This book wasn't really for me. I found it very odd. I struggled to finish but I preserved, hoping it would change my mind. Sadly it didn't.

Thank you to the publisher. All of my options are my own.


That’s a hard “no” from me.

What the heck did I just read?

Some creepy stalker guy, who is obsessed with a girl in high school, continues to be obsessed with her for years to come and is then convinced that she is innocent when accused of murder.

This is a huge run-on sentence, but that pretty much sums it all up: the book and my convoluted opinions on it.

The writing tries to be too much and fails miserably. And I just can’t get behind this plot. I kept asking “why?”. “Why goddess?”.

There isn’t really anything thrilling about this story. It’s kind of boring and I’m very disappointed.

Overall, I liked this book. It was a little slow in spots. the plot was interesting, but it wasn't suspenseful and at time predictable. I also felt that the "love" was one-sided. From the description, I expected it to be mutual.

I enjoyed this book, maybe because the characters were so out of the norm. they weren't likable and it was really hard to feel for them, but it was so easy to go along with the story.

This book is chilling and thrilling! I recently finally read it and wondered why I had left it so long!
The plot feels original, it left me on the edge of my seat throughout the entire work.
The protagonist is brave, honest and raw, she feels like someone in the real world, not a work of fiction.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington for this free readers edition. In exchange I am providing an honest review.

Howells novel is about, ultimately, a woman who could never catch a break in life. She was born into dysfunction, rose up out of it for a few brief years, and then it was her end.

Out of the blue Noah Calaway receives a call from an old friend about April, the love of his life. She's in a coma and suspected of murdering someone. Noah hasn't seen or spoken to April in 15 years but he is convinced there's no way she could be guilty. So he makes the trek to where she is determined to prove her innocence. As Noah starts exploring the past 15 years of April's life it leads to the life he once knew with her, things he didn't know, things he never suspected. The trail twists and turns but Noah is determined to follow it through to the end.

This particular title of Howells was a little slow-moving for me. That's not to say I didn't read it without interest, the pace of the story and such just felt slower than I am used to for a psychological thriller like this. Howells is a solid author, not one that I anxiously await her books to be published but one that I am always glad I read.

Unfortunately although it showed a lot of promise, I was a bit underwhelmed by this one.

Noah receives a phone call from old friend Will, informing him that Noah’s ex fiance April is in hospital, in a coma, and is under suspicion of killing a man and then attempting suicide. Unable to believe his ex lover could do anything like what she is accused of, Noah makes the trip to his old home town. Secrets begin to surface and he begins to realise he never really knew April like he thought he did.

The story gradually starts to come together step after step like any good psychological thriller, however it was just a little too frustrating for me.

Generally unreliable characters can work really well, but in this one I found them extremely frustrating! Why wouldn’t they just tell him what the hell was going on!?? And Noah. What an idiot. I couldn’t warm to his character at all. The things he did, his naivety and decisions he made annoyed me every step of the way.

I understand he was love-struck, but I just couldn’t warm to his intentions or the fact that he was totally oblivious to so much that was going on throughout the book.

The book skipped back and forth in time to when Noah, April and Will were teenagers in high school, to a few years later, to even later, and then the present. It jumped around a little bit too much for my liking, however I didn’t have an issue with it the majority of the time.

The twists and turns were just way too unbelievable, yet I could obviously tell where the plot was going.

However, it was well written, and did keep me captivated until the end, despite my frustrations. I enjoyed it enough to happily finish it.

Would I recommend The Beauty of the End?
If you like lots of secrets and quite a bit of frustration in your psychological thrillers, then give this one a go.

Thanks to the publisher and author via netgalley for a copy of The Beauty of the End in exchange for my honest review.

There are things that seem to work better in some literary genres than in others, & revisiting a past relationship that didn’t work out seems to be one of them. Great in romantic fictions such as Jane Austen’s Persuasion or Jojo Moyes’s The Last Letter from Your Lover. But in crime fiction, I’ve been disappointed: Peter Swanson’s The Girl with a Clock for a Heart, Mark Edwards’ Because She Loves Me, & David Bell’s Somebody I Used to Know, all tanked. Perhaps it’s that the bereft lover has to play such an unappealing role, passively waiting for the beloved’s return steadfastly but without hope. (Granted, Captain Wentworth was anything but passive facing a French - or American - frigate captain, but as a wooer of Anne he hangs back till the very end.)

In The Beauty of the End Debbie Howells could give the narrator Noah Callaway a personal soundtrack: ‘Have You Heard about the Lonesome Loser?’ His parents (& the author) graced him with an awfully wet name for a hero (even he jokes bitterly about it) & it fits him - one of those unfortunates who go through life with his own little raincloud over his head. (His surname is also redolent of ‘callow’.) He allows himself to be repeatedly jerked around by April, the the object of his obsession, by Will, his BestFrenemy, & by Detective Sergeant Ryder (@ one point the author forgets his rank & promotes him to Detective Inspector tho’ he subsequently reverts). Noah even allows himself to be bullied by his landlady @ the BnB, even tho’ he is supposed to be both a lawyer & a moderately successful crime-fiction writer. (We are told that he abandoned practice @ the criminal defence bar stricken by remorse when a client he successfully defended proceeded to reoffend. Surely even the most junior defence barrister - not to mention detective story writer - knows that 9/10 of the defendants actually did it - the reason for defence is to make the Crown prove it.) You would think a trained barrister, not to mention crime fiction writer, would know how to stand up to an overbearing cop, not to mention a landlady.

