I loved the author's previous book'Behind her Eyes' It was compelling' and original.The twists were amazing as was the conclusion.This follow up did have twists (some I guessed) and was well written, but the subject matter and content was quite unsavoury for me. I felt at times that some of the happenings were a stretch of the imagination....would a friendship really survive with so many secrets ? I appreciate that it is difficult for an author to be consistently good. Overall, a novel which would appeal to many.

A good story line with many twists and turns with an unexpected outcome a thoroughly enjoyable read

The more thrillers and crime novels I read, the more appreciation I have for writers who can take an existing formula and make it work, fill it with anticipation and uncertainty, get you obsessively curious about what is or isn't going to happen. Being able to do that is like a magic trick – it looks effortless but takes tremendous skill, and a hell of a lot of people try and fail at it. With Cross Her Heart, Sarah Pinborough had me hooked instantly and I couldn't rest until I knew everything.

There are three main characters: Lisa, her 16-year-old daughter Ava, and Marilyn, Lisa's colleague and best friend. All three have secrets, with Lisa seemingly on the run from her past, Ava hiding an online relationship with an older man, and Marilyn trying to cover up the cracks in her marriage. Of course, there's more to all this than meets the eye; I'm not going to go into too much detail about that, because I don't want to spoil it for anyone else, but we get to learn a lot about one character's background, with flashback scenes that are vivid, harrowing, and sadly believable. In some ways the story is similar to Alex Marwood's The Wicked Girls, although it doesn't feel as exploitative of working-class lives.

As is the case for so many books in this genre, the climax and ending don't quite match up to the suspense of the first two-thirds. I didn't mind that, though, because I was so gripped by the story as a whole. Excellent escapism. (And as an additional note, those who found Pinborough's Behind Her Eyes too preposterous may prefer this one.)

Thank you to Netgalley, Sarah Pinborough and Harper Collins for my ARC of Cross Her Heart. Here is my honest review.

I haven't ready Sarah Pinborough's first book, but I do love a psychological thriller. This book had me gripped from the beginning. I honestly had no idea at all where it was going. I liked the characters and found them believable. There were surprises in there that I'd never have guessed and I had no idea at all who to trust or believe throughout most of the book. By the time I was about 3 quarters of the way through I couldn't put it down and was keen to find out what was going to happen.

For an exciting and fast=paced read, this is a must.

This book is a real pager turner and what you think it happening tends to get turned on its head at various points in the book.

Would read more from this author.

I really enjoyed this book , once I got started I couldn't stop . It was fast paced with great twists and turns and a good few red herrings thrown into the mix . The book is mainly about Lisa , her daughter Ava and best friend Marilyn . Lisa is really over protective of Ava which makes Ava keep some dangerous secrets from her Mum . Marilyn has her own problems with an abusive husband , and Lisa is hiding some secrets of her own . It brings home again how dangerous social media can be , how do you know who you are really talking too .

It was great to read a book where the men were just bit players , the 3 women are feisty and I liked them all , a really satisfying conclusion and I will certainly be waiting for the next book . Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this . Highly recommended 5 stars !!!!

Don't at any point think you have got it sussed as to what is going on because everything you think you know can change in an instant in this twisty turner thriller. The first part seems like a book more reminiscent of women's literature until the first twist. The twists keep on coming and the pace picks up dramatically, the action moves between characters each of whom has a distinctive voice and also between the past and present. This novel goes to the heart of love, betrayal and the notion that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

A cleverly woven tale that keeps you guessing, for whilst you know there will be a dramatic culmination of stories, you just won't see it coming...

This is the first Sarah Pinsborough book that I have read. This is the story about Lisa a single mother to teenage daughter Ava. Lisa is an overprotective mother and her 16 year old daughter just wants independence. Lisa starts noticing little things not right in her home and suspects her ex is behind it. It took me a little while to get into this story and it seemed to be your standard run of the mill psychological thriller then part way through everything changes. I really thought that this was really clever. After that though the story more or less was what I expected. Some things about the main character didn’t really add up for me and that is what spoilt the story for me. If you are quite new to this genre then I think that it would be a very enjoyable read.

I was given an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest and independent review.
Very well constructed, great pace, well developed and interesting characters.
This book had me hooked from the first page. I thought it was an exciting read. Highly recommend.

