Skin Deep is a fascinating story about a beautiful woman who enters peoples lives and after causing devastation she leaves .Delia is such a cruel ,coldblooded character seemingly without feelings but also very damaged who gets through life using her looks .This story is very compelling ,it is very hard to put down which is always a good thing ! I liked the way the main characters all gave their side to the story .I really enjoyed this book so well written and the ending was just perfect .

Wow what a ride! I feel both dirty and enthralled after spending the last 370 odd pages with (Cor)Delia Russell. A both enthralling and repulsive novel at the same time.

The whole story follows the life of Delia Russell from a young age to her middle age. Growing up on a remote island off the West coast of Ireland, she comes from a dysfunctional family where her father obsesses and orders her while ignoring his sons completely. He tells her folklore tales of the islands past and how one day she will be Queen of the island.

We know from a very young age that something is not right with Delia. Shes manipulative and narcissistic even at that young age and causes havoc for her family and the island as a whole.

The story is told mostly, but not exclusively in chronological order from Delias point of view. From her years as a child on the island to her time as a young adult in London to her time spent in the south of France for most of her adult life.

I loved this novel, but in an odd way. Delia is a thoroughly dislikeable character with no real redeeming features. Totally self centred, totally narcissistic and perhaps psychotic, despite all this I really enjoyed spending all that time with her and was intrigued by her and what may happen to her and those around her. The whole world she inhabits feels slightly otherworldly with a cast of odd characters to match it. It is set in the real world of course but it felt slightly otherworldly to me or slightly surreal and I never felt quite comfortable when turning the pages(but in a good way)

I loved the ending of this book and the pure symbolism of it. When I had finished I felt exhausted from the read. i had been totally drawn in to this world and the goings on in Delias life. So many dislikeable or slightly strange characters but so many memorable ones too.

Ive read nothing like this before really and dont even know if Id class it as a thriller. Liz Nugent has really written a fantastic piece here. So much in this book, so many vivid images, so many memorable characters all set in a world where a lot goes wrong and we stumble from one dislikeable character to the next. None so more than our main character.
So how do I like this so much when the main character is such an awful character as are a lot of the other characters? its because it has that je ne sais quoi(pun intended). That hidden ingredient that has you asking yourself why are you enjoying this read so much when you know you are. It is of course all in the writing. I tip my hat to miss Nugent. Another cracker of a novel from her. Shes a special talent who you dont know what to expect from, but do know you will be in for a treat.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Penguin UK and Liz Nugent for a ARC in excahnge for an honest review.

I’m at a bit of a loss what to say about this book as I’m not entirely sure what I thought about it. There were moments I loved but there were probably more where I felt a bit more meh and reading it became a struggle. It’s possible I was just too excited about it and my expectations were too high. I absolutely loved Nugent’s previous book Lying In Wait so had really high hopes for this. It turned out however to be a very different type of read than I was anticipating.

It does begin with yet another fantastic opening line and a scene that draws you right into the action. It is also a brilliant character study of a not very nice character but it just didn’t grab me the way I wanted it to. Maybe because it was the second book I'd read by Nugent it didn't shock me as much as it could have or possibly I was expecting more.

Delia, the main character, whose story we learn over the course of the novel is certainly not likeable but for me wasn’t quite horrible or twisted enough for me to care about and I’m afraid it’s the characters who make or break a book for me. I don’t have to like them, in fact often it’s the nasty ones that intrigue me the most, but there has to be something about them that I either love or hate. Delia shows so little emotion and cares about so little that I found myself reflecting that back on the story.

There were moments and certain characters which intrigued me but as the story covers some 40+ years these were fairly brief and viewed through Delia’s uncaring eye. Her perspective makes up the majority of the story but there are a few pages here or there from a different pov which give you their thoughts and feelings. These did bring additional insights but also felt quite factual and unemotional to me so I never really connected to those characters either.

