Thank you for providing me with a copy of this book. Gripping as always from Karin and a very good read. Well recommended

Wow.

I’ll admit it now, days passed between the moment I agreed to take part in this tour and the day I picked the book to read it. For this, I am glad. I relied on the title, the author’s name, and my intuition, not remembering the blurb at all. I entered a dark room, and when I got out, I was not the same person!

There is so much to say and so little I wish for you to know before you experience Pieces of her that I have no idea what to write. This is going to be messy, vague, raw, but at least you can be sure you get the honest view of someone who wonders why on earth she did not read anything from Karin Slaughter sooner!!!

Andrea. Andy. A person, a woman, a daughter. The girl next door. The nice neighbor who sometimes forget to take out the trash on garbage day. Andy has nothing you look for in an action thriller. She is not ready for danger, for blood, for secrets. Yes, her job keeps her close to the police force without actually being part of it. She sits on the bench. It seems she’s been doing this for thirty-one years. In fact, Andy is so clueless at times you’ll want to shake some sense into her. I did! But it’s part of the game…

Then a shooting happens, forcing her suburban mother to show a face Andy didn’t know, and everything falls apart. Literally.

Karin Slaughter’s Pieces of Her is a magnificent and riveting exploration of what makes us who we are, what makes us tick, which hardships make us grow. She doesn’t shy away from putting her characters in situations where you want to scream orders to put them out of danger, she reminds the reader that they have no control over what unfolds between the pages. Numerous times, I wished for Andy to make different choices, to stand up for herself, to muster the courage to help her mother. But what do I know? How would I react? Who am I to judge?

Through past and present, two voices tell a tale of choices (mostly BAD ones!) and their consequences. Don’t think it is an easy ride. I was confused during more than half the novel, wondering where the author was taking me, unable to connect the dots between timelines that seemed to have nothing in common but still tainted each other. I drove me mad. It takes a lot to drive me mad. My kindle never stopped recalculating my reading time as I was going faster and faster, eager for answers to appear, for someone to take my hand and let me know what was going on.

But just as Andy learned, no one was around for this. So, clue after clue, one question after the other, I let doubt wrap me in a tight blanket, I let myself be shaken to the core by a beautifully plotted work of fiction with enough adrenaline to leave me breathless and burning calories from my couch!!!

Mother/daughter bounds are fascinating, and very different in each family. But I could feel the love and the protection of a mother, the need and affection of a daughter, and this broke my heart more than once. Yes, I might be biased when it comes to mommies, but I think this is why Piece of Me had an even stronger grip on me. I just couldn’t let go until things were right again. But what does right mean? Especially when you are running.

Andy doesn’t know what she is running from. Laura knows what is chasing them. Make sure your heart is ready before picking Pieces of Her, or it’ll take a piece of you! This novel is a puzzle in its truest form, you can’t finish it because some parts will always be missing. A torn-up picture and you swear when you realize you don’t have all the faces. A corpse without vital parts. Pieces of Her dissects the past and the present, two lives, love in different uniforms, right, wrong, and everything in between.

You didn’t hate someone unless part of you still loved them.

Highly addictive, beware you’ll always carry Pieces of Her with you, even long after finishing it.

I don't think there is a Karin Slaughter book that I haven't enjoyed and I have to say I find her a very versatile writer, from her Grant county series to her Will Trent series and from her stand- alones like the historic Cop Town to last year's The Good Daughter. And, I have to say Pieces of Her is among the best of them. It is complex, gritty, thought provoking and get's right to the heart of the emotions of the two main female protagonists.
A brilliant read!
Blurb
You’ve known her your whole life…
Andrea Oliver knows everything about her mother Laura. She knows she's always lived in the small town of Belle Isle; she knows she’s a pillar of the community; she knows she's never kept a secret in her life.
but she’s hiding something…
Then one day, a trip to the mall explodes into a shocking act of violence and Andy suddenly sees a completely different side to Laura.
and it could destroy you both…
Hours later, Laura is in hospital, her face splashed over the newspapers. But the danger has only just begun. Now, Andy must go on a desperate race to uncover the secrets of her mother's past. Unless she can, there may be no future for either of them…
What I think
What I found so appealing about this book was the puzzle. Just like the pieces of the title, I spent the entire novel trying to work out how these pieces of Andrea's mother fit together. It was strangely mesmerising. The reason for that, I think, is that as Andrea tries to piece together who her mother is, we see her growing and developing In Pieces of Her, Slaughter has again created two strong female protagonists and what makes them each so appealing is that they are so different and yet so alike. Both are striving to be themselves- to shake off the constraints that they've inherited and, for Andrea, the road trip she takes is her coming of age story.
I loved the way that Slaughter took us back in time through flashback and, so tantalisingly, dotted in clues throughout Andrea's journey. The suspense was delicious, the writing beautifully poignant and the subject matter, although hard to digest at times, was compelling.
Slaughter's plotting is second to none. With skill and aplomb, she filled in the gaps, yet simultaneously, left enough out to keep me hooked. She is the master of red herrings and I loved it.

