Teri Terry’s The Patient is a nail-biting thriller guaranteed to leave readers breathless.

Saphy got a second chance at life when she got the heart she so desperately wanted. After years spent ill in hospital, she had hoped that a heart transplant would give her the new beginning she never thought would actually have – until she learns the identity of her donor. The attack on Flora had been all over the news and had shocked the nation. When her family reaches out to Saphy and asks to meet her, she accepts, but as she steps into their beautifully gilded world, she wonders whether she might have just made the biggest mistake of all…

When a patient who received another one of Flora’s organs is also attacked, Saphy wonders whether it might be a coincidence – or something much more sinister and terrifying. Will Saphy be next? This second chance was meant to save Saphy, but will Flora’s heart prove to be a death sentence instead? Or will Saphy finally get the new life she had always wanted, but never thought she’d get?

Teri Terry’s The Patient is one hair-raising and heart-stopping rollercoaster ride full of shocking twists and turns readers simply won’t see coming. Unpredictable, terrifying and creepy, this top-notch chiller is sure to keep readers turning the pages late into the night!

This was an interesting read. I was somewhat bored at places, as I found certain parts quite repetitive and overdrawn, but I enjoyed the ending.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing an advance copy of this book.

The Patient by Teri Terry and narrated by Sarah Durham was an absolutely gripping and addictive psychological thriller and I loved it, especially as it is the first book/audiobook i have read by this author and I was very impressed!!! I must admit the cover did catch my eye and I am so glad it did. There is a lot going on within this audiobook and has some excellent twists and turns which some of these lead to red herrings!! Very cleverly written and very addictive! A great head spinner and great book for holidays. Before I realised I was on the last few chapters of my audiobook. The narrator Sarah Durham was excellent and bought Teri's book alive!

I highly recommend this audiobook/book.

This is a really unique plot with a lot of twists and turns. Maybe too many. It was hard to keep everything straight and there were a lot of surprises…especially the end. It was however a really clever read and I hope for more from this writer.

This book was insane! So much happened and yet so much didn't happen at the same time. A lot of twists and turns all through the book. You really have to keep up with everything that happens because it was a LOT! Sometimes I don't mind stories like this but sometimes its harder to follow the plot.

I enjoyed this. There were many good twists and turns some I figured out and some that were shocking to me. The writing was done very well. My only wish is that we'd had some of Flora's perspective also as that would've been a nice addition to the story. I recommend.

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"The Patient" by Teri Terry is an absolutely gripping and addictive psychological thriller that kept me turning the pages late into the night. Terry's masterful storytelling and chilling premise drew me in from the very first page, and I was completely enthralled by the twists and turns of this suspenseful tale.

The concept of receiving a donor organ from someone who was tragically killed is both haunting and compelling, and Terry explores the psychological implications of such a situation with depth and nuance. As the protagonist grapples with the aftermath of her transplant and delves into the life of her donor, Flora, I found myself on the edge of my seat, eagerly trying to unravel the mystery surrounding Flora's death and its connection to the violent attacks on other organ recipients.

What I loved most about "The Patient" was its exploration of identity, guilt, and the lengths people will go to in order to protect themselves. The tension builds steadily throughout the novel, as the protagonist's sense of unease and paranoia intensifies, leaving readers questioning who can be trusted and what secrets lie hidden beneath the surface.

This book truly kept me up at night, as I raced to uncover the truth alongside the protagonist and grappled with the moral and ethical dilemmas presented by the story. The pacing is relentless, the writing is taut and atmospheric, and the twists and turns kept me guessing until the very end.

Overall, "The Patient" is a must-read for fans of psychological thrillers. Teri Terry has crafted a five-star masterpiece that will leave readers breathless and eagerly awaiting her next chilling tale.

The Patient was following Saphy, a girl who got heart transplant from another girl name Flora. Her connection with Flora's family make her feel close and want to help solve mystery about Flora's attacker.

The premise of this domestic thriller is interesting and creative. I like the drama and I enjoy overlapping mysteries Saphy want to know. The pace is slower than my most favorite and the plot turn out okay with predictabletwisted ending. Sadly the writing isnt my most fave part from this book. It is repetitive, dragging conversation/narrative and l need more character development to make this story stand out.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for providing copy of this ebook. I have voluntarily read and reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Expecting Publication : 13 February 2024

I read this book in two days … just one more page, one more chapter. It is fast moving, with characters that you, simultaneously all love and suspect one after another. The twists keep coming and the ending was a shocker. Teri Terry has written a brilliant debut thriller and I can’t wait to read her next one!

The premise of this book was promising, but I had a hard time with the main character. It said she was 28, but she acted more like she was 16. Her actions were questionable at best, and the way she interacted with the other characters was strange. I was happy with the ending, but I felt like there were so many things going on that each twist left me a little underwhelmed.

I do love a new Bookouture author. I will definitely be wanting more from this author. This is a fantastic debut.

This is completely unique to anything I’ve read previously. I found this addictive and unpredictable.

