Absolutely STUNNING book, I was so captivated that I stayed up reading way too late!
The writing is incredible, just beautiful ('In the flamingo light of dawn the sea sucks tangerine crescents from the sand' I mean, come on! gorgeous) the characters are amazing, you are led up. and down so many subtle garden paths that you really have no idea who you are misjudging. The storyline is captivating and devastating.
Warning there are some distressing and heartbreaking chapters and I dont want to give spoilers, but I can only say you must read this book, it is one of my absolute favourites of this year.
Thank you for the advance copy, I will be buying this book when it's published.

I really loved this book! The suspense towards the end was unbelievable and had me reading into the early hours. I can see this making a great tv series or movie. I held my breath throughout the scenes on the boat, it was so tense! Thank you for the opportunity to review this brilliant book. I’ll be recommending to my friends, family & reading group.

Sorry this one wasn’t for me. I thought it was slow, repetitive and I found myself skip reading through the pages. I did finish the book but it was a struggle.

Move over lisa Jewell and gillian Flynn we have a new kid on the block. This book is way better than gone girl or the family upstairs. In fact its in a whole other league.

This book is truly stunning!!! A 7 out of 5 stars. By far the best book I have ever read and that is saying something as I have read a lot of books. There is so much suspense and twists and turns you can in no way predict the ending.

I just can't help talking about it and recommending it all over Facebook and goodreading.
This book has to be made into a film or movies soon.
This book has be on everyone's shelf its a must buy, the next big thing and sure to win every award known to man.
I hadn't even finished his book before I was ordering his first book.
I cannot wait to read many more books from this author.

I nearly DNF’d this. So so nearly. But I am relieved I didn’t! There are some sentences that don’t make sense and some grammatical errors in the first 10% that really put me off. The plot/story intrigued me so I carried on and once I got into the stride of the book I couldn’t stop reading!

Fast-paced, page turning thriller full of twists and turns that I didn’t see coming. I’m glad I stuck with this book. It’s emotional and heart-wrenching and I think it will stay with me for a while.

This is a tense thriller, full of twisty plot turns, the main characters have past lives that they hope they’ve moved on from, but everything suddenly goes completely off the rails! I found myself really unsure about who and what to believe, and it kept me guessing until very near the end. Some of the descriptions of events are very graphic and difficult to read. I did like the vivid descriptions of the landscape and setting, the power and unpredictability of the elements, the battle between good and evil both in relation to the characters and plot as well as the setting.

This is an absorbing read for those who like fast-paced action thrillers. I found it very intense and a bit of a rollercoaster! There are excellent scenes on boats that left me reeling and I liked the Cornish setting. Lots of twists and turns too that I didn’t see coming. The novel is hard-hitting and I did find some scenes very hard to read but I don’t want to give too much away. Abraham Rose is a wonderful, memorable character!

Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first book I have read by this author and I have to say that I found it mediocre at best. Some positive things about this book were the sense of family and the setting of by the coast was novel to me. There were a few things that I did not like in this novel. For instance, I couldn't get behind the chief detective who was investigating. The author wrote the character as being a man of faith - nothing wrong with that, but I just got a bit fed up of him saying he was '...chiselled at speed from the roughest clay to hand.' Seriously, that phrase is repeated at least three times in the course of the book. Although it may appeal to some, that was a total flop for me. Also the detective was depicted as someone who was obsessed with "the one who got away", resorting to Facebook stalking her whilst at work. I think that just fell flat in my opinion and made him seem childish.
Another thing that broke the immersion was when a car changed from a black Audi to a black Lexus between pages. That is just sloppy writing.
Definitely not one that had me rushing to finish, I am nonetheless glad that I gave this a chance. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is the first book I have read of this author and will read his first one and any that come along thereafter. I really enjoyed the storyline. How many twists and turns can a book have – it kept you reading even when tired. The story is about a family of 4 living by the sea and very happy. Billie is 18 and is Lucy’s daughter and Daniel’s stepdaughter. Lucy lived in London and had several bad relationships and to escape she travelled abroad with Billie and still managed to get into scrapes. Eventually she came home and met Daniel, they married and had Fin. Lucy started a business in their village which was successful, a coffee bar, music venue, art gallery depending on the seasons. All was good until one day Daniel went missing with Fin and then she realised Billie was also missing. Lucy does not realise at the time that a person from her past is out to ruin her life. She is a strong woman and when she realises that the family boat is missing she makes sure the RNLI are involved in the search. The story continues in peaks and troughs and I really enjoyed it. I could wax lyrical about this book but would probably give too much away. Suffice it to say it is definitely a must read