Best book I've read this year,brilliant. As with all really good books you are drawn in by the first few paragraphs.
A daughters journey to find the truth about her mother, the mother's own journey .
Pieces of Her is a great,descriptive title for a great book.

With thanks to the publisher for the copy received. Pieces of Her is only the second book that I have read by Karin Slaughter. Like this, that was a standalone novel. I am aware that she has a huge fan base and after reading this book, which left me at times with my heart racing and had me chewing on my knuckles I know why. And I know I have a huge back catalogue to enjoy.
It took me a while to get used to both of the main characters. Andy has some major issues, I couldn’t tell if it was lack of confidence or depression and at times she really annoyed me. But there was one moment in this book that my opinion changed completely and I was rooting for her. I don’t think I was meant to laugh but I did. I didn’t know what the situation was with Laura, I felt that she was pushing Andy away for her own safety but didn’t know why. The reason I came up with was totally wrong, and the real reason isn’t revealed until much later.
The narrative switches back and forth throughout the entire novel. The chapters are fairly long and the second half of the novel was when I was chewing on my knuckles, anxious to get back to find out more.
I’ve thought for a long time that a female author is better at creating a character that feels really evil. There are two characters in this novel that made me cringe every time they appeared. Karin Slaughter has proved me right in my thinking and has also showed that she is one of the best.

Set in the US (Georgia – though we find ourselves in various US States throughout) the reader becomes embroiled in world of destruction, control, manipulation, family relationships, disfunction, secrets, abuse, lies, politics, pain, anger, regret, emotional scars and the search for justice … oh so good! 🙌🏻

I was instantly intrigued by the prologue and the #killerhook snuck in craftily in chapter 1 and that was it…I wasn’t putting this #badboy down! There was a dual timeline which I first thought were two completely separate threads – It took me ages to figure things out (though it is in the blurb 🙈🤣) and man, when everything was revealed I was gobsmacked! Such a clever storyline with fantastically written characters – I absolutely knew that the author had nailed it once again! BOOM! 👊🏻

I want to talk about each and every character, because even the throwaway characters added to the story! I will mention Laura as there were times I was like “WTF is up with this lady?” – she had many layers to her and we learned more and more as the story unfolds. I still don’t know how likeable I found her, but she is a fighter, determined and I think she absolutely believed that every decision she made was for the best. I won’t say anymore, as I don’t want to mistakenly give away a spoiler! But WOW! Just WOW!

I have to say, that Andy had to be my favourite character – LOVED her! A force who was fighting to survive whilst unravelling the secrets which had trouble at her heels! Bloody brilliant! She took everything that was thrown at her and would not back down! Fabulous!!

I just LOVED everything about this book – the baddies were chilling, you don’t know who to believe/trust, the storyline was riveting – basically everything I had hoped it would be and more! Would I recommend this read? OMFG 😱 you bet your sweet arse I would! An adrenaline fuelled read that had me racing through the pages, questioning everything and everyone and the OMG-moments totally caught me off guard! Now THAT is a great read! If you don’t believe me, follow the rest of the tour here:

Really intriguing and gripping story, that unfolds across two timelines. One of those books that you can't stop reading once you get into it.

I love Karin Slaughter's writing style and how she's developed and matured over the years, from her early days of the Grant County series and through the Will Trent series. Pieces of Her is her fourth full length standalone novel. It's cleverly written over two timelines thirty-two years apart which are not at all confusing, you won't get them mixed up, although the plotline itself is quite complicated.