Absolutely gripping. Really couldn’t put this down. Thrilling, exciting and well plotted. I liked the structure where some of the characters share the telling of the story so viewpoints change and how it switches back and forth from past to present giving up little gems of information and detail. . Secrets and lies scattered everywhere and it becomes clear Lisa is not who she claims to be, but she is not the only one. I can’t say too much about the story because I will give away the twists! There are lots of them! Cleverly based on what we hear about in the news and the question we ask “I wondered what happened to them years later?” Here is an answer.

This book is a brilliant page turner! Intriguing, shocking and fast pace story.

The plot is smartly twisted, I couldn’t put my fingers on what is going to happen next and where this story is going whole the way through. Lisa’s secret is revealed in phrase and it makes me like her even her story is full of cruel and velocity. Although I felt some part of its story is a bit too painful, I enjoyed whole plot very much.

I normally don’t like the story that the narrators are changed. However, this story is meticulously arranged and easy to follow each characters. Also reading by each characters views, the story get more thrilled. I like all the characters especially Lisa’s best friend Marilyn. At first, I didn’t know why there’s story from her view but it’s necessarily important part when considered its story in hindsight. Her view makes its story more intriguing.

I was too engaged of the thrill and wonder to discover the secrets of each characters, I couldn’t put this book down and always thought like “ one more chapter...” till the end.

Most people is comparing this book to the author’s first book, but I haven’t read it yet. After I enjoyed this book so much, I determined to read her last book as well. This book is one of the best thriller book I read so far.

I marked this book as 4.5 stars out of 5.

Thank you HarperCollins UK vie NetGalley for an advance reading copy of this book.

CROSS HER HEART a psychological thriller, by Sarah Pinborough, moved along at a great pace. Secrets, lies, and scandal were at every page turn. I could not put this book down.

Without giving any ‘secrets’ away, the novel led me down one path only to turn everything on its head. BOOM! This book grips and doesn’t let go. It twists the reader left and right as the characters come to terms with their past. At times, this was not an easy book to read. It left one questioning right and wrong, past and present.

Superb.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book #CrossHerHeart.

★★★★★ 5 STARS

Having absoloutely tore though Behind Her Eyes and enjoyed it thoroughly, I was excited to read Cross Her Heart. While it wasn't a book I necessarily read in one sitting, I really liked the story all the same. I went into the book knowing absoloutely nothing about it apart from the fact it was by Sarah. My curiosity was most definitely piped from the beginning - I just couldn't put my finger on exactly where the book was going. Lisa's secret is hinted at heavily throughout the plot but we don't know the exact details and as you find out, these are the important bits. I'll be perfectly honest that I didn't guess a single of twists and this pleased me a lot! While I actually liked all the characters in the book, it was actually Lisa's best friend Marilyn who I warmed to the most. At first I didn't understand the need for us to read from her perspective but it soon became clear just why and really helped the reader establish a relationship with her. I really enjoyed the use of the flash backs as well as the short chapters as it was so easy to just keep going: 'just one more...' although this wasn't so great when it came to sleep! A must read for thriller fans.

This was a thriller which I found quite difficult to get into. The characters are a combination of irritating and boring and they struggled to motivate my interest. The problem is there are just so many books just like this on the market, this struggled to rise above ordinary. We're supposed to be kept hanging for the big 'reveal' as all the characters have secrets, but I saw a number of the twists coming a mile away.

The mother Lisa is constantly looking over her shoulder and is clingy to her sixteen year old daughter as something in her past is shrouded in the first half of the novel. The story is also seen from sixteen year old Ava her daughter, who seems obsessed with giving her virginity away. I thought this part of the book is rubbish, it's as if safe sex never existed!

Both mother and daughter have issues, fake friends lurk in the background, social media plays its part, but in the end I found t to be a pretty mediocre thriller which tested my patience.

This author should stick to YA fiction, she is much, much better and more convincing in that area.

This new thriller follows Sarah Pinborough's breakthrough hit Behind Her Eyes, and like that book it's a fast paced compulsive thriller, with plenty of twists and turns on the way. At the outset, it presents as a fairly straightforward tale of menacing by a nasty ex-partner, and I was on the verge of dropping it for being so unoriginal and uninteresting, but I should have known better. Once you're about a quarter of the way in, the narrative begins to change, and you soon discover things are not what you thought they might have been. One interesting thing is that it's quite morally murky, as we end up rooting for a heroine who {MASSIVE SPOILER REDACTED!], but somewhat disappointingly there's an easy cop out to smooth this over for the reader. Fans of the genre and Sarah Pinborough's last book will love it, and there is indeed plenty to like here, but I have to say I miss the supernatural horror elements of her earlier books. I hope us genre fans haven't lost her to crime forever...

