I do LOVE a psychological thriller and this book is exactly why! So many questions, so many twists, throw in a tonne of danger…. make you think you know what’s going to happen and then something completely different happens!

So Jenna is the main character in this book she has a little family of 2 daughters, Lily who’s 17 and Amelia who’s 8 and a husband called Damien.

Her and Damien seem to be slowly drifting apart with him acting different recently and her relationship with her eldest daughter Lily is a strained one when she finds out she’s been keeping secrets from her!

One night when Jenna leaves her friends late at night after an evening out she hears screaming from the local park when she takes a short cut home, and when she approaches, a woman has been brutally attacked! Jenna calls the emergency services and stays with her until they arrive. BUT when Jenna goes to check on the lady the next day in hospital, everything in her life changes when the lady screams ‘ITS HER’ and accuses her of being the attacker!

Jennas life turns up side down when she finds herself arrested and under investigation for the brutal attack!

Her life starts to unfold when she finds out her husband has been receiving notes from a stranger for a while and that her daughter is meeting a guy too old for her!

Jenna wants to prove her innocence and find out who’s done this to her and why…. but DID she do it? There is so much evidence against her that maybe the night of attack didn’t happen how she says!

Honestly a completely gripping thriller! This book threw in so many twists and turns that I completely wasn’t expecting! It really did make me question everything that Jenna was saying!

I really felt for Jenna, despite some of the choices she had made, all she wanted to do was keep her family safe! She may not have been the best wife recently but she tried her best to keep everyone together through the difficult times they faced!

I don’t want to talk too much about the other characters, but let’s just say there are some characters who are dangerous, vindictive, manipulating and need help!

A fast paced thriller with the police chasing down evidence to prove Jenna is guilty with her investigation running at the same time to prove her innocence!

An exciting, gripping, fast paced, action filled thriller, one not to be missed! It has to be 5 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ from me

The Accusation is a 3.5 read rounded up to 4🌟
Jenna has been on a night out with her girlfriends, she is taking a shortcut through the park which she knows she shouldn’t do as it’s dark but she sees in the distance a man running away from a woman. When she gets to the woman she realises she’s been stabbed so rings 999 and stems the bleeding and helps save her life. Feeling like she needs to know how this woman is she goes to visit her in hospital and when she gets there the woman screams that Jenna is the one that stabbed her. Jenna is arrested and we follow her story as she tries to work out why this has happened to her and her fight to prove her innocence.
This is a good read, there are a few secrets revealed along the way, some weren’t a surprise but others were. I felt it went a little slow and flat in the middle and that is my reason for knocking off half a star. The beginning and end were fast paced with lots going on which made up for the middle.
I would like to thank Netgalley and Bookouture for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

This is a bit infuriating because it relies mostly in the main character's inability of telling the truth and/or to open to the people she claims to trust and love the most. If she had just stopped and thought for some moments she'd just solve everything by, you know...talking to her family!

It was painful to read time and again about how she "can't tell him/her" or how she "wish she could just tell but..."

The plot is interesting and if better done it could have been a great novel but the execution was flimsy and made the whole story seem weak.

I'd like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Jenna was returning from a girlfriends meet up by late night by unusually taking a silent shortcut when she hears a scream 'Help! Help! Help!'. As she reaches close to the source of voice she witness a man running a woman lying wounded with stab in her neck. She tries her best to slow down the bleeding & calling emergency service. Soon she feels relieved as she receives news from hospital that the woman is safe.

But her world starts falling as the woman whom she saved point her fingers towards Jenna as her attacker. Why would she do that? After all she almost saved her? Now she is handcuffed & even jailed for few days.

In her personal life her husband Damien is going further away from her day by day, her elder daughter Lily is hiding secrets & constantly lying to her, MIL leaves no reason to interfere and pearch poison in her relationships & there is someone who knows things about Jenna from her past decades of Jenna's which is kept as secrets far away from all.

The story is from Jenna's point of view both her past & her present. Honestly this book was kinda a bummer for me as I was like really slow & ending I still can't get it just that twists & turns through story was interesting.

Walking home after a night out, Jenna decides to take a shortcut through the park... will that be a decision she later regrets? Yes! Hearing someone call out in need of help, Jenna rushes to their aid and finds a young woman who’s been stabbed in the neck. Immediately calling an ambulance and stemming the blood flow she helps save the life of the young woman. Visiting her the next day with flowers, she is horrified when rather than thank her, the stabbing victim Charlotte identifies Jenna as her attacker!

