A family thriller set in Australia, I liked this but it started out stronger then it ended. The ending was kind of just “that’s all?” But I enjoyed it for the most part. Reminded me of The Dry by Aaron Falk.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC In exchange for an honest review!!

Great book will be reading other books by this author.
Will also recommend this book to others.
Great read! 5*****

The Flood is a very tense and exciting mystery thriller about a girl called Daniela Cain who returns to her small home village after seven years to collect something from her old home. The story goes back and forth between 2010 and 2017 so we can understand why Daniela left the village. When Daniela arrives the village is flooded and she finds her younger sister's body in her old house. She wants to find out what happened to her but things start going wrong.

I was kept on edge throughout the book and is became very fast paced and exciting in the last few chapters. I would definitely recommend this book to any mystery/thriller fans.
Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy to review.

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter, for the ARC.
I found this book's main plot intriguing so continued just to find out the ending; however, there were so many just-too-long passages revolving around the actual flood-waters and the myriad of paths through forests surrounding the flooded village of Stonecrop - rather drawn-out for me. Anyway:
Four sisters in 2003 live with their father in an isolated house half a mile from the village which is bracketed by 2 rivers. The father is in the antiques business with Henry, having a shop in the village - only it seems the father has contributed more to the partnership than Henry and they fall-out. Six months prior to this the sisters' mother had left the house. She wasn't coming back.
Fourteen years later the village and surrounding area is flooded. Daniela, now 27, returns to Stonecrop to ask her older sister Stephanie for her share of the inheritance from the sale of their isolated home outside the village, following her father's 'accidental' death some time before. Discovering the house hadn't been sold she returns -
Only........returning to her now dilapidated and unkempt home to recover an item she had concealed years earlier, she discovers her younger sister Auryn dead and half-submerged in the floodwater. Stephanie - now the village Police Sergeant doesn't believe she has nothing to do with her death. Can she prove she's innocent?
Well, as said, it's a good-enough story to hold my interest, but took a lot of willpower to push through the endless traipsing through woods and water to get to the conclusion. We gradually learn through past and present narratives the story to the present day, and, yes, it was a good plot.
If you can skim-over some of the aforementioned passages and plod-on, it's a good-enough read.

This book begins when Daniela returns home after seven years to find her home town is completely flooded, her families home has become derelict and then she finds her sisters dead body. We then follow her in the present day after discovering the body while also going back seven years to find out what exactly happened before she left town.

This one took me a bit of time to get into, probably because it begins rather slowly, but once I got into I did enjoy it. It turned out to be a rather fast-paced, twisted novel but I didn't feel quite satisfied with the ending. This was a decent thriller but not a memorable one.

The upside of this book is that I think Rachel Bennett is a good writer. I could picture everything as she described it, but unfortunately I just wasn’t into the book. The family-drama-type thrillers and mysteries have abounded over the last couple years, and it’s just not a genre that I’m into. I find the complicated family dynamics distract from the murder-mystery and take away some of the haunting aspects. Like most novels of this type, I could see most of the twists coming from a mile away.

I must admit that this is not the type of book that I normally read, however I had the chance to read an advance copy and took it.
I'm glad that I did as whilst I was reading it I became more and more hooked as the story unfolded. The story jumps between the present and 7 years before, with the facts becoming clearer as it progressed : by the end of the book I had to stay awake just to find out what really happened all those years ago.

I was in a mood for a thriller and this one attracted my attention. I’m glad I didn’t read the lackluster reviews it had on GR prior to downloading the book, because I ended up liking it quite a lot. Certainly more than the other two readers. It isn’t perfect, not by a long shot, one can certainly find things to critique here in this tale of four sisters told over the course of fourteen years, but it did work. Yeah, four sisters is probably too many for one family, just insanely high amounts of estrogen all around, it definitely didn’t create any warm and fuzzy connections in this case. In the early years when they were still mostly kids, there was a certain amount of closeness, abandoned by their mother, the girls, different as they were, got along fairly well. In later years as they were in their early 20s, their differences became more difficult to ignore leading to a tragedy that colored their lives then and now, in the present tense narrative. In 2017 the sisters are barely in contact, one pretty much entirely out of the picture and one turns up dead. The story is told from the perspective of Danielle, the second youngest sister, as she returns to their small village looking for her share of their father’s inheritance if she can get past the sister that remained behind in the village and became a cop. And now, of course, there is a murder to solve and Danielle, fresh out from serving a 4.5 year sentence is an easy suspect. So that’s the basic plot. It follows the thriller formula in most respects, split timelines, past secrets, plot twists. And it does all that well. But for me it was the writing that elevated the book. I just found it very immersive…despite the characters, actually, not because of them. In fact, the characters were quite frustrating at times, but the narrative was so atmospheric, it really drew you in, the small village besieged by a seemingly interminable storm came to life, hauntingly so. The book is titled perfectly, it takes place during an epic flood, sure, but it’s the way the author renders it, it becomes…the wettest book you might read. Seriously, sodden, much like the characters. I mean, it goes beyond a mere meteorological event to become its own character, drenching the guilty and the innocent with a brutal indifference. Quite a dramatic backdrop to a long delayed familial showdown. So yeah, I enjoyed this book very much, it’s a perfect read for a rainy day. An auspicious debut. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

Thanks to NetGalley for a Kindle ARC of The Flood.

