I absolutely adore author Sandie Jones, and can always guarantee that her books will become my next favorite with suspense.

THE BLAME GAME is a heart pounding new novel that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Games can be dangerous. But blame can be deadly.

This was a great read overall, and I enjoyed the twists and turns. I'm not sure if maybe I needed to read the physical copy along with the audio to really grasp what was going on, but in this case, I only listened to the audiobook format, which was narrated by Karissa Vacker.

*many thanks to Minotaur and Macmillan Audio for the gifted copy for review

This book was a wonderful audio selection. The narrator was great and brought to life the story the author was telling. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters as well as the story line. It was a wonderful beach read with just a bit of mystery.

Great read. Full of twists and turns. Had me on the edge of my seat. I’m a huge fan of this author and love everything she writes. Fantastic characters that made this story. Loved it.

I listened to the audiobook and Karissa Vacker did a fantastic job narrating this story. It's a twisty thriller with an unethical psychologist and two different clients with unreliable stories. I always enjoy being surprised when reading this genre and there were a few shockers here. Despite a little confusion here and there, the epilogue wrapped it up nicely.

The Blame Game by Sandie Jones is a captivating and suspenseful read that will keep you hooked from start to finish. The novel is a compelling exploration of family dynamics, as tensions rise and secrets are revealed.

The premise drew me to the book, and I was excited to read this. However, there were so many holes in the plot and so many questions about the motivations of the characters that were never answered.

I really enjoyed the audio version of this book. The narration was great, and made the story more enjoyable and come to life for me.

For the story itself, overall this one was just okay for me. What I really liked was that the story was told from the perspective of an unreliable narrator. The whole time reading, I was left wondering if I should trust the narrator or not. This added a whole other aspect to the book which made it more enjoyable for me.

Another aspect I did enjoy with this book was all of the twists. I was constantly left guessing who the suspect was, and couldn’t have predicted the final suspect in the end. However this ties in to what I didn’t like with the book. I didn’t like how the author ended the story at all. I feel like I was left with more questions than answers, and I didn’t like that the epilogue tried to tie everything together almost as if it were an after thought. The ending just seemed just thrown together and a bit messy.

Overall, this was a wild ride and I would recommend it to anyone who likes to be left guessing throughout a story.

Sandie Jones is usually right up my alley. I say usually because this is the first novel of hers that has left me feeling somewhat lackluster and a tad bit confused. Naomi is a psychologist without boundaries, who finds herself in a tense predicament when she offers more than therapy to patients Jacob and Anna.

While this was a quick listen timewise, the pace of Karissa Vacker seemed slow. I felt at odds as many of the suspicious clues weren’t resolved by the stories end and honestly wasn’t invested in the characters.
The Blame Game was a miss for me – not bad, just not as good as I’ve come to expect from Sandie Jones.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Naomi Chandler is a psychologist specializing in counseling victims of domestic abuse. She has a dark past and chose this line of work because of tragedy in her own life. She is extremely eager to help others, so often crosses the line between patient and therapist and gets too involved with their lives. When her patient Jacob, shares with Naomi that he wants to leave his abusive wife, Naomi offers Jacob a place to stay in a property she and her husband own. When Anna, another patient expresses issues about abuse and fear that her children might be in danger, Naomi also encourages her to leave him and finds her a place to stay as well. Naomi's husband doesn't know all of this, but when he finds out, he wants her to stop her personal intervention. She ignores him, but then things begin to happen. She hears people in her office, files go missing, and doors she knows she locked are found unlocked. What is happening? Has her past caught up with her? Then the police show up questioning her about Jacob as his wife has filed a missing person's report on him? Is her past and her secrets come back to ruin her new life? Is she or her husband in danger? Who is trying to ruin her life?

I have only read one other Sandie Jones book and while I didn't love it, I enjoyed enough to give her another try. I enjoyed The Blame Game, but did have some issues with the story. As the reader, I felt like I was in the dark for a lot of the book. I wanted to know more about Naomi's past and what she was so afraid of. We do find out, but it is closer to the end of the story. It took a long time to build up to that point. Naomi was a counsellor that sure had issues with ethics. I understand that she just wanted to help, but really. Even though she made a lot of questionable decisions, she did it because she wanted to help others, I did like her and wanted her to figure out how to move forward in a more positive way. When Naomi is implicated in the disappearance of Jacob, she knows she is in trouble, and can't believe she put herself in this position. No one wants to listen to her and the story really got me invested at that point. I found parts of the story slow, but once it gets going, it moves quickly and with twists that I didn't see coming. Overall, this was a satisfactory thriller that takes a bit of time to get going, but stick with it. I listened to the audiobook of Karissa Vacker and she does a great job with the voices and emotion of this story. I always enjoy her narration and this one was well done.

