Ok, on the good side, great storyline, hard to put down, good characters and I loved it
Minus - a bit slow
But I would recommend you keep going and read as it's a great book.
My first book by Caroline and hopefully not my last - I want more

I found this book very hard to put down and couldn't stop reading. A good thriller that had you on the edge of your seat and constantly trying to work out who did it.

This book is a slow burn book where everyone isn't the person you think they are.
Told from differing viewpoints.
This is the first book i have read by this author and wasn't sure what to expect when i first started the book but it grabbed me and didn't let me go till i had finished it, I will be reading some more of these authors books.

A very dark and enjoyable read, that was perfectly paced. So twisted, and gripping. The ending?! So, so good!

From the start it was obvious Dee Stephens , supposedly with the perfect marriage to her husband, Vincent, the Reverand. Told from three points of view there was tension and menace through this story.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book. I have chosen to write this honest review voluntarily and it reflects my personal opinion.
The narrative is delivered from the points of view of several characters: Dee, Mari and Cal. It is evident all the characters have secrets they are hiding which are very slowly uncovered as events unfold. I thought the book was a very slow burn and I disliked the amount of bad language spoken or thought by each character. I did not read beyond 30% due to these 2 factors; I would not describe it as 'gripping'.

Unfortunately I didn't finish the book.
I found it really difficult to follow and found the religious aspect a little too intense. So unfortunately I stopped reading.
I do however feel that this book has lots of promise and maybe I will pick it up again and give it another try. So For that reason I gave 2☆
I love Caroline England's books and look forward to her next book!

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Caroline England’s latest novel The Sinner is a dark, twisted and terrifying chiller that will keep readers up all night.

Dee Stephens leads a life most people would envy. She seems to have it all: a devoted husband, a beautiful daughter and the love, respect and admiration of an entire congregation. The vicar’s wife appears to lead a charmed life, but behind closed doors it’s a completely different story. Her husband Vincent is not the saint most people make him out to be: he is cruel, controlling and capable of making her life hell because he knows every single one of her secrets. Dee feels as if she is trapped in a prison from which she cannot escape, but there is light at the end of the tunnel when she meets her old school friend, Cal. Finally, Dee has somebody she can confide in and be herself with and when temptation proves too hard to resist, she embarks on a passionate affair with Cal. But is Cal her knight in shining armour? Or has Dee jumped from the frying pan into the fire by trusting him with her heart?

Cal is not the saviour Dee thinks he is. He has plenty of skeletons in his closet which he has gone to great lengths to keep hidden. Why has he reconnected with Dee? Was it a mere coincidence? Or did he have a sinister reason for coming back into her life? As his affair with Dee intensifies, little does Cal realize that Reverend Vincent is a dangerous man who won’t take being crossed lightly.

Vincent’s congregation might worship the ground he walks on, but far from loving and respecting his wife, he has spent years belittling Dee and chipping away at her self-confidence. What will he do once he finds out that she has been having an affair with Cal? Vincent certainly will not take this lying down -especially because he has far too much to lose should the truth about the monster within emerge.

Dee, Vincent and Cal are tangled up in a twisted web of lies, secrets and deception. The three of them need to tread carefully and watch out because you never know just what is around the corner…

Caroline England’s The Sinner is domestic noir at its most chilling, A nail-biting and heart-pounding thriller, The Sinner is a creepy, intense and complex tale that explores toxic relationships, dysfunctional families and devastating secrets full of spine-tingling shocks and revelations that will leave readers with their jaws on the floor reeling from all the twists and turns.

Caroline England is a master storyteller who knows how to keep her readers gripped from beginning to end and with The Sinner she continues to cement her standing as one of the leading lights of domestic noir.

The Book started a bit slow for me and it took a while to grab my attention but in the end, I thoroughly enjoyed it and raced through the pages to see how it will all play out! I always think an author is really doing a great job when they get me to start talking to the characters! Something I did quite a bit in this book! Every character got under my skin at one time or another and I cannot say I really liked any of them. This is also a sign of very good writing because we all have our flaws and it came through very strongly in each character.
There were times when felt like throttling the spoiled and egotistical Britt and sometimes I wanted to shake Dee and tell her to get a backbone!
It's a story that asks the question: How well do we know the people close to us and what will we do to protect the ones we love.
Highly recommended. Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I really enjoyed this latest book from Caroline England.
A cleverly told story from 3 people's lives and perspectives.
Lots of heartbreak, secrets, twists and whoa moments which kept those pages turning.. A must read!
Thank you to Little, Brown Book Group U.K. ,Piatkus, Netgalley and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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I would like to thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this book. There were a few characters who could be the Sinner of the title, each time you thought you knew who it was another twist came along to change your mind. A very different read.

I look forward to this author's books so much; every one is better than the last and this is a phenomenal read!

Outsiders may consider Dee Stephens to have an almost perfect life; with an adoring husband, their beautiful daughter and a tight-knit community, but she is really under the thumb of her controlling husband. Dee seems to have very little say in her own life - or does she?

