This is the first book I have read by Jane Corry and won’t be the last!

‘I Looked Away’ is a fascinating thriller which weaves in the stories of two women: Ellie, who has survived a traumatic childhood and suspects her husband of having an ongoing affair; and Jo: a homeless woman that Ellie has helped in the past.

Each chapter flips between the two women’s lives making it impossible to put down as you wait to find out what happens next.

The story centres around the mystery of what has happened to Ellie’s grandson, who she looked away from for one minute and now can’t be found; and how Ellie has come to be in prison. We know there are twists to come and there is a mysterious third story about a young woman in an abusive relationship just waiting to be revealed. It kept me guessing right to the very end! An exciting read!

This book got off to a interesting start as we are introduced to Ellie, a grandmother with a traumatic childhood. We also meet Jo, a homeless woman, lost and alone on the streets.
What followed was a fast paced look back at Ellies life and how she has become the woman she is today, and we follow Jo's travels round the South West.
I spent a lot of the book wondering how Jo and Ellie were connected, and when it was revealed I was shocked. What an excellent twist!!
I loved the ending, loved the characters and the relationships, especially those of Ellie and her step mother - their family dynamic was so well written.
Great book, would highly recommend.

This is a psychological thriller that resonates. Whilst, it has all the expected qualities of the genre, it contains so much more. A domestic thriller and a family drama, with secrets and tragedy. Mental Health issues and homelessness are major themes woven into the hard-hitting emotional story. The unreliable protagonist Ellie is a grandmother, which affords her a certain uniqueness in this genre, but her life is riddled with neglect, trauma and self-loathing. She is someone you empathise with, as each terrible injustice and secret are revealed. The ending seems just, but there is a twist that leaves you wondering.

The plot is complex and pacy, it keeps you guessing, whilst you are reeling from the horror and injustice of the women’s lives that are explored. It confuses, it’s meant to. The story is addictive, coherent, and full of relevant examples of mental health issues, and the largely overlooked plight of homelessness. It makes you think, and worry about the society we live in.

The thriller aspect is clever and calculating, the emotion is genuine and heartbreaking, the moral issues raised are thought-provoking and worrying. You will carry this story with you, and not many books in this genre can say that.

I received a copy of this book from Penguin UK Books via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

“I Looked Away” by Jane Corry introduces us to Ellie, from being a young girl until she becomes grandmother. When she was 5 years old, she has witnessed her mother’s death and had to grow up with her father who then remarried a neighbour, bringing a stepmother who detested Ellie and a step – brother Michael to the family. She’s now married to an ex – University lecturer Roger, has two children and an adored grandson Josh. When she’s looking after him one Monday afternoon, something tragic happens, something that will put Ellie in prison and is going to change her whole life.
Jo has her own prison experiences but now she’s homeless, travelling from Bristol to Devon and Cornwall. She’s a Big Issue seller. They meet each other when Ellie runs away after what has happened to Josh. The stories of the two women meander around each other, back and forward in time, but do they have something in common?

The story is told from Ellie and Jo’s points of view and those two personal accounts are more than absorbing. They are mixed with little mentions of some other relationship that is like a dangerous shadow. We have two different characters that at the first sight have nothing in common but whose stories, for some reason, intertwine, meandering around each other, the dual timeline gradually converges, until we eventually get the final reveal, the whole picture emerges and the truth comes out. The author slowly paints a picture of Ellie, of her past and present, and we are able to see all the events, like the death of her mother, then getting a step – mother and brother, that shaped her to be the person she is today. The circumstances took all her happiness, carefreeness away from her, she finds herself in situations that she never should experience. She starts to feel lost and isolated and really, she never learns or comes to terms of how to deal with grief. Manipulated by her step – mother, then by her husband, Ellie’s life seems to be one huge battle.
Slowly and subtly, we get to know Jo’s background and her hidden past. Jane Corry has done such a great job writing about Jo’s time on the streets, she captured all the reality and brutality of this situation – she brings the lives of the homeless with raw honesty to the pages, and this part of the book must have been so passionately researched, enlightening us more about this subject, giving some answers, explaining.

I really like Jane Corry’s writing style – it seems so uncommitted, with distance but it works so well in this psychological thriller and you can feel author’s heart in every single word and the research that went into the story is meticulous and made it eye – opening and showing that not everything is always either black or white, that there are also other shades of grey. It’s simply extremely well written and crafted and the pace is just right, seamlessly flowing, with characters and time

“I Looked Away” was a very emotional story that touches on mental health, despair, love and loss, bullying, homelessness, about giving when you yourself don’t have much. It really captured my heart and my attention. It was incredibly well plotted, with twists and turns and mystery to solve that you know can happen at any time, teasing you all the time and making you want to read more and more, and then it comes, expected yet unexpectedly and leaves you feeling dizzy.. This was emotionally charged, captivating and taking your breath away psychological thriller, dealing in a brilliant way with some very realistic issues that people must deal with every day. Highly recommended!

This really was a page turner and impossible to put down. And everything came together in the end. To say I was surprised would be an understatement. I did not see that coming and it was a pleasant surprise. To see how a child has to grow up under such difficult circumstances like Ellie, it broke my heart. And then there is hope that life only can get better when Ellie is responsible for the direction she's headed in. But that's not how it works...

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest, independent review.

Ellie is a 49-year-old grandmother who enjoys looking after her beloved grandson, Josh. One day, when looking after Josh, her husband gets a phone call from the woman he's been having an affair with, the one he promised Ellie it was over with. And Ellie takes her eyes off her precious grandson. That moment will change her life forever. However, Ellie is hiding something in her past and what seemed like an accident could now be murder.

