I have a shelve labelled 'romantic suspense' and a shelve labelled 'thriller'. I think I have to make a new shelve for books like this one, that fall between the two categories.
It is, in my view, not a real thriller because from the start, it is obvious that someone has it in for Laura and of course it cannot be her new lover. Laura, while working hard as a successfull realtor, is still moping about her recent divorce. She is even still using her ex-husbands last name! It has a more or less romantic angle because Laura just met a man she's really starting to like. Of course the real culprit is trying its best to put the blame on the new boyfriend.
Three stars because the whole plot is so predictable, and none of the characters are very well cut out. But... I've read the book in one day and I spent a couple of nice hours with it.

Thanks to Netgalley and Inkubator books for this digital review copy.

I Want You Gone by Miranda Rijks is a mystery/thriller which I received as an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) from @NetGalley in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

SYNOPSIS | Laura Swallow receives an unsettling phone call from her teenage daughter Mel (who has just moved away from home and started University) as she has seen a status on her mum's Facebook page announcing her death... except Laura isn't dead. Instead Laura brushes this off as a mistake, but then she finds an obituary in the local newspaper and a number of other unpleasant things start to happen to her. Laura begins to suspect everyone around her (including her new lover, ex-husband and childhood acquaintance from school) as she tries to uncover the culprit.

MY THOUGHTS | I was intrigued by the synopsis, but sadly I didn't enjoy the execution. I felt like Laura placed the blame on every single male in her life when I felt it was actually quite obvious who the real culprit was. This also had one of my most hated reveals which is where the "bad person" does an evil villainous monologue explaining why they feel the way that they do and why they have done what they have done... no thanks.

An ordinary woman with an ordinary life suddenly starts to have small things go wrong that build and build to a point where her life is ruined.
I felt every emotion described by the author as if these awful events were happening to me, because it all played out in perfectly timed stages which allowed the emotions to sweep through before the next bombshell. A real cracker of a book.

It doesn't take a lot for me to like a character in a book. But when said character behaves so bizarrely, panicking at the drop of a hat, no commonsense prevailing, no smart questions asked, it gets on my nerves, a little. Laura Swallow has had the misfortune of having every nasty life tragedy thrown her way.
Close sibling dies.
Husband leaves for another woman.
Husband finds another younger woman to start a family with.
Assaulted.
And many more to discover through the course of the book.
The first parts of this book was good, there was a really good storyline there. The characters were interesting. I like how the book opened. The starting parts of the book were where I liked Laura. She was emotionally damaged but she was out there taking on life and everything thrown her way. But as the story progresses she becomes a hyperventilating sad sorry mess. Midway through the book, it got pretty obvious who was the psycho out to get Laura. What's striking is that not once throughout the course of the book did Laura make an attempt to report the strange happenings in her life until she was practically forced to. I'm not a fan of damsels in distress. Also the ending was ridiculous in my opinion. I wouldn't go so far as to call this a psychological thriller.
Thanks to Netgalley, Miranda Rijks & Inkubator books for an arc.

I enjoyed reading I Want You Gone by Miranda Rijks. It is a quick read and definitely keeps you engaged. The main character, Laura, is extremely frustrating, and I figured out the culprit the first time they were introduced to the reader. Despite this, I still wanted to know what happened next.

Laura Swallow is dead.
A life cut tragically short, says the newspaper obituary.
But that’s a lie.
Estate agent Laura did not die in a car accident. She is alive and well.
At first, Laura thinks it’s a sick joke.
But multiple announcements of her death are followed by increasingly sinister real-life events. Already fragile, struggling to recover from a recent divorce, Laura is plunged into a living nightmare.

Who can she trust? Her new lover? Her clients and work colleagues? What about her ex-husband and his smug fiancée? Can Laura even rely on her best friends? And why is it that Laura’s present troubles are so tied up with her sister’s sudden death all those years ago?
But one thing Laura is sure of – someone out there wants her to suffer. Wants her gone.
Forever.

Oh my goodness was this ever creepy! I couldn't read fast enough, I just wanted to know what was going to happen. It was a tense, easy read that was full of suspense and action. It was such a good read!

