This is an easy read and maybe one for the holidays when you don't want anything too taxing. It starts with pace but peters out towards the middle and while the ending has lots of twists and turns, it does make become incredulous

I think I would have categorised this book as a romance with a touch of thriller. The way the main character behaved was so unprofessional it put me off her completely. The start was definitely the best bit and I thought the rest of the book was a bit hard to be interested in.

Having glanced at a few other reviews for this title I can see what some (but not all) other reviewers have picked up about this novel. My initial impression was fairly neutral, possibly even somewhat negative, and I wondered where the plot was taking the reader. In part, this may have reflected a plot device which interrupted the narrative chronology, but this is far from a unique feature in modern crime and/or thriller writing.

However, over time, the unusual features began to fall into place, whilst the last third or so of the book saw a surge of new momentum with plot twists that had not been significantly signalled earlier in the book. By the end, the various clues, twists and red herrings had been neatly tied up such that the reader was left with few, if any, irritating loose ends.

Eventually, I saw this as an entertaining and enjoyable read - my advice to prospective readers would be to suspend judgment and have confidence that it will both make sense by the end of the book and offer a satisfying denouement.
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Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book. I have chosen to write this honest review voluntarily.
This book centres around the relationship between Rachel, a GP and Luc, who requests an emergency appointment. I thought the instant attraction was believable but Rachel's behaviour was completely unprofessional, even disappearing for half of a medical conference. We are given to understand that Rachel is suffering from side-effects of the menopause which is then blamed for all her unreasonable behaviour until I felt sorry for her husband, Nathan, and daughter, Lizzie. The story alternated between Rachel's time in the police investigation and the events leading up to it. I thought it dragged and felt no thrilling suspense so that by the the time I'd read 37% I was completely uninterested and gave up.

I devoured this novel in just a couple of sittings! The Patient follows Rachel, a GP, who one day has a new patient, Luc, who is very depressed and needs a refill of his medication. Rachel gives it to him and goes on with her evening but she can’t stop thinking about him, and what she doesn’t know is that not everything is as it seemed to her. There is an attraction there and when she later meets him at a house party the infatuation grows. Then a colleague of hers is found murdered and life begins to unravel for Rachel. This is a novel that went places I wasn’t expecting it to but I was absolutely hooked and so keen to find out what was going to happen next and how Rachel was going to get out of the situations she found herself in. I really enjoyed this novel and definitely recommend it.

I enjoyed this book, I found it well written and liked the way the tension was built up throughout the book. There were plenty of twists, a couple I anticipated but some came out of the blue.
The characters were well drawn and believable, the descriptions of places made the reader feel they were there too. The author clearly knows her art.
My only negative is that I was left with a couple of questions unanswered at the end.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Patient struck the right balance between being a slow burner and being extremely tense. Sometimes in a story when there is a lot of detail provided before things start happening, it can be overdone but this wasn’t the case with this book - all of the information drip-fed to the reader was relevant and pertinent to the story.

The settings and the characters felt really vivid to me which is testament to Jane Shemilt’s skilled way with words. This story was unique for me - part thriller, part romance, part mystery - and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

My thanks to HarperCollins U.K. for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Patient’ by Jane Shemilt in exchange for an honest review.

Like many domestic dramas/psychological thrillers I feel that it’s always best to read with minimal plot information. So just a brief overview:

The novel’s narrator, Rachel Goodchild is a doctor and when she meets her new patient, Luc Lefevre, she feels an instant attraction. She prescribes him medication though also gives him her number which she realises was crossing a boundary.

Being in her late 40s and married with a grown daughter, she immediately starts berating herself. Still, as this was just an emergency consultation she doesn’t expect to ever see him again. …well that would make for a short, not very thrilling drama.

Two months pass she and her husband Nathan are invited to a party thrown by the new family that has moved into a newly renovated house in the neighbourhood. Oh didn’t Luc mention that he was renovating a house in Wiltshire? Add to this rather awkward situation suspenseful things are happening in the neighbourhood, including a murder in the same area where Rachel was followed!

