TWO-CENT TUESDAY

Below are a few (somewhat) brief $.02 opinions about books I've read or listened to recently but don't have the opportunity to review in full. Many of these titles I enjoyed as much or more than those that got the full court press. I hope you'll consider one or two for your own TBR stack if they strike your fancy whether they struck mine or not.

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SHELTER, by Catherine Jinks

Jinks's The Shepherd blew me away last year and I was eagerly anticipating this title, which couldn't have been more different. Far from the sparse, cracking prose of the former, Shelter was told in a much more descriptive and "mainstream" hand. Which isn't bad, it was simply a much different experience. In Shelter, Meg lives alone in the bush outside town as a way to avoid her abusive ex. Knowing what it's like to try to escape that horrible situation, Meg agrees to provide shelter to Nerine and her two daughters. Of course all three are traumatized, but then odd things begin to happen. Not the least of which is Nerine asking Meg to get a gun (remember, this is Australia, where the people sensible about gun control live and this is no normal request or easy feat). Of course things spiral and questions come from all fronts, including Meg's past. Shelter is, if I have to label it, more domestic thriller than lean, gritty crime fiction. Thankfully, Jinks is a good enough writer to pull both off quite well.

Was feeling depressed for the heroine after reading. She pretty much lost everything after going out of her way to help someone. The villain in the story gained "super skills after appearing to be a hysterical female seeing things that were not there. Did not enjoy this book.

I couldn't put this one down! Catherine Jinks has found a way to tell the stories of battered women and child custody within a psychological thriller that will having you shouting in outrage and rooting on the ladies through all the twists and turns that will keep you guessing right to the very end!

Meg lives alone on her property with only her dog for company. She left her abusive husband years ago and her daughter has moved overseas with only limited contact. Meg offers shelter for Nerine and her two young daughters through a network she has started volunteering for that assists families escaping domestic violence.

Nerine is paranoid that her ex is going to find them and kill them all, She is desperate for a gun to protect herself and a passport and money to escape with her children. She is extremely highly strung and has Meg constantly on edge. The children melt Megs heart and she is desperate to help them recover from the horrors of their past family life and find some form of normality.

Meanwhile, Meg's ex-husband Keith is still harassing her with constant calls and abuse. All of which increase when she finds her mother in law has passed away and left her estate to Meg rather than Keith.

I found this book quite hard going as the relationship between Meg and Nerine is difficult and their characters both frustrated me at times. The domestic abuse angle is always confronting but I found the ending unsatisfying and almost hurried.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book.

#Shelter #NetGalley #CatherineJinks

When Meg , a previous abuse victim, agrees to help a mother with two small children who is in the same situation now, her life will change. A thriller to the very end! I seriously could not put this book down.

Book blurb…
Meg lives alone: a little place in the bush outside town. A perfect place to hide. That’s one of the reasons she offers to shelter Nerine, who’s escaping a violent ex. The other is that Meg knows what it’s like to live with an abusive partner.
Nerine is jumpy and her two little girls are frightened. It tells Meg all she needs to know where they’ve come from, and she’s not all that surprised when Nerine asks her to get hold of a gun. But she knows it’s unnecessary. They’re safe now.
Then she starts to wonder about some little things. A disturbed flyscreen. A tune playing on her windchimes. Has Nerine’s ex tracked them down? Has Meg’s husband turned up to torment her some more?
By the time she finds out, it’ll be too late to do anything but run for her life.
Advance Praise
"Catherine Jinks’s latest work is a tense thriller that explores gaslighting, the different kinds of abuse people inflict upon one another and the way this abuse can ripple through generations... Shelter is an engrossing read that calls to be finished in one sitting."—Books+Publishing
"Highly readable, richly characterised, beautifully written…The tension ratchets up and never dissipates."—Australian Book Review on Shepherd

My thoughts…
Unfortunately, I found this story frustrating, mainly because the early stages of the story was about a very kind-hearted and generous character. I felt, however, she was making unrealistic decisions that would endanger children.
That said, the overall plot was well thought out, and kept me wondering where the story and the characters were going to end up. As an example, Meg borrows a gun from a neighbour, and after a short lesson on how to use the gun, she heads home with it. The character, Meg, did not want to use a gun and borrowing it actually created a more dangerous situation.
I feel frustrated reading stories in which characters do things that do not align with who they are (ie how they are portrayed by the author) and this creates questions for me ultimately effect my overall enjoyment of a story. This is a personal opinion!
All that said, I happily read the story to the end and it does lend itself to discussion, so a good read and a good choice for book clubs.
I am about to start another story by this author. I will see if there are similarities in the writer's plotting/style.

