The Blame Game by Sandie Jones has a great, breakneck speed. While I had a hard time connecting to some of the characters, I really enjoyed the twists and turns the story took.

I thought this was so good! I flew through the book in just about 1 day 😆 it was hard to put down, especially the second half of the book! I loved how each chapter pulled you in and never let you go.

I loved the mystery and intrigue surrounding the storyline. There were several times when I was positive I had the whole thing figured out - only to realize I was wrong.

BUT THE MC OMG I really did not like the Naomi. For being a smart, out together psychologist - she was so dumb! Several times I I cringed a little inside after seeing her repeatedly make the same stupid mistakes. And just exactly how many breaths can you let out that you didn't know you were holding?!

The ending was a bit ambiguous but I still enjoyed it overall. Was this book a bit cliche? Yes. But did I also enjoy it and recommend it? Yes!!

Naomi is a psychologist specializing in domestic abuse. Currently she is counselling Anna, who is being abused by her husband and their marriage is on the rocks ever since the death of one of their children, Naomi is also treating Jacob, who is suffering from physical and emotional abuse from his wife Vanessa, and he fears for his life. Naomi not only counsels them, but when one of her patients needs something more, like a safe place to stay, she is quick to step in and help, much to Naomi's husband's ire. When Jacob goes missing, and all of the extra help that Naomi gave him that went above and beyond normal counselling comes to light, Naomi is the one that police are looking at as the main suspect. As the police start asking questions about Jacob, Naomi’s own dark past emerges. And as the truth comes to light, it seems that it’s not just her clients who are in danger.

I am torn about this book. It had some good parts that were suspenseful & there was a good mystery. I also really liked the epilogue. The book had a lot of potential, but there were several things that I didn't like about it. First off, we have Naomi: it was implausible that a psychotherapist would be that unprofessional, and make that many bad choices, and not lose their license to practice. Next up is Naomi's husband.. He acted like he hated Naomi through the majority of the book and there was no visible chemistry between the two of them & it made me wonder why they were even together. Then there is the fact that there were so many loose threads left at the end of the book, particularly in regards to Naomi's family. I am normally a huge fan of this author's books, but this one just didn't live up to my expectations.

Naomi is a therapist who has made it her mission to go above and beyond when her clients are in abusive relationships. So when her client, Jacob, comes to her with claims that his wife hasn’t been the same since they lost their son, she offers to help him. Not long after, her goes missing and everything points to her as being the prime suspect. But why? Is it her past coming back to haunt her or is there more going on than she wants anyone to know about?
There were several issues with this book for me, the primary being Naomi being so unethical. In an industry with so much stigma already, the last thing that is needed is someone being underhanded and dirty. And then crossing the lines to help her patients and therefore blurring the line of what is client and what is relationship is questionable in itself. And then the backstory isn’t fully developed which bothered me a lot. And the characters were all unreliable. I am all for an unreliable narrator but when they all are, it leads to just a lack of interest overall,
The author writes well but I think this one just missed the mark for me.
Thanks to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review

THE BLAME GAME by Sandie Jones is a short, quick read that you could easily read in about a day or two, as it’s just over 250 pages! I have seen some mixed reviews for this one, and I unfortunately didn’t love it. Thanks for my e-arc in exchange for an honest review! This one publishes Tuesday, August 16!

I wanted to love this one more than I did. I think it was trying to do too much for how short the book actually was. Plus, there is an unreliable narrator, which normally I like, but I didn’t in this book. Probably because it painted the female MC as “crazy”. She also made questionable decisions regarding her therapy practice. She clearly needs to set some boundaries.

This book also doesn’t tie everything up nicely- it leaves it kind of open ended. I mean,on one hand, it’s very clear who the culprit is. But, because of all the gaslighting the female MC dealt with, and confusion regarding the murders, you can very easily be left questioning who actually did what. Maybe the author intended for this, but I wasn’t a fan.

If you enjoy a quick thriller that doesn’t necessarily tie things up at the end, then you should read this book! I have a couple other books from this author in my shelf, and despite not loving this book and her book from last year, I’m still going to read them! (I have the other woman and the first mistake).

