A child disappears and no one seems to have any clues. There are several people implied as suspects but no evidence is apparent. As the reader observes the lives of these people in a small community, one thing is clear, everyone has a story and everyone does their best to make do with their lot in life. As the days pass with no sign of Mina, the community begins to turn on one another. Ordinary actions are seen as suspicious and more violence begins to occur. All at once things escalate and the end is so shocking, the reader is not prepared for the ending. Excellent read and highly recommended.

I would like to thank HQ Digital and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Safe With You’ by R M Ward in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.
During her mother’s absence 11-year-old Mina knocks on her bedroom wall at 3.40 every afternoon to let her elderly neighbour Kath know that she’s home from school. One afternoon Kath’s waiting but she doesn’t knock and it isn’t until Mina’s been missing for more than 24 hours that single-parent Sandie reports her absence to the police and the search begins for the missing girl.
‘Safe With You’ is a remarkable debut thriller that’s been cleverly written with perfect character descriptions and a plot that’s so surprising it’s left me breathless. It has in bucketloads everything I want in a thriller, suspense, intrigue, excitement, twists and turns, and I’ve been so enthralled with the plot that I haven’t been able to put my Kindle down and have read it in a day. The story is told through the eyes of the three main characters, Kath, Sandie and the café owner’s son Den, and although I thought I knew what the outcome was going to be I couldn’t have been more wrong. This is an exceptional thriller that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading and Ms Ward is clearly a very talented writer. I’m so looking forward to reading her next thriller.

I just finished reading this, so please let me put my jaw back in place after reading the ending of this book before I continue! I’m the type who’s read so many thriller/mystery books, that even if I don’t figure out the ending, I’ve at least considered it at some point along the way. This ending was completely NOT what I was expecting, in the best way possible…

Back to the beginning though: Kath is a (very) elderly, ailing woman living in an apartment in a bad part of her town near London. She’s lived there for decades, and she’s seen a lot of people come and go. Her new neighbor, Sandy, seems to be a fly-by-night kinda gal, but the unfortunate thing is that she has an 11-year-old daughter: Mina.

Mina is a quiet girl, small for her age, and seems to be home alone most of the time. One day, Kath tells Mina to knock on the wall every time she gets home from school to say she’s home safe, and she’ll knock back to let Mina know that she is there for her. As we know from the synopsis, one day, Mina doesn’t knock. The next day … no knock. That’s when Kath gets concerned and calls the police. Apparently Sandy had been at her new boyfriend’s house all night, and now Mina has been missing for almost two days.

Kath was by far the best character in the book - unintentionally funny, slightly bawdy despite being a woman of another generation, pretty independent despite her aching bones and wonky heart. Her husband is deceased, and her daughter lives in Australia, so knowing how lonely she is made me feel for her even more. She’s been somewhat pulled into the investigation, but then takes on her role of “Miss Marple” with pride!

The rest is a classic whodunnit. Who took Mina? Is she still alive? Did she run away? Was it the creepy guy at the local cafe? Was it a gang of kids who liked to pick on the younger ones? Was it the weird guy who has a lot of interest in a nearby building, and who was seen on tape talking to her? Was it the mother, Sandy? Was it Kath? Was it the grandparents? By the end, everyone is a suspect, and I bet most people don’t guess it either.

I was going to give this four stars the entire time, then the ending had me raising it to a 4.5. I’m going to round up because it’s a debut novel, and give this a rare five stars. It was a good mystery, the characters were well-written, the ending was fantastic, and I really enjoyed this quick read! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

(Thank you to HQ, R.M. Ward, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)

This was a great book. I loved every paragraph, every sentence and every word of this masterpiece! I read it in 12 hours, which is a lot for me to do! It had everything and more laid out in the novel! I sure hope she writes more! I am totally hooked!

A brilliantly written psychological novel, this has everything you could want.
Great character development, the story is told from different points of view, it has enough pace to carry the reader through and keep you interested.
I really enjoyed this one and would recommend it to everyone.
Thank you to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for my arc.