Why would a person you don’t know, who’s life you have saved accuse your of such a thing? What grudge does Charlotte or someone else have against Jenna?

The story unfolds as Jenna tries to defend herself against the allegations and we find out more about her relationships with her husband Damien and daughter Lily - who both seem to have their own secrets. Many twists ensue as the story progresses to its unexpected conclusion.

This is the first book by Victoria Jenkins that I’ve read and I enjoyed so will now try some of her previous books.


Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for an ARC of the book.

I would like to thank the author, publisher and Net Galley for the chance to read and review this book.

This was my first book from author Victoria Jenkins, and I thought it was a pretty good thriller. I liked the writing style overall, though did get confused a few times with a change of time line - but maybe that is handled differently in the print or final copy of the book. I try not to judge the book or author too much for situations like that when I'm reading an ARC.

Overall, I felt like this was a good, quick thriller, a slow burn roller coaster at times. The ending felt a little off to me. I felt confused by the character of Jenna at different points of the book, and would need to re-read some sections to be sure I was getting the full picture. But overall, I liked it and would recommend it to others.

They say she’s guilty. She says she’s not. Who do you believe?


Imagine being accused of something that you did not do? How frustrating would that be? SO one night after drinks with the girls Jenna takes a shortcut home when she hears a girl crying out for help. Being a good Samaritan Jenna stops and sees that the girl has been staffed. She instantly calls 911/999 and tries to stop the bleeding. Then the next day Jenna goes to visit the stab victim in the hospital and when the girl sees her she points and says, that’s her, that’s the person who stabbed me. The thing is Jenna never saw this girl before she found her lying stabbed in the park. So why in the world is she accusing her of something she didn’t do?

Jenna’s frustration was palpable. I felt bad for her, but at the same time I knew she was hiding something. The entire family with the exception of Jenna’s youngest daughter had something to hide. Her older daughter Lily was dating an older Mystery man. And her husband Damien was becoming more and more distant. The story was a bit of a slow burn in the beginning, but then it really picked up and I had to know how Jenna was going to get out of this situation. Also I needed to know why in the world this person was accusing her? An addictive twisted thriller with a satisfying ending.

This book in emojis 🔪 ☕️ ✉️ 🩸

*** Big thank you to Bookouture for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***

This enthralling tale is a perfect example of why so many people are hesitant to come to the rescue of anyone who is in need of assistance.

It is set in the duel time lines of the present day and the past and is voiced entirely from the perspective of Jenna. Although I admired her determination to prove her innocence and protect her family, I struggled to feel any sympathy for her. Her strained relationship with her daughter Lily wasn't that surprising considering how Jenna and her husband Daniel seemed to spend every interaction with Lily having a go at her for one reason or another. In life, respect is not a given, it is earned and it seemed to me that neither Jenna or Daniel showed any respect towards Lily and she had no privacy in her own home. She was seventeen years old, couldn't do anything right and all the adults in her life treated her like she was a child or in her so called gran's case like she didn't exist. As for daniel, he was a really unlikable, horrible, judgemental character and so was his mother Nancy. According to many characters in this book, there is no such as innocent until proven guilty and with all the evidence pointing towards her quilt, it seems that someone has done a very good job of setting Jenna up but who is behind the scheme against her and what are the reasons behind their actions?

I wouldn't say that this story is fast paced but it is a gripping story that builds in intensity as the story unfolds and all the secrets and lies are revealed. It was a enthralling domestic drama/thriller that had some realistic,well rounded characters and some unexpected twists and turns. I thought that this was a enjoyable read that, in my opinion was let down by the happily ever after ending which didn't work for me when you took into consideration Daniel's unsupportive behaviour throughout the book. Despite this, like I said, I did enjoy this book and would happily read more of this author's books in the future.

'No good turn goes unpunished' could have been the title for this absorbing read. Jenna cut through the park after a night out. When she heard someone screaming she rushed to help. A young woman had been stabbed in the neck. Jenna called an ambulance & put pressure on the wound- an action that saved the Charlotte's life. It's what any moral person would have done, however Jenna is totally unprepared for Charlotte to accuse her of being the attacker. Jenna's life was a bit rocky before. Her teenage daughter is hiding things from her. Things are tricky with her husband ( she suspects he might be unfaithful) & her mother in law has always hated her. All this pales into nothing as she is arrested & a knife is found in the cafe she owns.

