Review: I Let You Go

I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

My rating: 4 of 5 stars




I received a free copy of I Let You Go from the publisher in return for an honest review.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, on reading the blurb I found it hard to tell which genre I Let You go falls into. Perhaps it's just me but the blurb reads like it's going to be an emotional story with some love/romance. I showed the blurb to my son after I was done, asked him what genre he would guess from the blurb and he said love story so perhaps it's not just me.

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with love stories, it's just not my preferred reading material. But what I'm saying is, if I hadn't seen some very positive reviews from friends on my Goodreads feed, I might not have picked this one. Yes there is a bit of romance in it and it's a very moving and emotional story, but there's actually a lot more to it. I Let You Go actually fits into a few genres, it's a light psychological thriller that will touch you on many different emotional levels and there is a mystery running through it with some very good crime fiction involved and the blurb doesn't reflect that. I think perhaps as a result the book may miss a whole section of readers who would enjoy it but not take the chance based on the blurb.

I really enjoyed reading this one, the writing flows very well and it's a pleasure to read. The characters are well written and very likeable, apart from the ones you're not supposed to like, and easy to care about. The crime side of the novel is expertly done and you can tell the author has used her years of experience of working on CID to make this side of the story very true to life.

I'm impressed that this is the authors debut, it's well written, easy to read and has a really clever twist to it that had me shouting "What? No? It can't be!" out loud without even being aware that I had done so. I only realised I had said it out loud when my hubby woke up asking me what was wrong, oops. It felt like a slap in the face and I was rather impressed with the effect it had. I never saw it coming at all and I actually had to stop and figure out how the author had managed to sneak it up on me. Bravo Ms Mackintosh, I see what you did there and you got me.

I'm looking forwards to reading more from this author and I would definitely recommend picking this one up.

Reviews also posted to my blog: Scarlet's Web
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