'I Looked Away' follows Ellie in different timelines - childhood, motherhood and the present day as a grandmother - as we learn her story. We also meet Jo, a homeless lady on the run, in the present day timeline, but Corry keeps us guessing throughout the book as to her connection to Ellie. Ellie is a middle-class woman, married to Roger, a university lecturer, while Jo is homeless - both from different social classes, but neither has had an easy life.

Difficult issues are tackled - including emotional abuse, homelessness, death, love - but each is tackled carefully and sensitively, but it does make it a complex thriller, and very hard to put down at times.

Definitely recommended!

Unfortunately I didn’t get on with this book, I found it hard to connect with the characters as the dual perspective got confusing. - I will try again in the future though x

I found this book a bit slow to start and I thought I was going to struggle to get into it but I persevered and am glad I did.

The book itself touches on more than one sensitive subject which some readers may find distressing but it all adds to the story.

The book opens with Ellie, a middle class woman, who dotes on her children and her grandchild. Her husband is a philanderer and they are currently attending marriage guidance classes after his latest dalliance. He has sworn he is no longer seeing this woman and that he wants to make a go of it for the sake of his family. However, while Ellie is playing with her grandson in the garden she spots her husband on the telephone having an animated discussion. What happens next has an effect on all of their lives.

We then have alternate chapters between Ellie and Jo (a homeless woman who appears to be on the run) which take us back to Ellie’s childhood and her marriage and Jo’s travels.

This is a very cleverly written book and I was taken aback in bits but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced read copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

This followed two people, one a homeless person which really makes you think about the homeless. It was a good story but I had to concentrate as it flicked between the two. The husband had an affair and the wife looks after the grandson. Bit of a twist at the end.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for allowing me to read this Arc.
This is a complex story about two women called Ellie and Jo.
Their stories are everyone's nightmare!!
I have to say I found it hard to get into this book but I persevered and was so glad I did!!
A fantastic and sometimes heartbreaking story. I would definitely recommend it.

I found this book heart rendering but fascinating. Ellie suffered greatly through her life with the manipulation of her stepmother and then her husband. She leapt from one drama to another and her life was really sad with few good times except for her children who made her life bearable. She started her early years in a very happy place but things changed with the passing of her mother. The story also gives insight to the homeless situation and was dealt with so sensitively and really pulls on your heart strings. The book twisted backforwards and forwards and in between characters but that made it more enjoyable and I felt that added to the drama of the story. I really enjoyed this book and as I have never read any of Jane Corey’s books before I will definitely read some more. A lovely book albeit sad

I think this is my favourite Jane Corry novel to date. As with all Jane's novels, it is a plausible plot focusing on how life can change in an instant with a momentary lapse of concentration. Family relationships are also explored, how easily we are influenced from a young age, and how we are bought up defines our future.

The novel is told mainly from two perspectives, those of Ellie and Jo.

Ellie is determined to focus on the positives in her life, even after her husband's latest affair. She cannot let her family be torn apart. She has a charmed life otherwise, and she knows it, a lovely house, a beautiful grandson and two beautiful children.

Jo is living on the streets, living a polar opposite life to Ellie. She moves from city to city, seemingly determined to get away from someone, or something. Something terrible has happened in both Jo and Ellie's past, and we believe at first that this is the only thing connecting these two characters.

But their lives are connected in a way that you wouldn't think possible, until the final stages of the novel, when all becomes clear, and you wonder how you didn't see the connections before. I Looked Away feels very real, and is wonderfully written.

Jane Corry's writing style always has me gripped from the first page, and I Looked Away is no exception.

Firstly I'd lie to Thank Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to review this book and all I can say is WOW!! I devoid it in two nights.

The story (chapters) jumps between two woman Ellie and Jo who are living two very different lives, but how different are they really?

The book touches on two very prominent issues that are a big part of the world that we live in. Mental Health (in particular PTSD and psychosis) and Homelessness, each issues was written with sensitivity and compassion.

A thought provoking emotional read which I would have no hesitation in recommending.

I didn’t see that coming! Gripping, well written, compulsive reading .Recommended to reader of the psychological thriller genre .

I read this in one evening as once I started I couldn’t put it down.

It’s very well written from the viewpoint of both Ellie and Jo, going back and forth between the two and this really had me intrigued to see what the connection was. When it came it was a complete surprise to me.

I felt this was an incredibly sad book in places and my heart went out to Ellie as a child.

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

An absolute masterclass in suspense and tension. This story swaps between two characters, Ellie and Jo, who have seemingly opposite lives. Ellie appears to have it all - the lovely house, a lecturer husband and a gorgeous grandson. Jo is living on the streets, and selling the Big Issue. Throughout the book we know that something terrible has happened, and the author slowly unpicks the layers of the story to reveal Ellie and Jo’s pasts and how that’s impacted on their presents. I really enjoyed this - it kept me hooked from beginning to end.

Without doubt one of my best reads this year - a real emotional rollercoaster and intriguing mystery. I found the two narratives equally compelling and authentic. Although I was confused in places at the start, it all began to make sense as the story unfolded.

Something a little different for me in reading genre , although that being said I've read other Jane Corry books.
Well written, great storyline, very realistic and I found I couldn't put I looked away down half way through.

Excellent book! Couldn't put this book down and at times it made me cry! It concerns people who become homeless or leave home to live on the streets to escape their lives for one reason or another.

This book is totally intriguing.
What did Ellie do?
Who is jo?
How are they connected?
The characters are fascinating and I love the short chapters.
If you want a book that keeps you up past your bedtime and keeps you guessing right to the end then this is the book for you!
Loved it.