This was the first book in a new series, and really set the tone for a brilliant new series.  I love the way the story line evolves, and the reader is kept entertained.  There is several twists and turns, and all the identity reveals really keeps the reader guessing.  Highly recommended.
TB

Unfortunately I hated this book. I will not post a public review as I feel it is unfair on the author. 
This just hasn’t been the right book for me

WOW WOW WOW! I absolutely loved this book and can not believe that I have not read anything by Sheila before. A mistake that I am so glad I have now rectified. I Could Be You is a brilliant read that took my breath away and I was unable to tear myself away from it, which resulted in me devouring it in one sitting.

I was immediately drawn to this book by its stunning cover and after reading the blurb, I knew that this was one book that I just had to read and clearly I was not disappointed. Sheila has definitely delivered with this story and I Could Be You is the perfect example of what I love out of the suspense thriller genre.

Sheila has crafted a thrilling plot that is both haunting and mysterious. Set against the backdrop of a small seaside town, adds to its eerie vibe and is the perfect accompaniment to the story. The characters are strong and hold their own throughout and are very believable. I also enjoyed the structure of the book and how Sheila uses the past and present tense to convey Katie’s background and what ultimately lead to her death.

I really love Sheila’s style and how she was able to trap me in the pages where I could not pull myself out from until the end. It moves at a fast pace and I was so caught up in this story as the tension and suspense was built throughout, that when I came to the end, I was disappointed it was over. I had one hell of a book hangover after finishing this one and I can’t wait to see what Sheila has in store for her readers next.

I Could Be You is a highly addictive read that will pull you into its web of lies and deceit as you work with Dee as she tries to uncover the truth from Katie’s past. With a strong and intriguing plot, great characterisation, a perfect setting that is all told through writing that is so vivid that you feel like you are part of the story, I Could Be You is a first-class suspense thriller which I cannot recommend highly enough.

Thank you to NetGalley, Canelo and Sheila Buglar for allowing me to read an advanced copy of I Could Be You which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

What an amazing book, once i picked it up and started reading i didnt put it down. It is full of twists i didnt expect.  
I look forward to reading more by Sheila.

When Dee finds the body of her neighbour Katie a victim of a hit and run. An empty pushchair at the side of her where has Katie's son Jake gone.
Dee is a retired journalist and starts digging about to find what has happened to jake.
What she does find out is that Katie wasn't who she said she was.
This is told in the present and the past.
Thanks NetGalley

A brilliant fast paced, taut, tense book that will keeping you breathless.   Amazing can’t wait for the next one.

I Could Be You by Sheila Bugler is a taut thriller that is not only good because of the storyline but is different than many others because of the heroine- an investigative journalist. 

The book opens with her, Dee Doran, finding a dead woman who has been hit by a car, lying on the road outside her home. The dead woman is her tenant Katie but her two-year-old son Jake can't be found though his upturned buggy is also lying around twisted and bent near to Katie. Fearing the worst, Dee being her search for the child. After the matter is taken up by the local police, Dee realises that the woman that she had identified as her tenant Katie is someone else and Katie had been living under someone else's identify. Gradually Dee's journalistic instincts that have been lying dormant for a while since she quit active journalism to come back to her childhood home to look after her ailing mother, kick in ferociously. She begins to look at various leads in an attempt to find out the woman who has lived as her tenant and the little boy who had become so important to Dee.

There are other characters that contribute to the story, adding life and intrigue to the plot and the book (written in third person often) shuffles between past and present. How Dee uncovers the bits and pieces from Katie's past and the story that gradually emerges is really interesting and Bugle uses her understanding of the human psychology (she studied it) to keep the reader on the edge through the story.

I loved almost everything about the book largely but towards the end found it to be a bit repetitive. Pick it up if you are looking for something that will keep you intrigued and a cast of characters that come in every size and shape.

Thank you Net Galley and the publishers Canelo for the ebook.

Review for 'I could be you' by Sheila Bugler

Read and reviewed via NetGalley 

This book gripped my attention straight away and kept me going until the end. 

I found it very well written and I enjoyed the fact that it was written in the present, had flashbacks from the past and written from different characters perspectives so by the end you get the whole story and its wrapped up nicely with no loose ends. 

The book is based in the UK which is always a bonus for me. The characters were well described as was the locations. 

The storyline was filled with lots of juicy twists, some I worked out and others I hadn't. It was filled with suspense and left me holding my breathe at the end. 

