Very good plot, keeps you interested. I liked the mannerism the book has been written in. Approachable language and style. Well defined characters. Strong 5 stars.

4.5*
I don’t know how to describe this book. It’s a bit of everything that I love when it comes to crime fiction. There’s the suspense. there’s a bit of legal drama, there’s aspects of police procedural. But mixed in with that is a bit of… is it romance, not really, it’s passion, infatuation, obsession, it’s an affair that shouldn't happen – lawyer and client.

This affair between Fran and Martin is passionate, their encounters are very saucy and sexy in their description. It is not what you expect in a crime novel but it worked given the storyline.

Butler has crafted a tense thriller which kept me enthralled to the end which I have to say is one shocking climax to say the least. I will be looking up her second thriller and the back catalogue of her alter-ego!

Very well-written and an absolute page-turner. The story comes thick and fast and keeps you interested until the last page. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it. This was the first book I've read by this author but it will not be my last.

Truly breathtaking, Exciting pace and unexpected turns. I have become an instant fan and can't wait to read more!

Professional people: lawyers, bankers, doctors and the like. We never really think about the person behind the job, do we? JL Butler takes us behind the doors of Chambers, into the world of a barrister who has worked hard to get a good reputation in order to be considered for her dream job of Queen's Counsel. So when the prestigious banker Martin Joy requests that she represents him in his divorce case she is keen to accept the high profile case. It can only help get her noticed. But when Martin's soon to be ex wife Donna disappears, the headlines are hardly the ones Francine had hoped for when she signed up with him.

Francine and Martin quickly grow very close to one another, crossing professional boundaries which are there for a reason. Some people are quick to judge and others can see an opportunity to exploit what they think they know about the couple. Francine knows that this could bring her whole world crashing down but common sense seems to have left the building when she took on this case. Her application for silk is not looking too promising after all.

There are a really nice selection of characters in this book. The genuinely good through and through people who you would want on your side - the few that Fran has filtered into her life over years of building up her career and allowed into her personal life. Then there are the new, less attractive ones who have crashed onto her radar whether she wants them there or not. What are their intentions? She doesn't know them well enough to understand whether they have her best interests at heart or their own. We build a picture of the mess Fran's life has become and come to understand why she may have ended up where she is, with detectives on her tail and her oldest friends asking her to step away from them for a while.

I very much enjoyed this book as I genuinely had no idea whether Martin Joy was guilty in assisting with his wife's disappearance or whether she was the epitome of the trophy wife who was trying to manipulate her way into a bigger divorce settlement. The suspense continues right through to the final chapter and not all the loose ends are tied up by the final page. I don't usually like an ending which isn't completely tidy but in this case it kind of suits the overall story.

My thanks to the publisher for initially approving my request on NetGalley however I did actually end up purchasing the book in its final form and this is what my review is based upon.

The story follows Francine, an up and coming lawyer in London, as she forms a relationship with a client. The relationship brings with a truly unfair amount of baggage; including missing persons, accusations of murder, threats, adultery and more.

What I liked: I genuinely felt for Francine. She was caught up in a horrendous series of circumstances and the majority of her actions felt honest and understandable.

What I didn't like: the whole psychotherapist revealing her lost memories seemed suspiciously convenient. I didn't feel natural that the character would just be given the answers in a single therapy session like that. Most of the characters were well written, but I was confused about how I was meant to feel about Martin. Especially once he admits to engaging in prostitution and basic thuggery. It would have made more sense to me that she would still be so defensive of him if there was nothing concretely wrong with him, only the suspicion of something being wrong.

The novel as a whole was well paced with decently developed characters. It's been out some time and doesn't seem to have garnered too much attention, but to be fair it's a worthy enough addition to the genre. With a bitt of development, it would make a good TV mini-series actually.

Mine by J. L. Butler is a very compelling book to read, It kept me gripped throughout and i'd recommend a read.

Brilliant book! I fell into this book so easily, finding the style of writing swept me along and straight into the story. The setting of the law firm was extremely authentic. I really enjoyed the whole obsession, compulsion, trust and distrust which ran throughout the book, all woven brilliantly into a whodunnit disappearance/murder mystery.

Let's get the gripes over with: firstly, be prepared to suspend disbelief. I can't imagine any lawyer, divorce lawyer, would act so unprofessionally. But, as I said, suspend your disbelief because, but for that, this is a cracking thriller. Secondly, as a former journalist, I expected better editing from the author. Grammatical errors ('was sat'), an inability to differentiate between adverbs and adjectives, and spelling errors. Again, though, this is a good read and well written, so one can overlook it (but not forgive it).
Notwithstanding the above, I really enjoyed this thriller. Fran is a divorce lawyer who takes on a high-profile divorce between a rich, charismatic, handsome man and his very attractive high-maintenance wife. Seemingly, just a question of sorting out how many millions she's going to squeeze out of him. Until…until Mrs goes missing without a trace. What has Mr Money done to her? Has he done something to her? And the final plot ingredient to all this…Fran embarks on a passionate affair with the client. What a mess. (I did say you have to suspend disbelief.)