Imagine, you receive an organ from someone whose attack was all over the media. This then escalates and everyone who received organs is being attacked.

This book has been everything I hoped for and so much more. This is written in a way that is easy to devour. I raced through this book desperately wanting to know how this would unfold.

This book has been brilliant. I love that I’ve not come across anything like this one previously. It’s been fantastic to read and a real good debut.

We are able to really get to know the characters. They are well portrayed and brought to life by this one.

This is brilliant to read and one that I have no hesitation in recommending.

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"A second chance at life. A second chance to die..."


I have read a couple of books which involve organ transplants, although both have focused on heart transplants, whilst my own experience through my sister-in-law, is kidney donor related. She has now courageously endured three transplants, the first two which didn't survive for too long before rejecting and the third, a living donation by her husband, my brave brother, which came to the end of its natural expected lifespan after almost 12 years. She is now back on dialysis whilst waiting for another suitable organ, so you can probably tell how invested I was in this storyline, before I had even turned the first page.

...

Saphy was adopted from birth, with her adoptive parents always having known about the congenital heart defect, which might possibly have the potential to shorten her life. Now, in her twenties, with both her parents having died young, leaving her with the responsibility of a large house she is loathe to sell but unable to maintain, the nasty aftermath of a vicious Covid infection means that Saphy is in desperate need of a heart transplant to save her life. Saphy's best friend Zoe and her mother Claire, a nurse, have taken an increasingly frail Saphy under their wing, although little does Claire know of the risks the two girls regularly undertake in order to fulfil Saphy's bucket list, before it is too late. Saphy and Zoe are out on one such mission when Saphy gets the call she has long awaited, yet at the same time dreaded, from the hospital. A donated heart has become available which her surgical team think might be a good match and can she come immediately.

The donor Flora, a girl of similar age to Saphy, has been in a coma since being attacked and left for dead at the remote family cottage in Dorset. Now, Flora's condition has deteriorated to the extent that recovery expectations are almost nil and life-support is to be removed with the agreement of her family - parents Margot and Charles and sister Fern. Flora is to become a multiple donor, so it may not only be Saphy who is set to benefit from her generous sacrifice and gift, although the anti-donor contingent are out to make waves with their assertions that the organs had been harvested from Flora, before life had been officially pronounced extinct.

The operation looks to have been a remarkable success and after several weeks of tender ministrations by Zoe and Claire, Saphy decides that the time is right for her to return to her family home. Having read about the case of Flora's murder in the news, Saphy has convinced herself that her donor heart belonged to Flora and wants to thank her family for their generosity of spirit in the face of their catastrophic grief, so a pathway is opened by the authorities for them to connect if both parties so wish. At the same time, Saphy, with her unexpected new lease of life, decides that the time is right to also attempt to make contact with her birth mother.

For Saphy, her life takes on a whole new purpose and meaning, especially when Flora's family accept her request for a meeting, inviting her to their home and she also has a positive couple of initial meetings with her birth mother Jenny, which look set to flourish into a more permanent relationship. However, at the back of her mind, Saphy has niggling doubts about the emotional effect her new heart is having on her, as she finds herself devouring every small scrap of information she can about Flora, her family and friends, finding herself, part consciously and part sub-consciously modelling herself on her donor's mannerisms, behaviours and dress. For those who believe themselves to be amongst Flora's closest confidantes, Saphy's intrusion into their lives, whilst at first welcomed, brings with it some unpalatable home truths and distressing insights into the world of the person they thought had led a charmed and favoured life. Some realise that they hadn't known Flora as well as they had thought, whilst others have to come to terms with the fact that 'turning a blind eye' to Flora's shortcomings and unheeded cries for help, may have ultimately led to her death - a death which never needed to happen?

The police, although they have detained and questioned one suspect for Flora's murder, don't have enough evidence to bring charges and seem no closer to finding a motive or perpetrator for the unprovoked attack. Now, some weeks later, their investigations take on a much more urgent and sinister remit, when the recipients of some of Flora's generously donated organs, are singled out and attacked, leaving one dead and another in a critical condition. Saphy fears for her life, but does the one person she believes she can trust, have her best interests at heart after all, especially when that heart is even more precious than Saphy could have ever imagined, or she in more danger than she could have ever feared?

...

This was a real slow-burner of a storyline. The dramatics really all happened in the last third or so of the book. However, the groundwork was beautifully laid and structured throughout, for a tense plot build-up, which was rich in atmosphere and definitely compulsive enough to make me want to read it in no more than a couple of good-sized sittings. The single timeline is contemporary and the short, well-signposted, easy to navigate chapters, are punchy and of predominantly dual narration by Saphy and Fern.

