Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. A good, suspenseful read with characters that are well developed and story that held my attention.

WOW!! This was everything I love about a thriller ! So suspense and such a great storyline. Highly recommend. Loved it!!

This book was exceptionally written. I thought I knew everything. I didnt. I love an unpredictable ending. Loved the suspense factor . It had me flipping through the pages.

Thank you Net Galley for a chippy of The Boyfriend by Kerry Wilkinson. This was a murder/ mystery novel that was very engaging!

Thank you NetGalley, Bookouture, and Kerry Wilkinson for this advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

I was hooked from the very start!! Even though there were some very predictable parts and I was able to figure out what was going on pretty early on, this was still a page turner that I couldn't put down and had to stay up way too late to finish because I just couldn't wait until the next day. Well done, Kerry!

Such a gripping read! I absolutely loved it, and couldn’t read it fast enough. Definitely sat at the edge of my seat during some parts-so good.

The Boyfriend by Kerry Wilkinson feels like a bit of a departure from past psych thriller stories. There is a lot of character-building and introspection from Jodie. The story is solely hers. As such, the reader only experiences things from her perspective. Period. It is good because the reader gets to really deep dive into Jodie’s frame of mind. But it’s bad because it makes a lot of things one-dimensional. When she finds something suspicious at her father’s house, she evaluates an event from her past. And as Jodie looks at people with a side eye, so does the reader. The author definitely keeps the reader guessing. there are also characters and events that have promise but lack follow-through. But however you think the story is going to end, you are absolutely wrong. I guarantee it. It is a tad uneven, but it is still a good story. For more details, please visit Fireflies and Free Kicks. This review was written based on a digital copy of the book from Bookouture.

The book was very repetitive, stating the main character's name over and over, and telling us where the green t shirt was and where she'd found it at every possible moment. However, if you can get past that, the story itself was good and had a nice twist at the end. I would read another by this author, but if it's as repetitive I wouldn't bother with a third

The book opens with Jodie clearing out her childhood home after the funeral of her father. She is shocked when she opens one of his boxes and finds a T-shirt which she instantly recognises. Her boyfriend Ben vanished twenty years ago and the T-shirt belonged to him. How come it is washed, ironed and neatly folded and why had her father got it? Ben’s body was never found and on Jodie’s evidence someone was convicted of his murder but she learns that he is now due for release. Everything is getting on top of Jodie. As well as worrying why her father had the T-shirt she is having trouble with her son Owen at school and her ex husband isn’t helping. Jodie is also being hounded by her sister in law Samantha as her father only left the house to her and Samantha thinks that Mike, Jodie’s brother, should have had his share. As Jodie starts to delve into the past and discovers her father’s secrets, someone sets fire to the house endangering Owen’s life. There were plenty of twists and turns to the story and I did enjoy it but I felt the ending was disappointing.
Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Loved this book. Would highly recommend to family & friends. The story sucks you in. I didn’t want it to end.

Kerry Wilkinson is at his unputdownable best with his latest heart-stopping chiller readers will want to devour in a single sitting: The Boyfriend.

Jodie’s father has just died and all she wants to do is clear out her childhood home and get back to her old life as quickly as possible. Jodie has fond memories of her dad – he was a gentle, kind-hearted and generous man who was always willing to lend a helping hand when needed. Jodie is clearing out her dad’s attic and makes a shocking discovery that makes her wonder just how well she knew her father…

Among her dad’s things in the attic is a T-shirt that her old boyfriend Ben had worn on the night he had gone missing. Ben’s disappearance had naturally sent shockwaves reverberating around their entire community and many years later, his parents still wait for news about their son and hope that one day they will be reunited with him. Never in a million years did Jodie imagine that her father could have had something to do with Ben’s disappearance – but how did her ex boyfriend’s old shirt end up among her dad’s possessions?

Determined to get to the bottom of this perplexing mystery, Jodie vows to leave no stone unturned in her quest for the truth. But is she prepared for what she is about to find? With a terrifying stranger dogging her every move and a fire breaking out in her home, it’s clear that someone is willing to do anything to prevent Jodie from finding what really happened that night.

Will the sins of the father end up costing Jodie everything? With the past refusing to stay buried, Jodie wonders whether untangling long-held secrets will end up putting her – and her son – in the worst possible danger…

Kerry Wilkinson always delivers a compulsively readable thriller that is simply first class and The Boyfriend is one electrifying roller-coaster ride packed with plenty of suspense, tension and twists and turns to keep readers engrossed all through the night. With shocks and surprises on every page and plenty of jaw-dropping revelations that will leave readers reeling, Kerry Wilkinson has penned another must-read with his latest chiller, The Boyfriend.

Great plot to get yourself lost in. This book has everything. A real fast paced thriller. Will get your heart racing on more than one occasion. Very well written. Highly recommend this book. It had me hooked from the beginning. Once again this author pulled a great book out the hat

Loved this book
As I have with all Kerry’s books
It has lots of twists and turns
It will have you hooked from the first page to the last
Thanks NetGalley

Yawn

Entirely predictable and just boring as it finally got us there.
I held zero connection to the characters.