In the first chapter we meet Laura who is undergoing chemo for breast cancer, and her daughter Andrea, at a restaurant chatting about Laura's illness and that Andrea should move out of the family home and get a place of her own. Andrea's life is stale and stagnant and needs something to give her a push to the next chapter in her life. While they are chatting, a gunman opens fire on people around them and Laura is caught in the gunfire. Andrea is like a frightened rabbit and can't move from behind her mother and is almost shocked into a stuttering silence when Laura speaks with the shooter and one of them ends up dead.

Andrea's life then takes off in a completely different orbit as she tries piecing her life together, questioning her mother's past and now facing much danger. The story goes back to events over thirty years ago and we start to understand the events then with what is happening in Laura and Andrea's life today.

This is a fast paced crime story, sometimes graphic and gory but always gripping. At times it's heart stoppingly fast and intense with chases and danger at every turn.

Another great book by Karin Slaughter, Pieces of Her explores the complexity of a mother/daughter relationship. How far will the mother go for her child is clearly represented throughout. A great read.

whatever can i say new about Slaughter's work - professional and effective, i read fast - it's tough and slick - and she deserves every reader she has. this is another strong addition to the club of her fans ...

I'm a big Karin Slaughter fan and this book does not disappoint!

It's not as gruesome as some of Slaughter's previous books and instead delves deeper into characters and backstories. It's very character driven with a clever and interesting story unfolding over two different decades from the different perspectives.

A thrilling and pacey read which I'll be recommending to others. 5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and Karin Slaughter for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was slightly worried that this wouldn't live up to Karin Slaughter's previous books, but I was hooked from the start and finished it the same day. Fast-paced, unpredictable and totally gripping!

Wonderful book ! Realistic storyline and characters , relevant to today’s society . Different themes for a well established exciting author .
Highly recommended .

First of all, my thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a complimentary copy of this book.

I'm a Karin Slaughter fan, my favourite being the Will Trent series. So I should start by saying this stand-alone is something very different.

We follow Andrea and her mother, Laura. Their separate stories are told in the present (Andrea) and in the past (Laura).
The beginning of the book is brilliant and really grabs the reader. There's a terrible incident in a diner and Laura shows a side of herself that seems impossible to believe when she stands up to a violent young man.

We then start to delve into the mystery of Laura when, straight after the diner incident, she seems to turn against her own daughter and tells her to leave home and never come back. Laura may face criminal charges for the incident in the diner, but Andrea simply has no explanation for her mother's bewildering behaviour.

Andrea is a young woman who seems lost in life. She drives across America in search of answers. And the reader is told the backstory of Laura's life and all that she has kept hidden from Andrea and Andrea's father. I can't say much without spoilers. What I will say is that Laura's story was believable but it did not stir sympathy in me. In her long and intricate past, she was at times lost and weak, at times manipulated and a victim, and she came from an extremely wealthy background.

Andrea is thirty-one. She still lived at home and her job in New York hadn't worked out as she wanted. Her drive in search of answers makes her grow up. It makes her stand on her own feet and face problems. However, she also puts other people in danger and nice people are killed because of her blundering. I found this difficult to forgive.

In summary, I have to say that I didn't really like Andrea nor did I like Laura.
Laura has done things that I found believable, and yet they didn't sit comfortably in the story. Maybe because I wasn't expecting terrorism and such like to be included in the book? Or maybe because the story seems an impossible mix between crime thriller and psychological thriller? Or because the parts about Laura became a bit tedious and drawn out and the tension wasn't really there? I'm not sure.

I think Karin Slaughter is especially good at characters. Anyway, by the end of it all, I have to say my favourite characters were minor ones - Clara and Edwin, and Laura's current estranged husband who is always kept out of the picture but is deeply moral and tries to do the right thing.

Gore and blood is what thrillers are about and this one has it's fair share of brains being splattered. However, there are also huge doses of cruelty and that I found more difficult to bear. Especially when the main characters showed such a lack of morality.

But I can't rate the story low because there was something about it that was very good.
After all, I'm a Karin Slaughter fan and her writing in this book was as great as it usually is. The idea was ambitious. Did she pull it off? Almost.
So it's a four stars from me. And with a bit more tension in Laura's backstory and a bit less whining from Andrea and a bit more insight from her, and it might have been a five.

Pieces of Her is a character-driven thriller focusing on themes of self-discovery, the tension of mother/daughter relationships, and a search for the truth.

The book is very different from Slaughter’s previous work, and I feel that fans of hers should know this up front. Pieces of Her is a wonderful story, intriguingly told with well thought out characters, but doesn’t have quite the grit or hard plot turns that many of her crime thrillers have.