But…I couldn't put this down. Taylor can certainly write and produce some full-bodied characters. And you can't outsmart her: I thought I had it sussed many times. I really wasn't prepared for the final reveal.

My gripes may not be your gripes…so definitely worth a read.

Gripping and twisty, this is a real page-turner. I enjoyed the legal bits and would have liked more and I had to suspend belief quite a lot as to how Francine would have behaved given her experience and standing, but it certainly does what it says on the tin - it is a thriller with an unpredictable end.

This book is too slow for me I carried on for a while waiting for something to happen but I gave up.

A fast paced, gripping tale filled with blackmail and deceit that will have you hooked right up until the very last page. With a big twist that will punch you in the gut, it raises questions over who can you really trust when you need them?

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC without obligation.

Francine Day is our leading lady, she is smart, high flying lawyer with positive career prospects and ready to finally apply for Silk. She is focused and driven so when she meets Martin as he visits her to help with his divorce she didnt expect to feel how she did in that moment. However it was fleeting and Francine knows better than that.

When she bumps into Martin outside of work and he suggests a drink she cant help herself, something about Martin is drawing her in. She is like a woman obsessed from that first moment. She knows she shouldnt be in a relationship but its not the end of the world, that is until Martins wife goes missing and the last person to see her was Donna.

This was a tense drama filled read and at one point the tension was so high i had to put it down (mainly because it was 2am and i knew my anxiety would stop me sleeping more!) For the most part i really enjoyed discovering what was happening.

There was a few minor issues for me, but this may be down to my reading tastes. I found it hard to believe how much Martin impacted Francine, someone who is so strong and bright behaving the way she was - a woman obsessed (although the author does give some explanation to it, it just wasnt working for me) I also found the time frame of the book wasnt ever really mentioned that much or i didnt notice so in relation to everything happening i wasnt ever that sure how long it was over or when certain things happened.

I did like the way it panned out though and the way it was written was in such a way i found myself picking the book up every spare minute i had (which is clearly alot lately with lockdown haha!) to squeeze in a little more reading at any given time.The writer was clearly engaging and i really talented. I would be happy to read more. You are really kept guessing until the end. I also liked the way you were left feeling that you got everything you needed from the book.

Wow, what a thrilling read! It started innocently with a lawyer dealing with a divorce, and ended up in a murder investigation, and the lawyer is part of it all, whether she wants to or not!
Recommended!!

This book is a thriller based around the courts of London
It’s fast paced and will take your breath away at times
This book has something for everyone
I couldn’t put it down
A great book

In this riveting tale of psychological suspense, a divorce lawyer risks her career, her sanity, and her life when she falls into an illicit, all-consuming affair with her client—who becomes the primary suspect in his estranged wife’s sudden disappearance.

I’ll be honest; this book teetered on the edge of DNF about mid-way through. The story just seemed to ‘constructed’ and there weren’t any characters I actually liked.

As for Fran, she just didn’t fit the backstory we were provided. I know she had mental issues when she was young, issues she overcame and had apparently been in control of since then, resulting in a confident, career driven woman. But that really seems all hearsay. All we are presented with is an unravelling character, weak from the start. It just didn’t feel realistic for her to falter so quickly after apparently holding it together for so long.

Despite that, there were some good moments thrown into the mix, enough to keep me pressing on.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for a review copy.

Read and reviewed in exchange for a free copy from NetGalley. This book was utterly ridiculous and very enjoyable. It started with a bang and got straight into the action, which I liked, but it lagged a bit in places later on. I liked Fran although got thoroughly frustrated with her at times, but I loved Vivienne in her brief appearance. Butler wrote well and the dialogue was authentic, however, the number of sex scenes felt unnecessary. Although I predicted the outcome, there were still twists and turns, and it didn't detract from the story. I'd be interested in reading more from J.L. Butler.

A really gripping thriller that kept me guessing until the very last page. I loved it. Would recommend!

This was quite a slow starter for me. It did seem to drag a bit initially - really until around 22% where Francine wakes up with no recollection of what happened the previous night or how she came to be where she woke up. Even after this point it continues to move along at a steady pace. It didn't seem very fast paced,  although it did hold my interest.

Having read quite a lot of this type of book I was trying to second guess characters and motives and quickly decided that those who I thought it could have been, it almost certainly wasn't! I knew there would have to be a twist at the end. So I started working out who it could have been - a couple of other characters could have had reason to cause suspicion. However when it was revealed, it turned out to be a character I hadn't considered at all, although perhaps I should have!

This was a well written book but because of the slower pace, it did seem to drag somewhat in places. It was a surprising twist at the end though and it did keep my interest throughout.