Release Date: January 27/2015
Acquired: Print ARC sent by publisher
Goodreads: ADD
Purchase: Amazon/Indigo/Book Depository
An intricately plotted, thoroughly addictive thriller from a major new voice in suspense fiction--a mesmerizing and powerful novel that will keep you guessing to the very end.
It's funny how easy it is, when it really comes down to it, to get up from your life and begin a new one. All you need is enough money to start you off, and a resolve not to think about the people you're leaving behind."
A happy marriage. A beautiful family. A dream home. So what makes lawyer Emily Coleman--a woman who appears to have everything--get up one morning and walk right out of her life to start again as someone new?
Deliberately losing herself in London, Emily quickly transforms herself into Cat. Along with her new name, she finds a new home in a shared house in North London teeming with an odd assortment of flatmates, and a new job as a receptionist at a hip advertising agency. Finding easy kinship with the fun-loving Angel, her savior and new best friend, Cat begins to live on the edge, giddy with the euphoria of freedom and release.
Cat has buried any trace of her old self so well, no one knows how to find her. But she can't bury the past--or her own painful memories. As the days turn to months, thoughts of all she's left behind begin to consume her. She cannot outrun the ghosts that haunt her, no matter how hard she tries to elude them.
And soon, she'll have to face the truth of what she's done--a shocking revelation that may push her one step too far...
Filled with wonderfully complex characters, brilliantly plotted to ratchet the suspense, and exploring themes of family, secrets, and the choices we all must make, One Step Too Far is a mesmerizing thriller that tantalizingly illuminates just how far we may go to try and forget our sins.
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THAT TWIST THOUGH. I haven't experienced a jolt like that in a very long time. Tina Seskis was extremely successful in making me feel one set of emotions for so long, and then punching me in the gut so hard, I literally had to put the book down for a few minutes. One Step Too Far wasn't exactly a thriller, it was more like an extreme journey of the traumatized heart. My mind ventured to a million different possibilities while reading this book, and with a refreshing satisfaction, none of them were correct.
Seskis opens One Step Too Far on an even playing ground for her main character, and her readers, in the sense that we're both new to our surroundings. Cat/Emily has run away from her life, for reasons not discussed at first, but which linger quietly in the background. We follow as Cat finds somewhere to live, meets new people, lands a job, and eventually settles into her forged persona. It's at the moments of Cats breakdowns, her internal dialogue, that we slowly begin to question what brought her to this current life. What could have been so deliriously unbearable? Very early on, we are also given the back story of Cat, and her twin sister Caroline's, birth and childhood. It is a tumultuous one, and a single fact is established: the two sisters are anything but alike. We are soon met with the alternating perspectives of five other people in Cat's life (her new best friend, her husband, her mother, her father, and Caroline's), and it is here the story begins to unravel.
I'm usually a huge fan of multiple perspectives, but in the case of One Step Too Far, I think the narrative would have benefited from character names and dates/times at the beginning of each chapter. Seskis wrote with a diverse hand when it came to her characters, so it wasn't hard to figure out who's brain we were in, but the timeline jumps were a little disorienting. I also felt like one of the most influential people in Cat/Emily's life, her twin Caroline, was hardly given enough exposure. Caroline was destructive, and was the catalyst, and motivation, for so many of Emily's life decisions, and while she entered the book with a bang, she fizzled out very quickly. I wanted a more in-depth look into her psyche. I wanted a more dialogue and interaction between the sisters, and was disappointed to discover that the author didn't find it important to give us that.
I found myself being so angry with Cat/Emily for the majority of this book, but chastised myself for that mindset by the end. One Step Too Far was a heartbeat, and written in a way that maintained a steady rhythm for a long time, and then BAM! massive cardiac arrest. Tina Seskis was clever in her writing, and unclear in a way that made me want to keep reading until everything DID become clear. I will definitely be reading more work by this author.
Recommended for Fans of: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Contemporary, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, Never Look Away by Linwood Barclay.
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Tina Seskis grew up in Hampshire, the daughter of an airline engineer and a sales representative. She studied business at the University of Bath and then worked for over 20 years in marketing, advertising and online, with varying degrees of success.
Tina wrote the first draft of One Step Too Far in 2010 and then wrote her second novel A Serpentine Affair in autumn/winter 2011. Her latest novel (working title The One) is due for completion in 2014.
One Step Too Far has been an international bestseller and has sold to 15 publishers worldwide.
Tina lives in North London with her husband and son.
Contact Links:
Website - Twitter - Facebook - Book Trailer
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Thank-you to Trish from TLC Book Tours for hosting this tour, and to William Morrow for sending me a print copy to review! CLICK HERE to follow the rest of the tour.
This sounds like one of those books that will shock the heck out of readers, and I can't wait to get my hands on a copy!
ReplyDeleteThanks for being a part of the tour.