I've loved two of B.A Paris's other books, so I really wanted to love this one but it kind of let me down. 

It's a well written solid domestic thriller about quite a rich family, and I think that was my first problem. I don't like reading about rich people. I felt like I couldn't connect with the characters and they just felt quite flat to me.

The plot was good but there were little to basically no plot twists throughout the book or at the end. I was waiting for a big shocking twist but that just didn't happen. 

Like her other books, this was very well written but I needed more. 

I felt like the book really dragged in the middle and could have been shorter.

It was just an okay average domestic thriller. Nothing too terrible but nothing brilliant which is a shame because I wanted to enjoy it more than I did. 

TW: miscarriage

It’s the morning of Livia’s long awaited 40th birthday party. On the surface, this perhaps doesn’t sound like too monumental an occasion, except perhaps for the ‘Oh no, I’m FORTY’ wobbles, but this is different. Over 20 years ago, when Livia met her now-husband, Adam and fell pregnant, her parents did not approve and refused to have any part in their relationship, meaning Livia never got the big, white wedding she’d longed for since she was a little girl. So, ever since, she’s planned this party. And it has to be perfect. Everyone she loves is going to be there, except her daughter Marnie, who is studying in Hong Kong. Livia is sad that Marnie won’t be there as they have a very strong bond, but she’s also relieved because she recently found something out about her daughter that threatens to blow their relationship, and potentially their family, apart.

Adam, on the other hand, is busily arranging for Marnie to arrive in secret and appear as a ‘SURPRISE’ for Livia. When he’s out and about getting the last bits ready for Livia’s big day, he learns something that could potentially devastate all of their lives forever. Sick with the knowledge, he has to tell Livia what he knows because it affects her directly too – but he doesn’t know for certain if it’s true. Should he tell her now or wait until the party is over? He knows how long she’s been waiting for this day, and if the worst does happen, her life will never been the same again. Does he let her have this one night of happiness before tragedy strikes her?

This book seriously got inside my head. I know you often hear ‘I couldn’t put it down’, and every now and again I say it, but honestly – I couldn’t put it down. I had to go and do some errands one day while reading it and I genuinely could not stop thinking about it while I was out and about. It’s beautifully drawn out, the characters are likeable and you understand why they do the things they do, even when they know it’s not the right thing to do. You get it. The threads that run through the story intertwine beautifully and lead to a moment of utterly tragic confusion as they finally come together, leaving our protagonists utterly devastated and bewildered.

I can’t say any more without giving away at least one of the major plot points, so I won’t. Suffice to say that I enjoyed this book immensely – it’s breathtaking, it’s heartbreaking, it’s exquisitely clever and it’s gone straight into my upcoming ‘favourite reads of 2019’ blog post.

So no surprises, I’m giving it a big fat FIVE STAR review.

Psychological thrillers are my normal genre and it’s not often I sway from them but reading this fantastic domestic thriller I most definitely will. 

It didn’t have the suspicion and twists which you’d get from a psychological thriller but it did still hold the tense and gripping feel of one. 

This storyline was apparent as you read through the book through the story of Livia’s and Adams eyes. The suspense comes through by not knowing what’s happened to Marnie. This creates a heavy feeling in your chest, the feelings you’d feel if it were your own child. 

Overall a gripping novel full of suspense with a little twist thrown in too!

If you only read one book this year - please make it this one!!  What a broken, sobbing mess I am after finishing this! It was so intricately woven that at times I was so anxious about Marnie and whether she was on the plane that my heart was pounding! Heartbreaking and uncomfortable at times, I was left an emotional wreck! Puffy eyes, runny nose, and half a box of tissues later it was totally worth it! Outstanding!

Wow what an amazing book this was.gripped me so much I couldn’t put it down.brilliant storyline that many people i am sure will relate to.made me smile and made me sad at the same time.don’t start this book before bed as you won’t be able to sleep.kept me up half the night as just wanted to find out what happened next.well done to B A Paris.a truly amazing book.would highly recommend you to read this.

I’ve loved this authors previous books so I was very excited to hear about their newest release. A bit different to their previous because I found this rather sad :( 

It kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. ‘Why does the mother not want her daughter to come home????’ ‘Was their daughter on the flight that crashed??’ I didn’t want to put it down until I found out what was going to happen.

