Article contributed by Rosie Smith
When Ben’s long-term girlfriend unexpectedly leaves him, his world is turned upside down. Feeling down, depressed, and hopeless, Ben goes to a bar one night and has a chance meeting with the enigmatic Bella. Beautiful, funny, confident, and more importantly, into him, Ben feels he has hit the proverbial jackpot. The two are quickly inseparable, falling in love, moving in together, and having a child. Ben is infatuated. But Bella has dark, vengeful secrets and Ben discovers he has been ensnared in a web of lies, affairs, and abuse. Will he make it out alive? The only way to find out is to pick up the book and enter the twisted world of sordid secrecy, sex, and suffering.
Warner writes from a range of character perspectives including Bella, Ben, and their family and friends, cleverly introducing secrets, which give the reader an overview of who is in on what and who is in the dark, creating an atmosphere of suspense. Despite this seemingly tangled web, Warner’s chronological and clear style is easy to follow and allows the reader to focus fully on the story and highly emotional content. Halfway through the book, the novel needs to be flipped over and the reader continues reading from the back of the book. Although this splits the ‘sides’ to demonstrate the two main perspectives; we witness two very distinct accounts from Bella and Ben.
The flipping of the book appears unnecessary and confusing to readers as both sides of the book looks like a front cover. It seems that the book could have been split up just into its parts, of which there are four, or maybe just in half using part one and part two. Whether the splitting of this book in this way is a clever directive tool is a question best answered by those who dare to venture into this tale.
The book covers some really gritty and difficult to read subjects such as a range of domestic abuse accounts whereby Bella emotionally, verbally, and physically mistreats Ben, cutting him off from his family and friends and eventually manipulating him using their child. Abuse of males within romantic relationships is woefully under reported and discussed due to the stigma that over the years has been attached. Warner, delves into these issues and sheds a light on the potential tragic results of ‘manning up’ and shows that men can be just as likely be a victim of abuse as women and this comes with a range of additional issues around custody of children and Ben’s physical size compared to Bella. Other characters wonder how someone as small and petite as Bella could possibly assault someone much larger whom could arguably ‘fight back.’ Warner explores into the difficulties around this, giving us a fictional but also realistic and well researched situation that may resound with many victims and abusers showing how abuse is so complicated to detect and report from the inside.
She at heart is also a suspense filled crime-thriller with a fantastically well-paced build up to an explosive shock ending. Readers will be on the edge of their seats throughout cycling through a range of emotions from sadness to shock, anger to disgust and tension to relief. It is easy to follow and although includes graphic depictions of abuse, does not take advantage of shock value and stays firmly on the side of telling a realistic, informative story. Warner incorporates all the elements of the thriller genre, perfectly arranged into an engaging and accessible story with captivating characters. With a release date in January, She is going to make some serious waves in the crime-thriller genre and is one to add to your 2020 reading list!
She is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers as of January 23rd 2020. This book features a trigger warning for emotional and physical domestic abuse.
Will you be picking up She? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
She’s everything he dreamed of. Isn’t she?
Ben can’t believe his luck when the beautiful Bella walks into his life, just when he needs her most.
Still bruised and vulnerable since breaking-up with long-term girlfriend, Charlotte, he falls head over heels in love.
But Bella isn’t quite the ideal partner that Ben believes her to be. She quickly decides that everything is better when it is just the two of them – making it harder for friend and family to stay in touch. And then a sudden death triggers a chain of events that throws Ben headlong into a nightmare…
Secrets, lies, vengeance, and betrayal are at the heart of this story about a family that is destroyed when their son brings home the perfect girl…
