Good book, had me guessing up until the end...although I did guess about the main character! Great quick read, might read some others now. #SurviveTheHeatwave #NetGalley

Wow! What a read. I loved this book. It drew me straight in and the last few pages I could barely breathe as the drama increased. So well written, good strong characters and an amazing plot.

This was my first book by this author. It took a while for me to get into the book, it was a bit slow for me. However, overall it was a good thriller with an interesting twist to it.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

I really hate to give a negative review but unfortunately, I have to with this book. I only made it to the 26% mark before I decided that I absolutely could not go on any further.

This story started out in present day when Jasmine hears a news story about a 15-year-old girl that has gone missing in her hometown. Jasmine makes the decision in literally 2 minutes to leave her family and to go back to where she grew up and help find the missing girl as she believes to know who is responsible for the kidnapping.

The story then goes back and forth in time between present day and when Jasmine was a teenager that had just moved to a new town. Upon moving in, Jasmine’s parents decide to let a gentleman by the name of Tim stay in their guest house to help them out around the house. Tim had previously been homeless, but Jasmine’s parents thought they were doing a good deed by letting him live there since he was ex-military. Tim is an odd fellow, quiet, and withdrawn.

As you go back and forth in time, you learn more of what happened in the past and Jasmine’s search for the missing girl.

So, here is my rant on this book. I have a hard time believing that Jasmine’s parents would let this fellow named Tim randomly stay with them. It just seemed highly unlikely and did not feel like a good plot line to the story. I found ALL the characters to be annoying and unlikeable, the dialogue boring, and the writing choppy. Needless to say, this did not hold my interest at all. Last annoying snippet is that this book seemed to host a wide range of pedophiles. Just not for me.

I still do want to send a big thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book.

I have left a shorter review already on Goodreads.

The Heatwave is Katerina Diamond's first standalone thriller and is both a tantalising summer sizzler and a satisfyingly sinister work of psychological suspense. Set amongst the eager tourists and frolicking beachgoers in Sidmouth, Devon, we are introduced to a predator who has stalked the local area for many years just laying in wait for their ideal prey. Felicity, or Flick, is currently living in The Lake District, a truly stunning part of our country, with her husband and two daughters she adores when she is left reeling after she sees a shocking case of a missing girl, Mandy Green, on the television news that hits terrifyingly close to home for her taking her back to her troubled past in sunny Sidmouth. She becomes obsessed knowing this case is linked to Hannah’s disappearance almost two decades ago and ups sticks rather rapidly to move back to her hometown for reasons which are not immediately clear to anyone but her.

Ahh, yes! Ms Diamond has excelled herself with this book which is absolutely perfect for taking on a beach break or for devouring closer to home in the garden. It tells the story from two perspectives and two timelines: Jasmine in the past and Felicity in the present and effortlessly slips between these variants with not even a hint of confusion. The character development is well executed and we get to see that Flick is emotionally unstable due to secrets from sixteen years ago that have followed her through life despite having moved on and started a family. The author gives you many reasons not to like Felicity as a person but what she excelled at was appealing to your better nature and managing to get you to still care about the character. The secrets are many and I was shocked when they started being revealed; I was not expecting it to go in that direction. Superb. Many thanks to Avon for an ARC.

After reading all of katerina diamonds other books I couldn’t wait to read this one.
I was a little disappointed that it was nothing like those. Maybe if I read this one first I may have appreciated it more.
I did however like the twist at the end.
Thank you netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this book

It feels very apt writing this review on a day when the temperatures are soaring and we are experiencing our own mini heatwave. Thank goodness today’s events bore no resemblance whatsoever to the events taking place in this book because they are literally quite unbelievable. I’ve only recently discovered this author and having enjoyed Woman in the Water (number six in the Imogen Grey series) I was greatly anticipating this standalone read.

