Another outstanding book from Wendy Clarke.

Mels’ life is difficult. She has finalized her divorce however is still living with her ex-husband and when she is moved from her dream job as a breakfast radio presenter to the late-night radio show she feels her life is crumbling around her. However, she rises to the challenge determined to do a good job and make the show her own. Her curiosity is piqued when a mysterious lady, Natalie, keeps phoning in to the True Confessions part of the show talking about her lover who runs hot and cold. After Mel meets Malik one drunken night and he acts the same way she starts to think her and Natalie have a lot in common and she begins to obsess about Natalie calling in. Then suddenly Natalie stops calling in after telling Mel she’s scared of her lover and along with Mel’s car tyre being slashed she starts to receive strange text messages. Is Mel in danger? And if so, who is the perpetrator?

Wow this was excellent, and I really enjoyed reading it. I know I’ve got a good book in my hands when every spare minute I have goes on reading it, tv, films and even social media all got ignored in favour of me reading this. By a quarter of the way through I felt things were getting pretty creepy and that continued throughout the story which gave the whole book a really intense but enjoyable vibe. I did start getting a little annoyed with Mel by about halfway through as she kept giving Malik chances even though he was running hot and cold with her, and she did also seem pretty obsessed with him, but I guess she felt lonely and unwanted and that’s why she liked him so much as he eased that for her for a little while. I figured out who was behind everything that was happening with about a quarter of the book to go but this didn’t ruin the story for me, at all, as I was on the edge of my seat waiting for Mel to work it all out.

All in all, a really good story and well deserved 5 stars for this one. I highly recommend this for any psychological thriller fans, you will not be disappointed.

Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and Wendy Clarke for my advanced reading copy. Due out 29th October 2021.

Blind Date by Wendy Clarke.

This is my first Wendy Clarke book and it will not be my last.

A psychological thriller, where any of the male characters could have been the perpetrator up until the penny dropped close to the end of the book. Lots of unlikeable characters and twists and turns.

Wow…what a ride!


Publication date 29 October 2021

Premise:
Melanie works in a radio station, hosts a show with two of her friends, Simon and Chris. She has just finalized a divorce now and need a push to start living her life instead of just going through it. On the top of divorce, now even her show has been taken away from her, and she got the late night show, that is so much more raw, personal and interactive. She doesn't know whether she should do it or not.
Chris, tries to set her up on a blind date, and she really hits it off with him only to know Malik was just some random guy Chris was talking to.
So professionally and personally, she simply doesn't know what to do. Malik keeps on acting strangely, doesn't open up, locks her up when he leaves at night, and then Natalie calls her on her radio show telling her about this guy she loves and he sounds so much like Malik. A lot of other shit happened that only left Melanie constantly doubting Malik and asking herself, Is Malik the bad guy?
But then she isn't a good person either.

Review:

I liked the characters, and I liked the twists and turns. Every single character is unreliable, you cannot believe anyone and the mystery holds, even if you guess one thing, something or the other will still be out of your reach.
I genuinely enjoyed reading this, and it was well-paced.

Thanks to Netgalley and Publishers for the ARC.

Wendy Clarke has become a favourite author of mine, and when my request to read an ARC of her new book was accepted, I was thrilled!
Blind Date is a gripping psychological thriller with the female protagonist making some very dubious choices when faced with a few quite disturbing situations. I found myself asking her "what are you doing!?" several times! The story was fast-paced and suspenseful, with a bunch of characters that I grew to dislike as they developed, making for a fun 'who the hell is doing this to her?' game. It is an easy read with short chapters in the author's usual writing style that I have come to enjoy.
So go on, what are you waiting for? Grab yourself a Blind Date!

Publication date is the 29th of October, 2021.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for an ARC of this book to read and review.

A good quick read. You’ve gotta love Karma! There’s not one of the characters that I liked but that didn’t stop it being a good read and a great lesson in what goes around comes around.

Melanie is down on her luck lately. She is living with her ex-husband and looking for a place of her own. She has also been replaced on her morning radio host job with friends Chris and Simon and moved to the late night spot by herself.
Working the late night shift is creepy and lonely. Especially when she starts receiving disturbing messages.
Who could be sending these messages? Is it a so called "fan" or someone closer to home?
What I liked: the overall story, mystery and intrigue.
What I didn't like: the characters. They were all a mess.

Thanks to netgalley and Bookouture for the arc.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle by Bookouture and #NetGalley for my honest opinion.

It was okay overall. While it didn’t love it, I didn’t dislike it either. It was enjoyable but hard to keep my attention.

Even though I see some low ratings in this book, I actually thought this book was great!