Thank you #NetGalley for the ARC of #IwantYouGone
Pub Date: 13 Apr 2019

I enjoyed I Want You Gone by Miranda Rijks.
It was easy to follow, it kept me interested throughout and I was intrigued to discover the outcome. It started excellently with the obituary notice but I felt there were many threads which could have been developed further. It was however much too predictable in my opinion. I hoped I wasn’t right but I think I twigged from the 11% stage on my Kindle, or there abouts, which is much too early. A few red herrings were thrown into the mix but weren’t credible enough to pose true threats to the outcome. I also mentally screamed at the main character Laura, many, many times. Her actions and inactions weren’t credible in so many instances, which I felt was also a flaw in the story, but other than that I found this to be an enjoyable read and I would read more work from this author.

This title alone had me intrigued and the mystery aspect kept me hooked reading until the end. The first two thirds of the book were extremely slow moving but I enjoyed the end where the action picked up. I also prefer the previous title of this book “The Obituary”. I don’t think this title makes as much sense.

Undeniably, this is one of the creepiest premises ever. I think it’s because its easy to picture oneself in Laura’s situation. Imagine waking up to find RIP messages on your facebook timeline. I’d be spooked! Then a death notice in the obituaries followed by more such messages. Honestly, how scary is that.

I enjoyed this novel from the first chapter. The premise laid out a plot-line full of suspense and intrigue. Who was sending out the death notices and why? I had three suspects, narrowed down to one who turned to be the right culprit in the end. I think the author did this intentionally. There was just something off about the suspect, the words they said and their actions. However, the hints were so subtle and hence easy to miss if you aren’t paying attention. On the other hand, the motive was impossible to guess. I mean, why would anyone go to such lengths to make Laura’s life miserable. Laura who seems so harmless.

Towards the end, some suspension of disbelief is required. There were certain incidents that were a little too convenient and one scene had me confused. Nevertheless, this is fiction so I decided to go with the flow and enjoy the book.

This was certainly an entertaining read. I also found it to be quite captivating. I even woke up at 4am to finish reading it before work. This is major for me because I always struggle to get up in the morning ! Definitely recommended for fans of this genre.

Imagine getting a phone call from your hysterical daughter claiming that your Facebook account has posted that you died in a car accident and the condolences are rolling in?

That's the position Laura finds herself in. At first she makes light of it. A Facebook glitch, or perhaps a rather off color prank of some sorts. But who or why would anyone do this?

When she arrives at work and is immediately whisked in to her supervisors office who then produces the local newspaper that also shows her obituary. This isn't such a funny prank anymore.

"Laura Ruth Swallow, nee Carson, passed away suddenly on October 28 after suffering fatal injuries in a car accident. She is survived by her ex-husband, Ian, whom she divorced in 2013, and her daughter, Melissa. In life, there was no notable contribution, nothing remarkable. In death, there will be celebration."

It certainly seems as though someone has an ax to grind with Laura but to find out the who and the why you'll just have to read it for yourself.

This book has me so torn. It was compulsively readable and I couldn't stop turning the pages but, and there is always a but, it was so predictable. From the very beginning I guessed the who because it was so obvious. Though I kept thinking it was a trick and that I was wrong, as happens so often, but I wasn't. It was exactly who I thought it was. So then I had to wonder on the why and the why was just so underwhelming. Like, really? This is why so and so did this? I just think the author could of done so much more with this story line. That being said I'll definitely check out her next book because she is talented and I'm hoping her next story will be fleshed out just a bit better. 3.5 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Inkubator Books for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I had a very, very mixed reaction to I Want You Gone. The main plot device (the very-much-alive narrator has a cruel obituary published about her) was original, or at least new to me. The plot and the pace were dynamic, so --yes, definitely a page turner. Sinister mind tricks targeted Laura at every turn, and there was a keen sense of dread, so I'd say the publisher's blurb of "psychological thriller" is warranted.

Plus, I strongly cast several of the characters in turn as the malevolent person who is intent on destroying Laura's life. So, red herrings -- check. Even though I settled on the actual culprit early on, I still had no clue as to the motive.

The characters, however, didn't measure up to the story itself. Laura herself is trivial, implausibly naive, and so lacking in impulse control that I came to detest her. The supporting cast, also, were one-dimensional and lacking in depth.

Add to that numerous continuity glitches: Laura on one page shrugs on a pale blue jumper, and on the next page must rush back into her bedroom to shrug on her pale blue jumper. And her laptop is fried and taken in for repair, then a few pages later she spends an evening staring at her laptop screen, then pages later she is still missing her laptop.

These last issues move me to rate this book at 2.5, but I'm rounding up to 3 because the author did a good job on the suspense.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advance readers copy.

