Didn’t really make sense and was too unrealistic 

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This story is dark and twisted tale that had such promise but sadly didn’t reach its potential.

I’m not sure what I was expecting for this story, but whatever it was, it was not this. They Believed They Were Safe is a story about Mable who arrives in 1962 to board with the Alstons’ but she has secrets. This is meant to be a story exploring her life and sexual obsessions. This book does explore sexual obsessions but in an abusive and sickly way. 

The things that could have been much better: 
- the character development. None of the characters are fully developed. They’re all pretty bland without any substance to keep us engaged and interested in them. 
- plot points - nothing is stated and the plot jumps around. You see bits of Mr Henry Alstons life, bits of Mable’s life and courting with Jim Flaherty, you then meet Mrs Ruth White Alstons’ friend Clarissa, but none of the plot points feel necessary because they are all unfinished. 
- the ending - the story feels unfinished and you are left looking for the next chapter because there are so many holes that are just… left 
- the execution of the writing - there is a lot of waffling. Parts of the story aren’t taking you anywhere and appear as though only added in order to increase the word count. It could be that had these parts been executed better they would have developed the characters but as far as I could tell, this did not happen. 
- telling, not showing. A lot of the story felt as if we were being told what the character felt and thought instead of being shown this. This left the story as feeling pretty two dimensional in my option. 

Trigger warnings. This story needs to come with several very large trigger warnings due to the dark nature of the story and the way the story was wxecuted. 

Sometimes the truth is the least obvious answer. Or at least that’s what Lewis Miller finds when he’s sent to get a NDA signed… a story of murder, deceit and lies that you do not expect to the very last page 

An earlier work of Ann Cleeves which is unlike anything else she has written. This story focuses on Lizzie who is taken on a whirlwind ride in the search for the truth with an unexpected ending. 

I read this book as an ARC from NetGalley and give this review freely and uninfluenced. 

This book starts out slowly, and with each new development you can’t help wonder if the characters we’re wearing rose-tinted glasses. Jude, our narrator and main character, is someone who should know better than to make decisions without thinking first leads us on a journey of confusion, loss, heartbreak and suspense all for a Simple Favour that even she didn’t know the truth about. 

Young love makes you stupid. That’s all that can explain Jude’s actions as she comes to an unexpected conclusion that her once childhood sweetheart was stolen from them for a twisted reason by the last person she expected