Thank you to Netgalley, Sarah Pinborough and Harper Collins for my ARC of Cross Her Heart in exchange for an honest review.
Publication Date: 17th May 2018

I first discovered Sarah Pinborough when I read Behind Her Eyes last year. I got seriously addicted to that book so I should have known not to pick Cross Her Heart up so late at night because inevitably I couldn't put it down until I finished it at 1:40am.

Lisa has a quiet life. A single mum, she works at a recruitment firm with her best friend Marilyn and worries about how quickly her daughter Ava is growing up now that she's turned 16.
But there's a dark secret in Lisa's past which seems to be coming back to haunt her new life. First it's an innocent looking teddy left out in the rain, then a song request played on the radio, and then things start going missing in the house.

This was a really engaging thriller, while it didn't have the same #wtf factor of Behind Her Eyes (which officially spoilt me for all future #wtf endings ever), it was still shocking and so cleverly written that even when you think you've got it, it turns out you haven't. Sarah Pinborough is a master of her genre and I can't wait to read more from her in the future!

Ok let’s start off with is it as good as her first ?
Well I know u either loved Sarah’s first or u didn’t specifically the ending ,one that for me had me agasp .I loved it !
It was so original I was worried her second novel just wdnt match up and I was right but that doesn’t make this a bad story
. it’s still a good read ,
There is a quarter way through the novel something that turns things onits head and u have a diffirent story to the one we entered into ,which I was pleased about as was worried another cat and mouse game wd ensure with a dodgy ex
This does surprise u and the characters are well drawn at times Marilyn I really liked as her friend but i did wonder if Sarah felt the pressure herself as we were sometimes introduced to characters and they were given some chunk of the story and they just kinda sank without a trace as the pages got turned (the ex husband) and the murderous intentions revealed ,also Marilynn and her partner hinted at tough domainat relationship and she then suddenly left him !?takes years to do that once we realise and tons of courage so in a few sentences she had found that ,I don’t think so ,we saw glimpses not scenes but maybe that’s ok as doesn’t get bogged down with side story’s
I didn’t guess who was out for revenge at all no one will I suspect .liked that!
I do hope Sarah continues to write and see the potential ,more so in her first novel ,to be something a bit diffirent ,even this which cd have beeen a bit of a cliche .
It’s a good read on revenge and she managed to give it a diffirent angle to what we thought the novel wd be going in
I just hope she doesn’t become too domestic drama or formula thriller of a writer continues to take a few risks even if jars with some people on the whole we like our novels to turn things on its head and maybe be a bit out there like her first novel

Coming May 2018! Thanks to Netgalley & HarperFiction for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! Cross her heart is written by Sarah Pinborough, author of Sunday Times bestselling book 'Behind her eyes.' I read C.L Taylor's review of this book shortly before writing mine and was I glad I did… just like C.L Taylor experienced, this book majorly messed with my head and I had the oddest strangest dreams! I've never written anything by Pinborough before, although her first book is now firmly on my 'To read' list! I wasn't disappointed. She's an eclectic mix of some of Psychological Suspense's finest - Sophie Hannah, B.A Paris, C.L Taylor, Claire Douglas and Emma Donohue and brings out some of the finest from each of their writing styles. At the same time though, there's something very unique about her. I couldn't put this book down until I knew exactly what was going on and at the end I was just left reeling.

Cross her heart is about a woman's strength and struggle to begin a new life and put her past behind her - but as we all know in every great psychological thriller, this is rarely possible! Lisa is the main protagonist and embraces single motherhood raising her daughter Ava. Despite her best efforts though, she cannot protect Ava against everything and her past soon comes back to majorly mess with her head and drive her to desperate measures. Someone is living a lie - but whether it's Lisa, Ava or someone else…or a combination of all three… you'll just have to find out!

Did not enjoy this one quite so much as her last book. I found it very predictable and gave up half way through. I enjoyed her previous book very much so perhaps my expectations were a little too high.