The book had a fabulous blurb which grabbed my eyeballs and tweaked my interest... Mysterious notes in pregnancy about the husband and his deception.

My second book by Claire Allen had me pretty excited. The main story started with a hand-written note delivered to the desk of the main character Eli which acted as an accelerant in the destruction of trust. After the Christmas Reads of cozy books, this made me rub my hands in glee and cackle with wicked laughter. And yes, I needed that kind of debauchery to keep my literary heart beating in time. Lub-dub Lub-dub, my pulse raced.

The three POVs, main character, mother, and a stranger, made me scramble around gathering clues and trying to make them all fit. Till I had the A-HA moment, wherein I could guess the path of the story. It was my time to scream Eureka, and I found myself right at the mid-point of the book. Sheesh!! It was just too soon!! The suspense was not maintained till the end of the book.

The pages soon proved me right, and I realized I should have screamed Deja-vu instead. My niggles came at me loud and strong, the main character distrusts her husband strongly but no reason shown other than pregnancy hormones. The whole story had been done before many times. It was quite obvious and formulaic.

Overall, a good morning spent in the book proving my theory right.

I received a free e-copy of Apple Of My Eye by Claire Allan from NetGalley for my honest review.

A wonderfully creepy read filled with filled with suspense. Eliana Hughes is six months pregnant and married to Martin, who is an Architect. She suddenly starts receiving mean and nasty notes stating that not everything is as it seems in her marriage. Who is sending these notes? Are they true? Does Eliana really know her husband or are there things he is hiding from her? Is he having an affair?

Eliana, not sure who to trust or what to believe, flees to Belfast, her childhood home, to see her mother, Angela. Emotions high, stress from the pregnancy and so man lies. A psychological thriller that is sure to not disappoint.

Whilst I did enjoy Apple Of My Eye by Claire Allan I didn’t 100% love it. It’s billed as compulsive, twisty and tense and whilst there are some twists and turns for me, I felt it lacked some pace.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon Books and the author for the chance to review.

I received an ARC copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for my honest opinion of it. This book was absolutely amazing and I could not put it down all day. Eli is happily married and pregnant with her first child when things start to happen in her marriage, life and job. Could her husband, Martin, really be cheating on her? I am not going to give anything away but this book is full of suspense and so many surprises along the way. I loved it and highly recommend it.

This book was easy to read and I felt compelled to find out what happened.The main character is Eliana and the book examines the relationship between her and her husband and her mother.Impending motherhood and the stresses of being pregnant add to the story.There is a huge twist ,where you find yourself saying..Oh I didn’t expect that!Eliana’s mother still repeatedly sees and treats her as a child and this is explored well.I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommended it !

A great read. A deeply disturbing thriller. Not everything is how it seems. with plenty of twists and turns. Well written with good characterisation. I did figure the plot out half-way through the book, but nonetheless a fabulous read. Recommended.

Eliana Hughes is seven and a half months pregnant and has doubts about being a good mother, her marriage her life. Hormones right ?
A mysterious note arrives which makes her doubt herself even more. Unbeknown to Eliana some one is watching her very closely and has her own adgenda. Nothing will stop her getting what she has always wanted.
A good psychological thriller which started off well. lots of twists and turns but unfortunately i could see where the story was going and who was after her. It was a good read it just did not grab me. Recommended.
I would like to thank the author Claire Allen, Avon Books UK and Netgalley for the advanced copy in return for my honest review.

I'll admit that after reading and loving "Her Name Was Rose" I was concerned about whether I could love another Claire Allan book as much. I needn't have concerned myself, this one was every bit as good, every bit as intriguing and every bit as diabolical.

Man, does Allan write "crazy" well...

Eliana is a hospice nurse who is seven and a half months pregnant. She is so "pregnancy sick" that she has trouble bonding with her soon-to-be miracle and experiences conflicting feelings about her impending motherhood. She begins receiving notes suggesting she keep an eye on her husband, Martin, who seems to travel for business more than he did prior to her pregnancy.

Meanwhile, Louise is watching, Louise knows all about loss, and Louise wants a baby...

Thank you to Avon Books, Claire Allan and Netgalley for giving me an advanced copy in exchange for this honest review!

I was drawn into Eli's story and enjoyed the beginning of the book. Claire Allan has a lovely writing style and her description of Eli's pregnancy and her work life brought this story to life. Once I'd worked out the obvious trouble maker, I felt the story went on too long without Eli realising and I lost interest until Eli twigged. I found it a bit repetitive with not enough to grip me in the middle but it had a satisfactory end.

Eliana is seven months pregnant and still suffers from morning sickness and a fear that she won't be able to bond with her unborn child. She is happily married to Martin until the anonymous letters start arriving telling her that Martin is cheating on her. Eliana's mother Angela will,do anything to help and protect her daughter. Eliana is still working at the Hospice until an unfortunate event occurred and she had to gomon maternity leave.

I did guess early on in the story who the villain was but I did only guess half of it right. The story is narrated by Eliana and Louise, a character we don't really know much about. We also get some narration from Angela. This is another book you can't say too much about as it would waste the story for you. It's, tense, gripping and an addictive read. I literally could not put this book down. There is a few unexpected twists along the way. I do recommend this book.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Avon Books UK and the author Claire Allan for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A note arrives for Eli who’s seven months pregnant and she can’t understand why does she have a horrible note like that.
She gets more notes and then the mother takes her in because one note says Martin is having an affair
But it becomes clear who is doing this and Eli has to save herself
I had an ARC from Avon

I started reading this at teatime and was instantly gripped so didn’t put it down until I’d finished.