2.5 stars

This was a very suspenseful book. I liked that aspect of it. I enjoyed the investigative aspect of it and trying to figure out who was setting Naomi up. However, there were too many things I didn't "get" about this book. I thought it was very unprofessional of Naomi to be sharing all of this doctor/patient confidential info with her husband and the police. It was strange how she was always inviting her patients to stay at her home! But then at the same time, she was keeping so many things from her husband making him suspicious of her. I felt she was naive at times. The relationship between her and her husband was blah. I feel like the story went round and round for too long before reaching the conclusion. The ending was twisty and I didn't see it coming which redeemed it a bit for me.

I thought the narrator did a great job conveying the different characters and the emotion they were all experiencing. I was glad to listen to her narrate.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Macmillan audio for access to this digital and audio ARC available on 8/16/22.

In Sandie Jones’ newest book, a therapist with no boundaries gets way too involved in her clients’ lives. This book was a delightfully quick read, and I finished it in a single day while on vacation. It was full of twists, but ultimately I was somewhat underwhelmed. It was a little too convoluted, and the plot points I was most interested in didn’t get resolved. Although I’m glad this was a quick read, I would have liked to see a little more attention paid to Naomi’s backstory.

3.5⭐ rounded down.
Naomi is an unconventional psychologist that gets too involved with her patients, not in a totally, totally unethical sense, but always going WAY over and beyond the call of duty. She specializes in cases of domestic abuse which stems from something that happened in her childhood. Her husband, Leon, is fed up with her ways and their marriage becomes rocky after he meets two of her clients, Jacob and Anna. (view spoiler)

I was fortunate enough to receive a kindle copy and the audiobook to review. I started out reading it, then switched to audio, then back again and ultimately my favorite was the audio, so that's how I tackled most of it.
Narrated by Karissa Vacker for 7 hours and 23 minutes and she did a FANTASTIC job! Her accents were spot on.

I wasn't feeling Naomi at all, I didn't like her unconventional ways, the secrets and lies she kept from Leon or her backstory. And inviting people into her home, really?! And when are people going to realize you can't lie to the police? Although, I did predict most things I still liked this one.
I have read every book by Sandie, all rated 4 stars. Her plots are not original, but solid domestic/psychological reads. A quick under 300 page read.

One thing is for sure this author is really the queen of twisty suspense novels, you never know where any of her books will take you, this one had my head spinning, I couldn’t put this book down. We meet a therapist who specializes in domestic violence, and Naomi is just as big of a mystery than her patients. I loved Naomi because she will do anything to help her clients in any way, and that’s amazing. She has a patient by the name of Jacob who is being abused by his wife and she goes against code to help him, then he goes POOF, disappeared. Then all of these crazy things start to happen, her past starts to creep into her life, a past that is so sketchy in the beginning, and then we discover little by little these patients aren’t who they seemed. There is so much going on in this book, its wild that I finished it so fast. The end was really confusing but this author has a way of letting you create your own ending, I was stuck reading the last few pages a few times to help me understand the ending more. Wish the book was a little longer or some parts were cut off and make room for more of Naomi’s past, there was a lot of unfinished things between her and her family that I am here thinking “will there be a part 2?”

Thanks Netgalley and the Publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

Thank you for a copy of this book. I had high hopes for this book since I loved her other books. I liked that Naomi was so dedicated to her patients but think she was way out of line with Anna and Jacob trying to go above and putting herself at risk.
I found Leon to be a pompous ass that didn't feel supportive of Anna especially finding out what happened in a scene.
I don't know how but I figured out the twist so that may have may have made me enjoy it less.
This book is very fast paced and action packed for a short book.

The Blame Game is a fast paced thriller that will keep you guessing. The main character, Naomi, annoyed me from the beginning. She has major issues with boundaries but that doesn’t mean she deserves what happens.

** I received an electronic ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review of this book.

Good read but thought the ending was a bit confusing. Is there another one coming of are we to decide ourselves? Husband was irritating.

The Blame Game is a quick read about a psychologist that specializes in domestic abuse victims. She is a victim herself and has trouble drawing and keeping boundary lines with clients because she wants so much to help. Because of this, Naomi gets in too deep with one in particular which is what sets this story off on a roller coaster ride.
I liked trying to figure out the guilty party but had trouble with Naomi in how she ran her practice and her relationship with her husband. I didn't much care for him either. I was looking for more information and backstory on her past and her sister, Jennifer.

