The Hospital by Leslie Wolfe

The Hospital by Leslie Wolfe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 days

Pages - 322

Publisher - Bookouture

Source - Review copy & bought one

Blurb from Goodreads

I should feel safe here. I don’t.

I thought I had it all. The loving husband I married on a beach, sand between my toes. The career I fought for. The beautiful home tucked away between pines and mountains.

But my perfect life crumbled when my husband betrayed me. And then it started. Everywhere I went, someone was following me… But no one believed me. Were they right? Was I losing my mind?

Then, one day, I wake up with a searing pain in my head, and only the sound of sirens and distant conversations to pierce my confusion.

I’ve been attacked. I’m in the hospital.

It should be reassuring. But all I can think is: I’m trapped.

I must escape. But I know I can’t trust anyone, and I’ll do whatever it takes to save myself.

You will never see the twists coming in this jaw-on-the-floor gasp-out-loud rollercoaster from the no.1 bestselling author of The Surgeon. Fans of Freida McFadden, Lisa Jewell and Shari Lapena won’t be able to put it down!



My Review

She is running, she is injured, she wakes in a hospital, unable to move, unable to see - she can talk but that is about it. She knows she was attacked and she knows she isn't safe, how can she protect herself when she doesn't know who hurt her and can't get her body to move.

So the book bounces between the main character Emma confined to a hospital bed, immobile and we hear from the bad guy, the person who committed the atrocity against Emma and they are OBSESSED! So we know Emma was assaulted and almost died and now is essentially locked in, cared for around the clock, frustrated with her lack of memory and her body's brokenness. We bounce around as she grasps for her memories, tries to get any kind of movement going and frantically find out who is after her.

I did take a bit to settle into the book as the narrator is so unreliable, she has a traumatic brain injury so we are finding out about her as she is. Things jump around a bit which I found a wee bit distracting but I think it adds strength to the character, you are meant to be unsettled and frustrated because she is and it is her story. I had suspicious/guesses galore, I was a bit like when watching an episode of Murder She Wrote lol, I have about twenty theories so one ought to stick!

Some shady characters, cheating, manipulation, frustration, health/recovery (or lack of) and processing her past as it is all coming back to her slowly as she is confined to body and bed. I would say the last quarter really came into its own so I was back and fourth on my rating. I am going for 3.5/5 (I added the .5 because the later part really was WOW, well for me anyway). This was my first by this author, it won't be my last.

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Crash & Burn by Lisa Gardner

Crash & Burn by Lisa Gardner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 days

Pages - 368

Publisher - Headline

Blurb from Goodreads

My name is Nicky Frank.

I'm in hospital, afraid. All I can think about is Vero. I have to save her but I can't find her. She's just a little girl.

The man by my bed tells me we're married and there is no Vero. He says that six months ago I suffered a brain injury, that I have dramatic mood swings and large gaps in my memory. I get angry and I drink. All of which explains the car crash that put me here.

Now a Sergeant Wyatt Foster has questions about the accident. He has concerns about my husband. And he's worried about a missing girl.

He would like to know what happened to me. So would I.

This is my life. Watch me crash and burn.


My Review

My name is Nicky Frank.

I'm in hospital, afraid. All I can think about is Vero. I have to save her but I can't find her. She's just a little girl.

The man by my bed tells me we're married and there is no Vero. He says that six months ago I suffered a brain injury, that I have dramatic mood swings and large gaps in my memory. I get angry and I drink. All of which explains the car crash that put me here.

Now a Sergeant Wyatt Foster has questions about the accident. He has concerns about my husband. And he's worried about a missing girl.

He would like to know what happened to me. So would I.

This is my life. Watch me crash and burn.




My Review

Nicky Frank is our main character, chapters where she is talking is in first person. When we are in chapters with the investigators it is in third person narration. This sounds like it could be a bit jumpy but it actually works quite well and compliments the story. The first line of the tale is "I died once", this is Nicky and we are immediately flung into her losing control of her car. She crashed and manages to seek out help, but they must find Vero, her little girl. As the police assess the area and start the search for Vero, things aren't quite what they seemed and Nicky comes under scrutiny.

This is a fast paced, thriller mystery type read. We soon discover Nicky has suffered from a traumatic brain injury from a few months back and since then hasn't been herself. She is fixated on Vero, her husband tries to deal with her erratic behaviour and the police are suspicious. There is more than meets the eye with this couple and the police won't rest until they discover what is going on.

The story draws you in from the first chapter, when Nicky is narrating, your unsure how much you can rely on. She seems troubled, her memory is impaired and Vero just won't go away. As the story whirls along, we discover fragments of information and a sense of danger to go with it.

I am sure I have read Gardner before and I will definitely be reading her again. 4/5 for me, thanks to the publisher for sending me this in exchange for an honest review. This book is available to buy now, from all good book stores.

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