Not only did April’s giving Noah the el dumpo nearly @ the altar break his heart; it also ruined the storybook wedding he was planning: he was ‘imagining a country house wedding with April in a beautiful dress & all our friends crowded around us. “We should check out some venues,” [he] told her. “Places get booked up.”’ Had I not requested this book from NetGalley, it would have hit the DNF pile here. The groom makes the wedding plans? Most us guys’ notion of wedding planning is going online @ Expedia to book two tickets to Vegas!

As the story unfolds the improbabilities multiply. April has apparently ODed & is in the ICU & Noah believes that one of the doctors is sneaking in & altering her medications to kill her - this doctor supposedly being a distinguished paediatric surgeon & having the nurses so in awe of him that they don’t question anything he does, even tho’ he is not April’s attending physician or qualified to be assigned to such a unit. There is no chance @ all of anything like that happening in any real ICU, where the nursing staff closely supervise & administer all medications - that’s why it’s an ICU. Not only do the nurses constantly monitor the pt’s medications & condition, but they review them daily as a team. There’s no way a consultant in another speciality - such as paediatric surgery - could simply walk in & start administering something other than what the pt’s proper doctor ordered.

We are also supposed to believe that April practised as a grief therapist for bereaved mothers of newborns, tho’ we are not told how she acquired her qualifications, but after so many other unlikelihoods, why complain? Finally Noah uncovers the very much expected villain and the villain’s very much improbable plot. Oh, & there’s also another occasional narrator who talks in italics & we finally find out what she’s doing in the story. At the end, Noah finds a new role: it’s not as a wedding planner.

In future I’ll not request advanced review copies of NetGalley except when I’ve already read & liked books by that author. But tho’ I am grateful to NetGalley & to Kensington Books for this ARC, I thought the only thing beautiful about the end of this book was actually reaching the end. (

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

"I was fourteen when I fell in love with a goddess. . ."

So begins the testimony of Noah Calaway, an ex-lawyer with a sideline in armchair criminal psychology. Now living an aimless life in an inherited cottage in the English countryside, Noah is haunted by the memory of the beguiling young woman who left him at the altar sixteen years earlier. Then one day he receives a troubling phone call. April, the woman he once loved, lies in a coma, the victim of an apparent overdose--and the lead suspect in a brutal murder. Deep in his bones, Noah believes that April is innocent. Then again, he also believed they would spend the rest of their lives together.
While Noah searches for evidence that will clear April's name, a teenager named Ella begins to sift through the secrets of her own painful family history. The same age as April was when Noah first met her, Ella harbors a revelation that could be the key to solving the murder. As the two stories converge, there are shocking consequences when at last, the truth emerges.
Or so everyone believes...

Sadly, this book didn't quite do it for me.

I really had great trouble following Noah and feeling anything other than frustration for him. The way he handles himself throughout this whole novel just made me want to throw things at him...large, heavy things. Throw them hard.

The other thing that really confused me right until the very end of the story was Ella. For the most part, she was just a random character with a secret that was thrown in for another character (or so it seemed) - By the time we got to her reveal, I just didn't care one way or the other. It just lost my interest as a plot arc.

Having said all that, I will have a look for more of this authors work cos I think everyone deserves at least a second chance...


Paul
ARH

This is my first book by Debbie Howells and it blew me away. This is a great psychological suspense novel that I finished in one day.

Noah Calaway is an ex-lawyer turned writing who gets a disturbing phone call from his estranged school friend Will that his ex-fiancée Alice Moon has been accused of a brutal murder and is in coma after trying to kill herself. Noah decides to defend Alice as he cannot believe that she is capable of such an heinous crime even though her betrayal still hurts him. Meanwhile we are also introduced to 15 year old Ella who is dealing through a family situation herself. The two stories though confusing converge beautifully in the end as Ella holds an important key to solving the heinous murder.

Debbie Howells has a beautiful way with words and she has woven a complex story-line with great well developed though most of the times unlikable characters. The different timeline is interesting and the pace though slow at the start picks up real fast. A definite must read and will go back to read other books written by Debbie Howells

Many thanks to Kensington Books & NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and fair review.

This and more reviews at https://chloesbooksblog.wordpress.com/

Debbie Howell's is a new author to me--I look forward to reading other books of hers.
I liked how she let the story unfold. Throughout the book, we hear the story from Noah's perspective, but was Noah a reliable narrator? There is enough tension throughout the book to keep the reader's attention. The real story was shocking, and totally changed my view of the characters.
I received this book as an advanced readers copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

It started really well, with intriguing premise and plenty of secrets to pull the reader in. However, it quickly went downhill with pretentious writing, unrealistic plot lines and weak characters. The narrative switches between past and present and some secrets are gradually revealed, but always leaving some questions unanswered. The story held my interest, but there was just too much thrown in - child abuse, death, murder, medical misconduct, sick babies, stolen babies, suicide, grieving mothers, alcoholism, lies, betrayals and much more!
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

This was a book I set aside as it just wasn't working for me. I will not be rating or reviewing. Thank you for the opportunity.

