The Mistress's Revenge by Tamar Cohen

The Mistress's Revenge. Tamar Cohen by Tamar Cohen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 days

Pages - 346

Publisher - Black Swan

Blurb from Goodreads

You think you are rid of me. You think you have drawn a line under the whole affair. You are so, so wrong.

For five years, Sally and Clive have been lost in a passionate affair. Now he has dumped her, to devote himself to his wife and family, and Sally is left in freefall.

It starts with a casual stroll past his house, and popping into the brasserie where his son works. Then Sally befriends Clive's wife and daughter on Facebook. But that's all right, isn't it? I mean, they are perfectly normal things to do. Aren't they?

Not since Fatal Attraction has the fallout from an illicit affair been exposed in such a sharp, darkly funny and disturbing way. After all, who doesn't know a normal, perfectly sane woman who has gone a little crazy when her heart was broken?


My Review

Silly Sally, thats what Clive called her. Clive whom she embarked upon a five year affair with, both married, both have children, both linked in each others circles. Now Clive has called time on the affair, Sally is seeing a therapist and keeping diary entries cataloging the affair and how she saw it all. Clive has moved on, Sally just can't let go and this is her story, of her fall from a loving mum, wife and career woman to one who is fully obsessed with her ex and her world is crumbling around her.

Firstly, there are no chapters in this book, there are page breaks, however it is almost a continuous monologue. Told in first person, Sally speaks clearly to Clive in her entries, there are no dates, she just launches in as if she is having a conversation, all one sided of course. Whilst this isn't my favourite type of layout, I think it serves its purpose, casting light onto just another aspect of how obsessive Sally is/has become.

I can't say I liked any of the characters, Sally is hard to like at all, selfish, obsessed, her behaviour and all consuming affair takes over everything. It is hard for the reader to witness the destruction to those around her, and Sally, whilst she is oblivious. I think this was smartly done in that these kind of situations you see the actions but not the insight of the mind or rational of the individual.

Whilst this was hard to read in parts it was hard to put down, understanding just how Clive managed to get Sally to that state, by manipulation and his actions was quite an insight. Whilst this is a work of fiction I am sure people can identify seeing behaviours like this with friends or family. Going by reviews, this is a marmite book, I think it was very well done however with such unlikeable characters one may require something lighter after finishing this. 4/5 for me this time, I have read Cohen before and I would read her again.





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ARC - Breakdown by Sara Paretsky

Breakdown by Sara Paretsky
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time Taken To Read - 3 days

Publisher - Hodder & Stoughton

Blurb from Goodreads

Carmilla, Queen of the Night, is a shape-shifting raven whose fictional exploits thrill girls all over the world. When tweens in Chicago's Carmilla Club hold and initiation ritual in an abandoned cemetary, they stumble on an actual corpse, a man stabbed through the heart in a vampire-style slaying.

The girls include daughters of some of Chicago's most powerful families: the grandfather of one, Chaim Salanter, is among the world's weathiest men; the mother of another, Sophy Durango, is running for the United States Senate.

For V.I. Warshawski, the questions multiply faster than the answers. Is the killing linked to a hostile media campaign against Sophy Durango? Or to Chaim Salanter's childhood in Nazi-occupied Lithuania? As V.I. struggles to answer these questions, she finds herself fighting enemies who are no less terifying for being all too human.

My Review

Despite this being the 15th book in the series it is my first time reading this author. V.I Warshawski is our main character and to be honest at the start of the book I was very confused what her role was. She is a private detective, often referred to as a detective who is also listed as a lawyer although she isn't practicing. She is called on by her cousin to check on teenage girls, out after curfew, who are practicing a ritual brought on by the teenage vampire books fad. In the cemetery, unbeknown to the girls, a man is being killed nearby. A long and twisted tale follows, politics, murder, deception and secrets which will put the lives of those involved in perilous danger.

There are no vampires in this story so don't be put off or fooled by the blurb. It is a murder mystery that is heavily wrapped up with politics. I don't follow politics much and have to be honest there is a lot throughout the story that it did put me off quite a bit. There are also, for me, far to many characters and I got confused about who some people where and had to go back and re read and see what part of the story they played.

It is not all complaints though, V.I. is a great character, she is very loyal to her close friends, spunky and like a dog with a bone once she gets her teeth stuck into something. She is also very tolerable, she does a lot for many of the characters in the book yet gets quite a lot of aggravation for her troubles. For some parts I could have put the book down and left it as it got a tad boring for me, however at the last quarter of the book it focused back on the actual story and picked up pace. As I said a far few turns and twists and had the politics been a lesser part I am sure I would have enjoyed this more so 3/5 for me. I am sure I will look this author up again but alas not for a while. Thanks so much to Hodder and Stoughton for sending me an ARC copy of this and introducing me to a new author. This version of the book will be available from the 25th of April, 2013 in ebook and paperback for £7.99.

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