I thoroughly enjoyed this thriller (which lives up to the word). A woman living in hiding from an abusive husband takes in a similarly-fugitive woman and her kids when a network she belongs to connects them. The woman is a nervous basket case who doesn't seem to see how badly her constant anxiety is affecting her children, but she insists her violent ex will kill them all, given the chance.

There's an interesting combination of domestic context (the day-to-day women's work of taking care of a baby and a traumatized little girl) with suspense as both women's exes pose a threat, though it becomes increasingly clear that the children's mother is a threat in her own way. The plot works, though getting through the twisty end requires the narrator to behave in ways not totally consistent with what we know of her. But overall, a thriller that delivers on the suspense while probing the trauma of living with manipulative and violent men.

Nerine and her two children are living a nightmare with an abusive husband. When she has the chance, she turns to someone who can help.

Meg lives alone, a small place almost off the grid ... a safe place. She offers to shelter Nerine and her children .... Meg knows what it's like. At one time she also lived with a abusive partner.

It's no wonder that Meg and her children are extremely nervous. They jump at the least thing .. wind making a howling sound, noises they hear in the middle of the night.

Then she starts to wonder about some little things. A disturbed fly screen. A tune playing on her wind chimes. Has Nerine’s ex tracked them down? Has Meg’s husband turned up to torment her some more?

This is a well-written, nail-biting story of domestic abuse. Fraught with suspense from the very first page, the pace inches up a little at a time until the surprising ending. The characters are solidly drawn, the angst from the two women seem to leap from the pages.

Many thanks to the author / Text Publishing Company / Netgalley for the digital copy of this psychological drama. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of this book. I really enjoyed this one and read it in one day. Look forward to much more by this author.

What a read! This is a psychological thriller at its best.

Meg, a woman who has suffered her own fair share of mental abuse from an ex husband, opens her home to a mother, Nerine, and her her two young children. They are escaping a violent husband/father, and Meg's place is their first step to freedom and a new life.

The story is mainly set in present day, but we have flashbacks to Megs life with her husband, so we can see the abuse she dealt with, that has ultimately led her to where she is now, and the life that she leads.
There is a slow burn in this one, suspense building on every page as Nerine's behaviour becomes more and more erratic, and we begin to realise not is all what it had seemed.

An absolute page turner, and a hard one to put down.

Thanks to NetGalley and Text publishing for giving me the opportunity to review this title.

A very intense psychological thriller that deals sympathetically with issues of abuse, mental health and twists and turns until the end.
Meg is enjoying the solitary life after escaping an abusive marriage from her ex Keith. She’s happy to take in Nerine and her two daughters, who need to hide from their own domestic violence.
Meg is caught up in the deception and lies that follow Nerine, the anticipation grows as Meg tries to unravel the lies from the truth.
This story started slow but quickly developed into questioning right from wrong, I loved the compassionate way the tragedy and horror of abuse and violence are dealt with.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Interesting read with a twisty ending featuring a strong protagonist. An author to watch in the future.

Meg lives alone in the bush when she decides to help Nerine escape an abusive relationship with her two young daughters. Meg understands some of what Nerine is going through as she was in a toxic relationship herself in the past and is still dealing with her ex Keith. Weird things start to happen soon after the girls move in like the wind chimes on the front porch playing twinkle twinkle little star, boot prints are found under the bedroom window and someone lets the chickens out of the coop one night. Has Duncan, Nerine's husband found them or is it Keith messing around? I enjoyed the book and even stayed up after bedtime to finish it but I didn't love the ending. Other than that I would recommend reading it if you enjoy this kind of storyline.