I felt that Jane Shemilt did well in hooking her readers from the opening pages. The Prologue gives a tense account of Rachel being followed and in the opening chapter Rachel is writing from a custody cell: “My lawyer advised me to write everything down from the beginning, but it didn’t have a beginning, not like that.”

So even before Rachel met the oh so tempting Luc, I certainly was intrigued and zoomed through it. As expected in this type of novel there were plenty of twists and turns though I found them organic rather than twists for twists sake.

I also felt that both the setting of the cathedral town of Salisbury and Arles in Provence, where some of the novel takes place, were well realised that included an appreciation for the history of the areas including the architecture.

Overall, I found this a compelling domestic noir/psychological thriller. It has inspired me to seek out the author’s other novels.

Local GP, Rachel Goodchild, meets a distraught Luc late one night at her surgery. She treats him but they immediately discover a serious attraction. Risking everything, including Rachel's career, they embark on an affair. So far, so straight forward but there is much more to this novel.

This is a well written and entertaining thriller with a tension which builds nicely to a clever ending. The characters are complex with plenty of secrets and lies. Genuinely good.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A great read, with plenty of suspense and intrigue with a tale of obsession and betrayl. Great characters, good plot. A recommended read.

An intriguing read!

I’m slightly on the fence with this book, it interested me enough to finish reading it, but it didn’t quite grab me enough to want to pick the book up every chance I got. It was a bit of a slow burner and I did find myself wondering where it was going at times, but I did like the ending as there were a few unexpected twists and turns. So many of the characters are unreliable, which made it hard to know who to trust and helped keep me guessing throughout.

Rachel lives a pretty average life, the spark in her marriage has been gone for some time and her grown-up daughter always seems annoyed at her. Then one evening she goes to drop something at the surgery she works at as a GP and she meets a patient called Luc, he seems troubled, so she helps him with an emergency prescription. They talk for a while and Rachel feels an immediate connection, knowing it is wrong to think that way about a patient she thinks it is just as well she won’t see him again. That is until she does….

Love affairs, stalking, murders and more. This story certainly has everything a good thriller should have, but something is missing for me and I can’t quite put my finger on what it is. I think some of it seemed a bit far-fetched and unlikely and I didn’t warm to some of the characters, but the descriptive writing was brilliant, and I could really imagine everything, especially the parts set in France. There is also a part where Rachel is unwell and another character is having a breakdown, these bits were portrayed incredibly well, and I really felt like I was inside the character’s heads at that time.

I think the blurb for this book makes you think the story is going to go a certain way when it doesn’t, so I like that it wasn’t what I expected at all. Whilst it wasn’t quite the compulsive read, I was hoping for, I did enjoy it and I am glad I read to the end. I’d like to read more from this author to see if her writing style is similar to her other books.

Thank you to Jane Shemilt, Harper Collins and NetGalley for my copy of this book in exchange for an open and honest review.

Rachel meets Luc when he needs medical help. A relationship develops but who is keeping secrets and what can these secrets lead to? Danger, excitement, love and death. What more can you ask for in a novel?

Doctors and patients have a unique relationship, intimate but lacking in emotion until it isn't. Rachel is a GP, her encounter with Luc seems serendipitous, but fate isn't always kind. Rachel and Luc are complex, flawed and relatable. Each character in this psychological fiction is believable and purposeful, many are unlikeable, but they have a part to play in this poignant and twisty story.

Every event told from Rachel's viewpoint adds to the intensity and suspense. The reader knows there is something profoundly wrong, and this sense of apprehension magnifies and develops into something dark and dangerous.

