I really struggle most of the time with books about therapists/psychiatrists since I am a therapist. sometimes they work for me. this one did not. so unrealistic, unlikable characters. not my favorite.

Thank you to Minotaur Books for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Pub date: 8/16/22
Genre: domestic suspense
In one sentence: Naomi is a therapist specializing in domestic abuse, but she finds herself in a dangerous situation when she gets too involved in her clients' lives.

I read a lot of domestic suspense, and this one started off strong. Naomi is a bit of a trainwreck, and I could tell her choices were going to land her in trouble. Ultimately, this one was just too twisty and confusing for me to love - the end felt really abrupt, and I'm still not 100% sure what happened.

Readers who love a WTF? thriller may enjoy this one more than I did. It's a quick read to take your mind off of life.

THE BLAME GAME by Sandie Jones

I read the sampler, about 50 pages, of this book late last year and I had my guesses as to how it was going to play out.

I had no idea.

In THE BLAME GAME we’re following Naomi. Naomi is a psychologist specializing in domestic abuse who may have a little trouble with boundary issues of her own.

She is currently seeing Jacob as a client and not only have things gone a little too far with him but he suddenly goes missing.

Oh, and so do his files.

This was a lot of fun to read. Probably my favorite of the summer so far. I had a lot of theories and every single one of them was wrong.I love when that happens.

Have you read a Sandie Jones book before? Which one is your favorite?

This one comes out August 16, 2022
Be sure to add it to your list. Don’t miss it.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for the advanced copy!

THE BLAME GAME…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Blame Game had such a great premise, I loved the idea of a psychiatrist going above and beyond to help her patients. I also liked the characterizations, everyone in the book is messy with great backstories. This was a book where the characters felt so real to me. The author was so good at building a slow dread as the police and family seem to come down on Naomi after one of her patient's disappearance. The twist ending was a little out there but I loved it.

Once I started this book I could not stop. I was invested in how this story was going to end, and more importantly- how it would get there. I love Naomi and how much she invests in her patients.

I am fairly good at guessing what will happen in book. Not with Sandie Jones though! I thought I had a good idea of who-dun-it. I had no clue. I love the twists and turns. I love the ups and downs. Sandie Jones wrote a great book. I will recommend it to other thriller readers.

This psychological thriller will definitely keep you guessing up until the last few pages! This is quick short read about a therapist who crosses the line with her clients, who learns her lesson after one of her clients goes missing and she gets caught in a tangled mess.

What I like:
- it’s fast paced and a read-it-in-one-day kind of thriller
- you genuinely probably won’t know what’s going on. Everyone is suspicious and you never know who to trust

What I disliked:
- the characters didn’t have a ton of depth, it’s a quick domestic thriller told in about 250 pages though so that’s what you’re going to get
- I felt a lack of closure at the end. Everything happens really fast, and I was left feeling like I wanted to explore some aspects of the story more (particularly relating to the main character’s sister)

This was my first book from this author & I would read from her again.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Naomi is a psychologist who helps victims of domestic abuse. She lives with her husband and tends to get too personally involved in her clients lives. She goes above and beyond and sometimes brings them home.

In the case involving Jacob, whose been abused by his wife Naomi lets him rent one of their apartments. He comes up missing and the police are on her doorstep. The events leading up to his disappearance make her a prime suspect and his case files come up missing.

The twist and turns this story takes send you on a wild ride. Naomi’s past has been complicated and it’s what made her want to help others from domestic violence.

Thank you NetGalley, Minotaur books and author Sandie Jones for this advanced copy. This book is available August 16, 2022.
#netgalley, #sandiejones, #minotaurbooks, #booksconnectus, #bookreview, #bookstagram, #stamperlady50

This book is fast-paced and keeps readers interested and invested the whole way through the story. We see some unreliable characters dark pasts, as well as a missing person and a police investigation to keep things even more interesting. There are some twists that I didn't see coming. Thank you for the review copy!

Full disclosure: I was not a fan of the last two Sandie Jones books, but thought the synopsis on this one sounded good and decided to give it a shot. I am so glad I did! This was BY FAR her best book yet.

The best thing about this book was that it was absolutely unputdownable! I was literally walking around everywhere I went reading this on my phone because I had to know what was going on.

The last 25% of the book was fun and crazy and the twists did not stop coming until the shocking epilogue.

All that being said, I do have one complaint. I think it will be a common one, too. I became a little lost in all the twists and turns and I THINK I know what was going on the whole time now, but there are definitely a couple of plot holes that could have used some explanation.

I would still definitely recommend checking this one out, just make sure you have time to read it in one sitting!

Thank you so much to St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for sending my a physical copy and an E-copy of this book prior to release. It will be available on August 16th!

Absolutely twisted and suspenseful! Every time I thought I knew what was happening, something else threw me off my game. An absolute page turner that will definitely have you on the edge of your seat. Much like Naomi I found myself questioning everything.

This story sucked me into the plot almost immediately. I appreciate how the background of Naomi’s life came out throughout the story and wasn’t just mentioned at the beginning. I really had a difficult time deciding who to believe in the story however, not all of the characters were likable. Naomi’s husband, Leon, was a jerk that I did not care for. Naomi needed to go back to school or to a therapist herself and talk about appropriate boundary setting with her clients.

The story moved forward at a decent pace but the ending was so abrupt and it made my feelings for this book change a bit.