Shelter by Catherine Jinks is a dark and gritty story, a truly atmospheric read. It had me at the edge of my seat the whole time. It is bleak, heartbreaking and beautifully written with lots of twists and an unexpected ending. The characters are flawed yet seem so real. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this dark and disturbing yet utterly engrossing mystery and recommend it to fans of psychological thrillers.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: October 12, 2021
After escaping an abusive ex-husband, Meg is starting life over again, living in a secluded house on the outskirts of town, while she rebuilds her life. When she is asked to provide shelter for an anonymous young mother and her two children who are also escaping an abusive situation, Meg wholeheartedly agrees, hoping she can make a difference in the family’s life. But once Nerine and her children move in, Meg starts witnessing strange things; hang up phone calls, male footprints outside of the bedroom window, more than one of her chickens are found dead. Nerine insists it is her ex, Duncan, but Meg wonders if something more sinister is behind the strange occurrences.
This is my first novel by Australian author, Catherine Jinks, but she is definitely not a novice, with more than thirty stories under her belt. “Shelter” is her newest psychological thriller, and it is one heck of a ride!
Right off the bat, Nerine struck me as suspicious. With the supposed trauma from her past aside, there was something odd about her from the get-go. Long-time fans of this genre (like myself) will no doubt not be surprised by who Nadine turns out to be, but the ride to the end is still just as exciting, as the twists and turns pull you in right from page one.
“Shelter” has some pretty dark and heavy subject matter, as both Nerine and Meg are victims of domestic abuse. Some of their experiences are detailed in the book, so readers should be prepared for that. That being said, the story is still compulsively readable. It shines a light on the devastating effects of domestic violence (on both women and children) but also depicts its victims as brave and courageous survivors, willing to forge new paths.
The ending of the novel is surprisingly realistic, with the right characters getting the right consequences. There is no “happily ever after” where the main characters get off scot-free. However, “Shelter” will leave you satisfied.
With strong characters, the right amount of plot twists, addictive drama and a completely engaging plot, “Shelter” is a unique look at the after-effects of domestic violence and how sometimes, people are not what they seem.

This one wasn't for me, I was not engaged with either the characters or the storyline, which is a pity as I have enjoyed other books by Catherine Jinks. Based on this I am not sure if i will seek out anymore of her novels.

Starting the book I had a feeling that Nerine was the evil one and not running from evil so skipped to the end (as I often do) and realized she was going to cause trouble throughout. I believe this book will appeal to many but it is too dark and sad for me at this point in time.

I love thrillers and this one did not disappoint. When I started to read this book, I had one idea of what the story was going to be, but it turned out to be unlike anything I could imagine. The book follows Meg who offers shelter to Nerine and her two children, Ana and Colette, who are hiding from Nerine's violent ex. Meg has dealt with a violent ex before so she knows what Nerine must be feeling.

After a little while, certain things start to be amiss and before Meg knows it, she's in over her head. Shelter was a page turner from beginning to end. Even though parts of the book were creepy and a bit triggering as I myself have dealt with the situation in the book to an extent, I really couldn't put it down. It was right up my alley and I cannot wait to read other books by Catherine Jinks.

The Shelter is about a woman,  who has herself come out of an abusive relationship,  providing shelter to another woman, traveling with her children, who is running away from her abusive husband.

The book starts from a dark place and it only becomes darker progressively. Most of the characters in the book, their experiences in life and their current situation, are not idyllic in any sense of the word. 

We get to traverse through the minds, thoughts and memories of people who have been victimized and traumatized. That in itself will not make for a very light read. But as the story unfolds, we learn that what actually seemed one way is not that, but something completely different. That twist definitely comes out of nowhere. 

This finally leads to a kind of book which is too chilling,  dark and unsettling. It makes us question the presumptions we have about situations and people; it makes us think; it also will make us doubt the intentions of every person we ever come across. I guess that is the mark of an impactful book.

And people who like such books would definitely enjoy this book a great deal.  The issue for me was, the story was too dark and unsettling for my taste. That is why I am giving 4 stars for it. Thanks to Netgalley and the author for this ARC.

Pretty good read! It’s a domestic violence murder mystery. There were some moments in the book where I wanted to ask the main character about her IQ, but that really isn’t nice. She’s a victim and as a result a people-pleaser which can leave her in situations she rather not be in...quite often. It’s a page turner!

Thank you to #Netgalley and #CatherineJinks for the opportunity to preview the book in exchange for an honest review.