Daniela Cain has reluctantly returned to her small town to retrieve something of value from her childhood home.

When she discovers her younger sister, Auryn, dead, and a cache of money, she finds herself the main suspect. To make things worse, her elder sister, Stephanie, is a police officer and handling the investigation.

As Daniela slumps around town amid rising floodwaters that threaten the land and its inhabitants, she discovers shocking family secrets and the one truth every character in books figure out too late to do any good; the past always comes back to finish what was started.

The story is formulaic; the main character returning to his or her small town, she or he has a bad past, scarred by trauma and the mistakes he or she has made.

There are secrets to uncover, family feuds, disreputable men, a runaway mother, unrequited love and mistaken identity, all of which readers are given insight into during the alternating chapters of the past and what the sisters were involved in that would later culminate in the current present.

The setting was atmospheric, and I enjoyed the way the author depicted the flood, how dangerous water is, and how humans are powerless when confronted with the power of nature.

I wished I like the characters; there wasn't enough exposition on any of the sisters, but it would have been nice to sympathize or identify with someone.

I disliked Daniela more than I expected, and though I can identify with her as a sister, I didn't like her or sympathize with her.

Overall, a decent read and I'd be interested to see what the author comes up with for her second book.

This is a thriller/mystery by Rachel Bennett which centres around the lives of four sisters known as the "Cains". One of the sisters Daniela comes home after seven years to hopefully collect what she feels is owed to her from the sale of her fathers' house. She soon discovers that the house has not been sold yet and is in a state of disrepair. The area is flooded and she is both shocked and confused to find the body of one of her sister's trapped in flood water within the property. Family secrets are uncovered as she tries to find out what has happened.
This story was a bit of a slow burner in the beginning and at times I found it a little hard to follow, but I am so glad I persevered. After the first few chapters I was hooked and couldn't put it down. Full of twists and secrets that had me at the edge of my seat towards the end.
I will definitely look out for more books from this author.
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for my ARC in exchange for an honest review

Daniela [comes home after seven years to collect some money from the sale of her father house. She finds that the house has not been sold yet and is almost derelict. The land is flooded and she is shocked to find her sister's body on the property.
This is the story of four sisters, their upbringing and their family secrets.
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was hoping I would really like this book as it sounded promising. Unfortunately I didn’t like it, the story seemed dragged out and quite dull. I do think some people will like it unfortunately I’m not one of them

Sadly I really didn’t enjoy this one. Like others have said, it was slow, it was dull, and just not what I expected. I skim read most of it, and to be honest I can barely remember what happened, it made that little of an impression.

Thank you NetGalley and One More Chapter for the eARC.
At first I enjoyed the book, but then it became tedious, with the constant repetition of walking through high water, the attacks between the main character, Daniela, and her father's co-owner of their antiques shop; who feels her family, her and her 3 sisters, owe him money. When Daniela finds her younger sister dead in their old, flooded house, her oldest sister, a policewoman, believes Daniela killed her. None of the characters are likeable, except maybe Daniela. The ending is a bit of a surprise, but it still didn't make me like the book. This is the first book by Rachel Bennett and I wish I could give it more than 2.5 stars. Here's hoping her second one will be better, I think she's got what it takes to pen a good story.

2 stars

I had such high hopes for this book, Sadly, the description of the book is far better than the book itself. The book started so slow yet I kept plugging along hoping the pace would pick up. It did not and I finally gave up when I realized I did not care about any of the characters or the story,
I do not recommend at all. DOn't waste your time on this book when so many other good books exist.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

When Daniela Cain returns to her small hometown after seven years’ absence, she finds that flooding has left the village all but deserted. She’s there to collect something she left in her childhood home, then she plans to leave. But upon entering the old house she discovers her younger sister’s body half-submerged in the water.

As Daniela tries to work out what happened to Auryn, she uncovers dark secrets from her childhood as one of four sisters in the household, when the Cain’s and another local family begin to turn on each other with devastating results.

The description on this book is what got me but when I actually read it I found it a little slow. I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped I would. I think I would give this book a 2.5 stars as I feel there was a lot missing.


I received a copy of this book via netgalley in return for an unbiased review.