The story is told by Jenna, mostly in the present but sometimes in the past when she was a single mum. I really liked her & felt very sorry for her predicament.

Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

Excellent psychological thriller that is a morass of lies and secrets.

'The Accusation' by Victoria Jenkins is a true psychological thriller. It is not a police procedural or crime story. There is a culprit but not exactly in the sense of a criminal. I found it a fascinating read; I couldn't stop turning the pages to unravel the morass of lies and secrets that Jenna Morgan found herself in.

After a meal at a restaurant with her two besties, Jenna decides to cut through a park to get home. It is dark, the park is full of shadows, she is a woman on her own. However, this is small-town Wales, after all. What could go wrong? Plenty it seems. Hearing a woman's cry for help a couple of times, Jenna runs to help her while seeing a figure run off. It seems to be a man but she can't be sure. Jenna calls emergency services requesting an ambulance. There are two stab wounds in the woman's neck, streaming blood. As the operator directs Jenna to stem the blood flow, Jenna does all she can to keep the victim alive until the ambulance arrives. When Jenna gets home with blood on her hands and clothes, her husband, Damien, can hardly believe what Jenna has just told him.

However, the day from hell was just about to get worse. Everything goes wrong when the next day Jemma takes flowers to the victim, Charlotte Copeland, in hospital. One wonders what would have happened if Jenna hadn't visited the victim.

The woman starts screaming in fear, insisting that Jenna, instead of being her saviour, was the one that had stabbed her. Jenna counters that she has never met the woman before. The victim, due maybe to blood loss, must be misguided. Despite Jenna arguing it may be a case of mistaken identity, the police seem bent on charging her.

Left to defend herself, Jenna wonders if someone is trying to frame her? If so, who and why? What does Charlotte Copeland have against Jenna to accuse her of such a heinous crime? It is to answer these questions and more that the reader keeps turning the pages. With the police against her, Jenna starts her own investigation to dig out the root of the matter.

Simultaneously, Jenna's family is turned upside-down. Her husband, Damien, has been acting distant for a few weeks since before the incident, and seems to be harbouring secrets. Lily, her 17-year-old daughter, is out at all hours and also keeping her problems to herself. Lily plants a seed of suspicion about Damien in Jenna's head. Jenna's mother-in-law, Nancy, seems to see this as vindication that Jenna was never good enough for Damien, and wants to put a permanent wedge between the couple. Only Jenna's 8-year-old daughter is still normal. None of her family members appear to believe in her. At least her friend, Amy, is on her side, and by enlisting her lawyer brother to defend her, is helping Jenna bring justice.

As the blurb says, the book alludes to there being another layer to Jenna. We wonder whether Jenna is an unreliable narrator. What could she have to hide? And how is it related to the vengeful series of acts against her? Who wants to make her pay? The police is breathing down Jenna's neck, as further evidence links the crime to Jenna. As the case against Jenna grows, Damien becomes disbelieving, Lily strays into areas Jenna wants to protect her from. Her family unit is torn apart. Jenna must clear her name and bring her family together.

'The Accusation' shows how a person can get dragged into the criminal system even if they have committed no crime. Innocent persons are wrongly accused and imprisoned for years even if finally, justice is served. The book poses the problem of how to find justice when the justice system and the odds are stacked against you.

'The Accusation' is a twisting, turning morass of secrets and deceptions, page-turning and enticing.
Thank you to Bookouture, Netgalley and Victoria Jenkins for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

This book review also appears in Amazon.com, Netgalley.com,
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3389508947
https://thereadersvault.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-accusation-victoria-jenkins.html

Wow, this is a totally twisty and gripping book!

It all starts when Jenna tries to help a woman who’s being attacked. Then everything begins to go wrong.

I couldn’t understand how Jenna was being accused. There was no connection between her and this woman, but yet it seemed that there was more than meets the eye to this.

The tension builds and builds, and then comes the twist that I didn’t see coming at all. Then the pace ramps up, and the ending is a shocker.

This is a book that pulls you in right from the start, and won’t let go right until the last page. It had me totally engrossed.

A real page-turner, cancel everything when you’re reading this, it’s so addictive. Brilliant.

This book started as one type of psychological thriller, then morphed into another about halfway through the book. Jenna is the perfect example of “no good deed goes unpunished.” There are a few clues early on that there may be more in play than what meets the eye. Once the revelations started popping up though, they led to more questions for me. There were also more than a few red herrings; some were good, and some didn’t go anywhere. I liked Jenna; her husband, not so much. I would recommend this as a good psych thriller. For a full review, please visit Fireflies and Free Kicks. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for a digital ARC of the book.

