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Oh my goodness what a brilliant book, it has jumped right into my top ten books of the year.

The writing style was great; it had you guessing what next, it was so descriptive you really did get a sense of who people are and the author has that rare knack of immersive writing where you totally feel like you are in the story, feeling what the characters feel and seeing the world through their eyes.

I honestly couldn’t put it down and so can’t recommend it enough.

After finishing it last night, I instantly bought the author’s previous books!

On My Life by Angela Clarke is a psychological thriller due to be published 7 March 2019 for ebook and 11 July 2019 for paperback by Mulholland Books and I was lucky enough to receive an ARC copy from Netgalley.

This book has been doing the “social rounds” on Twitter – lots of very lucky and excited authors have been bragging about reading the proof for weeks and when it finally popped up on Netgalley and Steve Cavanagh (author extraordinaire) recommended it on THE Book Club I grabbed a copy and started reading it immediately.

I’m struggling to eloquently put into words what this book personally did to me. I could say it gripped me, kept me turning the pages, left me breathless and unable to put it down (which it did), but more importantly it was so tense and consuming that my sphincter muscles went into spasm from over clenching and I wasn’t sure whether to pop an Imodium or Ducolax as I didn’t know if I was coming or going!

When Jenna is sent to a women’s prison accused of the murder of her 14 year old step daughter and the disappearance of her fiance, she finds herself alone and fighting for her freedom, to prove her innocence and protect her unborn baby.

Without giving anything away the scenes in the women’s prison were SO F*CKING REALISTIC I crapped myself. I could literally smell the fear and hear the women’s chants and the banging of the cell doors. I was absolutely terrified for Jenna and found the scenes harrowing and very believable. The pace of the book and the alternating chapters taking the reader from past to present, ensured that I used the “just one more chapter” technique of reading.

The book is a fast paced, tense and claustrophobic, nail biter of a thriller which was, in my opinion, impossible to put down.

Plenty twists & turns a tense read. Would have liked to have known a bit more about the relationship with step daughter. Would recommend this book to anyone!

Enjoyable easy read. Typical book of this style where the story is told through flashbacks as well as the present day. Lots of people to suspect. There were areas where I thought it could be improved including getting more of a sense of Jennas relationship with her stepdaughter, which may have added to the back story and the tension.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for an honest review. I absolutely love Clarke’s Social Media Murder series, and can’t recommend them highly enough, so was very excited to read this. However I felt disappointed with this one for many reasons that I’ll explain in the latter part of the review.
This follows Jenna who’s arrested and sent to prison for the murder of her step-daughter. But she’s convinced she’s innocent and later finds out is pregnant, too. How will she prove her innocence? Will she ever be free again?
This is narrated by Jenna in first person POV with flashback chapters to how she met fiancé and her relationship with her daughter. The writing was good and the atmosphere in the prison was well-captured and brought to attention many issues in prison, however this does not make for a thrilling story. Part of the problem was that I wanted to know more about the murder and wanted suspense regarding that, and tension and red herrings. However as most of the story was set in prison with a host of characters that felt more Orange is the New Black it completely took away from the crime itself and got mangled up in subplots. It also didn’t help that Jenna’s voice got incredibly repetitive and predictable again decreasing any tension. After all Jenna locked up for the majority of the story with absolutely no clue as to what’s happening regarding the investigation there’s not much she can do as a character that would move the plot forward and when the plot does move forward it relies on coincidences and chance encounters. I’m afraid it’s 2.5 stars from me.

On My Life by author Angela Clarke is an intense thriller with the huge twists and domestic feels to it. I really enjoyed this one!
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an arc copy of On My Life