Although this book appears to be receiving great reviews via Netgalley, I’m afraid I did not enjoy the story at all. Told from central character Becca’s viewpoint, there’s no doubt that it’s well written and will appeal to many readers. Basically I couldn’t take to any of the characters apart from ex-boyfriend Connor who turns up at the end of the book. Also I found myself continually suspending belief at some of the things that happened, particularly a relationship Becca knew nothing about, which I couldn’t get my head around. And the final outcome regarding Becca’s daughter Mia was too horrible to contemplate.
My thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of The Ex-Boyfriend in exchange for an honest review.

Good story but also confusing. The story had some nice twists but not enough to overcome the negatives. Becca is the only character that has a backstory. Connor, Kate, Dean and her father, Frank seem to pale in the background. I find it hard to get passed that Dean and the family's history was never told in full. Especially since the whole book revolved around Becca and Dean. Slowly, the author reveals a small percentage of history regarding Dean. That didn't seem to complete the story for me as the build-up to Dean's history with the family was too large.
Connor's character was extra and not need to be in the story. If the author took Connor out of the story, it would still work and it would even be better. The whole story revolved around the family. With that being said, the title of the book does not fit the story.

Thank you to the Bookouture and NetGalley for letting me read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A mother who's instincts are point on when it comes to her child being sick but no one believing her... or even worse believing she is the cause behind the sickness...
Majority of this book I struggled with as a mother myself. I can't imagine what I would do if I was accused like Becca. I do know my family would never act like her dad and sister. Her sister I wanted to throat punch by the way.
This book had me anxious and biting my nails page and page. I would go back and forth on how it would end and I definitely didn't guess the outcome!
I give this 3.5/5 stars. I felt the ending was a little rushed once you find out everything. And I feel Becca handled it too well, I could not see myself reacting the way she did.
Overall it was a great thriller and I have already recommended it to a few people once it is released.

*Thank you to Rona Halsall, Bookouture and Netgalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review*

Rona Halsall knows how to write a thriller.

Becca is a part time district nurse living in Wales and married to Dean, a workaholic who is also married to his job. Someone is poisoning their 3yo daughter Mia and the doctors think it is Becca. And Becca is determined to figure out who it is. Is it the babysitter? The vengeful sitter? The absent husband? Herself? There is so much whodunit in this book that at one point this reader thought they were all involved in poisoning this sweet little girl.

This read is intense and takes you through so many twists and turns and then the ending has the reader saying "Aha"! So satisfying.

Absolutely Brilliant!

Becca has a nice life. She works three mornings a week and is married to Dean who is doing well establishing his business. They also have a three-year-old daughter, Mia. Although there are some problems in the marriage with Dean always working and Becca suspicious of his relationship with his business partner, Alice. Out of the blue she gets a twitter message from an ex boyfriend that lives in Australia and she starts to consider what she left behind. One night Mia becomes ill but there is no known cause and after a few bouts Becca is sure Mia is being poisoned by someone. From that point things spiral out of control. There are problems with her relationship with her sister, her father needs more care and her sister wants someone else to care for him. Becca turns to Connor, the ex, for comfort.

I found the story a bit slow moving. At 55% Mia is still having episodes but we are no closer to the truth. By then I was getting kind of bored and I really didn't like Becca. She seems a little self-centered for instance when her childminder had a breast cancer scare Becca seemed more concerned about how it would effect her. She seems to have a lot of secrets, well they all do, but she is very impulsive in her actions and sometimes I just wanted to slap her. Her sister, Kate, was a bossy personality and I don't think we are supposed to like her. Connor isn't very well developed and I wished to know more about him. If they all would have shared their past instead of keeping secrets things would have been a lot different.

At the end we finally know who the culprit is and then BAM! we are in an epilogue telling us how things are a year later.

I think the story had a good premise but I felt like it could have been executed a lot better. Did I like the book? I did and I was interested in who was hurting Mia and why.

My thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for an advance copy of this book. This is my honest opinion.

Becca has become involved via email with her first love. He is across the world so she cannot imagine it would do any harm to her marriage. Meanwhile, her three-year-old daughter becomes quite ill from time to time, thus adding stress to Becca's already strained marriage to Dean.

Mia's symptoms are severe, yet they come and go, thus leading Becca to believe that Mia is being poisoned. But by whom, and why? Could this have anything to do with her ex suddenly showing up online? What about the people in her everyday life - her husband, sister, father, even the childminder? Could any of them have something to do with Mia's bouts of extreme illness? Who can Becca trust?