I've read several of Sandie Jones' books and the last couple have not been bit hits for me. This book was a domestic thriller. It was definitely a page turner but not super memorable. While I enjoyed it overall, I felt like some of the twists were improbable. The narrator of the audiobook did a good job. Overall a book enjoyed for a bit but wouldn't necessarily recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an audio version of, "The Blame Game," in exchange for an honest review.

Sandie Jones is one of my go to authors, so I was very excited to get a copy of this book! The main character is this story is Naomi, a married psychologist, who sees patients at her home. Naomi, who has a history of abuse in her family, tends to over step her boundaries to help her clients. Her two main clients in the story are Jacob, who has been mentally and physically abused for years by his wife. Her other client is a woman who is struggling after the loss of her child. Sadly, Jacob goes missing, and Naomi becomes the main suspect.

SPOILER ALERT.

While I liked the main story of Jacob going missing, the ties to Naomi's past, and her sister specifically, really seemed unnecessary me. I still am very confused by the ending. Was she the sister? (Maybe, I missed something, but it seems so farfetched!) In addition to this, Naomi who is supposed to be an educated woman, made so many stupid decisions it was hard to root for her!

I loved the narrator of the story, and enjoyed listening to the book overall, but I wish the ending had been a bit more clear.

Sandie Jones is one of my favourite domestic thriller writers. She's an auto pick for me.

Naomi is a psychologist who focuses on domestic abuse cases. Her clients come to her home office and through weeks and weeks of sessions she helps them regain control of her life. If only someone would help her with that.

After becoming invested in the personal outcomes of her patients, and perhaps crossing some professional boundaries, Naomi finds herself in trouble. She's telling the truth, but the evidence piling up which speaks a very different story.

Another intriguing guessing game of a plot so many twists and suspicious characters.

I was so thankful for the chance to read this book early through Net Galley.

Filled with twists and turns, I had a hard time putting this book down once I started reading. I got lucky with a couple of my guesses, but still really enjoyed this story. It was a gripping read that held my interest from start to finish.

Solid 3 stars. Interesting enough premise but nothing special faculae to set the book apart. The twist at the end did get me though.

This was a bingeable domestic thriller. Would I say it’s super memorable - no. You sure won’t remember the boundaries - because there was none. There were lots of twists. It will keep you reading til the very end. I liked the two narrator perspectives.

I enjoyed the narrator.

This book was a page turner from beginning to end. A psychologist treating multiple patients while struggling with her own past demons coming back to haunt her. This book intertwined so many different situations I had to re read a couple parts at the end to understand but was legit shook. I I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Sandie Jones never lets me down. Her books are deliciously mysterious. While at times they can be a tad predictable, the ending always serves up to be fulfilling. This book was no exception. I will read anything this woman puts out.

This was a hard book for me to get into. I had a hard time believing that Naomi would get that invested in her clients/patients. I mean, to the extreme she takes it to? It was too much for me, and May have ruined the book for me.
Though the big twist was unexpected, the ride to get there was rough. A lot of paranoia and withheld information made it drawn out and a little crazy to read. Watching Naomi question her mental stability, through a large chunk of the book, was tedious. It definitely made it more of a psychological thriller, but not super thrilling.
I didn’t love this book. Which is hard for me because I have loved Sandie Jones in the past. I have listened to her books on audio before, and liked them, but this one didn’t work for me. The narrator wasn’t believable, but I did like her voice. I just feel like she was too much for the character.

I've enjoyed books by this author in the past so I was excited to give this one a try.
I will start by saying that it is a short book and very quick to read. I didn't really feel that I could empathize or sympathize with any of the characters. I felt that Naomi crossed the line into unprofessional so often. I often feel like in books like this that just telling the truth to the police from the get go would save you so many more problems in the end. I did want to see how everything turned out, but I found that the conclusion wasn't really satisfying. I could see how people could enjoy this and, it's not that I didn't enjoy it, I just felt that the story was a bit forgettable to me in the end.