Do No Harm By Lucy V Hay – A Review

Publisher: Orenda Books

Publication Date: 1st July 2018

When I was approached with this one and asked whether I wanted to be part of the blog tour, I read the blurb and thought yeah, that’s a bit of me that. And a bit of me it was!

It was pitched as a kind of Fatal Attraction-esque thriller and I’m all for a bit of that.

The story opens with the wedding of Lily and Sebastian. Lily has ended her marriage to possessive doctor Maxwell and now has a second chance at being happy and building a life for her and her 6 year old son Denny.

Maxwell makes an impromptu appearance at the wedding and upsets the newlyweds equilibrium. Wrong footing them and making sure their marriage gets off to a tense start.

Maxwell is raging that another man has moved in on his family in such a short time and is petrified of losing his control over both Lily and Denny, he is not a man to be humiliated.

Soon after their honeymoon, little events start to happen to make them question just how much control Maxwell has over their lives. Their house is wrecked whilst they are away, their electricity has been cut off unexpectedly. Initially just irritating things that they get through together with the support of Maxwells mum Fran, who Lily has a somewhat tentative relationship with. Lily also has the support of her best friend Triss, her friend since childhood and confidante whilst these events are happening.

When things start to spiral out of control and fractures appear in their marriage, Lily and Sebastian seem mistrustful of each other. Not knowing where to turn as their lives start to crumble around them until ultimately more shocking events transpire which will change their lives forever.

This book starts quite slowly, which is a good thing in my opinion. There is a building of tension that creeps up on you, no major shocks to start with which left me anxious for what was undoubtedly to come.

I enjoyed the fact that the things that were happening to Lily and Sebastian were not overly shocking, not anything that any other couple struggling with someone’s ex in their lives may encounter. When things are plausible in real life it adds that extra edge of menace. It gives you that sinking feeling of ‘this could actually happen’.

Now I’m no Columbo or Miss Marple but I got halfway through and congratulated myself on figuring out what was going on. Oh yes, I was so smug. However….there were several surprises around the corner that had me on the back foot. Reassembling my thoughts and having another bash at playing detective.

As the story picked up a pace towards the end (and boy did it!) there were times I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. When the conclusion was reached I was revelling in it. All the pieces slotting together to form a perfect dastardly picture.

The ending was awesome too, not a fairytale twee conclusion that has everything neatly tied up in a bow. I love that!

This is a delightfully dark, twisty, turny thriller that will have you thinking you’ve got it all sewn up only to disarm you and have you going back to the drawing board.

A perfect summer read. A large dollop of escapism to get your synapses flaring.

Get your hands on it!

Thank you as always to Orenda Books and Anne Cater for the opportunity to be involved in this blog tour.

See you soon

Bookish Chat xxx