The start showed promise with our introduction to Felicity hearing the news that a girl Mandy Green has disappeared in Felicity’s hometown of Sidmouth. Automatically she is taken back to her adolescence in this small town, when another girl Hannah went missing, her body never found. For reasons that will slowly be revealed, Felicity knows it’s imperative to return to the place she was extremely happy to escape, instinct telling her this latest disappearance has something to do with her past. Although it means confronting ghosts from long ago and facing some difficult truths, it’s like there is this invisible thread pulling her back, against her better judgement. It means leaving “a place where you are safe and loved versus the mess you left behind” which sounds so intriguing .This is a case of before and after, a case of then and now which is how the author has chosen to reveal the storyline.
Leaving her family behind at the drop of a hat set alarm bells ringing for me but I was ready to give Felicity the benefit of the doubt. She very quickly becomes so preoccupied with whatever has happened to these girls in her hometown that you are left in no doubt there are plenty of secrets begging to be uncovered. However, her character quickly grated on my nerves with her inability and reluctance to actually achieve what she’d set out to do, preferring to drown her sorrows with alcohol whilst alternating with asking strangers inappropriate questions pertaining to the latest disappearance.

It is best friend Jasmine’s point of view from the past that was the hook that kept me turning the pages of what seems like a fairly short read. With the arrival of Tim as a lodger at her parents home, this would seem to be the summer of discontent where the girls are realising their potential as sexual beings,with the pursuit of boys causing a rivalry to develop and cracks to appear in their friendship. Especially when it comes to the mysterious and handsome Tim, a distinctly odd character whom Jasmine cannot decide whether to trust or not. I could never quite decide what to think of this character and the circumstances surrounding his appearance in the lives of the Burgesses. Suffice to say Frank and Liz are way more charitable than I would be! There’s definitely a weird dynamic going on between Tim and Jasmine whilst her parents feature in the narrative only occasionally. Jasmine is the most developed character by far which is why I found her side of the story so compelling. If you think you know which direction this is headed, like I did, then think again! I couldn’t possibly have foreseen the shocking secrets this family were hiding.

I know this is a piece of fiction but personally I felt the further I got drawn in,the more implausible events became. I don’t know what I was expecting but it wasn’t this. I also want to understand the significance of the title since these events could have occurred at any time. I can only assume perhaps some people go a bit demented during long spells of hot weather but perhaps I’m overthinking it.

The shocking revelations when they came made my jaw drop so that in some ways the ending redeemed what had gone before, although it did come across as rushed. Only in those final pages did I truly connect with Felicity’s part in this drama.

It pains me to have to say it but overall I was disappointed with The Heatwave and I so wanted to love it. There just seemed to be a vital ingredient missing to make this the brilliant read I was anticipating hence the three star rating. Despite my issues with plausibility, I still raced through the pages and it won’t put me off reading further titles by this author (fingers crossed for book no 7 in the Imogen Grey series). My thanks as always to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for the arc of the Heatwave by Katerina Diamond.

This follows 2 perspectives of Jasmine and Felicity, Jasmine tells the narrative in the past whereas Felicity in the present day. The two girls are actually best of friends. Both time periods in which are set within summer time and temperatures. Felicity is very specifically drawn and right back in Devon as she see's something on the news about a disappearance about a young girl. It is Implied that Felicity has answers to the disappearance and seems to know more about events that took place sixteen years ago.... Then information has been brought out which leaves the reader breathless and in shock and wanting more.

I really enjoyed this I was gripped from start to finish, I was seriously not disappointed in this, it was an amazing and a great read in which left me in total awe and shock.

Definitely recommend
5 Stars⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I was immensely captivated by Katerina Diamond's novel The Heatwave. The jacket cover teased "One Summer, One Stranger, One Killer..." and that and the gorgeous beach cover were enough to attract my attention. The Heatwave has a strong premise; Felicity left town 16 years ago, after a girl disappeared, and it seems Felicity has some secrets. Cut to present day, another girl goes missing, and Felicity is compelled to return. Katerina Diamond set the scene well, hooking me in very early on, and keeping me guessing throughout. I really appreciate her ability to take a rather complex, but unlikeable protagonist in Felicity and make me care about that character. The pacing was fast, the plot tightly woven, the twists and turns plentiful and the ending satisfying.
I received my copy through NetGalley under no obligation.