This book was a SENSATION. I don’t know what to say! It was a tour de force! Powerful, engaging, and brilliantly-crafted. I found myself connecting with the Adam and Livia so profoundly that I cried when they did, the intensity of their emotions floored me. I absolutely adored this novel; I had to put my life on ‘hold’ until I finished it! I will recommend it to everyone I know.  Thank you to Netgalley and HQ for sharing this with me. If I could give it more than five stars, I would!

I’m a fan of B A Paris so was pleased to be given the opportunity to read this book! It was fast paced with an interesting story line and the chapters were either Adam or Livia’s stories.  I really wanted to find out what happened to Marnie ( their daughter) so read in big chunks until I got to that part. Another good book by an accomplished author.

This is a book about relationships, and what we do to preserve them, how we damage them, and how our decisions can echo down the years with damaging effect. Livia and Adam are a couple who married young, and their loving relationship of twenty plus years is hard-earned. They have a charmed circle of long-term friends, two much-loved children just starting to make their own way in life, and - on the surface - have everything to celebrate. 

But all is not what it seems, and the past has set small disappointments, jealousies, resentments, and self-indulgences which now crystallise into a life-changing 24 hours of happiness and pain. 

Both Livia and Adam know something the other doesn't, and both pieces of knowledge and explosive. The angst accompanying the decision making was palpable, and I was swept up in the quandry of whether to tell or not, or when to tell, and thinking through the potential fallout of either action. Both Livia and Adam felt like real people with flaws and insecurities, but both likeable enough to care what happened to each of them, and for their relationship to survive. None of the characters were cartoonish, and the wider impact of the decisions on Livia and Adam's relationships with their circle of friends felt important as well. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

I really enjoyed this book and read it in a day! Livia has been planning and saving for her big 40th birthday party for years. It's to make up for the traditional white wedding she never had, as she married Adam when she fell pregnant at 17. Adam is planning a surprise - their daughter Marnie is flying home from Hong Kong. However, on the day Adam discovers that Marnie may well have been on a plane which crashed, killing all on board. He's not sure if she made the connection, as her first flight was delayed. So does he allow the longed for party to go ahead? In the meantime, Livia has her own reasons for not wanting her daughter at the party, and she plans to tell Adam her secret afterwards. This is a good story about family and friendships. Thanks to NetGalley ew copy.
Copied to Goodreads.

Thank you B. A. Paris, HQ and NetGalley for gifting me this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. The book will be published in the US on January 9, 2020.

My rating: 3.7 stars

A couple of words about the digital copy that downloaded to my Kindle from NetGalley as it was a bit of a jumble. There was no title page, just a few pages of reviews, a publishing page and then in the middle of a page the book begins. The bold function often over highlights into portions of the text. The body of the text is often separated out into single sentences. But the most perplexing glitch is that either the title of the book, The Dilemma or the author’s name, B.A. Paris is randomly inserted during paragraphs—often in the middle of sentences. Hopefully all this will be resolved before publishing, my version was readable but these glitches did make for cumbersome annoyances while reading.

This book is billed as general adult fiction. Ms. Paris takes a dramatic look into the domestic human psyche—a study of love, life choices, best intentions, secrets and lies—and it proved to be a “clear all decks” edge of your seat kind of read. This is the first book that I have read by B. A. Paris but I am sure to read more now that I have read this one. 

Ms. Paris weaves a tale around a married couple who are each keeping a secret from the other and the efforts made to keep them that way. They both have convinced themselves that they are keeping their respective secret with the purest of best intentions—neither wants to ruin the other’s life and their family—not to mention the party.

The wife, Livia, is turning 40, she became pregnant while an unwed teenager and her ashamed parents disowned Livia and never spoke to her again. She and Adam, the father, subsequently got married after Josh was born— but these life choices totally broke to pieces the type of life that she had imagined leading. One of her biggest regrets was that she never got a “big splashy wedding” the type of which she and her mother had spent hours dreaming of and planning for—some future day.

Livia decides, promises herself, and plans for years in advance to give herself an over the top 40th birthday party instead. While Livia and Adam may have had a quick forced wedding they also had a love that endured, and their relationship grew with them as they matured. 

Adam was also forced to make hard choices when the reality of life circumstance stood in front of his dreams, he gave up university and took up a trade. It took Adam a while to grow up and he still has lingering regrets about the road not taken. He only came fully to terms with the realities of fatherhood after the birth of his second child— daughter, Marnie,  which has often led to a prickly relationship with his first born son, Josh.

