Wow wow wow, I could sing the high praises of this book for ever. Such a tightly knit story, taking place over the three hours that a school is being held under siege by masked gunmen. Opening with a bullet, and moving between different key characters, Three Hours doesn't waste a word. It feels so current and now, and unfortunately all too likely to be real. If you like your crime thrillers to keep you on the edge of your seat, desperate to turn the page but nervous to find out what's going to happen - this is it. It deserves all of the praise that I have seen being heaped on it, go and read it!
Thank you so much for giving me the chance to read it

A progressive rural school with refugee pupils is taken hostage by student gunmen, full of hate.
Drawing on tragedies such as the Columbine massacre and the wider societal anti-Muslim rhetoric, Lupton turns a lens on how this happened and the bravery of a school that fights back.
Although the focus is narrow - the three hours as the events unfold - the pace is fast and the characters distinctive and compelling.
They include the loving headmaster, Muslim refugee brothers, and the school drama group whose performance of Macbeth is a compelling backdrop to the tragedy unfolding.
Lupton focuses on hope, bravery and redemption as much as hate.
Thoroughly recommended: fast-paced, raw and full of emotion.

Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton is an intense, nail-biting thriller, one which I could not put down until I leafed through the last page.

In rural Somerset, in the middle of a blizzard, a school is under siege. As the title suggests, the book renders a blow-by-blow account of those harrowing three hours from the perspectives of the people at the heart of it.

From the injured headmaster, to the teenage students frightened and angry at this onslaught on themselves, to the courageous teacher who is doing her best to protect the toddlers under her charge, to the sixteen-year-old Syrian refugee boy determined to protect his little brother from being terrorized in peaceful England, to the anguished parents waiting for some news of their trapped children with bated breath, and finally to the police psychologist who must identify the gunmen and figure out a way to stop them, Three Hours presents the point of view of each and every player, barring the gunmen themselves. Their psyche, instead, is pieced together by sifting through the trail of evidence they leave behind. As a result, I had a complete picture of how the events unfolded.

Each voice is remarkably distinct. I had no difficulty in distinguishing between the characters.

Notably, the narrative is not linear. It jumps back and forth between the start of the siege and the middle of the siege. Sometimes, it goes even backward giving us a glimpse of an important event that set the things in motion. However, the transition between the timelines is seamless.

The book is fast-paced and maintains the same momentum till the last page. Further, it is vividly descriptive. I could see the action unfolding before my eyes and feel the children's fear.

Despite being fast-paced, Three Hours poignantly lays bare the fractures in the society that have emerged because of the arrival of the Muslim refugees. Even during the siege, in absence of any concrete information, some of the anxious parents immediately suspect the Syrian brothers as the orchestrators.

Although the book is set in England, this could easily happen anywhere in the world since the intolerance towards the refugees (and their difficulty in acclimatizing with the culture of their host country) is being seen all across the world.

Lupton kept me spellbound. The book is rich in imagery but does not contain any fluffy words. Consequently, I finished the book in a day. I had no choice. I could not focus on any other task until I knew the children were safe. Speaking of safety, at 93% (Kindle version) my heart lurched into my mouth. You need to read the book to know why.

To conclude, Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton is a brilliant thriller taut with suspense, brimming with action, and peopled with relatable characters.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC via Netgalley.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

Having read the author’s other books I thought I would enjoy this one and I was not disappointed. What a scary and compelling story.
It was so believable and the characters well portrayed
I finished it in one day
Thanks to Netgalley for a digital copy of this book

I'm struggling to find the words to talk about this book. This was so raw and powerful and captivating and so heartbreakingly real. Each character brought a new dynamic to the story and we got to live inside the head of someone new each chapter. This is a book of suspense but it's also so frightening in the truth of it. This really is a book to remember.

As a mother I found this a very difficult read - a school is under attack by one or more gunmen.

After a slow start I found the plot picked up pace and it was a real page turner.

The characters were interesting and their fear flowed from the pages. However, at times it felt there were too many characters to really get to know any of them as well as I would have liked.

I enjoyed the side story of the two refugee boys... certainly put a new view on how past trauma can affect kids.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review :-)

Such a great escapism! Really enjoyed this book. Have been recommending to friends since! Great characters and back stories, enjoyed this one!

Gripping read especially from the start. Well written .like all books author gas written. Look forward to next one.

This was my first book by this other. I absolutely loved it. I was hooked after a few pages and stayed up way too late into the night trying to finish it. I would definitely recommend this book to others and I am certainly going to be reading more of the authors books.

Tense, fast-paced thriller with some unexpected twists and turns. Rosamund Lupton is always a great read.

Three Hours grabs your attention from the first page and holds you until the very end. The story of a remote school under siege for three hours is cleverly narrated from all angles, you have the fear and bravery of the children and teachers involved, the anguish of the parents waiting for news, the thought process, concerns and skill of the police team assembled to deal with the crisis. It is easy to immerse yourself in the story and really feel for the characters in the story.