What I did love however were Delia’s recollections of the stories her Daddy told her about the island she grows up on. It’s dark and violent folklore and really adds another element to the story. The superstitious and insular nature of such a small town community really fascinated me.

The pace of this story is slow and I can’t say I found it particularly exciting but the writing is good and the characterization brilliant. I think this was just a case of not the right book for me or possibly just not the right book for when I read it. It is memorable for main character Delia and I think if you like a dark, cold and manipulative character whose actions are often shocking you’ll love this.

Is it true that beauty is only skin deep? In Delia's case it would certainly appear so.
This is a very well written psychological noir thriller. An utterly compelling read that had me gripped from the very first page.
Highly recommended 5*****

This is my first novel by Liz Nugent and even though I wasn't blown away by it, I will be making sure to read her other books because she is a brilliant writer.
It starts so good - dark and mysterious with a blood covered decomposing body in Cordelia's flat, what more could you want? But then it jumps back 40 years to when Cordelia was only a child. I was a bit taken aback by this sudden change, but I got into is soon enough, about 30% in I was hooked but I was waiting and I spent most of my time waiting too.
I definitely put it down to my expectations and interpretations for not enjoying this book as much as I should have. I expected it to jump from then to now throughout the book, it just seemed like that was going to happen and the synopsis gave nothing away to make me realise that it wouldn't.
When I did finally get my head around it about half way through, I started to enjoy it a lot more and I loved getting wrapped up in cordelia's devious ways, I just wish I knew that it would happen right from the off, it would have been a lot different.

Putting that to the side, the story is perfect. it's complicated, compelling, dark and seriously twisted. All the characters are unlikable and really hard to understand but it's hard not to get drawn into them. I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a book that will mess with your mind (as long as you know what to expect)

Thank you to the publisher, author and NetGalley for a copy of this title in return for an honest review.

Reeling. That’s the only word to describe how I was feeling when I finished Liz Nugent’s novel, Skin Deep, last night before promptly taking to twitter to declare it my book of the year so far. And now I’m going to try and tell you coherently why. And I don’t know if I can because it was just SO. DAMN. GOOD!!!

Skin Deep tells the story of Delia, the only daughter on a remote and wild Irish island – she is adored by her obsessive father. Delia is beautiful, but beneath the exterior there’s a mean, dark streak. When tragedy befalls the island, nine-year old Delia finds herself ostracised and is brought up on the mainland by foster parents. But Delia wants more, and her manipulative, selfish ways will bring tragedy to all she comes across. Delia reinvents herself time and time again while leaving a trail of destruction and misery behind her as she seeks the life she so strongly believes she deserves. But when her luck finally runs out, who is left for Delia to turn to?

This book starts with an absolutely gripping first line and holds you captive right until the end of the book. It starts with a bedraggled and middle aged socialite abandoning a dead body in her grubby flat on the Riviera in search of food and alcohol among the rich and powerful of the island. From then on we follow Delia’s story from childhood, as a deeply dark and twisted tale of obsession, manipulation and one woman’s deluded and narcissistic path to eventual self destruction.

This is a dark, dark story – very different from any other psychological thriller’s out there at the moment. It’s character driven, rather than plot and is a study of the abhorrently selfish Delia and the destruction she leaves in her wake. It’s difficult to find any empathy with her at all, yet I was mesmerised by her and found her one of the most intriguing characters I’ve come across in a long time.

This book is seeping with cloying, sinister atmosphere, accentuated by the sporadic inclusion of Irish folklore tales. I absolutely adored these deliciously dark cautionary fables of old and how they related to Delia’s own story as she told it. You could say that Skin Deep itself is a cautionary tale, and it indeed has the feel of a modern twist on a fable where the perils of vanity, greed, obsession and selfishness are driven home.

And still there was a mystery at the very heart of this book, introduced at the very beginning. Spanning decades, Skin Deep takes the reader through the moments that lead to this point. I became so engrossed in Delia’s life from feral childhood to conniving socialite that I almost forgot about it, but in the final chapters Liz Nugent absolutely blew me away with a twist that left me reeling and an ending as dark and chilling as any myth.

