While incredibly gripping, this book literally gave me nightmares. In fact, after the first rough night I considered quitting, but I was just too curious to see how it ended.
Grace is a single woman in her late 30s who has a good job (a fruit buyer for Harrod's) and has been involved in a couple of long time relationships. But all of the relationships have come to an end because she is responsible for Millie, her 17 year old sister with Down's syndrome. That is until she meets Jack. He sweeps her off her feet with his good looks, charm and promises to buy her a perfect home and allow Millie to live with them once she turns 18 and is no longer eligible for the residential school where she currently resides. He even wins over Grace's parents by jointly taking legal responsibility for Millie so they can fulfil a life long dream of moving to New Zealand. Within 6 months Grace and Jack marry.
On her wedding night, Jack disappears, but promises to explain everything on their honeymoon in Bangkok. There she learns he is actually a psychopath who feeds on the fear of others - he takes total control of her life; locking her in the house and never giving her an opportunity to be alone with anyone who could potentially help her escape. What's worse is she discovers his true intentions toward Millie - it is really her that he wishes to imprison and terrorize.
The book flips back and forth between this start of the relationship and the present - where Grace is living a lie. To her neighbours and friends she and Jack have a perfect relationship. However, she is desperately working on a plan to escape. I was really rooting for Grace and Millie - Jack was just so smug in his belief that he would always be able to outsmart them. I don't really want to say anything more as it could take away from the suspense.
I did enjoy the book, but only take it on if you think you can cope with reading about extreme emotional abuse.
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