I found that several moral and ethical dilemmas, which I hadn't really given much consideration to, were challenged during the course of this story: It was difficult to determine whether this was case of Saphy, a recipient who had led an emotionally disturbed life, naturally latching on to a kind and receptive donor family to try and replace her own lost loved ones. Or whether, in the hard cold light of day was she a manipulative organ recipient trying to play on the shattered emotions and vulnerabilities of the donor family for her own ends. Or, the much more difficult to get my head around scenario, that because the heart needed to be a living beating engine when it was removed and transplanted, part of that donor or their soul remained alive and lived on in its new host body. That led me to thinking maybe the most troubling of thoughts; how many people, despite brain death having been diagnosed, had been removed from life-support machines whilst still aware of what was happening to them, but were unable to communicate either verbally or through movement, to let someone know that they were cognisant of the fate which had been decided for them.

These difficult discussions, together with the grooming, coercion and ultimate rape of a minor, were pivotal elements of this storyline which were navigated in detail by author Teri Terry, in language which was both realistic to the situation, sympathetic to the victim and their wider network of friends and family, with empathetic narration and dialogue which did not over sensationalise the issues.

I found that at first I could totally relate to Saphy, in her attitude towards her impending transplant. She was convinced that hospitals were little more than waiting rooms for death and had decided to live what life she had left to the full and on her own terms. However, with a keen eye on characters and what makes them tick, author Teri Terry did an excellent job of turning Saphy's thinking inside out, whilst messing with her head in the process. I discovered that quite unexpectedly, I didn't really relate or become deeply invested in any of the principal protagonists, even though they were all believable in their designated roles; as all too often, I found myself questioning their emotionally complex layers of manipulative authenticity; suspicious of the integrity of their motives. Which is what made just about all of them suspects on my list and kept me avidly turning the pages, as twist upon twist threw me off the scent, with that final gut-wrenching confession simply being the icing on this cake of deception and lies.

In this strong, character and plot driven storyline, location was never going to be the overriding consideration, which didn't bode well for me, a confirmed armchair traveller. However, having established that I had visited London (the principal location), Oxford and the Dorset coast, I really felt that whilst there wasn't a huge amount of cosmetic detail about the three main sites of action, the author wove enough descriptive narrative and dialogue into the storyline, to imbue a genuine sense of time and place which I could easily navigate.

As a fan of medical based thrillers, this is definitely one to keep you awake at night and I do hope that Teri decides to write a few more adult psychological thrillers, alongside her many YA novels!!

This was a gripping read and I was intrigued by the characters. I will look out for more by this author.

I was so excited to read this book after the reading the synopsis!

The first half was a bit slow paced, it focused mostly on character building which is not a bad thing. There was a decent amount of characters but they all felt quite fleshed out.

I did see some of the twists coming but they were still really well done! I couldn’t put the last 60% of this book down, I was so invested.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC.

this was a very fast paced read but for me the plot was lacking and not super hooking. it felt very underdeveloped and not well fleshed out at all so i found myself bored and waiting for plot twists to keep me invested. which leads me onto the ending which was predictable and saw it coming a mile away. it wasn’t a bad read by any means but it was nothing special hence the three stars. would be interested in picking up another book by this author to give her a second chance.

I was drawn to this book as soon as I read the synopsis and I love the cover!

The story is told in dual POV from Saphy who is the patient and Fern who is the sister of Flora, the organ donor.

Saphy is invited along to meet Flora’s family and once she learns her identity she soon becomes a bit obsessed in learning more about her. I don’t want to say much more and ruin it.

This is a slow burn but I really enjoyed the build up, I really thought I knew what was going to happen. I was proved completely wrong, as I usually am.

The ending totally threw me, I didn’t see it coming at all. If you love a slow burn psychological thriller I recommend this one.

Thank you to Bookouture for inviting me onto the tour and for my gifted ebook.

I wanted to love the book, the premise of Patient had me so pumped to be approved. It fell flat for me and just didn't work. Getting a Donor Heart and then morphing into someone else, just was too " out there for me" . It didn't hold my interest and was a no thank you from me.

I honestly could not put this down as it was such an enjoyable read.
Lots of meat on the bones so to speak, fast paced immersive thriller
with great characters and plot.
So well written

"The Patient" by Teri Terry is a psychological thriller that delves into the complexities of identity, loss, and the eerie consequences of organ donation. The protagonist, recovering from a life-threatening illness and receiving an organ from the victim of a widely publicized attack, becomes entangled in a web of mystery and danger.

I rated "The Patient" 3 stars as it masterfully builds tension and intrigue throughout the narrative. Terry skillfully explores the psychological toll of inhabiting the life of the organ donor, drawing readers into a suspenseful and unsettling journey. The plot unfolds with twists and turns, keeping the audience guessing about the connection between the protagonist's new lease on life and the violent attacks on other organ recipients.

While the premise is compelling, the novel at times feels weighed down by its own complexity. The pacing can be uneven, affecting the overall reading experience. Despite this, "The Patient" is a gripping exploration of identity and consequence, with a chilling atmosphere that fans of psychological thrillers will appreciate.

This was such a wonderful and enjoyable read, The chapters are short and engaging in this fast paced thriller and I can highly recommend it, Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I will be looking out for more by this author