Skin Deep was, in my opinion, overwhelmingly good. I was utterly mesmerised and disturbed by the deluded and twisted Delia and the sinister and atmospheric writing shrouded me from beginning to end. If you like your stories as dark as they come, with thick atmosphere and a hint of fable, then look no further – this book ticks ALL THE BOXES for me and sits firmly at the top of my books of 2018.

I would firstly like to thank Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

I was really looking forward to reading this one after loving 'Lying in Wait', but I was really disappointed. Shame as I had hoped it was gonna be as good as this author's other two books.

This book follows Cordelia Russell, who has been living on the French Riviera for twenty-five years, passing herself off as an English socialite. But her luck, and the kindness of strangers, have run out. The arrival of a visitor from her distant past shocks Cordelia. She reacts violently to the intrusion and flees her flat to spend a drunken night at a party. As dawn breaks she stumbles home through the back streets. Even before she opens her door she can hear the flies buzzing. She did not expect the corpse inside to start decomposing quite so quickly.........

I really struggled to get into this book at first. After the first initial intruduction, the story goes right back to when the main character was a child and continues from there. It seemed that nothing really happened for ages. Cordelia's life story was just being told and although she has had a run of bad luck, her story isn't particularly gripping or exciting. However the more I read, the more I wanted to read about her life. I honestly though the whole book was build up for a really great ending...... but I was wrong. Yes there was a slight twist, but it wasn't shocking or very satisfying. Shame as I really do think this book could of been good if it had a big shocking ending but I honestly hated the conclusion.

The main character herself was written-well - the author put a lot of thought in her background and how her circumstances affected her as a person. However, she wasn't very likeable at all. She was manipulative and cruel in ways that I thought was very extreme. Didn't like her or this book very much at all.

So disappointed.....

Thanks so much for the opportunity to preview this book, but, I’m afraid to say I just couldn’t finish it. It started with real promise, but, then went off in all directions, none of which I could follow.

Sorry! But this wasn’t for me.

I have never read anything by this author and thought I would give it ago.

From the first page I really enjoyed it, Cordelia aka Delia was written really well and loved her journey through the book. Harry and Peter amazed me how live turned upside down for them.

I'm struggling to see the point of the book but I've enjoyed it because of how well written it is. I'd like thank me gallery for giving me this book free in return for my honest review.

Skin Deep is the story of beautiful but narcissistic Delia, who reinvents herself countless times in order to escape her impoverished beginnings, climbing to a period of wealth and stability and back then down again to the point where we first meet her and she is living an itinerant lifestyle in a wealthy Mediterranean resort, sponging off acquaintances and living on past glories.

The book opens with Delia debating how to deal with a corpse in her apartment, and ends with a clever twist regarding the identity of said body. Delia narrates her own story, which has the effect of repelling and compelling the reader at the same time – you keep reading just to find out how unpleasant she can be. She is incapable of feeling empathy and survives by manipulating anyone who tries to care for her. It’s not an easy read and I didn’t enjoy it as much as Liz Nugent’s last book (which also contained some unpleasant but somehow more credible characters) but it’s still a very entertaining story.

The book was different to what I was expecting having read the description as I felt it wasn't really a thriller. But once I realised this I got into it as it is a well written, absorbing book. For the first few chapters I kept expecting the plot to return to the present day (it didn't) but it drew me more and more into following Delia's life.
The story following her life was fascinating, dark, traumatic and disturbing. Seeing her re-create herself many times as she needed to move or evolve was intriguing. Since I've finished the book I've thought more about it - always a good sign.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book is another gripping thriller from the author of Unraveling Oliver. The main character, Delia, is the narrator. She is not a likeable soul. The book starts close to the end of the story, with Delia having left a dead man in her apartment and then the story takes us through the long history of events that brought us to this conclusion. The story takes such a long time to bring us back to the d as man I almost thought I’d started reading a different book! It was well worth the meandering path though - a truly gripping tale, well woven, it kept me guessing till the last page.