Looking back at my review of Caroline's previous novel, I thought she had reached her pinnacle - how wrong was I? This is an author who continues to get better and better with each book she writes and this one is awesome! I started off wondering who The Sinner would be and what was the sin - boy, was I naive. With her trademark sleight of hand, I was led deeper and deeper into the labyrinth and then began to unravel my thoughts and find my way out and, trust me, it was quite a journey! There is so much packed into these pages - an extraordinary cast of characters, years of deception in one form or another and secrets and lies abound. A very hard book to put down as there is always something new cropping up creating a desperation to find out what happens next! Baffling and bewildering at times, this is a rich, rewarding read and one I most definitely recommend. The Sinner easily commands all five sparkling stars!

My thanks to the author both for my copy of her novel and my spot in this tour; this is - as always - my honest, original and unbiased review.

Thoroughly enjoyed this psychological/domestic thriller.

The main ( very likeable) protagonist is Dee, married at a young age to the local, older vicar she finds herself quite lonely. The other two story narrators are Mari (Dee’s sister, who has issues of her own) and Cal an old school acquaintance of Dee’s family.

The build up is slow but the characters are all beautifully described so in the end we can’t help but like them all. A fantastic very dark ending rounds off this book well.

I’ve read all Caroline England’s books and she’s definitely a go to author for me.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advance ebook

A book that freaked me out and made me gasp frequently as the truths were revealed.
Told in 3 POV, all the characters took us on a rollercoaster ride with dizzying ups and downs. The twists were awesome.
I couldn't believe that I read 447 pages in four hours, it was that gripping. Absolutely recommended.

From reading some of Caroline England’s books previously I knew I could expect a character driven novel. I wasn’t disappointed, all of the characters who feature are strong, especially the two who were extremely unlikeable. There are probably readers who have differing views but I took a dislike to Victor, obviously, but in many ways more so to Britt, partner of Mari, Dee’s sister. I absolutely loathed her. It is difficult to say why, but I’m sure if you read this book you will see my reasoning.

To an outsider Dee has the perfect life. Married to the good looking, charming vicar, with a teenage daughter, Abbey, but nothing is as it seems. Victor is controlling, dangerously secretive and manipulative over their relationship with Abbey, his mother is overbearing and demanding. Dee herself is lonely, feeling guilt over the death of her young son and hurt over the fractious relationship with Abbey. It is easy to see that she is struggling. Her only ally is Mari who has problems of her own. When Dee starts her relationship with Cal she feels relaxed in his company but he also has major issues and isn’t the person she thinks he is.

Whilst there is a lot of focus on Dee’s life there is also plenty on Mari. Initially it was Mari’s story I preferred to read, mainly because I didn’t see what Dee was going through. Mari was much more transparent and I could see and understand her frustration and pain in her relationship with Britt.

A fascinating look at a small group of people all who have had to deal with heartbreak and who are all suffering from events that happened in the past.

The Sinner is centred around the lives of 3 people, Dee, her sister Mari and friend/lover Cal in a domestic noir. Dee married her older, Reverend husband after falling pregnant as a teen, her life is mundane and controlled by both her husband and mother in law. Mari is a professional and her partner is about to have their baby. Cal is a childhood friend with a secretive side and not all is as it seems. Each persons has secrets and sins from their past which until now has remained private.
A slow burn, but an enjoyable read. Lots of twists and secrets to keep the intrigue levels high.

Caroline England really is the queen of twisty domestic noir and opens The Sinner with a deliciously dark prologue that gives nothing away but craftily hints at what lies ahead. This might be a slow burning novel but that doesn't make it any less addictive; I picked it up intending to just read a few chapters but ended up reading almost the whole book in a single sitting.
The story is told from the perspective of three characters; Cordelia (Dee) and Mariana (Mari), who are sisters, and Cal who appears in Dee's life in a moment of need. Dee is the likeable main protagonist and despite the choices she makes, is easy to empathise with. However, she is a rather frustrating, passive figure at first and obviously controlled by her unctuous husband, Vincent and scornful mother-in-law, Harriet, as well as by the intrusive demands that come from being the wife of a vicar. Her transformation over the course of the book was undoubtedly one of the highlights for me. Vincent is a fascinating character – Caroline England cleverly introduces so many little question marks about him without revealing whether we are right to be suspicious or have been wrong-footed until near the very end of the novel.
Meanwhile, Mari initially appears to be the more settled sister; she is a psychotherapist and in an apparently stable relationship but huge changes lie ahead which result in a different side to her coming to the fore. The supportive relationship between the sisters is touching and authentic, and I enjoyed the subtle similarities that emerge between them. They both acknowledge how much they have changed since they were children and as the storyline progresses, it becomes evident how the actions of their parents continues to have an impact on their lives. The exploration of parent-child relationships is an intriguing topic throughout but perhaps the most striking themes are chronic grief and insidious manipulation. Cal is arguably the most puzzling character; he's a far more sympathetic figure than Vincent and yet it's clear almost from the start that he isn't being honest with Dee. I was never quite sure whether he could be trusted – some of his secrets might be excusable omissions but others are much darker...
This is a classic tale of lives that seem near-perfect from the outside actually hiding dark secrets and Caroline England deftly drip-feeds various revelations throughout the book, some of which I managed to guess thanks to the clues scattered like bread crumbs to follow, and others that shocked me, yet made perfect sense. With its perceptive characterisation and compulsive, intelligent plot, The Sinner is domestic noir of the highest calibre. Highly recommended.