Plot:- Melanie Abbot used to work in the Breakfast show with her closest friends, Simon and Chris. But Melanie's life seems to go down the drain--she was transferred to a late night radio show, she is facing divorce and she is asked to leave the house. Then her friend sets her up with a blind date and she meets Malik, a handsome man and instantly she feels attracted to him. But then soon she receives phone calls, and Malik locks her up in his room...is Malik her dream man or her worst nightmare?

Writing:-The story is told from Melanie's perspective. Literally the writing was great and the author did a good job drawing the reader into the story. However, even though the thriller is fast paced, there were not much twists and turns but despite that, I was hooked into the book. However, towards the end of the book, it was a bit predictable and also I didn't like how the ending turned out. I mean come on, if your own friends betrayed you, you wouldn't really want to talk with them right? Anyway I didn't like the ending much but maybe it was just me.

Characters:- Melanie seems to be a bit of a naive character and I do like Chris and Simon's friendship with Melanie. But then I didn'thave any likable characters in the book.

Overall:- Overall, this was actually a good thriller that will keep you hooked into the story. Worth four stars!

Thank you Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

Wendy Clarke does it again! Her books never disappoint me and this was certainly another gripping and twisted psychological thriller from her.

Mel is a radio presenter on the breakfast slot. She is recently divorced but living in the same house as her Ex Husband, which clearly isn’t ideal. So, when the chance to move into a flat share comes up, she grabs the opportunity.

Chris and Simon, who are on the breakfast show with Mel, think she needs to get dating again so Chris arranges a blind date. Mel meets Malik and the chemistry between them is electric. Something clearly isn’t right though.

Due to falling ratings, Mel gets moved to the late night show on the radio which has a ‘True Confessions’ section where people can phone in and confess all. One caller really strikes a chord with Mel when she confesses her concerns about a man, as Mel can relate to her issues.

A slow build up which had me hooked from chapter one. I was already wondering where the story was going. A few chapters in and I just couldn’t put the book down. Wendy’s writing is really good. The chapters flowed well, all set in current time.

Creepy at times, especially when Mel was alone in the radio station after midnight wondering if there was a stalker outside. I was suspecting everyone.

What a jaw dropping twist. I totally didn’t see that coming, and what an ending!

Many thanks to netgalley, Bookouture and the author for an arc. Really happy to read this.

This was a very mixed bag for me - but the ultimate message is what goes around comes around and that is something I can get on board with! Mel is a divorced radio presenter who is down on her luck! Living with her ex, bumped from her morning slot to a night time slot and replaced personally and professionally by younger, perkier versions of herself she is a bit of a mess! She starts getting threats and malicious messages and thinks it may be her new “fling” who is dark and mysterious!
To summarise I really didn’t like any of the people in the entire book! Mel was hideous, selfish, naive and a bit dumb! All in all it made for an entertaining read - if not a little far fetched! I couldn’t put it down - but it was not the best book around. Great twist at the end which cheered me up!

What comes around goes around. Melanie is at a crossroads in her life, but feels as though she is making poor choices. As she has in the past. It takes a long time to find out her secrets. People whom she trusted are not what they seem. There are so many concurrent themes in this story, they come in waves. I had to keep reading to see where all this ended up. Who really was the culprit and how was Melanie going to extricate herself? Scenes were creepy and sinister and delicious. Beware of graveyard shifts and for gosh sakes park under a light .

This book made me consider the personal lives of my favorite radio personalities in my own city. In this story, Melanie, Chris and Simon are morning show DJs at the local radio station in London. Melanie is abruptly replaced by a younger female DJ and she is moved to the late night radio spot. Around the same time, Chris sets Melanie up on a blind date with a friend who turns out to be a mysterious and questionable dating prospect. Through the novel, Melanie deals with creepy late-night calls to her new radio show, threatening text messages from unknown numbers and destruction of her personal property. I don’t want to spoil any of the MANY twists and unexpected turns but suffice it to say that I was repeatedly surprised up until the very last page of the book. I gave less than 5 stars because I was consistently frustrated with the main character's poor decisions, and had difficulty sympathizing with her troubles. None of the characters were terribly likeable, but I'm guessing that was the author's intent.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley.

Everything is looking pretty bleak for Mel - her career is going downhill, she's getting divorced and losing her house … but then she meets Malik and it feels like she'll never be sad again. Even if the first time they met she ended up locked inside his flat alone. It just didn't seem like a big deal at the time. But then come the unexplained footsteps, the slashed tyres, and the strange phone calls into her radio show...

Somebody is out to get her, and she can only hope and pray it isn't Malik, the man she's already spilled her darkest secrets too.

"Sometimes it's easy to not see the clues. Or maybe it's just easier to ignore them."