I liked the way the story was told from the different characters and although I suspected the twist about half way through it didn’t disappoint.

A true psychological thriller that is brilliant.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and unbiased opinion.

Apple of My Eye is a gripping psychological suspense. I throughly enjoyed the plot with it’s many twists and turns. I look forward to reading more books by this author. I received an arc from Netgalley and this is my unbiased review.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to read this really exciting book, read it in one day while on a beautiful beach in Thailand.
A happily married nurse gets emails that her husband is having an affair, a mother who keeps telling her that her husband is no good and he is not treating her well, the only person who really loves her is her mother who will always look after her and keep her well.
The story then gets really exciting and could not put down. If I say too much will spoil the book for other readers.
Bring on another one.

Enjoyable read! Little predictable but the characraters are multi layered and well developed. Would recommend this book highly!

I have read this authors first book and loved it so was very excited to read this one. I did enjoy it but not as much as her previous book. The reason I didn’t give it 5 stars was that i was able to predict the twist about halfway through, and I thought the baddy was very obvious. I still really enjoyed this book.

This book will be published within a month, so you should make a pre-order or mark your calendar for the 24th of January to run to the bookshop, this is not only a very good book; twisted, chilling and dark; but it talks about tabu themes that are never mentioned in the books. I highly recommend you to read Apple Of My Eye, you’ll be delighted.
First of all the story is told between two characters, Eli and Louise, one is heavily pregnant and the other has lost her child during the pregnancy. Their lives will be linked in a dangerous way making this story nail bitting, but their stories are real and touching, making the reader to want to hug both characters and tell them everything will be fine.
Eli is not having a good pregnancy, she is having Hyperemesis Gravidarum, a prolonged and severe nausea and vomiting that keeps her on the edge all times, so when she starts receiving some anonymous letters regarding her marriage, she can only think the worse. I really liked Eli and all her story, she doesn’t feel happy to be pregnant, her illness makes her sad and without energy to do anything and her husband is always working, so you can totally emphatize with her when she decides to take a few days off and stay with her mother. Eli is a strong woman, she doesn’t know yet how to love her daughter, but she knows she has to fight for her and discover who wants to harm her.
It was refreshing to read about a character that didn’t have a happy pregnancy and was scared of how she was feeling about her unborn child. I could totally understand her, it has to be difficult to be happy and open minded while being ill all time, you have to admit it.
Louise is not a likeable character, but reading her story makes it easy for the reader to understand her thoughts. It would not been easy having an abortion after another, and the last one on the 33th week making her loose all the hopes forever to have the opportunity to try it again. Of course she needs a lot of help, but it seem that no one near her can understand her pain and loneliness, stillborn is still a tabu on our society. I think hospitals and midwifes try really hard to help all mothers and their own problems, but if the people around them don’t try to understand them and help them, it would be helpless.
While we read both stories we get hooked on the story, making the reader eager to know who is really behind all this hunting plot and hope there will be a happy ending!
Ready for The Apple Of My Eye?

Having read Her Name was Rose, I was looking forward to reading Claire Allan’s latest psychological offering, Apple of my Eye and it’s fair to say it did not disappoint. Books classed as a psychological thriller are two a penny, so I’m always looking for something in a book of this genre that makes it standout from the crowd, it may be the characters, the plot or something entirely different. For me the one thing that makes this book memorable is the author’s ability to misdirect the reader at every turn of the page. Apple Of My Eye is a book that’s crammed with mystery, there’s an overwhelming sense of menace that radiates from the pages of this addictive read.

Being pregnant should be an enjoyable experience, a time to prepare for motherhood, unfortunately that’s not the case for Eliana, she spends her pregnancy crippled by self doubt. Adding to her anxiety is Eli’s distant relationship with her husband Martin. Matters aren’t helped when she receives a cryptic note suggesting that her husband is cheating on her. As jealousy, paranoia and tension build, an emotionally fragile Eli’s becomes suspicious of everyone around her. When her overbearing mother comes to stay, she convinces Eli to go back to Belfast with her, and it’s at this point the story takes a very disturbing turn.

Narrated from the POV of Eli, her mother Angela and the mysterious Louise, it’s the chapters told from Louise POV that add a sense of dread to the plot. Claire Allan creates suspicion and mistrust through her storytelling, you find yourself wary of those closest to Eli, looking for clues to the “who” is causing so much trouble for Eli. Halfway through reading this book I had a theory to the culprit and their motives and unfortunately I was correct, so the element of surprise I was expecting never materialised, but never the less I felt a frisson of excitement as the author finally revealed all. Apple Of My Eye is a psychological thriller with a dark heart, a twisted tale and it’s a book that begs to be read in one hugely satisfying sitting. Highly recommended

This review maybe altered slightly and edited prior to publication on my blog

Even though I was able to predict the twist about halfway through the novel, I still really enjoyed this book. It was thrilling throughout. The cover drew me in with its design. I can’t wait to read more books by Claire Allan.Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced reading copy.

4/5 stars

Apple of My Eye by Claire Allan ... what a fantastic book! I loved Her Name Was Rose so picking this one up was a no brainier for me. I was hooked straight away but I did have the villain sussed out fairly early on. But I was still intrigued and addicted. I love the way this author writes and would definitely recommend this book to lovers of this genre.

Elia a is 7 months pregnant and not really enjoying it at all. She is always ill, tired and bloated. When she receives a random note in her locker at work she starts to doubt everything in her life, her job, pregnancy and even her marriage. It doesn't end ther and she starts to think she is going to lose it all. The ending was great, I didn't completely guess the why.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books for my advanced copy of this book to read. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased