The Beauty of the End by Debbie Howells
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Noah Calaway didn’t quite know what to think when he gets a troubling phone call concerning his ex, April. April had always been the one that got away for Noah and now she lies in a coma, the victim of an apparent overdose. But not only is April in the hospital but she’s suspected of killing a man before trying to take her own life.
Noah can’t believe that April would have anything to do with murder so Noah decides that even though he gave up practicing law he needs to do whatever he can to try to clear her name even if that means taking the case himself. While Noah searches for evidence to clear April a teenager named Ella begins to sift through the secrets of her own painful family history and just may be able to shed light on what happened.
When I saw that Debbie Howells had another book out I just knew that I had to read it. I absolutely loved The Bones of You when I read it last year so I was quite looking forward to this one. The Beauty of the End is told by alternating back and forth between what is going on in the current and flashing back to the relationship between Noah and April over the years with their rocky on again off again past.
With this book I found that for me it got off to a rather slow start building up the characters and letting the reader know how their relationship had formed and what had happened. I did enjoy the depth given to them in the end but I was dying to get to finding out what had happened in the present but it took a lot of build up to get that story line going.
Once the books started to flow for me I did find that I completely became engaged in the story just as I had suspected I would. Once the layers of the story started coming together it turns into an intense, twisty ride that will keep one guessing to the ending.
Overall, a slow starter for me but definitely went out with a bang when finished uncovering the lies and secrets through all the twists and turns.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
As soon as I finish Nevernight I’m starting this, so I’m happy to see you liked it Carrie. I can get past a slow beginning as long as I know there’s good stuff coming.😊
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Ah jealous! Nevernight was my first decline ever from St. Martin so now it’s driving me crazy seeing everyone reading it. Guess I was too slow requesting that one so I’ll have to stalk the library for it…. unless I see a ton of bad reviews that is. LOL
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I’ve been turned down a number of times by St. Martin’s so I was shocked when I got this. I’m about half way through and although the beginning was a little slow, and there’s a couple of formatting issues, overall I’m liking it.😊
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I’ll definitely pick it up sometime when I get a chance. I really shouldn’t complain though, I think I’ve gotten like 50 books from them so missing out on one isn’t too bad a ratio. LOL
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Love your critique, Carrie. This looks like a winner.
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Thanks Christine! If you haven’t read Debbie Howells before I’d definitely recommend The Bones of You. 🙂
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I got a copy of this for review and I’m even more keen to read it now that I’ve read your review!
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Oh I’ll have to keep an eye out to see what you think of it, hope you like it! 🙂
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I started reading it last night and think it will be an engrossing read. I’m such a slow reader at the moment but I hope it won’t take me too long to read it. 🙂
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The beginning started off a bit slow for me with this one but once it picks up it got hard to put down. 🙂
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