This is a set up you’ve heard before: a woman returns to the hometown she fled to solve a big mystery! but the story doesn’t take all the usual turns and there are lots along the way. Katerina Diamond’s books are always well plotted and so I have loved many of them in the past but this one just did not work for me 😬 I don’t know if her writing style has changed, if this one was less edited or if my tastes have just changed, but I found some of the writing, particularly the dialogue, to be so overly simplistic and repetitive that it was distracting. The pacing was also a little off. Not very much happens until the end in which things ramp up.

However that last quarter was a wild ride and really enjoyable. Given better pacing and more time to developing the plot rather than hinting that something big is coming, I think I would have really loved it and so I’m sure many people will ♥️

The first thing I didn't understand was why Felicity was so driven to return to her home town when a girl went missing. It just made no sense and it was very odd that her husband was so understanding about it. The second thing I never understood was what the title had to do with the story. Eventually the first thing was explained but the second never was. I am still wondering. But those things aside, Ms. Diamond wove a dense, multi-plot story but character development never seemed to take place. Even Felicity, the main character, seemed to be a stranger through the entire book. Part of that is understandable as an effort to keep some surprises until the end, but it left me feeling a bit detached from the story and confused about motivations.

Flick sees on the news that a young girl has gone missing in her home town. This has happened before when she was young. She decides to go home and see if she can help for she knows more about the past then she has ever shared. Time for the truth perhaps?

This was a really interesting read with a couple of good twists. One I figured out early on but the killers identity caught me out. This is well written and detailed. The story jumps between the present day and the past which works really well. The ending is very good and finishes the story off well. I wasnt sure about Flick at the beginning but as the story goes on you start to warm to her. She's got a lot of issues but overtime you understand why. A great thriller with an interesting mystery.

‏I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review.

Katerina Diamond, the author of the D.S. Imogen Grey series, is back with a new stand-alone novel, The Heatwave. I read Truth or Die, book #5 of her series, and was looking forward to reading The Heatwave as soon as I read the description "The heatwave is back. And so is the killer."

Felicity fled her town and her life, determined not to return. That is until sixteen years later, and a second girl went missing. She holds the answers to what happened to the first girl and is determined to find the second before it is too late.

Diamond hooked me from the beginning. The book is 400 pages, but it was such a page-turner it felt much shorter.

As with all thrillers, there are twists, turns, and surprise reveals. The Heatwave kept me guessing until the very end. I thought I had figured everything out, but I was so wrong. After going back over the story, I realized I picked up on many of them but could not piece them all together correctly.

Goodreads does not list any other upcoming books of Katerina Diamond but added her to my "authors to read" list to keep watch for them.

This 200-word review was published on Philomathinphila.com on 6/25/20.

One summer. One stranger. One killer…
Two bad things happened that summer:
A stranger arrived. And the first girl disappeared.

In the wake of the crime that rocked her community, Felicity fled, knowing more than she let on.

But sixteen years later, her new life is shattered by the news that a second girl has gone missing in her hometown.

Now Felicity must go back, to face the truth about what happened all those years ago.

Only she holds the answers – and they’re more shocking than anyone could imagine.

The heatwave is back. And so is the killer.

I loved this book. Good plot that‘s full of twists and turns that keep you turning the pages.

Looking for a book that has crime, mystery, suspense and plenty of heat? Then this is the book for you. It pulled me in from the beginning and with temperatures sizzling from each page, I was desperate to see how the plot would conclude.

The narrative is divided into present day, narrated by Felicity; and the past, narrated by Jasmine. The two girls were best friends and initially I was a little confused about whose voice I was reading. However, this was only a temporary glitch and certainly did not prevent me from racing through the pages.

Both time periods are defined by the sizzling summer temperatures. I think this is what helps to make this a perfect summer read, especially as exotic getaways are rather limited. Felicity is drawn back to her hometown in Devon after seeing the disappearance of a young girl on the news. The writer implies that Felicity has the answers to this disappearance and seems to know more about events that took place sixteen years ago. Gradually, readers are given this information as well, leading to a breathless, climatic conclusion.