I enjoyed reading this fast paced thriller, despite only really liking the Detective Abraham Rose character and I thought the ending was good. Lucy Locke is the main character and the story starts with her husband, Daniel’s business being in trouble and Lucy’s friend turning up to tell her that the family’s yacht has been found drifting out at sea with nobody on board. It then becomes a race against time for Lucy and Detective Abraham Rose to discover what really happened on board. There are a lot of twists in this whodunnit and explanations as to why neither Lucy or Daniel trust the police, with Lucy trying to solve what has happened to her children alone, with a raging storm hampering things.

Another thoroughly enjoyable book by this author. This one was very well put together and quite a terrifying and brutal story.
It certainly kept me reading and very interested.
The detail of sailing and nautical equipment was very well informed which made for an authentic read.
It is not for the faint hearted.....

This is one of the most exciting, scary and thrilling books I have read in a long time. Cancelled socialising events to read it, put everything on hold to get to the end! Wow!!! Really had me guessing and suspecting everyone of being the guilt party to the very end. An amazing triumph!

Wow, what a whirlwind of a book!

I felt as though this book started fairly slowly - telling the story of Lucy, a happily married mother of two, who's husband goes missing at sea during a catastrophic storm. Quickly, we realise that things are not as they seem and it turns into a frantic race against time for Lucy to discover whether her husband really murdered her children, or whether they are still alive.

I bonded well with Lucy as a character and could really feel her pain and suffering at the loss of her children. Although, the book does make you question her motives at times. The story finishes with a dramatic climax and I'm not ashamed to admit that I shed a tear at the end!

This story is well written, thought provoking and genuinely does give you a lot to think about. After about a quarter of the book, I found that I just couldn't put it down; I would highly recommend this book when it is released.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for sending me an Advance Reader Copy of this book in return for an honest review.

WOAH! Now that was intense! After that pulse pounding finale I’d better sit and catch my breath for a while, and collect my thoughts. Make sure to enter this thriller willing to leave all your preconceptions at the door, because they will be challenged in this dark, terrifying race against time.

But let’s start at the beginning, shall I? Lucy and Daniel Locke are a happy couple living with their two children in a small seaside community on the treacherous Cornish coast. Both are people of the sea – Daniel owns a marine business together with his old childhood mate, and Lucy has built up a successful food venue in a town that relies on both fishing as well as tourism. Their beautiful home overlooks the ocean that is an integral part of their existence, and their life seems idyllic to any stranger peering in through the windows. Until the day one of Lucy’s friends and employees comes running up to her house to inform her that their boat has been found drifting out to sea, abandoned. And Lucy’s world comes crashing down ....

Sam Lloyd is an author who is new to me, but it didn’t take me long to find out that he is an absolute master at creating a claustrophobic, atmospheric background on which he will paint his terrifying, pulse pounding thriller. Step 1: describe an idyllic seaside village that instantly makes everyone want to pack up on go there on holidays. Step 2: there is a monster storm brewing in the distance. Step 3: a missing husband, missing children and a race against all the forces of nature in the faint hope that you will see your loved ones alive again. This was not a story for the faint of heart! As the black storm clouds gathered on the horizon, the dark secrets also came out of the town’s cracks and crevices, putting absolutely everything you had come to believe under scrutiny. I read most of the story with my white knuckles shoved in my mouth, hardly daring to breathe as the drama unfolded.

A real psychological thriller is one that makes me constantly doubt everything and everyone, even my own perception of reality, and Sam Lloyd manages this seemingly effortlessly by making all his characters somewhat unreliable, even the setting, which unleashed a terrifying force of nature onto its hapless inhabitants. This, people, is how you create unbearable tension! As much as I loved Lucy and my heart bled for her, I also never fully trusted her. I had so many theories as the story unfolded, and yet found myself tapping in the dark for most of it. My only comfort is that it took seasoned detective DI Abraham Rose quite some time to get on the right trail as well, and even if he wasn’t the world’s most stable of characters himself, he was at least able to follow the clues much better than I could.