Wowza!! What a book!! It gripped from the blurb to the last page. Suspense. Action. Thriller. One of the most twisted plot lines in recent times. Author Victoria Jenkins sure had a ice in her veins when she wrote this. She proved the adage true – a good deed never goes unpunished.

After a night out with her girls, Jenna decided to take a short cut through the park when a cry for help made her rush to save the life of the victim who was stabbed in the neck. Ambulance and police were called. And they barely managed to save the woman. Jenna decided to visit her the next day and to her shock, the woman accuses her of that crime. Prison was looming large when Jenna decided to get to the killer.

Having read many of this author’s books, I still managed to be shocked completely. I thought I had a grip on thrillers, and I had seen it all. But no no… This one was elusive. The characters were super interesting. Jenna emoted her predicament well. I could feel empathy for her. I too was confused at one point. Was Jenna lying? The author sure kept me on my toes.

Secrets in the family added another layer of subterfuge. Was Jenna being framed by her loved one. The questions were many, and each chapter added to my thrill. I had to admit every word gave me a sadistic thrill. The book pulled me in, and I loved swirling in the whirlpool of confusion. Why would a stranger frame Jenna?

Absolutely unputdownable. I couldn’t stop reading till the end.

This story begins with what seems like a nightmare come to life – Jenna is accused of a crime she didn’t commit. It’s horrifying and the reader goes through the stressful journey with Jenna as she is questioned, charged and more evidence starts to come to light.

Jenna is a great character and easy for the reader to connect with. She’s strong and determined to prove her innocence but she’s also fearful at times, making her a character that the reader can sympathise with. At first the accusation comes completely out the blue, but Jenkins is a clever writer and slowly starts to build a cloud of suspicion around Jenna herself…

As the plot builds, it becomes clear that everything is linked – Lily’s new boyfriend, Jenna’s unknown history… I really got hooked as the plot went on and absolutely couldn’t put the book down until I had finished it! I thought the ending was fantastic – everything came together and it was really satisfying. It was fast-paced, focused but had just the right level of a ‘happy ending’ for me – while it was wrapped up well, Jenkins didn’t waste time going overboard with the happy ending and ended the book really well.

I would highly recommend this for anyone wanting a new thriller to pick up, it’ll keep you gripped throughout and you’ll find yourself not able to put it down!

A quick and fast paced thriller which had some great characters. There were plenty of twists and turns to keep me guessing throughout and an ending that I didn’t see coming. Would recommend. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

I can’t imagine the horror of witnessing an attack on a lone female (or anyone!) in the early hours of the morning having decided to make your drunken way home through the park after a girls night out. It’s certainly a sight that would be immediately sobering as well as frightening and in these circumstances you’d like to think you wouldn’t have to stop to consider whether to help someone whose life was in danger. When Jenna comes to the aid of a woman stabbed in the throat, she calls an ambulance and begins first aid like any Good Samaritan having no idea that her worst nightmare is only just beginning. Suddenly she is accused of being the attacker, despite claiming to have no knowledge of the victim and finds herself at the centre of an investigation that threatens to destroy her family and reveal her past she has worked so hard to keep hidden.
Definitely in these opening scenes I had a sense of deja vu as they instantly reminded me of that brilliant book He said She said (so I’m in agreement with the publication blurb) but that’s where the similarity ends. As with the author’s previous psychological thriller The Argument, Jenna’s family seem to be teetering on the precipice of collapse but I couldn’t understand why. Husband Daniel seems aloof and disengaged, showing little support for his wife which immediately made me question what was troubling this family. Clearly there was going to be more to this seemingly unjustified accusation than met the eye and I thoroughly enjoyed trying to work out what really lay at the heart of this matter.
I truly felt frightened for Jenna for finding herself in such an unexpected predicament. Not only worrying about her strained relationship with her husband, Jenna is at odds with her eldest daughter Lily, who has become secretive and hostile. Normal teenage behaviour or is there something more sinister going on?? Added to all this is the mounting, though circumstantial evidence against Jenna with the police never far from her door. Knowing herself to be innocent but lacking support from her immediate family must have provoked intense feelings of abandonment and isolation and it would appear she alone will have to fight to prove her innocence. She suspects someone is trying to frame her, desperate to destroy her life and in the process those of Daniel, Lily and Amelia. The question is who?
Without a doubt I did not like Daniel. My hackles were raised at the way he seemed to have no compassion towards Jenna which in my eyes didn’t make sense. Surely she should be able to rely on his unwavering support? I appreciate however long we’ve known someone and trust that person we can never ever really know what’s going on inside our loved ones minds which this storyline highlights. The other fact that is glaringly obvious is that most people harbour secrets, however big or small and in every family there will be skeletons in the cupboard. As the saying goes, there’s no smoke without fire, so I found myself constantly questioning what could be the secret Jenna is so keen to keep hidden. Mud sticks even if the allegations are false so Jenna faces an uphill battle to clear her name whilst protecting her family. I had to admire her simply for not falling to pieces but when her secret is revealed she’s not the innocent victim she’d have you believe.
This psychological thriller is well paced and kept me engaged from start to finish, with suspicion cast in many directions. Having read plenty of books in this genre I felt I should have been able to make an intelligent guess at how ‘the accusation’ was connected to Jenna’s past but once again the author managed to stay one step ahead. I was often left querying Jenna’s behaviour in her determination to prove her innocence since at times it was incredibly reckless but understandable given her freedom and family unit was in jeopardy.
Yet again I raced through the pages desperate for the conclusion, with the tension in the final scenes ramped up , left wondering if Jenna would make the right decision. It’s a fitting ending in what is a gripping read. My thanks as always to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read.