I certainly could not anticipate the direction that the narrative took. Relishing in the clues that Diamond provided, I shared Jasmine’s distrust of Tim, and Felicity’s uncertainty as she returns to Devon. It is clear from the beginning that Felicity is seeking closure from her past but Diamond leaves the mystery building – a bit like the heat in summer when it eventually breaks into a storm. This “storm” is what readers witness at the end as answers are finally provided. It left me gasping in disbelief and it was like I was standing in a metaphorical rain shower: being cooled off after the build up of such tension.

After hearing some many positive things about this book, I can safely say that my expectations were not disappointed. As young girls, Felicity and Jasmine are believable characters and I enjoyed the sense of stagnation that radiated from the hot summer. The girls are listless and lethargic which completely juxtaposes the action that unfolds within the pages.

This was gripping from start to finish. There were surprises in each chapter that made me feel like I was reading something fresh and new. The story is interesting and different; it felt unique to plenty of crime thrillers out there and I could not wait to find out the final answers.

With thanks to Avon books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In The Heatwave, Felicity sees a girl has gone missing from the hometown she fled 16 years earlier. It is far too similar to a disappearance that sent her happy life off the rails all those years ago. She returns to face what she knew would eventually come up again.

The story shifts back and forth between about 2003 and 2019. Jasmine lives with the perfect parents. That is why she is surprised when they bring home a drifter and allows them to live and work in their home. Tim is trouble from the start. Jasmine is convinced he is not who he claims to be. Still, she falls under his spell. Her best friend, Felicity, does, too. And for a time this seemed to be pretty petty between the two girls.

I often write about the line between a good twist and a bad twist. A bad twist either comes from nowhere or is so obvious that it isn't really much of a reveal. A good twist is some thing you sense coming. You see glimpses of it and you can follow the clues to a point. When the truth is revealed it merely brings all of this threads together. This book was a good twist kind of book. The entire story does come together. Though during the reveal, it sometimes feels like the author over explains. But even though the reader may put together some of the mysteries before the author explicitly tells us, they story still works.

This book gripped me from the start and I was so fascinated by the story, I finished the book in two readings. The story is about a teenage girl going missing. It reminded a young mother of a similar situation from her youth, of when another teenage girl from her hometown disappeared. She was never found. She wanted to try to help and find her.

Usually Jasmine and her family went on holiday during the summer, with some charity and helping out in a foreign country. This year, they had just moved house, her dad had his hip operation so was unable to fly so she was home for summer plus her parents had rented out the summer house in the garden to someone they knew but she wasn’t keen on. Better yet, she got to spend time with her friends. The summer was hot, there wasn’t much to do in Sidmouth but the fair was there. Tim saved Jasmine from Mr Morrell, her ex teacher, after she left the fairground. That night is when the teenage girl disappeared. It was awful, as we knew Hannah Torrence.

Sixteen years later, Felicity is shocked when she hears on the news that a second girl, Mandy Green has gone missing from her hometown. She decides that she has to return to see if she can save her as she thought she had already dealt with the problem once. She can’t tell her husband why as she hasn’t told him the truth about her past from the start. Can she face her demons though? It’s another hot summer and she finds that not much has changed in Sidmouth. She tries to plan how she can get information on the last sightings of Mandy Green and through speaking to various people, she finds Liz Green, Mandy’s mum. Mr Morrell’s old fiancee! This is a link back to Hannah Torrence, back to her and her past, just as she thought! As she wanders round the town, she sees the old brown car, is it the same car?

Then the news comes in, they are digging in the woods, a body has been found….

This book is like being on a rollercoaster ride with a lot of cliffhangers as you go through it later on! The book is written as a ‘now’ and ‘then’ style but it works really well and Katerina uses it to her advantage.

The book is set in 2 time periods - from Jasmine's point of view - where her and Felicity were teenage friends - and then 16 years later from Felicity's point of view in the present day.  Back in the day a girl went missing - and the same thing has happened again - and Felicity believes she is the only one who can solve this crime, and so leaves her husband and kids in the Lake District and heads back to her hometown in Devon.