Hard to rate this one, 75% of the book I enjoyed but the ending ruined it for me. I predicted certain things were going to happen but when they didn’t, I was disappointed in how everything was tied up. I listened to the audio version and the narrator was phenomenal, very distinct voices for each character.

Huge amount of thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur books for a copy of this book.
Naomi is a psychologist that specializes in domestic abuse after traumatic events from her childhood. She runs a private practice on her property and cares deeply about her clients. A little too much as she puts her marriage on the back burner to help two different clients. When one goes missing, she finds herself as a suspect.
This wasn’t my favorite by this author, but it’s still a good thriller and story

I first encountered this book in the Minotaur Sampler and was quite intrigued by the premise and the pages. Unfortunately, this book ended up not being for me. I spent more time yelling at the main character for her lack of professionalism as she breaks all rules and norms around dealing with therapy clients to be drawn into danger and lying to her husband throughout the book than caring about the mystery around those clients that are using her for their own ends. I greatly appreciate Minotaur and Macmillan Audio for providing me a print and audio version of this book to see if I liked it more in one or the other format. The epilogue is fantastic and if the entire book had played out from that point of view instead of the weaker one on Naomi's side it could've been amazing.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for copies of this book!

This book is suspense! I had that same feeling when I read the guilt trip last year! This book had a lot of moving parts. We had Naomi, the therapist, who’s married to Leon. We had Jacob (or Michael) the client who is seeking help from Naomi bc he’s in a domestic violence situation with his wife. Not only is she tangled in his life, but Naomi has also involved herself in another client, Anna’s, life as well. Naomi is also dealing with tons of family issues too.

Now with all that said, I wasn’t ever confused with who was who. I thought the author did a great job of making the characters distinct enough that they all felt distinguishable.

The drama was at an all time high! Even though I knew Naomi didn’t do the things the police were accusing her of, all the evidence stacked against her made it easy to see why they thought it was her. Also some of her decisions had me screaming “GIRL what are you doing!”

My one complaint is that I felt like there were unanswered questions at the end. I wanted more from the family issues. It’s like they were looming in the background but never came into the picture. It was almost like okay so was this just thrown in for good measure or was it actually meant to be part of the plot. I was questioning who was framing Naomi and thinking it was her sister, but other than that her family drama just didn’t have much to do with the plot

Overall I had a good time reading this book! I think Sandie Jones excels at drama and suspense. She always has me on the edge of my seat! I look forward to reading whatever she comes out with next!

3.75 stars

This story is dramatic and twisty and a bit over the top (in a fun way, for the most part). As with many other recent stories from the same genre, it wasn’t ground-breaking or mind-blowing, but I did mostly enjoy the plot development and some of the character progression; that being said, I definitely wasn’t a fan of some of the characters, and I saw a couple of the smaller revelations coming. I didn’t realize initially that I’d read another book from the same author, but now I see the similarities in style; I’ll probably check out other books from the writer again in the future. All in all, I did like it.

This was a great read. It drove me nuts trying to determine what was really going on and who was responsible. The last paragraph is the best I have ever read. The ending was a bang!

The Blame Game's plot had a lot of potential. A psychologist that specializes in domestic abuse who gives a little bit too much to her clients. One of her clients, Jacob, is being abused and threatened by his wife. Fearing for his life, he asks for Naomi's help, and she lets him stay in her and her husband's rental. Then another client, Anna, is also fearing for her safety from her husband after the death of their son. Naomi becomes way too invested in the lives of her clients. She also has a deeply troubling backstory where her father killed her mother, and he has just been released from prison.

Unfortunately, I could never really get into the story and characters. There were just too many things that were a little bit far-fetched for me. And I didn't quite get the ending... there were just a lot of unanswered questions and things left hanging. Maybe it was supposed to be ambiguous, but I didn't get it and felt unsatisfied. Overall, it was fast-paced, and it kept me reading, I just didn't feel connected to the story, so it will probably be easily forgettable.