Josh, now a University student, is about to take an internship in America at a prestigious IT firm. Marnie, is also at University and at present is away studying in Hong Kong. Livia and Adam are facing an empty nest for the first time in their marriage.

We quickly find out that Livia is sitting on a secret about their daughter, Marnie. She hasn’t told Adam because she wants to talk to her daughter first and on some level it is not her secret to tell. 

All we know at the beginning is that this revelation would destroy Adam, her family, and wreck the party. She is secretly relieved when Marnie tells her she can’t make the party and decides to solve her “dilemma” by waiting to tell Adam after the party. 

Of course, Adam, realizing how much this party means to Livia, secretly arranges for Marnie to come home and surprise her mom at the party.

The story takes place over a slightly extended 24 hour timeline on the day of the party and told in a manner that allows for flashbacks and backstory. The story is told in alternating chapters between Livia and Adam. Ms. Paris also gives good denouement, the “after party”, which is an element of novels that I always appreciate. 

While Adam is in town picking up his gift for Livia he hears some news that presents him with a potentially devastating secret about Marnie. But because he does not know all the facts Adam also decides to solve his “dilemma” by not telling Livia the news until after the party. Telling could mean the end of the family as they know it and he desperately seeks to give his wife this special night that she has dreamed of for so long.

I feel that sharing my opinions about how things further develop might come at the expense of supplying spoilers and this is not fair to other readers or the author. But I cannot resist a little more commentary on humanity, secrets, and lying.

This book on the surface is about secrets and lies, it is also about families, and friendships, but on a deeper level Ms. Paris is exploring elements of love and the lengths a person might go to keep a loved one from learning harmful truths.

I believe that it is an universal truth that the majority of humans will state that they always prefer to know the truth and that they do not liked to be lied to about anything. I further believe that the majority of these same humans will make the opposite decision when faced with the necessity of telling a damaging truth to a loved one, deciding to withhold the truth—until it can be told with kindness at a better time, or not at all— in order to protect this person. 

Sometimes this done out of love, sometimes out of self interest, or more likely, as we see here —a combination of both.  I find this contradictory dichotomy in the human brain to be fascinating and the geek science girl that lurks beneath my surface wonders what kind of brain chemistry accounts for this quirkiness. 

The notion that while I am capable of knowing this truth I think it is best not to tell *whoever* as this person can’t handle the truth and needs protected does seem a little condescending and patronizing. It deserves noting that both Adam and Livia, to their credit, fully intend to come clean with their other half but both decide to wait before breaking the news— not out of malicious intent but out of perceived kindness.

It is also worth noting that their respective decisions were not always completely altruistic as both held elements of denial as well, that longing to live a little bit longer in the imagined reality of their clueless loved ones.
Part of the “fun” of this book is how the author engages your mind as she fills up with your thoughts with decisions and judgments about how all the various characters handle their various choices surrounding these dilemmas. 

For my own part, I can wrap my head around the mind set of Livia and Adam as they decided to keep their dilemma about Marnie secret from each other, but as I imagine being the spouse on the “receiving end” of the news I realized that I would be hard pressed to forgive some decisions not to tell. 

How Ms. Paris resolves The Dilemma for all her various characters makes for valuable reading time well spent. I will definitely be reading her previous books.

The Dilemma- BA Paris 

Livia and Adam both hold a secret that they must share but when is the best time to tell each other? Is there ever a good time to tell each other? Should we just “pull the plaster off” and tell those we love straight away or try to protect them? But who are we protecting ourselves or others? 
I found this a highly addictive read and I was just desperate to find out when they were going to disclose their secrets! It was a thoroughly thought provoking book that made me step back and think what would I do in a similar situation? 
A very emotive book that is a must read you will go on an emotional journey with the characters and not be disappointed. 
Many thanks to the author and net galley for the opportunity to read this book.

Livia has been planning an extravagant 40th birthday party for twenty years to make up for the wedding reception she never had.
Today is the day of her party and she is sure that everything is going to be perfect. She has a secret to tell her husband Adam but she will tell him tomorrow once the party is over.
Adam has a secret of his own and its trying not to say anything about it as he wants Livia to have her big day.
The tension in this book builds from chapter to chapter, it's a roller coaster story that had me on the edge of my seat.
Thank you to NetGalley and HQ for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

What a powerful, compelling, EMOTIVE read from B A Paris! This has been an auto buy author ever since 'Behind closed doors' so being approved for this Netgalley ARC was like christmas.

