BOOK REVIEW
This book has been sitting on my physical TBR shelf for the best part of a year after reading the tagline and thinking "yup that looks like my cup of tea". After reading The Time Traveller's Wife (click here for my review) I wanted to head back to my comfort zone of the thriller and this one seemed to fit the bill.
The cover gives nothing away, which I always find intriguing, but I definitely wanted to read "the most shocking thriller you'll read this year"!
BLURB
THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER
GLAMOUR'S WRITER OF THE YEAR.
WHERE DO YOU GO WHEN YOU'VE GONE TOO FAR?
Fatal Attraction meets The Talented Mr Ripley, and soon to be a major Hollywood film - prepare for this year's Girl on the Train.
By day, Judith Rashleigh is a put-upon assistant at a London auction house.
By night she's a hostess in one of the capital's unsavoury bars.
Desperate to make something of herself, Judith knows she has to play the game. She's learned to dress, speak and act in the interests of men. She's learned to be a good girl. But after uncovering a dark secret at the heart of the art world, Judith is fired and her dreams of a better life are torn apart.
So she turns to a long-neglected friend.
A friend that kept her chin up and back straight through every past slight.
A friend that a good girl like her shouldn't have. Rage.
The Talented Mr Ripley meets Gone Girl in this darkly decadent and compelling thriller that asks:
Where do you go when you've gone too far?
MY REVIEW
I'll admit, I stopped reading in my early teens, when my forays into so-called "spicy scenes" were from borrowed readings of my mum's Mills & Boon books. In the last year, through fate rather than any other reason, most of my books have either been non-romance or fairly closed-door in their depictions of romance and sex. A Touch of Darkness, which I listened to earlier this year, was the spiciest book I had read (except for Fifty Shades of Grey) and I now realise that this was reasonably, erm, vanilla for want of a better term.
I didn't pick up, from the tag-line or the blurb, that Maestra is what's classed as an Erotic Thriller. It wouldn't have put me off though, I am not averse to a bit of spice, and the whole point of me going on this reading journey is to explore different genres and sub-genres.
Yes, there are some pretty spicy scenes. Some surprised me in their bluntness (again, Mills & Boon brain!) of language and lack of feeling. What impressed me though was that these scenes were from a female point of view. Women can enjoy the spice for what it is too, without the fireworks and lovey-dovey palava. The surprise at the course language was based on my own naivety of this type of scene being played out in writing. Maybe I am also a little immature, for a 38-year-old woman! I did have to do some position maths while I worked out what bits of people were where. That was fun! Poor Mike, my other half, had to deal with my expressions of sheer surprise, followed by a bewildered explanation of what I had just read!
I'd suggest that if you're not a spice reader, this might not be for you. There's scenes with multiple people and, erm, activities of a spicy nature, so maybe have a look at content warnings if you're not sure. I won't say too much more here though as I feel like it's a bit of a spolier!
OK, moving away from the spice (which is an addition to, and not the entirety of, the plot). I read this book in under 24 hours, I found it really engaging and it all came together (no pun intended) nicely at the end with a twist that I wasn't expecting. It's the first book of a trilogy and I'm excited to read the others.
Part one was a little slow and I wasn't sure how it fit into the rest of the story until later on. The pace picked up nicely though and soon I was engrossed. Some of the art references went over my head, as did some of the millennial speak (had to Google some terms to avoid getting muddled). Overall though this was an enjoyable book and a great change of pace from some of my other recent reads. There was enough intrigue to prevent it from becoming predictable and the end served as a great lead into the next books.
Judith is the epitome of the morally grey main character. She's unlikeable in a likeable way, unforgiving, sly, but really quite vulnerable too. Add this to high-class art shenanigans, cat-and-mouse games, bad guys, badder guys, betrayal, conniving, and plotting, and you've got yourself a great thriller read. Follow her on her Eurpoean travels, discover the friendships (and enemies) she makes on the way, and you'll find yourself rooting for her, even when you don't want to. Maybe that says more about me than anything else!
Solid four stars, well-written, engaging, and compelling. Has anyone else read this or have plans to add it to their TBR?
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