My thanks to Little, Brown Book Group U.K. Piatkus for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Sinner’ by Caroline England in exchange for an honest review.

This I s a domestic noir/psychological thriller set in Didsbury, Manchester. Its protagonist is Cordelia (Dee Dee). She is married to the charismatic Reverend Vincent Stephens and appears to be the perfect vicar’s wife. Yet regular readers of domestic suspense are aware that the apparent ‘perfect life’ is rarely so, and especially in a novel titled ‘The Sinner’.

As things stand Dee Dee’s life revolves around Vincent. She also has a turbulent relationship with Abby, their sulky fifteen year-old daughter. Then there’s Harriet, her mother-in-law, who dotes on her son and finds ways to make Dee Dee feel inadequate.

England slowly draws back the curtain not only on Dee Dee’s life but includes other perspectives: Dee Dee’s older sister, Mariana, a psychologist whose wife is just about to give birth. Then there is Cal, a paramedic who had a crush on Dee Dee back during their school days. When events bring them together, it throws a harsh light on Dee Dee’s marriage. Things happen that I won’t say more about given they equate to spoilers, though again a novel entitled ‘The Sinner’ suggests temptation is lurking in the wings.

Caroline England increased the tension at a measured pace and while there were twists I felt that they were revealed in an organic way rather than being ‘twists for twists sake’. I also liked her use of the Anglican liturgical year as a framework for the narrative.

Overall, this proved an engaging read and I felt that Caroline England was clearly a confident author, skilled in creating relatable characters and multilayered suspense fiction. I can imagine her novels proving popular with reading groups. While this was my first experience of Caroline England’s writing, I expect that I will be seeking out her earlier works as well as upcoming projects.

WOW! If twisty psychological thrillers with plenty of jaw dropping moments are your kind of story, then you will love The Sinner!
There are some intriguing characters throughout this story and interesting relationship dynamics.
Dee is a likeable character and one you can’t help but feel for, more so as the story progresses. I could almost feel how oppressed she feels within her marriage, especially whilst dealing with unimaginable grief, a disrespecting daughter, and a controlling mother-in-law. My heart went out to her. Obviously, I don’t condone infidelity, but I can understand how she found herself drawn to Cal. He’s an intriguing character. There was obviously more to him than meets the eye and I was keen to learn his story.
I love the relationship Dee shares with her sister, Mari. I enjoyed Mari’s perspective on things and would never have guessed where her story would lead.
I loved the suspense throughout this book. The tension builds with each chapter. It’s an extremely difficult book to put down as I was desperate to find out where it was all going to end. And what an ending! Phenomenal! I LOVED it!
**Many thanks to the author and publisher for my ARC**

I have read a few books by this author and they have been all good solid reads. This one however knocked the ball out of the park for me. It's a bit of a slow burn in comparison to many, but that's what makes it all the more delicious. It means that you savour every moment you have with it. As the characters are introduced and develop. As the story builds up. As the peak is reached and it all comes tumbling down... but I get ahead of myself again...
Dee has it all. Wife of a popular local vicar who she is devoted to, mother of a beautiful daughter. In fact, the only thorn in her side is an overbearing mother-in-law. But she manages that quite well. But it's all a facade. She is like a swan. Majestically calm and coping on the surface, but dip underneath and you'll see her legs frantically working to keep her afloat. Her daughter favours her husband, her m-i-l is getting worse, and her estrangement from most of her own family is getting harder to bear.
This all comes to a head when a chance meeting has her reconnecting with an old schoolfriend, Cal. Initially he's just lending an ear to her woes and outpourings but soon, well, it becomes more. But is he really the saviour he purports to be, of does he have an ulterior motive?
Oooo, this was deliciously dark, and very character driven. And the characters were all so well drawn, easy to believe in and connect to. I especially likes Dee's relationship with her sister, Mari, and the side of things that was going on in her life. Talk about tugging on the old emotions!
Along with the characters, we have a whole bunch of secrets, lies and duplicitous behaviour going on. The half of which I never saw coming. Who knew? So shocking! But also, so believable. Sorry for being so oblique but, spoilers... Bottom line is that I was left reeling but wholly satisfied.
The author was already on my watch list and I am already hanging for her next offering. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.