Laura receives the distressing news that her death has been announced on Facebook and there is an obituary in the local paper. Apparently she has been killed in a car accident – in the same way that her sister had been killed four years earlier. Laura’s first thoughts are for her daughter who is away at Uni. Second thoughts naturally, ‘there has been a mistake’. Things go from bad to worse for Laura. Slowly we are introduced to the facts and people that make up Laura’s life.

As I was reading this I was totally absorbed in the plot and it was only slowly that I came to understand that Laura was driving me crazy. Would you, in all reality, stumble around and let all this chaos descend around you, or would you immediately contact the police? Yes, that is right, you just let matters go from bad to worse whilst floundering around blaming everyone or anyone without actually dealing with the matter head-on. So, it was with some relief I finished the book. The denouement was hardly earth-shattering so I was just grateful I had reached the end.

I am sorry Ms Rijks, I really am. I had great hopes for the first third of the book but they just dissolved away. Didn’t like Laura; really didn’t like her daughter. Only person I did quite like was her ex-s new partner, oh, and Ben wasn’t bad either.

Thank you to the author, publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

Light reading, midway through it became clear who the culprit was. it was easy beach reading. who wants to destroy Laura's life, many suspect with few motives

Laura is a forty-something woman with a daughter who has recently begun studying at the U of Manchester. Her ex-husband, Ian, has remarried and Laura is trying to settle into single life as a real estate agent. Laura's life turns upside down when an obituary notice of her death appears in the local newspaper.

The book moves quickly to many odd things showing up in Laura's life. Someone is out to get her, and as readers, we have the enjoyment of trying to figure out who hates Laura so much. I enjoyed the various clues and surprises along the way.

I Want You Gone is a fast-paced weekend read for those who like suspense and working out puzzles.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.

This was an incredibly fast paced thriller. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Was very realistically written and frightening as this could happen to anyone. The author wrote well and I felt incredibly claustrophobic throughout. The suspense was tremendous and I was completely gripped all the way. This is a unique and modern day thriller. . Highly recommended x

A quick easy read. There is a lot of action and suspense but I found it a bit wooden and predictable.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Laura works as an Estate Agent and has been nominated for an award….but then her daughter, Mel, calls, upset as an obituary for Laura has been
posted on Facebook….

Reassured, Laura carries on……but then she meets the handsome Dr Ben Logan, he seems charming but her friend Anna tells her he’s no good, a womaniser and cheat. She also meets an old school mate, Eddy, at a house viewing and he makes a pass at her.

But then everything goes wrong, her boss receives a claim Laura was inappropriate at a viewing, intimate photo’s of her are sent to her boss, a death certificate for her is found and she suspects she may have been raped or assaulted by Ben, as she cannot remember anything after their date and she is suspended from work.

Anna is there to help support her, so is her friend Jenny…trying to make sense of everything, all while Laura is slowly falling apart…..then Mel goes missing!

Who has taken her? Who is trying to ruin Laura’s life and how is this linked to her sister Becky?

The writing is so good it keeps you wondering….to say I was on tenterhooks is an understatement in this marvellously fast paced, twisty and unsettling psychological thriller.

Thank you to NetGalley, The Author and Publishers a free copy of the ebook. This is my honest, unbiased review.

I want You Dead is a fantastic psychological thriller that keeps you turning the pages. I enjoyed the writing and characters. I would this.

The title initially drew my attention to this book and upon reading the synopsis, felt it was a book that i would enjoy. I was not wrong as i thoroughly enjoyed this book, which had been gripped from the first few pages. Great story! It is the first time that i have read a book by this author and hope to read more. Recommended.

My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for my copy. This is my honest review.

Psychological thrillers are my jam.

In the case of I Want You Gone, the jam was, unfortunately, a bit rotten. This story was so contrived, it was hard to get involved. The characters were cardboard cut-outs to which I couldn't relate at all, and had I been forced to read the word "silly" one more time, I think I would have chucked my Kindle across the room. Thesauruses are a writer's best friend.

Normally, a book this size would take me around 3 hours to complete. It's taken me days to complete this reading. Admittedly, I've been incredibly busy, but more importantly, I simply had very little desire to pick up my Kindle and resume reading. I had the entire story figured out within the first 50 pages (and I was correct in my assumptions), so completing the reading was less than desirable.

Sorry, fellow readers, but this plot was just "silly."
1.5 stars

**Despite my less than favorable review, I'd like to personally thank NetGalley, Inkubator Books, and Miranda Rijks for the ARC, in exchange for my honest opinion.