I would recommend this book to fans of psychological thrillers, crime, suspense and mystery. 

Rated 4/5 on Goodreads and Amazon (I liked it) 

£1.99 on kindle 

Feel free to add me on Goodreads for more reviews

#ICouldBeYou  #NetGalley

The first 3/4 of this book were gripping, exciting, and somewhat believable. The last 1/4 was just crazy and kind of ruined it for me. The storyline was unique and I appreciated that We got to read from various perspectives but there were way too many characters and way too many ridiculous plot twists. Still, an easy beach read.

I Could Be You by Sheila Bugler is a thrilling story of mistaken identity, lies, secrets, and revenge culminating in murder near the shingle coast on the outskirts of Eastbourne, England.

Retired journalist Dee Doran finds the crumpled body of her neighbour, tenant and friend, Katie Hope at the roadside, the apparent victim of a hit-and-run. Katie and her little boy, Jake, have been a light in Dee’s otherwise bleak life – now a woman is dead and her son is missing. As Dee begins to help the police with their enquiries, she soon realises that Katie isn't the person she believed her to be. Katie has been keeping secrets for a number of years. She fell for someone; a person who was in love with somebody else. When jealousy and desire led to a horrific event, Katie hid the truth, and has been pretending ever since.

This is my first book by author Sheila Bugler, and I was blown away by the twists which started from the first chapter. Told in present day and in flashbacks, the reader is fed nuggets of information relating to Katie, however, right from the outset, the reliability of the narrator is highly questionable, resulting in a magnificent story full of doubt and uncertainty. A myriad of secrets and some very solid misdirection guaranteed my devoted attention right until the perfect denouement.

I Could Be You is a fascinating, explosive and compulsive read that has inspired me to check out more of this gifted author's work, starting with 'Hunting Shadows', the first in her 'DI Ellen Kelly' series.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel from Canelo via NetGalley at my request, and this review is my own unbiased opinion.

A life has been taken. But whose life is it?
On a stifling hot day, former journalist Dee Doran finds the crumpled body of her friend at the roadside. Katie and her little boy, Jake, have been a light in Dee’s otherwise desolate life – now a woman is dead and a child is missing.
Katie has been keeping secrets for a long time. Years earlier, she fell for the wrong person. But he was in love with someone else; who he couldn’t have but couldn’t keep away from. When jealousy and desire spilled over into murder Katie hid the truth, and has been pretending ever since.
As Dee assists the police with their enquiries she’s compelled to investigate too. She realises Katie wasn’t who she claimed to be. Lies are catching up. Stories are unravelling. Revenge is demanded and someone must pay the price. The question is: who?

This is a brilliant read.
Wonderful well written plot and story line that had me engaged from the start.
Love the well fleshed out characters and found them believeable.
Great suspense and action with wonderful world building that adds so much to the story.
I was utterly gripped throughout and could not put it down.
Can't wait to read what the author does next.
Recommend reading.

I was provided an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher.  This is my own honest voluntary review.

I really enjoyed this book.  It was filled with twists and turns, but the story kept itself going.  I thought the characters were interesting and well rounded.  I would read books from this author again in the future.

I try to get my reviews online as soon as possible after finishing the book so that its fresh in my mind.  But also, so I am clear on how I did or did not enjoy the book.  I have this fear that if you don’t review an unenjoyed book for a few days you with the time in between finishing and reviewing the book may begin to improve.

With this book I had to leave a couple of days to catch up on my sleep and take a breath.  This book absorbed me.  So much that I woke up at 230 am, which is not uncommon for me, but started a quick half hour read of my book, to spend the next 2 hours reading to get it finished.

Dee’s friend Katie is a victim of a hit and run, and her friend Dee finds the body.  But Katie had her buggy with her, and the buggy was empty.  Where was Jake who would have been in the buggy?

Goodness me this novel goes everywhere.  Back through Katie’s little-known life before she came into Dee’s life.  And my goodness what a life.  What emerges is a tangled web of jealousy, obsession and lies. 

I loved, loved, loved this and am giving it a fairly rare 5star review.  Switch your phone off, put on the fire and make sure you have enough teabags as this really is a race to finish this novel and find out what exactly is going on.

this book was written excellently. It was full of twists , well paced with an unreal ending. Loved the central character. I couldnt stop reading it and i highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for this ARC.  