Whilst it definitely wasn't your usual thriller - it definitely had a thrill factor! I loved it.

It had my second guessing everything, and I'm not ashamed to say it even brought out a tear or two too!

Another book i'll absolutely be recommending!

A real 'what would you do?' dilemma (is there a book more aptly named?) Read in a day as couldn't put it down until I found out exactly what happened and how each character would react - not only to the events but to the decisions made about what to say and when.

I found ‘The Dilemma‘ to be completely different to previous novels from BA Paris. It’s heartfelt rather than sensationalist. I find it hard to classify more specifically than ‘modern fiction’. It was the strength of the author’s previous work rather than the blurb that piqued my interest, but I’m so glad I went with it - it had me hooked from the beginning and delving into it at every opportunity.  I’m gutted I’ve finished as its a tough act to follow.

Without giving too much away, Adam finds himself with a huge dilemma - he suspects something has happened that will cause his wife’s world to shatter, and must decide whether to tell her on the night of her eagerly anticipated party, or let her have her night in blissful ignorance.  Written from both perspectives equally really works, making both main characters likeable and relatable.

This story is so well written I’d advise any fans of BA Paris to run, not walk, to procure a copy.

Thanks to Netgalley, author and publisher for the pleasure of reading this book in exchange for an honest review.

It’s Livia’s 40th birthday and she’s having the party of a lifetime to make up for the wedding she never had. Everyone she loves will be there except her daughter Marnie, who’s studying abroad. But although Livia loves Marnie, she’s secretly glad she won’t be at the party. She needs to tell Adam something about their daughter but she’s waiting until the party is over so they can have this last happy time together.

Adam wants everything to be perfect for Livia so he’s secretly arranged for Marnie to come home and surprise her on her birthday. During the day, he hears some terrible news. He needs to tell Livia, because how can the party go on? But she’s so happy, so excited – and the guests are about to arrive.

The Dilemma – how far would you go to give someone you love a last few hours of happiness?

****
Ooohhhhh B A Paris is back with a bang!! I absolutely devoured this book over 24 hours and couldn't put it down. This had all the tension of her first book 'Behind Closed Doors'. I enjoyed her subsequent books, but nothing quite lived up to her first one. Until this!!

I love a good dilemma, and this had you thinking all the way through 'what would I do'. I may have done things differently, but completely understood Livia and Adam's reasons for hiding things, until the truth all came crashing out. 

Loved it!

This book was very traumatic. A husband who couldn't bare to tell his wife bad news. A wife who hadn't told her husband anything it would seem about their family and friends over the years - news that could crush him. I hated every character. No one had any backbone. You just knew the bombs were going to fall and I felt angry at them keeping such important secrets to themselves. No thought of anyone else. Had enough energy and foresight to lie, hide things and misdirect the truth though. There were no dilemmas for me - just obvious tell them now! things.

I shouted at this book so much my voice was hoarse by the end. Even though I didn't like it - it was a powerful read  I have to admit. A book hasn't had such a reaction from me in a while. That's the nature of a powerful read, right? 

Not for me but someone else is going to appreciate it more for the twisty, evil destruction of a family within.

This story is definitely going on my top 5 favourite books for this year. 
It's gripping, holds your attention with every page turned, it's heartbreaking and most of all, it's a love story and shows that a marriage can overcome everything in its way if the love it's strong enough.
Being a young woman and getting pregnant, marrying a man that your parents don't approve, trying with everything you have in your power to make that marriage work, will make you give up at some of your dreams but when everything settles you can still archive one of them. Olivia's 40th birthday party is like the wedding day she dreamed but never had the chance to get. 
The story's compelling, it's based more on what happens in 24 h, Liv party day, with a few flashback moments from the past for both Adam and Olivia, with their relationship, kids and jobs. As a mother, you'll always try to protect and keep your daughter secrets no matter how hard it's to keep them from your husband and best friend. As a father, Adam goes through a difficult time trying to figure out how to balance the short-lived happiness of his wife for her birthday as he's hiding a secret that eats him up and can destroy them. 
The author has a great gift in showing the emotions and how everything unveils making this story very reliable and daring us to think for a moment what would you do faced with a similar situation.

The Dilemma was such a great read, I was unsure when I first started this book on how it was going to turn out but the more I read, the addicted I became!