This was a pretty good read, centered on a missing 11 year old girl and her elderly next door neighbor. Mina goes missing one day and Kath doesn’t really know her that well, but is concerned because she always knocks on the wall when she gets home. The story is told mostly from Kath’s POV, with some chapters from Mina’s mom Sandy as well as the local cafe worker Den.

Though the pace was slow in parts and I also felt like the author tried too hard to get the reader to jump to conclusions, there was a good mystery here, and plenty of things to question as the story continues. I had a inkling of who the culprit was but was never fully sure until it was revealed. I did feel like the book left me sad when all things were said and done, as it explores bad parenting, lonely elderly people living alone, and bullying, but all those things are out there and it felt like an honest depiction even if depressing.

Overall, decent read with engaging characters and a good mystery. I’d give it 3.5 stars, rounded up. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Kath Cartwright is a lonely woman in her 80s and a long-time resident of a run-down council estate. An 11-year-old girl, Mina, moves in next door with her mother Sandy. Sandy works long hours and Mina is on her own a lot. Kath and Mina establish a little routine where Mina knocks three times to signal she has arrived safely home. One day, those knocks don't come and Kath raises the alarm. The story is told from the points of view of Kath, Sandy and Den, who works at the local cafe where Mina was last seen and becomes a suspect. I was engrossed in this suspenseful story and had a hard time putting it down!

R.M Ward is an author of children's books and a cosy crime series, this is her debut psychological novel. Sadly, I found this to be a slow and unconvincing thriller. Partly this was due to the author's style of writing which for me didn't match the subject matter and was more suitable for her previous work. For me, the novel lacked suspense and I was not invested in the characters.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

Safe With You by R.M. Ward is the author's first psychological thriller. It is a fairly good debut novel in this genre.

Kath has lived on the same London estate for decades, and she becomes friends with a little girl next door. Their routine is for Mina, the little girl, to knock three times on the wall when she gets home from school. One day, Mina doesn't knock.

It took a while for the book to take off. I did like Kath, and the author did a very good job of showing the loneliness of when people age and are alone. There were many suspects, and the actual culprit will have your mouth dropping open.

I would rate this a 3.5 out of 5 stars (rounded up to 4). I would read more from this author. Safe With You is a good debut novel.

#SafeWithYou #NetGalley @HQStories

Really liked the book, kept me hooked the whole time. Liked that the chapters are based on the main characters point of view. After halfway of the book suspected who took the little girl but I think it's because I've read so many mystery/psychological thrillers😅 I'm sure it will take many readers by surprise. Definitely recommend it.

The story is set around an eleven year old girl Mina who live on a run down council estate and is a latch key kid. One day Mina does come home from school and this is only the beginning!!! We have an insight into lives of the family of the missing girl. The cafe owner and his family where she was last seen. The community who are too quick to judge mainly thanks to the media. There are so many individual stories in this book and with an ending I never saw coming. Heart breaking, thought provoking and so much more. I devoured this book in one sitting I HAD TO KNOW THE TRUTH and boy was I shocked. A well deserved five stars and a MUST READ!!!!
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for giving an honest review.

This was actually a good thriller and I simply couldn't put the book down as I was reading this.

Nelson Flats is where Kath, a seventy something year old woman lives and in another apartment, Mina and her mother Sandy also living in that apartment. Kath befriends the little girl Mina as Sandy spends most of the time working and have a sort of routine where MIna knocks on Kath's door. But one day, Mina doesn't knock on the door and Kath realizes that Mina had gone missing.

The story is told from Kath's, Sandy and another man named Den's points of views as Den becomes the suspect. It was quite unputdownable as well as Den started facing backlashes from the community as they suspect that he was responsible for Mina's disappearance. Honestly, the author made all these three characters, Kath, Sandy and Den unreliable narrators that one of them could be responsible for Mina's disappearance. This was also a page turner as well. I wanted to really find out what really happened to Mina in the end. Not much of twists and turns you normally expect in a thriller but nonetheless, it was an engaging thriller. The ending was slightly predictable as well.