The pacing reflects the twists, and these are surprisingly shocking. Themes of marital relationships, mental health and life changes define this memorable story.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

Well I very much enjoyed this book - the suspense kept me guessing all the way through the book. I was eagerly waiting my train journey home after work to continue reading and find out what happens.
I felt I could really immerse myself in the characters. At times I got frustrated with the main character and wanted to shout at her to pull herself together, but I think that shows how well thought out the characters are because I felt committed to it.
I dont want to give away the ending...but wait for a twist.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to read an advance copy. I devoured the book!

This was an ok book , I wasn’t keen on the characters but the story had just enough to keep you interested . Interesting ending that I wasn’t expecting but the book was just a bit lacking in places for me

The Patient by Jane Shemilt

I received an advance review copy for free thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Uk and I am leaving this review voluntarily

She is his doctor. He will be her downfall.

The bestselling phenomenon returns…

When Rachel meets Luc, the attraction is instant.
But she is a doctor, and he is her patient.

She gives him the drugs he needs – but in doing so, risks everything.
And when a secret is exposed, they’re both in the firing line.
Not all patients are telling the truth.

A slow burn drama that unfortunately just didn't stick with me. I read the first 30% of this book rapidly and I was hooked - the remainder of the book seemed to take me hours to finish. The blurb for this book set me up thinking that this was a thriller, this was sadly not the case. Having finished the book I feel like too much has been left unfinished and so even though there was promise in the plot I feel that I have to mark it down.

Rating 3/5

What price would you pay for falling in love?
Rachel is a respected doctor who lives in a picturesque and affluent English village where her husband Nathan teaches at an elite private school. Competent, unflappable, and nearing 50, Rachel has everything in her life firmly in her control, even if some of its early luster has worn off. But one day a new patient arrives at her practice for emergency treatment. Luc is a French painter married to a wealthy American woman who’s just bought and restored a historic home on the edge of Rachel’s posh neighborhood. The couple has only recently arrived, but Luc is struggling with a mental disorder, and so he goes to the nearest clinic…to Rachel.
Their attraction is instant, and as Rachel’s sense of ethics wars with newly awakened passion, the affair blinds her to everything else happening around her. A longtime patient appears to be following her every movement, turning up unexpectedly wherever she goes. Her somewhat estranged adult daughter Lizzie is hiding a secret—or at least, hiding it from Rachel. Nathan has grown sour and cold as well—or is that merely Rachel’s guilty conscience weighing on her? But when one of her colleagues winds up murdered and Luc is arrested for the crime, everything Rachel didn’t know about her life explodes into the open—along with her affair with her patient—a disgrace and scandal that will have consequences no one could have predicted.

This is a thrilling read.
Wonderful well written plot and story line that had me engaged from the start.
Love the well fleshed out characters and found them believable.
Great suspense and found myself second guessing every thought I had continuously.
Can't wait to read what the author brings out next.
Recommend reading.

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

This is the first book I read fr very this author and I had mixed feeling about it. Although the plot was very clever and the writing very good, the characters were not believable in my opinion and the model was a bit confusing. Overall I’d recommend this book.

I raced to the end to find who had actually done what - still not sure I'm completely clear! My hesitation in giving this 5 stars is over the depiction of Luc's mental illness. It was accurate that society does jump to conclusions and thinks a serious mental illness such as bipolar can mean the person is likely to be violent. Rachel, as a doctor and close to Luc, is convinced he wouldn't behave like this - having seen how he became more gentle and caring as he became more manic. Even though she was ill I can't see how Rachel didn't notice Luc's clearly manic state when he was with her in her home. That aside, there was plenty tension, creepiness and uncertainty over who was stalking, who was the murderer. The side story of the paintings and how they were hidden in plain sight was a good diversion that became a central theme. A good meaty thriller. There's so much more to it though with complicated family relationships all around. #netgalley #thepatient

Another brilliant novel from the excellent Jane Shemilt. Rachel is a doctor who happens to be at the surgery one evening when Luc turns up threatening to take his life. An unethical relationship develops and the consequences for both protagonists and their families are shocking. It is difficult to say much about the story without giving away stunning plot twists; suffice it to say that this book grips tight from the start and never lets up!