This is a good read.  It has three main characters, two I liked and one I didn’t.     It  is set over a 10 year period and moves from past to present times effortlessly with the main characters telling their parts of the story and their thoughts, feelings and emotions are wrote really well.     It is a book about friendships, guilt, control, manipulative behaviour, obsession and lies.  It didn’t wow me though and I thought it was a bit predictable at times.  4 stars.

Dee used to be an investigative journalist but after her divorce and the death of her mother she has become almost a recluse living in her mother's house by the beach. The only light in her life is Katie & particularly her two year old son Jake. They rent a place nearby that used to belong to Dee's mother.  When Dee sees Katie lying in the road & no sign of Jake she is distraught. Before long the hit & run becomes even more mysterious & Dee's investigative instincts are stirred into action.

This is a fast paced story that really draws the reader in. It is difficult to say more without spoilers, so I would just recommend you read this book. Thanks to Netgalley & the publishers for letting me read & review this book.

A really good physiological thriller!

I found this a fast paced twisty book full of surprises and people who are not whom they seem to be.

Dee discovers the body of her neighbour in the road outside the house. It seems like she was run over. Nearby is the pram of her 2 year old boy but he is missing. BUT..... all is not as it seems. It turns out the body is not that of Katie. It is the body of someone who has never had a child. What happened to Katie and her son Jake. Who is Jake and who's body was it?

A gripping book that hooks you from the start.

Thank you to Netgally and Canello for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I went into this story blind; I hadn’t even read the summary.  I found that within a few pages I was hooked and needed to find out what had happened to Katie.
In the interest of avoiding spoilers, I will have to be very careful with this review.
The story progresses in two time frames, Dee’s struggle to come to terms with her friend’s death and Katie’s past.  Each flashback tells us a little more about the hard life Katie endured, growing up in her father’s pub.  When we return to the present day, we see that Dee’s life is equally dark as she deals with the aftermath of a failed marriage and her reliance on alcohol.
Sheila’s storytelling is compelling, she manages to create tension as she reveals more and more from each timeline. This book kept me awake as I had to finish it, the desire to learn the truth was simply overpowering.
It is a while since I’ve read a thriller, I Could be You didn’t disappoint.  I particularly liked the way that Sheila made Dee so vulnerable yet strong.  
I’ll be looking for more from this author.

Mistaken identity, lies, secrets, and revenge culminate in murder on the narrow road near the shingle coast on the outskirts of Eastbourne.

When ex-journalist, 51-year-old Dee Doran, finds the dead body she immediately recognizes her as neighbor and friend, Katie Hope. Instantly she's concerned because Katie has a two-year-old son, Jake, whose buggy is broken and twisted by a ditch. But Jake is not there. It looks like a hit and run, but where is the little boy? The police get involved and during the course of their investigation they discover that the dead woman may not actually be Dee's tenant and friend after all. But who is she, then, and where is the person that Dee had befriended? NO SPOILERS.

This is a convoluted tale of jealousy and hatred that stems from the past. The story is told from the points of view of 3 different women and shifts in time. The central characters are all actually unlikeable and the twists fairly predictable. It is fast-paced and easy to read in a single sitting as the details and clues are dangled like crumbs for the reader to follow to the inevitable conclusion. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Canelo for this e-book ARC to read and review.

This story is full of lies, mystery, twists and turns. It didn't take me long to read this edge of your seat mystery. As I wanted to know what the heck was going on and who exactly was the body on the beach. 

Dee Doran, now she was a great character to head up a mystery story. Let's just say she isn't the most reliable of characters. When she found the body outside her house, she was a little bit hungover and can't actually remember much of the previous nights events. She is currently unemployed, and is a little bit lost in life. She definitely doesn't enjoy where she's living and hankers for London life. As her previous job was a journalist, when the investigation into the body on the beach starts to become more twisted and mysterious. Dee uses her skills and contacts (which she has plenty in the journalist world) to uncover the riddle of who is the woman? 

This story is told mainly from Dee's point of view in the present surrounding the case. However, we get flashback chapters from Katie, the missing friend (who Dee first thought was lying dead outside her house) from these flashbacks we can start to piece together what has happened to build up to the present day murder. 

Along the way we meet a variety of characters that add to the mystery. Believe me you need your wits about you to keep up with Katie's story and realise who is involved. 

A tale of infatuation, obsession and jealousy all twisted up into a great thriller that culminates into a thrilling showdown. Perfect reading.