Now there are some MASSIVE twists and turns.  I have to say I guessed a few of them very early on.  I felt quite smug and 'I'm just so bloody clever' - which I wasn't disappointed in - however when I read other NetGalley reviews, others said the same - so maybe I wasn't as smart as I thought!! However, even guessing these twists, it didn't ruin the book for me - and there were plenty of other twists I didn't get so I was still keen to keep reading. and find out what had happened then and now.

I found present day Felicity quite annoying, and it seemed ridiculous that she wouldn't share with anyone what was going on - although as the story progressed you kind of realised why.  I felt quite nervous with her back in her old stomping ground - and sad that she didn't appear to have any support from family or friends at all.

Back 16 years ago Jasmine and Felicity were both quite annoying - but they were 16 years olds so just perfectly written I suspect!  Their relationships with Tim 'the stranger' were complex and teenage and cleverly written - the teenage angst levels were high. 

Overall I really enjoyed the twisty, turny story - and devoured it really quickly - and was suitably shocked by the time I got to the end. 

I'm not sure 'The Heatwave' was really a vital component of the storyline - especially in the present day stuff - not that that detracted, but it's the second book I've read recently where the title wasn't really that relevant. 

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my advance review copy - it's out on 25 June 2020 so just a few hours to wait!

“The Heatwave” is written by the very popular author Katerina Diamond and is a stand-alone thriller set within a dual timeline. Although most recent reviewers of this book praise it highly, I’m afraid I must be the loner on this one, as for me it just didn’t work.
“One summer. One stranger. One killer…Two bad things happened that summer: A stranger arrived. And the first girl disappeared”
Basically that is it. ‘Flick’ returns to her hometown after sixteen years when she discovers a second girl has gone missing. The ‘now’ part of the story involving Flick returning home was a non starter for me and it was literally the last ten per cent of the book that we are privy to why she had to return home. She’s flawed, cliched and totally unrealistic and a character I just couldn’t relate to at all. I did however enjoy the ‘then’ story and was interested in what happened all those years ago but the denouement and revelation of the killer for me was just too far fetched and utterly implausible.
A few inconsistencies for me including a brown car and the sound it made that Flick recognised after sixteen years, spoilt it for me. I’m sure readers who love slow burn stories with flawed characters will like “The Heatwave” and although I would read more by this author again I can’t give this book more than 2.5 stars.

2.5 stars

The Heatwave by Katerina Diamond is a psychological thriller.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Avon Books, and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.


My Synopsis:   (No major reveals, but if concerned, skip to My Opinions)

Felicity was 16 when she fled the small town of Sidmouth in Devon.  She has since married and has two children.

Now, 16 years later, another girl has gone missing from Sidmouth, and Felicity knows she must return to face what happened so long ago.  She is the only one who knows the truth, and she is the only one that has a shot at finding the missing girl.

But Felicity also knows that this could ruin her marriage, but she can't run any more.




My Opinions:   

I love Katerina Diamond's police procedural serial starring Imogen Grey, so I couldn't wait to read this stand-alone novel by a favorite author.

However, this was "almost" a bust for me.  First, my lack of compassion for Felicity - who leaves her husband and children with little warning, and no information, and then seems to be on an alcoholic binge, had me highly annoyed.  Then, the horrendously slow pace had me wanting to put it away forever.  It's a good thing I'm a tenacious reader who never gives up on a book (not yet anyway).  When the book finally took a turn, I was spinning with it.  The twists were extreme. One identity twist I saw coming early on, but there were a couple that really surprised me.  The book went from a blah, blah, blah, to OMG, OMG, OMG.

The story alternated between the two time-lines, the teenage years being told by Felicity's best-friend Jasmine, and the current time-line told by Felicity.  I think the author nailed the early relationship between the teenagers, although I think Jasmine's ability to understand and forgive Felicity's behaviour was a little too mature.  I think at that age if my best friend hit on some guy I was interested in, or blatantly made sure I was made to look foolish in certain circumstances, there would have been more repercussions.  However, that is a minor criticism that I can live with.

The real reason that this is not a 5 star book is that it took entirely too long to get interesting!