I love domestic suspense, so this was a great one for me. The story follows Andy, a mousy, insecure woman incapable of making any decisions and her steely, elegant, confident mother, Laura. The plot moves between Laura’s past in which she’s part of an anarchist group trying to screw ‘the system’, and Andy’s present, as she’s running from an unspecified threat thrust on her after a shocking attack that exposes a side of Laura she’d never seen before.

There are many of Slaughter’s trademark gory scenes and some really great plot twists, but overall this is a character driven novel exploring the complex relationship between mothers and daughters and how that relationship changes as we realize our mother had a life totally separate to us before we were born.

Pieces of Her is another standalone from Karin Slaughter so it’s very different from the Will Trent series, even her other standalone novels and it gives her a chance to explore less criminal issues and more human behaviour and psychological issues.  And boy, did she really explore the psychological.

Andrea (Andy) believes she knows everything about her mother, Laura, a 55 year old speech therapist and recent cancer survivor, who wants nothing more than to live a conventional life in peace and quiet until one day everything is turned on its head.  To celebrate Andy's 31st birthday Laura takes her for lunch to a diner in Belle Isle, when a gunman comes in and starts shooting.  Whilst Andy is cowering in a corner her mother Laura single-handedly takes on the spree killer in a calm and collected way leaving everyone shocked and the murderer dead.  Andy tries to reconcile this cold mercenary behaviour with the kind and caring suburban mother she knows but it seems that person has gone and left a sharp and unfeeling person in it's place.  Or has it?

What if everything you thought you knew about your quiet, middle-aged mother was wrong?

The book follows Andy's journey to find out who Laura really is, and what secrets she is keeping from her only daughter, who spent the last 30 years believing her to be just a regular wife and mother.  This book is a continuous chase - Andy is chasing the truth, and someone may be chasing her, too.  Constant tension and suspense is held tightly throughout, but it isn't a mindless action thriller, I would say it was more of a mystery suspense, as I would expect from Slaughter, it's both psychologically and emotionally challenging.

There's plenty of confusion and uncertainty as the plot slowly unfurls.  Pieces of Her is most definitely all about the characters and the insight into the minds of these characters.  Slaughter has the ability to write such beautiful characters with such twisted and intricate family dynamics. So many themes are covered, such as family, grief, and guilt.  There are two storylines going on here (past and present flashbacks) and two main narrators, Andy and Laura, and Slaughter does a stellar job of seamlessly alternating between them.  Pieces of Her is a gritty and suspenseful read that will have you immersed from the first few chapters.  It’s not a quick read, with the page numbers leaning on the heavy side, but stuck on a plane for over five hours had me whizzing through it.  Highly recommend this multi-layered expertly plotted story.

I found this book gripping.
A really clever plot which switched between now and the 1980s.
What was great about this story was the way in which it very gradually revealed what happened, I didn’t guess the plot but when it was revealed it made sense!
4.5*

I love Karin Slaughter books and am always looking out for the next one so when netgalley offered this, I was so eager to read it. And it did not fail to please. I could not put it down. The first chapter grabbed my attention and this is what I love about Karin Slaughter as an author. There is no slow build up, you are entrapped straight away. And she does it sensationally.

The story is set around three women: Andy, Laura and Jane, their stories are intertwined and even when you realise how they fit together you still want the story to continue and not end. There are so many twists and turns and Karin manages to keep the suspense right till the end. I give Pieces of Her 5 stars.

Spellbinding!!! Karin does not disappoint with her new suspense novel spanning multiple decades as we learn that even your own mother is not necessarily who you think she is. I couldn’t put this book down as I was totally invested In all of the characters and loved the twists and turns of the story that confined till the very last page.

Andy (Andrea) lived a fairly aimless life. She didn't seem to know what to do with her life. She is close to her mother, Laura, who is a speech therapist who seems to have her life together until one day a violent incident in a diner revels that a side of Laura she never knew existed. Before long Andy finds herself on the run with a large amount of money and just one destination in mind- the one her mother told her to make for. On the way she discovers more about her mother's past and a lot about herself.

Running alongside of Andy's story is the story of Jane- a gifted pianist who managed to get herself involved with an extremist group.

I loved this book. I was totally involved in both storylines which is quite rare as I often find myself wishing I was in one line or another! Karin Slaughter keeps the pace up throughout this exciting ride & I could not put it down.

Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for this five star read.