Overall, this was a good, unputdownable thriller--worth four stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

Kath has lived on the same London estate for years. She's now in her eighties and rather lonely. When a mother and daughter move into the flat next door, Kath develops a tentative relationship with eleven year old Mina. Mina is left alone much of the time and Kath worries about her safety. They agree that when Mina gets home from school she will knock three times on their shared wall. One day the knock doesn't come.

This was a suspenseful read. Kath is very much the central character and it's through her that you learn about the other characters and their personalities. The plot is clever and the writing is excellent.

Many thanks to NetGalley and HQ Stories for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

⭐️ 5/5
📚 68/36
📍 🇬🇧
🗂 Psychological Thriller
👉 Blurb looked good!
➿ Has a Cathy Glass vibe to it (I.e Taken)
🪝 I was hooked from the start and couldn’t put it down!
✅ Triple POV
✅ Short chapters
👥 I would have also enjoyed reading this as a buddy read, to discuss theories throughout
❓ I thought I had worked it out 55% the way through, but I was wrong!
📆 August 2022
* Publication date - 9th September 2022 (e-book) and 10th November 2022 (paperback)

Overall, I really enjoyed this dark, chilling, well-plotted story. It was intense and fast paced and I raced through this in a few hours, frantically turning the pages, desperate to find out how it was all going to be resolved. With that dramatic ending, I wasn’t disappointed! I’m already looking forward to the author’s next book. Utterly compelling reading, The book is inspiring and I wouldn’t hesitate to highly recommend it.

So this novel is set around the disappearance of a young girl called Mina from a stereotypical council estate and told from the different view points of the characters involved.

The author really brought the characters to life its as if you could imagine yourself there with them and you become invested in the outcome a blinding read.

A suspenseful read with a draw dropping ending.

It used to be more of a community round here. I was going to say something like this wouldn’t have happened then, but it would, wouldn’t it? Maybe a lot of it was kept quiet. But was it really any safer? Is anywhere safe?

Kath has lived on the same London estate for decades. Lately she’s become friendly with the little girl next door, who is often left alone for hours at a time while her mum is at work.

They have a system. When Mina gets home from school to the empty flat, she knocks on the wall three times. Knock, knock, knock. I’m home safe and sound.

But one day Mina’s knock doesn’t come. Kath raises the alarm and the police begin the search. Kath was the only person looking out for Mina – now she might be the only one who can bring her home.

This is told from the point of view of Kath and other characters in this novel, alternate chapters give their point of view. It kept me turning the pages as I had to know what happened to Mina.I would recommend this book

Thanks to netgalley for the arc..

Without giving any spoilers this is such an interesting read, with the story being told through the eyes and voices of a number of diverse characters. At different times through the book you're sure you know the outcome but this changes as the different voices are heard. It is a very clever premise and one that means the reader never gets bored and has a fascinating time delving into the lives and character of the different people involved. The people are well drawn and their intermingling relationships make for great reading.

It is more than just a whodunnit/missing child story because you in turn like/hate/despise/pity the characters.

Would recommend

I so enjoyed this story .kept me gripped to the last page. Kath is an elderly lady who lives in a flat on her own she gets new neighbours a mum and daughter. Mina the daughter gets left on her own a lot while her mum Sandy is working. Kath tells Mina to knock on the wall when she comes home from school. Den works for his Dad in there Cafe and he always feels sorry for Mina he gives her stuff.then one school day Mina does not come home. Kath gets worried and the police are contacted and all these people become entwined with each other i so recommend this book its so good

Thank you so much for allowing me to read and review your titles. I really not the opportunity!

I do appreciate it and continue to review books that I get the chance to read.
Thanks again!