does the blame lie? What happens next?

Review

This book’s synopsis was instantly appealing to me, seeming to fit into the mysteries and thrillers I have been reading more of over the past year or so. This book to me was different to how I expected it though. I was expecting it to be more mysterious and joining Ros uncovering the secrets and lies that her daughter, Stephanie might have. While the past was slightly mysterious, I was expecting more twist and turns on the way. 

That said, I found it compelling reading as the characterisation was absolutely superb. Each character was complex with there own flaws. The flaws I found very prominent in each character, and we all have them, but they were so that I didn’t really like any of the characters. This didn’t put me off the book at all, as they were all fascinating. 
The father seemed more concerned about image and how people outside would view his family, and threw himself away from the family almost in disdain at times it seemed.  Stephanie seemed grown up most of the time, but at times almost child-like, and I suppose this is growing up with Rosalind as a mother. 

I don’t necessarily think Ros was a bad mother, but her inner thoughts were terrifying. She suffers from paranoia and anxiety about bad stuff happening to her children beyond what I believe to be normal. From stuff like, driving your child to a school trip behind their school coach as the tyres on the coach look too worn (even when reassured they’re only a couple of months old) to the even more unlikely scenario of something falling from the sky, and through the house to where her children are sat. This occurred before the situation with Stephanie, so it seems like the children were a bit mollycoddled growing up, and actually I would have loved to read more from their childhood to see how far it went. 

Obviously everyone is concerned what happens to their children, but what surprises me the most really was that Ros didn’t seek any help from anyone. Dan was all to happy to send Stephanie off to a rehab clinic when he thought she had an alcohol problem, but seemed oblivious to his wife’s problems, or at least not concerned enough. She hid it, but even when Dan found out she was keeping her children off school at times because of the worry and anxieties she was feeling, he just let it go… All very puzzling. However, it’s this very thing that drew me into the book, and made me compelled to read further. Seeing what she was thinking, and her panic was what kept the tension up, rather than it being a mystery to discover secrets. 

I had to read the last page or two a few times, and, even now, I’m still not sure that I am satisfied that I know what the the conclusion was. However, I realise many books in this genre have an open ending similar to this one, and lots of people will really like this. 

Overall though, this is a great debut novel, it was a compelling read that kept me hooked till the end.

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Published by: Orion
Gratefully received from the Publisher for review.