The Argument is a standalone thriller by author Victoria Jenkins. As a mother of 2 teenagers I was totally able to relate to the situation of arguing about coming home late, but that luckily is where the similarities end. This is a gripping thriller about families and I really enjoyed it.

A great, thrilling read, which will keep you entertained throughout. A good one sitting read, get the nibbles ready, close the door, and read!

I was completely gripped by this story and was impressed with the writing quality. I was entertained throughout the story and would not hesitate to recommend this book.

This is a very different book to what I thought it would be.
A family thriller that kept me reading, with twists I really didn’t see coming.

This is an older book that I am only just managed to read. I am always on the fence with regards to picking up a book that has a family thriller theme. There is always a twist at some point, and sometimes I feel like it was just put in there for the sake of it.
I have read another book by this author and found it quite entertaining and in keeping with the ambience of the narrative, so I was more confident about my experience with this one. I was right in this assumption.
The story begins in a normal way; we have a mother worrying about her teenage daughter who is going off the rails (by her standards), and she is struggling to make sense of the situation as well as what the next steps need to be.
The home situation is further elaborated upon, and slowly the cracks get clearer. The reader is drawn into the depressing world of the book, but it is only towards the end that it takes an unexpected turn. I will, obviously, not be going into any further details. I would have rated it slightly lower if not for the follow up to the revelations, which made more sense than I would have liked.
I received an ARC thanks to Netgalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

Somehow, I skipped over this book and recently read it. I wanted to kick myself for not reading it sooner. OMG!!! This book is really good. Outstanding read. Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the arc of this book in return for my honest review. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on this review.

I was slightly disappointed with this book. I felt a huge portion of the book was more like a family drama than a thriller
I didn’t like any of the characters and I felt the pacing was slow.
The ending was unremarkable and it left too many loose ends

This book was not at all what I expected. There were some things within the plot that could have been developed more to bring out more of the psychological profile of the family and increase the suspense. All in all, it is not a bad read, but it did not live up to my expectations. Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to review this book.

A very slow read for much of the book and there were times when I considered giving up on it. Then suddenly it picks up around three-quarters of the way through and that made me glad I'd stuck with it. Some of the twists are a little implausible but a good read in the end.

So, honestly, for a good part of the book, I thought it was a solid three star read.

Entertaining, but the characters bugged me - all of them.

However...

Suddenly, the author just shocks you. With just a few words, you realize that everything you've read so far has a much more sinister meaning and it's just a race to see what happens next!

Pleasantly surprised by this one. Much more devious than I thought at first!

Not my typical read but it was ok. It wasn’t a great fit for me but that’s more me than the book. If you like thrillers it’s for you.

Not the thriller I was expecting! The first 75% was SLOW...way too slow. Yawn. It focused on a mother and daughter's tumultuous relationship. 15 year old Olivia thinks her mom is way too strict. After all, she's not allowed to go to parties like other girls her age. While Hannah, the mother, believes her daughter is too immature and needs strict rules to keep her safe. The plot alternates between Olivia and Hannah's perspectives.

The final 25% had some action but required a serious dose of reality suspension. I was doing some heavy eye rolling...Honestly, the reveals and twists were just too much.

I don't do well with thrillers that are over the top implausible. They seem silly and it's hard for me to take the plot seriously. This was a case of the sillies. However the good news is that I made it to the end hence two stars rather than one.

Not a book that worked for me. Everyone is different though so others may enjoy it much more than I did. I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I felt confused by the characters and contemplating DNFing it during the whole book. I finished to be stubborn but I probably should have stopped earlier. There is such a lack of character development and connection to the reader that when the characters do something to perhaps cause suspense, it is just confusing or disappointing. The plot fell flat for me too which I think unfortunately was primarily due to the influence of unlikable characters.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

This book is about teenage drama. Something all parents can relate to. It was full of twists and turns. Its a great family drama, but to tell you the truth its more of a drama than a thriller. In parts it was slow but it ended up picking up pace.

Olivia is a typical headstrong 15 year old - but when she sneaks out to attend a party and iss caught by her mother Hannah all hell breaks loose. They have an argument, Olivia says she hates her mother and storms off. Hannah thinks things will blow over in a couple of days, but when Olivia pulls away even more and continues her vow of silence, Hannah soon suspects a lot more is going on. With a mostly absent husband and a younger daughter that is easy going and completely the opposite of her sister, Hannah begins to learn secrets that her daughter is keeping. Will secrets between mother and daughter destroy the whole family? What will come to light?
This book read a bit slow for me, especially in the middle....then the twist, WOW!!! It was one I didn't see coming! I would not necessarily recommend it to someone, but if you start it, definitely stick with it.
Thanks to Victoria Jenkins, Bookouture and NetGalley for the ARC.

Hannah and Michael have a perfect life on the outside. Their two daughters, Olivia and Rosie, couldn’t be more different. Olivia is the beginnings of teenage rebellion and younger Rosie is the perfect daughter. One thing is looks can be very deceiving! One night Olivia sneaks out to a party and behaves in such a way that is not the standard and when she comes home refuses to talk to her mum and this is the beginning of the end.
This book started very slowly and then the pace quickens and soon you get sucked in to a very twisted story. Really great read. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

This was a weird book. In the sense of, just as soon as you think the story is going one way, the author pulls the rug from under you, and then you are facing something new.... It starts off with Olivia that after a party decides she doesn't want to talk to her parents anymore. That gets complicated and makes life difficult, but soon everything turns around. This was really a very entertaining book, and I enjoyed it immensely!
TB

This was an easy to read thriller thaylt kept my attention all the way through! Lots of twists and surprises I didn't see coming. Very good, would recommend!

One night, 15-year-old Olivia comes home late from a party she was strictly forbidden from going to, and she and her mother, Hannah, start arguing. Soon Olivia speaks the words that every parent has heard from their teenage child: ‘I hate you. You’ve ruined my life. And I’m never speaking to you again.’

Olivia has never been an easy child, and Hannah was used to her outbursts. She doesn’t think much of it, but Olivia stuns both her parents by keeping the silence on for more than a few days. And that’s when she starts wondering what really is Olivia hiding? What happened at that dreaded party which she wasn’t supposed to attend?

The first half of the book fell flat for me. It was difficult to understand what was going on in either person’s mind. It’s like they were engaged in a battle of hormones. Olivia thinking she knows best, whilst Hannah pretending nothing is happening and trying to keep up the normalcy of her life. Something doesn’t add up with Hannah, or what Olivia tries to portray through her essays in school.

There is also an untold narrative between Hannah and Michael, and nothing about the family seems to fit in. I found it strange too, that they were willing to blame Olivia for everything that started to go disastrously wrong.

However, the ending had a twist which would leave you stunned. And perhaps redeemed itself towards the end.
This is worth one read, if you like twisted plots.

3.5/5 for me