I received an ARC copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for my honest opinion of it. There were parts I enjoyed but I have to say the ending felt rushed and left alot of unanswered questions. Jenna was walking home one night and heard someone yelling for help from the park. When she got to the scene, she saw a woman on the ground who had been stabbed in the back. She called an ambulance and helped her and saved her life. Jenna went to the hospital the next day to check on the person that she had saved. While she was in her room, Charlotte, the person she saved started screaming and accused Jenna of stabbing her. It isn't long before Jenna is arrested. Lots of twists but a little confusing at times and I felt like end ending was abrupt and disappointing.

The Accusation by Victoria Jenkins is another fast-paced, brilliant tale from an author whose novels have become must-reads for me. It is a seriously twisted domestic drama that starts explosively and continues with a frenetic pace.

One night, Jenna Morgan is walking through her local park and hears cries for help. Going to the woman's aid without any hesitation she finds that the victim has been stabbed and waits for the emergency services to arrive. Assuming that her involvement in the terrible incident is over, Jenna returns to her own life. But then the victim wakes up... and accuses Jenna of attacking her. What then follows is an account of events as Jenna tries to work out why she is being accused of a crime she had no part in, by a complete stranger.

Having thoroughly enjoyed Victoria Jenkins’ other psychological thrillers, The Divorce and The Argument, I was ecstatic to learn that she was releasing another book this year. The Accusation is an intriguing read and packed with family drama in every sense. It was a fantastic story that had me guessing all the way through. I loved the author's easy style of writing and the characters were all believable, well rounded, and perfectly credible, though not all likeable.

Unreliable narrator Jenna was perfectly portrayed by Victoria Jenkins, and it was abundantly clear that she was a person with a closet full of secrets. The victim, Charlotte Copeland induced a great deal of curiosity and Jenna's husband, Damien was downright obnoxious making him difficult to connect with, but all had great parts to play.

The Accusation was an edge-of-your-seat thriller, that had me in its clutches until I reached the startling reveal. I initially believed the Morgan's were a fairly commonplace family. Yet, unwittingly, the conceptions I had formed about them shifted until I threw all of my assumptions out of the window. The plot itself is well-crafted, intense, gripping and very compelling. As the story progresses and the tension builds, it certainly made me question the characters' motives. This multilayered mystery all comes together in the surprising, shocking and thrilling denouement. The Accusation is a must-read that sits very well in the psychological thriller genre. An absolute delight, it is very highly recommended.

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

I enjoyed the storyline and liked the characters. The plot: Jenna hears a woman scream and runs to help her. The woman has been stabbed. Jenna summons help only to have the victim turn around and accuse Jenna of being the perpetrator. Was this a case of mistaken identity brought on by the stress of the event? Or, is something far more sinister at play?

Parts of the book were slow and I found some of what happened to be a little far-fetched. Still, the book was mostly enjoyable to read. I would have given it a higher rating if the ending hadn’t been so abrupt. There were still loose ends to be tied up and I was disappointed not to see how it all played out.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for allowing me to rad and review this book.

A good story with lots of twists. This is a quick read which kept me guessing. Well written but a bit short.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.