One of the best books of 2020 so far.

This throws you straight into a scene of brutality as a headmaster Matthew Marr experiences the terror of being shot in the head by gunmen who have placed his school under siege.

Lupton ratchets up the tension by using a very tight timeframe, grounding the action by placing the clock at the start of each section. The reader feels the claustrophobia and fear that the characters do as they realise their predicament and the snow starts falling.

Lupton conveys a vast range of points of view. We experience the horror as viewed by students trapped in different areas of the campus, the teachers facing the huge responsibility of trying to ensure the kids under their care get through this alive, the parents desperate for news who are frantically trying to reach their children, and the police who are trying to establish who is carrying out the atrocity and why.

This is a well-written pacey thriller that cries out to be gulped down in one sitting, however it is far more than an entertaining read. Lupton invites empathy and compassion for all concerned. Themes of heroism, self-sacrifice, cowardice and fear invite you to ponder how you would react in a similar situation. The way that the waiting parents and media begin to fill the vacuum with supposition and rumours demonstrate how quickly we can designate someone as 'other' to try and lay blame and provide explanation for a situation.

Highly recommend.

Oh but this book. Tense and tightly woven and emotional and so gripping that I don't think I breathed for about the last 15 percent. I absolutely loved it.

This came as no surprise actually, because I am a fan of Rosamund Lupton.

It's about a school shooting, but not in the USA, but rather a sprawling English private school, a school where everybody is equal and acceptance is key and things like this Should Not Happen. The story unfolds over three hours - which you totally could have guessed from the title, right? - and follows several different viewpoints - teachers and students and parents and police until it reaches a climax that takes your breath away. This is one of those wow that ending books that leaves you sat there a little breathless, and sad. It ended the way it had to end, but it ended in a way that hurt. Holy emotional sucker punch, batman,

Three hours. Doesn't seem like long, but at the same time is just long enough.

This is such a tense read, I'm not even kidding. I read it with my hands curled into fists and my chest tight; you're dropped right into the drama - headteacher Mr Carr has been shot and is barricaded in the library with some children trying to keep him alive whilst the gunman prowls the corridor outside; the drama club are hiding out in the theatre, practising Macbeth and trying to pretend it's all ok (and the juxtaposition of this story against that of Macbeth is something else, so impressive), parents are gathering on the outskirts of the school in terror, Rafi a refugee from Syria driven by his love for his younger brother and his girlfriend and suffering from PTSD is desperate to save everybody even at risk to himself and outside in the woods a second gunman points a gun at the window of the pottery class where the infants hide under the table. I feel a little bit goosey just thinking about it.

“Rafi told her once that for him it isn’t Macbeth and Lady Macbeth who are the frightening characters, but First Murderer, Second Murderer, Third Murderer, men without names; unknown killers in the darkness.”

The narrative goes back and forth in time, moving also from classroom to classroom and back again and I love that, always here for the split narratives and the time jumps. It's chilling and atmospheric and so very very timely. It's a thriller I guess, if I had to put it into a category, full of of twists and turns and red herrings and just as that alone it's standout, but somehow, amazingly, it manages to be more than that: it's also a social study - it touches on white supremacy and Islamophobia and radicalisation - and it's a book with so much heart, a book about love and how it is all we need.

What a fantastic book. Intense & gripping right from start. Great writing, that really pulls you into the situation & keeps you reading on and on.

This book started in an explosion and for me I found it very uncomfortable. I then started to settle into and it is beautifully written but I felt it is perhaps better suited to a young adult. I adore Rosamund Lupton and her writing is always flawless

I read it in a couple of seatings I think that says it all. Absolutely love the story. I’m not used to reading books with loads of characters which made this one a little challenging but I The characters themselves were well round and easy to identify once you get used to the intensity of this story.

Lupton has an incredible pen, her voice and characters are well thought of the story is realistic yet a little fantasy thrown to us to keep the mood going.

I’d consider adding trigger alerts as many people would find the white supremacist and racism offensive, having said that it’s all very well place and not overly done to get the point across.

A fantastic, gripping book about a harrowing subject. Filled with likeable characters ... it’s fast paced and totally consumes you, it leaves you thinking about it when you’re not reading it and when I was reading it my heart was beating so hard in my chest.
An All absorbing read, this is the first book I’ve read by the author, but I am most certainly going to pick up her other works.
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for allowing me to read in return for an honest review
5 stars

This is a well constructed book which was a real page turner with well rounded characters. The only negative to stop it getting 5 stars was the ending which slightly ran out of steam.

I have never read anything by Rosamund Lupton before this - it was such a tense read. 3 hours of a Somerset school under siege, told by many characters within the story (the Head & Deputy, pupils and family waiting anxiously). Throughout, it was impossible not to feel the despair, anxiety, hope and bravery along with the characters. It feels hard to write a review without creating spoilers, but such a powerful read - one that will stay with me for a very, very long time.