Naomi was a psychologist that worked with patients that had been in domestic violence situations. Sometimes she even helped them out too far according to her husband Leon. She was helping Jacob understand that he didn’t need to put up with the violence from his wife Vanessa. Then she was also helping Anna overcome the death of her son and mental anguish that her husband was putting on her.
Naomi had been in a volatile home growing up so she knew first hand about domestic abuse. Her father was in prison and her sister and her went into foster care.
Naomi puts Jacob up in their spare flat without Leon knowing and things spiraled out of control after that. Anne and her children were going to spend a few days in the house that Naomi and Leon was living in to decide how she was going to keep her children safe from her husband.
This book keeps you guessing up until the very end. Loved it.

I received this ARC from Netgalley for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Naomi Chandler is a psychologist who specializes in domestic abuse. She’s living in England with her husband, after a tragic upbringing in the United States. Despite her best intentions of helping clients process through their trauma, she finds herself getting too involved. And when one of her clients disappears, she’s thrown into a web of lies and deceit and becomes a prime suspect in his disappearance. She must figure out who is setting her up, while also dealing with her own traumatic past and the fallout of her secrets that have come to light.

This was a quick read for me, and the twists and turns kept me engaged throughout the book. I had my own suspicions on how things would play out, and I second-guessed myself throughout the book. I did feel like Naomi towards the end, when I couldn’t figure out who she should trust.

However, I struggled with the lack of professionalism that Naomi had as a psychologist, and how she continued to justify handling situations without getting sound professional advice from other colleagues. She crossed the line so many times, disregarding the objections of her husband, and often leaving him in the midst of conversations to handle things on her own. It just didn’t feel like something a psychologist would do. In addition, I felt like the ending was confusing. Without giving away too many details, I had to reread the last chapter twice to understand the intricacies of the conflict between two of the characters. Some of the events that ensued seemed rushed and cut off. At the end, there’s a brief mention of a family member appearing, but no resolution there at all. The epilogue actually felt like it should have been the last chapter, but it again left me with questions.

In all, it's a quick suspense read that some will really enjoy. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this advanced copy.

I have enjoyed a few by Sandie Jones in the past. This one doesn't make it on that list. What in the world did I just read? I felt like this one was a hot mess from start to finish. I enjoy a good thriller book with some crazy mind boggling going on but I don't want almost 300 pages of crazy. It was just too much. I didn't enjoy it. At least it was a super fast read it does have that going for it.

This book could've EASILY been another five star Sandie Jones read if not for the wild and irrefutably unnecessary red herrings that never resolve. I love a good unreliable narrator, or a little look-over-here moment but there are too many here that never come up beyond an initial mention. I think there was plenty happening to move the plot along, they just didn't feel necessary and didn't add enough to warrant inclusion.

Aside from that - I loved this story. Naomi has zero boundaries, becomes too close with clients, a husband who clearly doesn't trust her and whom she doesn't trust - it was all just a really good way to set up a thriller. Fast, fun read! 3.5 that I'm rounding up.

Thank you minotaur/st martin's press for the copy to review.

Sandie Jones is one of my favorites, and any time she releases a new novel I am in the first in line for my copy. I was thrilled when I received an e-copy of The Blame Game to review.

Lies, violence, and deception are at the center of Jones's newest novel. Naomi is a psychologist with the best of intentions. Helping those who need help and have nowhere to turn. So, when Jacob comes to Naomi for help to escape his abusive wife Naomi can't help herself and offers Jacob a place to stay albeit her husband's concerns and wished. When Jacob goes missing everything starts to fall apart and Naomi can't help but lie to get herself out of situations. When her lies start falling apart her marriage begins to suffer, and the police have more evidence against her than they know what to do with. Twisty, and cruel no one is who they seem to be.

As more characters are brought into the story, the pieces connect nicely. I'm still struggling with the end of the novel. I'm having that moment of not knowing if I loved it or am confused by it. It definitely could have kept going!

The Blame Game took me by surprise many times along the way. I really enjoy Sandie Jones’ writing, especially her characters. Jacob, Anna, and Naomi are all fantastic and interesting. I found the pace for this novel slower than other books by this author. In my opinion, the story stalled in places that could have been wrapped up much sooner.

A solid read.

Okay. I really, really hated Naomi and she may be the dumbest character I’ve read in recent memory but I still liked the story. But holy moly she was an idiot.

“But what if you could change the end of the story? What if you had the chance to change somebody’s life, at no cost to your own? You would, wouldn’t you?”

Naomi is a psychologist who works mainly with domestic abuse victims. She is very tender-hearted, to a fault really, and often finds herself doing too much to help her patients. In this case, Naomi offers her patient Jacob a place to live at a property that she and her husband, Leon, have been planning to rent out. Jacob has left his wife and is convinced that if she finds him, she’ll kill him. Naomi’s family has a violent history and she will do anything in her power to keep other families from going through what hers did but this has now landed her in trouble. When Jacob goes missing, Naomi is a prime suspect because of the boundaries she has crossed with her patient. Naomi has to prove that she was not involved in Jacob’s disappearance despite the large amount of evidence that is stacking up against her.

The story is told almost exclusively from Naomi’s point of view. I struggled with this book because I didn’t find a single character likeable or relatable (with the exception of Shelley who was in the book for like 5 seconds). Every character in this book does things completely opposite to what I feel a normal person would do. Naomi is an absolutely terrible psychologist! Throughout the book, she continued to do things that made me cringe such as telling her husband and the police private patient information, pushing her patients in emotionally inappropriate ways, and getting overly involved in her patient’s personal lives. I feel like there is no way she would still have a license if this were how she handles her patients on a regular basis.

On a positive note, the epilogue was very intriguing. I’ll continue to read Sandie Jones’ books but this one was a miss for me unfortunately.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ugh I would have given another stars but the ending sort of leaves you saying what about this or that person.! A great suspenseful read trying to put all the pieces together. It was a fast paced read for me, but the ending left me with questions that needed wrapping up. I do love all this authors books. Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the ARC