The book:
Saving April by Sarah A. Denzil
Published by Kindle Press in March 2016
Pages: 245
My copy: Kindle ebook
The blurb:
Hannah Abbott is afraid of the world. Plagued by anxiety, she lives an isolated, uneventful life in suburban Yorkshire. She rarely leaves her house, and her only friend is Edith, her elderly neighbor. But when the Mason family moves in across the street, Hannah’s quiet life is changed forever.
The Masons pull Hannah into their tangled web of secrets. She must decide what to believe and who to trust as she attempts to rescue their teenage daughter, April, from harm.
My thoughts…
This was yet another of the free Kindle Unlimited downloads I’m working my way through this month. I do like to read the occasional thriller, and I think this is a really good example of the genre done well! You are sucked straight in, it’s a real page turner and it keeps you guessing.
Hannah is agoraphobic and a loner, barely leaving the small terraced house where she lives alone. She can’t help but take an interest in the new family that moves in over the road, but this interest soon becomes unhealthy as she becomes increasingly embroiled in their business. Laura, meanwhile, struggles to keep her family together in their new home, but finds herself trying to strike up an unlikely friendship with the quiet lady who lives over the road…
There are very few characters in this novel – we have our two narrators, Hannah and Laura, and only two or three other characters who have any significant part to play. This gives the book a certain simplicity and allows you to focus on the two narrators while you try and piece together their back stories. Hannah and Laura seem completely different on the surface, but as we read on we discover there are some similarities. Hints are given to both of the characters having secrets in their pasts, which we gradually uncover, but at the same time we try and work out quite what is going on in Laura’s life now as she argues constantly with her husband and struggles to communicate with her quiet and distant 13-year-old daughter.
The tension builds really nicely and the setting is perfect, with the little terraced houses that are almost claustrophobically close to one another – so much so that you can hear each other’s arguments.
The book was spoiled a bit for me with the climax, which is very over-the-top and overly dramatic! But having said this, the book kept me gripped throughout and I got through it in just a day.
A good choice if you fancy something quick, easy to read, not too taxing and with some added drama!
ahouseofbooks 
Wasn’t Hannah Abbott a minor Harry Potter character? BTW, I wrote three reviews (2 books, 1 play) on my blog last week, come check them out!
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Couldn’t tell you as I’ve never read Harry Potter – although my daughter has started reading them so maybe she can enlighten me! Off to visit your blog now.
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