Blind Date was thick with tension and unease from the very first page, setting the reader up for confusion right out the gate. Heavily descriptive and atmospheric, Clarke keeps drawing our attention to the smallest details and distracting us from the bigger picture until we can take a step back and see all the clues that are right in front of us.

With a slow pace, this story definitely kept the reader in suspense waiting for the shoe to drop but I found the pacing a bit too slow at times - for the first half of the story Mel and Malik barely interact with each other so I was left wondering where her obsession with him had come from? Yes, he was sexy and mysterious, but Mel said a lot of wonderful things about Malik that literally come from nowhere. This story will definitely make you think about stranger danger.

I started reading Blind Date by Wendy Clarke and could not put it down, finished it in one day!
A story of misunderstandings and secrets that make you question who you can trust and who you can turn to. Lots of surprises and twists, you'll be hooked from the beginning!

A disturbing and unsettling clever read with a tense build up of action to keep you on the edge of your seat. Suspicion falls on all of the characters as secrets are shared, and the late night and dark canal settings just add to the feeling of disquiet. Definitely one to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up as you check you are alone!

You should be able to trust your friends, right? You should be able to believe they keep something secret you have told them in confidence, right? You should be able to believe them when they say they are concerned about you and have your best interests at heart, right? You should be able to trust them when they say you should not trust a stranger, right?

That's what Melanie believes in, but is she to trusting? Is she falling in someone's trap with her eyes wide open? Who will be left by her side in the end?

These are a lot of questions, but they will all be answered in this great, thrilling book. It does not surprise me that Melanie did not know where to turn to or who to trust, because I had the exact same feeling. 

Several times the book was really, really creepy and I finished it late last night. I started hearing a lot of noises to and kept looking over my shoulder. When and if an author can provoke this kind of reactions, it's crystal clear she hit a home run. 

I just loved it and the story has made my mouth fall open more than once. 5 stars

Thank you

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Blind Date by Wendy Clarke is a gripping thriller full of twists and turns. The story revolves around Melanie, a 38 year-old woman who works at a radio station with her coworkers Simon and Chris: the 3 Musketeers. One day, she learns that she's out of a job and her ex wants her to move out. It's the perfect time to go on a blind date! Malik seems like the man of her dreams. Being with him is exciting and romantic. But what secrets is he hiding? And could he be the mysterious caller who is stalking her at night?

Here is a terrifying excerpt from the Prologue, which is from her stalker's perspective:

"I know your secret, but you don't know mine.
That's my confession.
You've gone silent, Melanie... Why's that? Is it because you're afraid of what I'll say? That this call will no longer be about me but about you? What would be the fun in that? It's enough that you know I know.
But that's not my only confession. What I want to tell you tonight is that I hurt. Right deep inside my chest, the way it would feel if a knife was thrust into my heart to the hilt. Then further still. And all this because I've experienced the most perfect love."

Overall, Blind Date is an unputdownable thriller with some seriously scary moments. I could not put this book down. Even though this book is 285 pages, I finished it in a day, because I had to keep reading and find out what happens next. One highlight of this book is the spooky setting of the radio station booth. Late at night, if you're working the late-night radio, who would be around to make sure you're safe? Are you safer inside the booth or outside of the building?

If I had to complain about one thing, I would have to say that a large portion of the novel was not really "thrilling" and was mainly filler or conversation. For example, there are a lot of scenes dedicated to Melanie's romantic escapades. Although I was expecting more exciting or suspenseful scenes in this thriller, the story definitely maintained my interest. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of thrillers in general, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in October!

Melanie and her husband are no longer together but they have to share the same house until she can find somewhere else to live , she works at Lock Radio doing the breakfast show with Chris and Simon but this day is different a new young girl comes in with them and after the show she is told buy Di that she is no longer on that show and if she want s the late night show its hers she is so angry , that night she decides to take up Simon and Chris offer of a night out and there she meets Malik but something is not right . then the call starts on her true confession show and who his sending her hate texts and Melanie has a secret that she does not want anyone to find out . i so very enjoyed this book keeps you gripped to the end

Immediately I knew this woman wasn’t safe. There were red flags all over the place. While I found the story to be really well written, and I did enjoy it, I feel that the description gave away some of the suspense.

Thank you Bookouture and NetGalley for the arc of this book. This is a tough book to review. Pretty much all of the characters were awful. Maybe it's because I'm older and can't relate to the things Melanie does at all. I'm not sure if I disliked her because I couldn't relate of if I couldn't relate to her because I disliked her. Some of her choices were baffling. So many secrets-why don't people communicate!? 2.5 stars rounded up to three.