ARC received for an honest review - thank you Hachette Australia

I won't lie, The Cactus did start off a little slow for me, and I did put it aside for a week, however once I picked it up again, I finished again over the past weekend.

Susan is a prickly character, just like the title suggests. It did take me a while to warm up to her, I wanted someone to extract the stick that was up her rear. The was bristly and quite unlikable, however as the story progressed, I did warm up to her.

I loved her inner voice - it often showed us so much more than she showed the world. She could come across as quite 2 dimensional and flat at times, but I think that was just her. She is a complete control freak and comes across as brash.

I did enjoy how she evolved though. She formed relationships of many different kinds as the story progressed, came out of her self-imposed shell.

Secrets, lies, twists and turns, I ended up really enjoying The Cactus.

This is Ms Haywood's debut novel, and I look forward seeing what she brings us next.