Not only is Becca quite naturally concerned with what is going on with Mia, she begins to see that her past - one where there are indeed secrets - has a chance at being exposed. This mix of family, drama and secrets create a delicious combination that turned into quite a remarkable story. One thing that drew me to this story is that I was kept guessing throughout and managed to be completely shocked at the guilty party. I love it when an author keeps me on my toes and that is exactly what Rona Halsall has done with The Ex Boyfriend.

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

I enjoyed this book and found it a quick, entertaining read. However, I would not classify it as a psychological thtiller. For me, this book was more of a domestic drama and actually had very little to do with the ex-boyfriend. Nonetheless the characters were believable and the story was well written.

3 Stars

The Ex-Boyfriend is more of a family drama than a thriller, with the protagonist, Becca, the perpetual victim. The author writes well, and the story is well constructed, but it simply wasn't for me. Many thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for providing an ARC for an honest review.

I had the pleasure to read this book, thanks to NetGalley, publisher and author. If I had to review this book in one sentence, I would say: I've never seen a twist like this. I really liked this book. This is my first book from this author and I look forward to reading more from her. I always love to discover a new author I really like.

Becca is married to Dean and they have a young daughter Mia. Their marriage is definitely under strain as his focus seems to be principally on his burgeoning business rather than his family. This loneliness leads Becca to think about her ex Connor who she met on an extended holiday in Australia. She has to leave him and go home for family reasons but promises to return but circumstances get in the way. Unexpectedly he gets in touch via social media which coincides with Mia having a series of recurring illness with the same horrible symptoms. Is someone deliberately harming her?? After this Becca’s life goes from bad to worse in this intriguing domestic noir.

First of all, although I don’t warm to Becca as a personality, her background, health issues with anxiety, OCD and depression and her work history certainly lends itself to interesting reading. The start is good and draws you in though I think it takes a while for the storyline to get going as it’s a bit clunky and disjointed initially. However, once the scene is established it becomes an engaging and compelling read. The suspicion for what happens to Mia falls on several suspects which obviously makes you want to read on and the final twist is a good one as you do not see that one coming. It’s a shock to say the least.

Overall, an easy to read and enjoyable psychological suspense drama. I definitely want to read more by this author.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC for an honest review.

A very gripping thriller with an unseen ending that really didn't become apparent right until the final few chapters.

The writing style was easy and flow was fast paced. I have never read a book by Rona Halsall previously and would definitely look forward to seeing more in the future.

I give 4 stars only because I have recently read books I enjoyed a tiny bit more that were 5 star reads. I have however already mentioned this book to my bookloving friends.

Thank you to netgalley for the ARC

A fast and thrilling read. Becca hasn’t had it easy and finds herself in awful predicaments that have her questioning her own sanity. She wonders who could be trying to sabotage her life and why. I never saw it coming!

Another book that should come with a warning. Please, make sure you have plenty of time once you start reading it, because once you have read the prologue you will want to shut the world out and get immersed in this wonderful story.

Every child is ill once in a while and of course it breaks your heart, but what's even worse is that nobody seems to believe you when you tell them there is more going on. When finally you are being heard, that's when the real nightmare begins...

I really did not know who was genuine here. I distrusted everyone and that is what makes a book such a good read. My brain still hurts from trying to make all the pieces of the puzzle fit. I did figure it out about 2 minutes before Becca did and that was around chapter 39 (of 40 LOL). 

I loved, loved, loved it! 5 stars.

Thank you, Rona Halsall and Bookouture

Thank you to the author, Rona Halsall, the publishing company Bookouture, and NetGalley for an early electronic copy, for an honest review.

Twists? This one has it!
Turns? Check!!
Simply unable to be put down? This is that book.

I just cannot say enough about this absolutely great read; it has everything I always look for and want in a psychological thriller and no matter how many times I thought I had it figured out, I didn't!!

Kudos to the author for writing this one, and keeping your readers on the edge of their seat throughout the whole book. This is your genre!!

Rona Halsall has done it again and written a quite outstanding psychological thriller to go with all her other books.Becca is married to Dean but he is rarely around as he works to get his company up and running,and when Mia their daughter starts to become unwell on a regular basis Becca starts to suspect it is more than just a virus as the doctor says.Kate,Becca's sister lives with their dad Frank and seems to resent Becca as she feels she is caring for Frank with no help at all from her sister,but things start to spiral out of control for Becca when her past comes back to haunt her in a big way when she is accused of harming Mia and with an ending i didn't .see coming this book is another winner.Rona Halsall is fast becoming a leading author in this genre as this book proves yet again she up there with the best of the bunch,i would certainly recommend The Ex - Boyfriend to anyone who enjoys this genre,5 stars all the way for me.