Even if not my favorite from this author, we can never deny the fact that Kerry Wilkinson is a great author.

His stories are always very well planned and written. His characters are always so vivid and the dialogue is impressive.

In this novel Kerry delivers a tale of old secrets and how we can close our eyes for the sake of keeo on going. It's a good mystery and overall a solid nobel.

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

My thanks to NetGalley and BookOuture for a copy of “ The Boyfriend “ for an honest review.

I’ve loved the majority of Kerry Wilkinson’s book . I like his style of writing, and find the stories really easy to get involved in , with good characterisation and well thought out plots.
Unfortunately , for me, this book wasn’t up to his normal high standard. .something was missing.
I’d guessed the ending, but when it came , it all fell a little flat.
I will definitely keep on reading, and recommending, his books , just not this title.

A very skilfully written thriller which from the very start draws in the reader.
Jodie is at her fathers funeral, he has died recently and the whole town was there to see the mayor they had loved be honoured. On clearing out his house Jodie finds something that catapults her to her teenage years and the boyfriend who had mysteriously disappeared.
The plot was really well woven and the clues were there when I looked back, but the ending was a shock and I had no idea what was going to unfold.
Great read and thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was really enjoying this book up until the end...which kind of ruined it. I hate when that happens.

This story starts off with Jodie coming back to her childhood home after her father's funeral. She now owns the house and has to figure out what to do with it. She wants to clean it out, but everywhere holds such memories it is difficult. Until she sees the opening for the attic. The place where she was never allowed to go and has never been. A perfect place to start cleaning. Only she finds a shirt in a box in the attic...a shirt that her boyfriend at the time was last seen wearing before he disappeared. The rest of the story deals with Jodie trying to figure out what happened, why her dad would have this shirt, and deal with everything that happens in her life as well. She has some issues with her son, her ex is useless there, and anything else that comes up.

Now as I said I was really enjoying this story until the end. One thing that did bug me was that Jodie never went through everything else in the attic after she found the shirt. If she is looking for clues and trying to figure out what happened why would you not see if there is at least anything else in the boxes? But that needed to happen later for everything to work out so...fine I just went with it. But the ending was...there was so much build-up to who murdered her boyfriend, was her dad involved? Who was involved and...the reveal was underwhelming. Like okay fine. If it would have stopped there this still would have been a pretty good read for me, but there is a bit more and that part was not good. I don't even really understand why it happened. Like why the people involved did the things they did...it didn't make sense. Like they didn't have a stake in things so...If I am missing something please let me know, but it was confusing. I still don't get it. Oh well. Such a shame it ended on such a down note.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for a copy of this book

I received a NetGalley ARC of this book from Bookouture in exchange for my honest feedback. I was keen to read this because a couple of friends had recommended the series feat. DI Daniels written by the same author.

The synopsis is very intriguing and the opening really reeled me in, but then it petered out, Aside from the dramatic opening, nothing really happens in the first half of this novel. There was no plot developments to hold the reader's interest. I only persevered with it because my friends had recommended Kerry Wilkinson. The second half of the book is quite good, there are plot developments, some good twists (I didn't see coming) and a fairly good conclusion.

The characters weren't great, that is they were well developed but without any redeeming qualities, so I found it difficult to invest myself in their story. I didn't really care what happened to them which detracted from my enjoyment of their drawn-out stories.

This would probably be quite good as a novella, if the first half was significantly reduced. As a novel though it was a disappointingly drawn-out read.

I received a NetGalley ARC of this book from Bookouture in exchange for my honest feedback. I’ve been a long-time fan of Kerry Wilkinson, especially the Jessica Daniels series which is excellent and the Andrew Hunter series (also very good). I’ve only read one of the stand-alone thrillers (The Perfect Daughter) which I thought was OK, but going on past promise I thought I’d try another. It wasn’t great and I don’t think I’ll be keen to read any more of his books, unless there’s a new series with a strong protagonist.

The Boyfriend has a decent plot, there’s a great hook at the beginning when Jodie finds a t-shirt in her Father’s attic. The t-shirt definitely belonged to Jodie’s boyfriend who was wearing it when he went missing without trace whilst she was still a teenager. So why is it here? And what happened to him? This fantastic opening is followed by a lot of tedium. Mostly Jodie driving around town (we’re told all about the layout of the town and what the streets are like, although these details seem to have little bearing on the plot) and reflecting on her dysfunctional relationship with her son (but without any real conviction to change it). Then 63% of the way in, the plot picks up again and it’s pretty solid. There’s a few good twists and turns before we get to the truth.

The characters are well-drawn, all solid and believable, but none particularly likeable (although given the events in the book that’s not surprising). The only bit I thought was very well-written was a subplot involving the interaction between Jodie, some youths and a local man; it felt much more genuine and nuanced. I’ve no idea why the plot pacing is like this, or why the reader would be interested in the hour-by-hour minutiae of Jodie’s day. Judging this alongside Wilkinson’s previous work (particularly the series) makes it a disappointing read.