All in all, THE RISING TIDE will appeal to readers who love a claustrophobic, atmospheric setting but prefer an action packed story to a slow-burning mystery. If you are looking for fast-paced, then you have come to the right place, as this adrenaline-fuelled finale will leave you gasping for air. My only advice is that you allow enough time to read this book in one sitting, as it’s impossible to put down once the dark clouds of impending doom start appearing on the horizon. This definitely made it onto my favourites list and I can’t wait to read more from this author in future!

Another triumph from Sam Lloyd. This novel couldn't be more different from his first but the intensity of the almost cinematic writing and depth of feeling this invokes is unchanged. The power of the sea is disturbingly vivid and at the forefront of this action packed novel. The back story is shared in tantalising increments at regular intervals and every time I thought I had figured out who was guilty the backstory would turn my suspicion towards someone else. Exceptionally well done!

Thank you to #NetGalley for providing me a copy of #TheRisingTide to preview, I really appreciate it.

I normally read sci-fi and a bit of fantasy for my fiction, and decided to dip my toe into a contemporary ‘thriller’ type novel to see what it’s like nowadays. Usually I’ll stick with the bestsellers such as Crichton for this type of novel but I’m happy to give an unfamiliar (to me) author a try.

The story revolves around a mother of 2 and starts on the day her husband goes missing in a boat during a massive storm. It is written from the perspective of the mother who you are meant to empathise with, however there are hints of a disturbing past drip-fed throughout the story. It certainly makes you wonder who you’re meant to be cheering for as the story progresses, which is interesting. I think overall this part was well-done you’re not sure if you’re reading the hero’s thoughts, or the instigator’s. The community of the small English coastal town is done well also, although having been to Cornwall and watched programmes based there, there seems to be a lack of true local flavour in the dialects and the sorts of characters you expect to see in that kind of place. Only a few supporting characters stick out while others have maybe too MUCH character. So for me in some ways there’s not enough characterization, and in other places there’s too much.

Story-wise, while there were certainly some surprises leading up to the climax of the story, I felt that the ‘shocker’ moments usually weren't really strong enough to justify some of the reviewer comments that promised colossal-sized ‘OMG!!’ moments. That, or these ‘shocks’ were explained a bit too soon after the BIG REVEAL.

There’s also hints of out-of-place story lines from some of characters, which aren’t hinted at (or not hinted enough) in the early part of the story, so these kind of come out of nowhere. While I do like some stories that have this ‘uhh where are we going now?’ feel to them that’s not really what I came into this novel with, so it just felt a little out of place. But it does provide enough misdirection I suppose, so maybe it works?

The other issue I had in general was that while I think this was a pre-release sample, the Kindle formatting was really all over the place. Some sentences had spaces missing between the words but the biggest issue was that many lines on most pages had a single word on a line with the rest of the sentence above and below.

Overall, though, the story leads to an interesting and quite unexpected (maybe not-hinted-at-enough?) climax, which more than makes up for any possible shortcomings with the rest of the story. It’s fast-paced and reads like a thriller movie in most places, so I’d give it a thumbs-up.

This book had me hooked from the start. I enjoyed a different setting for this book (on the coast and out at sea) which made it different from other murder mysteries and crime books I’ve read. I went from liking to loathing characters as the story progressed, it kept me wondering who to trust and what was going to happen next. It certainly kept the pages turning. A well written and enjoyable book.

Just when you think this book will play out in the way you think, a massive twist throws everything into doubt. Lucy has the perfect life; a husband, two children and a business with a home overlooking the sea. However, her husband Daniel has money problems and his business is doing badly. Doubts creep in and trust becomes a major issue. When their boat is found abandoned and drifting, the worst is feared. Lucy’s life and that of her children are in danger and as Lucy sets out into the storm to search, a rollercoaster ride begins. I appreciated the excellent description of the storm and it could only be written by someone who fully understands the extreme danger and it’s devastating effects. A perfect image formed in my mind and I could almost taste the salt from the sea. An excellent book with a great storyline and believable and interesting characters.

Sadly this book wasn’t for me. I really struggled to finish it. I found it slow and I really couldn’t raise any sympathy for the characters. You do think that it’s going to be a take about an insurance fraud but it becomes apparent that it really isn’t. By that time though I had lost interest. Everyone can’t all like the same things though and I’m sure that others may well love this.

The twists and turns in this book kept me gripped to the very end. Brilliantly written, the characters were engrossing, absolutely loved this read