I really enjoyed this book. The Beauty of the End left me thinking long after the end. Debbie Howells shows us that sometimes love can be extremely blinding. Great psychological mystery! Highly recommend!

Noah is alone when he gets the call. That's not surprising; Noah is usually alone. He gave up his career as a lawyer and now lives in a remote cottage where he writes books about the criminal mind. He doesn't have friends where he lives and really has no interest in anyone from his former days.

The call is from Will, his best friend growing up. They fell out years ago over a woman and Noah hasn't talked with him since. They both loved April, the mysterious girl who came to their school when they were all teenagers and who Noah never gave up on. He found her again after she left the village where they all grew up April and Noah were to be married but she left him right before the wedding. The next time he heard from her, she was engaged to Will.

Now Will is a famous doctor and he is calling from the hospital. April has just been brought in. She is in a coma after an overdose and worse, she is a suspect in a murder. The victim is her stepfather, the man who abused her growing up. Noah knows he has to go and see what he can do to help. Was April the person the police believed her to be or a victim who had spent her life running from her past? As he delves into April's recent life, he starts to discover things he never knew. Can Noah discover the truth about what happened?

Debbie Howells has written a brooding mystery that slowly reveals the truth about the three adults who started their journey together as teenagers. Noah peels back layer upon layer of deceit and he realises that he never knew April at all. The reader is encouraged to examine their own life and relationships and attempt to see if new eyes can explain things in the past that never made sense. This book is recommended for mystery readers.

THE BEAUTY Of The End, a psychological mystery is the second novel I have read by author Debbie Howells, after having loved “The Bones of You”. I was so happy to be granted my wish to read THE BEAUTY OF THE END.

The story is about a man placed into the middle of a murder investigation, forced to come to terms with the secrets of his ex-lover's past. This is a novel of first love, of lies, secrets and betrayal.

"I was fourteen when I fell in love with a goddess. . ."

Noah Calaway, an ex-lawyer living in England is bothered by the memory of the young woman, April, who left him at the altar sixteen years earlier. Noah Calaway gets a call from an old friend that he hasn't heard from in a long time. Apparently Noah's old girlfriend April has killed a man and now lies in a coma after trying to kill herself. But Noah, believes that she is innocent and travels to where she lives to find out the truth.

“While Noah searches for evidence that will clear April's name, a teenager named Ella begins to sift through the secrets of her own painful family history. The same age as April was when Noah first met her, Ella harbors a revelation that could be the key to solving the murder. As the two stories converge, there are shocking consequences when at last, the truth emerges.”


I was a little confused between the relationship between Noah's story and Ella's story, based on the overlapping timeline of the past and present. The novel is written in first person narrative by Noah Calaway. I found it was difficult to like any of the characters. Each character was flawed, which made for interesting reading. “The beauty of the end” makes for an enjoyable easy read. The ending was very satisfying with no cliff hangers.

So, is April guilty or not? You will have to read the book to find out.

Many thanks to Kensington Books Via Net Galley for the ARC and granting my wish.

I read Debbie Howells first novel and was blown away. I knew her second would be just as good...I was right! She will be an author I will always read no matter what she's written. She's just that amazing! This story was mind bending, twisted, loving, and sad all rolled in one. She did a beautiful job weaving this world together. What a great read!!

Noah was infatuated with April from the moment he saw her-she was his goddess. Unfortunately, that infatuation blinded him as to what or who April really was, even when she tried to tell him. His friend Will saw April more realistically, and hinted to Noah things really weren't as Noah remebered them. But Will was also obssessed with April, but for different reasons. When Noah finds April for the last time many years later, she is dying, and it is then that the truth finally comes out and Will's duplicity comes to light.

The book is marketed as a thriller, and on a certain level it is, but Ms Howells presents us oh so much more. In well written, precise prose she explores relationships, and fundementally our inability to know the thoughts and innermost secrets of another person no matter how close. She walks us through dysfunctional relationships on so many different levels; impossible here to go into details without leaking plot, suffice it to say that the fallout from those relationships surprises. The structure of the book is such that doubts about the crime and the criminal linger until the very final pages, and all the time we peer under the stones and into the corners of the lives of the key protagonists, trying to understand why they act the way they do. Magic! Enthralling! Deep!

I really enjoyed the second half of this book. I felt that it got off to a slow start. Im glad I stuck with it. There was a great deal that needed to come together and the author did a great job of tieing all loose ends.
The only other compaint I have was that it was a very sad story without much happiness to counter the depressing life of the main characters. There was justice, but I would have gave five stars if there was contrast to the somber tone that overpowered the story.