Skin Deep is one of those books with a killer opening, literally. Cordelia wakes up hungover, wondering what to do with the dead body in her flat. To try and give herself time to think, she heads out, looking for food, company and alcohol. As her evening spirals, she starts to realise she has nowhere to turn, nowhere to go and she is out of options.
Where Liz Nugent goes from here is back to the beginning, to the small island off the coast of Ireland that Cordelia (not that she was Cordelia then) grew up on, to a family tragedy that changed her life, and then on through mistake after mistake and bad decision after bad decision till she ends up in a room on the French Riviera and a dead body.
Cordelia is a fascinating character, one with no moral compass, and one who doesn’t care about anyone but herself. She’s the type of character I would normally dislike, and I do, but – for once – this hasn’t put me off a book. Instead, I found myself drawn down a rabbit hole, a life with so many opportunities and so many wasted chances.
It could have all been a bit depressing, but it wasn’t. Liz Nugent has painted an amazing picture of a lost, damaged, woman and spun out a life of lies that I couldn’t help wanting to read. Her writing was wonderful, the story engrossing, and the characters compelling. I loved this book from start to finish. Highly recommended.

I enjoyed this book. It begins with a murder in the south of France. A woman has killed a man and is trying to work out what to do next. The rest of the book is the story of that woman, Delia, from her early childhood on an Irish island to these events in Nice. It's a really good story, which kept me intrigued to the end. Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
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I really don't know how to review this book. I have read this book with a wide eyed fascination, in complete disbelief, at the way the main character was and the actions taken by her in her life, all selfish ones. There was no empathy, no tenderness, she almost seemed empty. A sociopath of sorts. Scary!!!

The story starts with the main character Cordelia/ Delia killing someone from her past, and then going to a party to find a man who would sponsor her escape from the apartment where the corpse was. Finding no one, she returns home, back to the decomposing body (she is shocked that a body can decompose so quickly) and then the back story starts.

A story into her past starting from her childhood where her father brainwashed her into believing that she was the Queen of the island (which she believed throughout the book. The father soon killed the rest of family and himself) and then the story went on to how she survived life, not really needing/liking/loving anyone, but using everyone who came her way.

I have read Liz Nugent's books, they were all psychological thriller, this probably is too but a different kind. A look into the mind of a sociopathic woman who had no feelings for anyone, (including her son) other than herself. This is how the main character Cordelia described herself.

I knew this wasn't normal. I knew that I wasn't normal. I have never needed people, just the comforts they could offer me.

Her mantra throughout the book was —Daddy was right all along, I am better than all of them. I have never come across a more self-obsessed main character than this, ever in so many years of reading.

I couldn't put down the book as I wanted to know about the identity of corpse and the reason she killed. Besides, Cordelia went deeper and deeper into the abyss as the story went that I couldn't stop reading, just to know how much, how far, and where and how will it all end.

Intriguing book. It starts out in the present day and quickly jumps back numerous years to a small island off the coast of Ireland. I liked the book as I was familiar with a lot of the areas in Ireland and could understand the people etc.
I will definitely be looking at other books by Liz Nugent.

Nothing about this novel is what it seems. The prologue alerts the reader to be aware that the story of a childhood on an island off the west coast of Ireland might veer off in an unexpected direction.
Liz Nugent’s story- telling skills shine through, despite the disorientation generated by her cast of characters, unlikeable at best and wicked at worst.
This reader was outmanoeuvred by Skin Deep. An especially clever, and thoroughly enjoyable page turner.
With thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Books UK

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest unbiased review.
I probably wouldn't have bought this book off the bookshelves if I'm totally honest, but I am so glad I have read this. First publication by this author I've read and boy can she tell a story. Took a few chapters to hook me in, but once it got going this read had me finding it hard to put this down. Despite what others have said about the main character, I actually quite warmed to her and whilst she didn't hesitate to con other people there was something quite likeable about. Great twist towards the end. Five out of five stars

Liz Nugent has mastered the art of creating awful, despicable characters who I find myself rooting for despite myself. Delia is a masterful character, stunningly beautiful on the surface but dismally self centred, narcissistic and cold on the inside. Her journey from Queen of the Island to a grotty bedsit in Nice is littered with her victims, usually those who dared to love her. A stunningly original and beautifully written book from an author whose rapidly becoming one of my favourites.