This is a clever book, a very readable work of fiction that will appeal to readers of the psychological fiction genre, while exploring the contemporary and controversial topic of fabricated illness (formerly Munchausen syndrome by proxy). It also has tenderness, empathy and a whole web of complex relationships at its core.

Becca is a district nurse, married to Dean and Mum to 3 year old Mia. The ‘ex-boyfriend’ the book takes its name from is Connor, the lost love ‘surfer-dude’ she amicablly and mutually separated from years previously.

Coinciding with a reconnection with Connor on social media, Becca finds her family ripped apart as she is accused of intentionally harming her daughter. Unfortunately given an event in her past that threatened her mental health, she finds that this accusation sticks. She believes someone is out to get her, but who? .... and why?!

This story is intriguing, it also has tenderness, empathy and a whole web of complex relationships at its core.

I was initially so confident I had cracked the code and knew who the perpetrator was, I was surprised and delighted to be wrong!! Overall a very satisfying read.

My thanks to Netgalley, author and publisher for the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an advance copy.

his book had me reading into the wee hours of the morning! I was hooked on The Ex Boyfriend by Rona Halsall. The author set up the story beautifully with a flawed main character who had a troubled past and a tense relationship with her father and sister. Add to that a tragic event in her childhood with a friend that haunts her. And then an ex-boyfriend who shows up in her Twitter messenger as her life looks to be falling apart.

Take a look:

When Becca’s first love shows up on her social media feed, she can’t help but smile fondly. Once upon a time Connor was the love of her life, and though it was over ten years ago, he’s always held a place in her heart.

Then he sends her a message. He sounds happy – still kind and funny, still living across the world in Australia. But he wants to know everything about her life now. How can Becca tell him the truth? About her workaholic husband, her stressful job, and the challenges of caring for her elderly father and her longed-for, adorable but exhausting three-year-old daughter Mia?

Becca hesitates, knowing she shouldn’t even reply. But Connor lives on the other side of the world. Just how dangerous can becoming friends again be?

It feels harmless. Until Mia gets sick – in a way that no one can explain. And it starts to become clear – someone will do absolutely anything to make sure Becca never escapes her past…

This was such a great read! I will be looking for more from Rona Halsall in the future. If you like books you can read in a single afternoon, this is for you!

Get it here, coming on September 30!

Wow Rona Halsall has done it again with her new novel The Ex-boyfriend.
Becca is married to Dean and they have a three-year-old daughter called Mia. Dean has been distant of late and is always going on business trips away leaving Becca sole care of Mia. Becca is also a part time nurse and helps when she can look after her father, when sister Kate is away. She struggles at the best of times. So, when Kate says she is going away to London for an interview, she asks to look after her father. As Kate has being doing to since the death of her mother. It is her turn to take over for a change.
When suddenly Mia starts getting ill. At first, she thinks that there is something wrong with her. But all kids have tummy bugs some time or other, don’t they? But when she is checked by the doctor there is nothing wrong with her. Then Becca can only think that someone is poisoning her. But Who? When Dean gets to find out, Dean thinks it is Becca doing it herself and with that there is an order against Becca not to see her daughter.
I have followed Rona Halsall from the beginning and her books never disappoint. This is another superb, gripping thriller from the author. With shocking twists and turns. 5 stars from me.

The Ex-Boyfriend by Rona Halsall is a classic psychological thriller told by a narrator that we as readers aren't sure is altogether reliable. Becca is a new Mom with a mostly absent husband. A nurse, she's harboring a big secret about a past investigation into her professional conduct. When her daughter Mia starts getting violently ill she suspects someone is poisoning her - but no one around her believes her and starts to suspect her. In the meantime, the titular Ex Boyfriend pops back into her life via Twitter, offering her a little lifeline from the drama in her life. As she continues to try to figure out who's making her daughter sick from a pool of suspects that includes her husband, babysitter, sister... she also unravels some other family secrets. As a reader, just when you think you've got it figured out, your suspicion shifts to another character. There are twists that will surprise and It's a decent beach read, but don't into it expecting the next Gone Girl.

Becca is married with a 3 year old daughter who she adores. Things should be perfect in their new house, but with her husband working away building up his business for their future, she’s lonely and struggling with her mental health. Scared she’s going to regress to a darker time, she’s suddenly buoyed by a message on social media from Connor, her first love.
When her daughter suddenly gets violently sick, she is worried, knowing something is wrong.
Suddenly everything is upended and everything is changing, especially when her childminder has to cancel and she is forced to leave her daughter in the care of her dad who lives in her childhood family home with her sister.
I was certainly kept on my toes throughout the whole book, one minute you think you know what’s going on, the next, you’ve had it all turned on it’s head. This is cleverly written by a knowledgeable author. I am now off to buy everything else this author has written!