"I wondered when rigor mortis would set in, or if it already had."

Liz Nugent the author with the killer first lines does it again with her third novel Skin Deep! Not only is the first line a shocker she has confirmed to me that perhaps my preference in psychological novels is for the slow build rather than the flashy twists and turns. Slow burn should never be confused with boring, rather in the context of this book it means that every word matters, it has been considered and it means something.

"Once I had cleared the bottles away and washed the blood off the floor, I needed to get out of the flat."

Cordelia Russell is living on the Côte d'Azur using her looks and her charm to get by. But her age is catching up with her, no longer do the gentlemen wish to buy her food and drink for the pleasure of her company. But what journey had Cordelia been on before she arrived and realised that beauty is only skin deep.

"I could probably have been an actress. It is not difficult to pretend to be somebody else. Isn't that what I've been doing for most of my life?"

This is a novel that explores the very worst of human nature, it pulls the reader to places that they would rather not know, insistently, gradually but before you know it you are face to face with it. This is an author who makes you need to know more on one level although you are repelled on another. This is a book where whether it is descriptions of flies buzzing round a corpse, or descriptions of settings, whether that be the blue sea of the Mediterranean or the bleakness of the tiny Island of Inishcrann , which translated from the Irish language means The Island of the Tree, the words used easily conjure up everything.

At the start of Part One, we meet a young girl whose doting father calls her the 'Queen of Inishcrann' and she believes that is her destiny. She is the eldest of four children born to the islander and his American wife. The other three children are boys and not favoured by the father. And we all know what is likely to happen to spoilt little madams, don’t we? Well you might think you do…

In between the bleak life in the cold and the strange characters on the island we are treated to some folklore tales, those that root the island in the past. Horrid stories far from the fairy tales that we mock shudder at now. This just underpins the darkness, the bleakness and even if you can’t conceive of the ending, you know it will be bad. These are sinister tales that will play on your mind as much as the story unfolding before you.
The more books I read, the more I appreciate this kind of superb plotting. The kind that makes you want to read the first page, and go back to the beginning with your newly found knowledge as you know some fantastic magic has been woven but you want to see how the stiches were made.

If you want to feel empathy with the characters you read about, you will struggle with this book. This book isn’t populated with lovely people, although you might catch a glimpse of one or two trying to step out of the shadows. But in the main, those living on Inishcrann are superstitious and somewhat out of touch with the norms of life. Too few people trying to stop the authorities from declaring the island inhabitable, means that arguments are quick to flare, to fester and to poison. And as the little girl grows and moves away, to Ireland, perhaps the time for goodness has passed. But, you will be compelled by the characterisation, and it will be up to you to decide whether the character is born, or made.

This is the third book that I have read by Liz Nugent, each one easily gaining five star status and each one leaving me amazed at the blackness of her imagination and gratitude that she sets it out with such graceful and engaging writing.

I would like to say a huge thank you to Penguin UK for allowing me to read a copy of Skin Deep prior to publication, today, 5 April 2018. This unbiased review is my thanks to them and the author, Liz Nugent for a dark compelling read.

First Published UK: 5 April 2018
Publisher: Penguin
No of Pages: 368
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Amazon UK
Amazon US audible only

Previous Books by Liz Nugent
Unravelling Oliver WINNER of IBA Crime Fiction Book of the Year 2014
Lying in Wait Featured in the Richard and Judy Spring 2017 Book Club