Brilliantly addicting, completely engrossing, and seriously unputdownable, “The Affair” by Claire Allan is OMG great!
About the Book
Her heart is thumping now, only just distinguishable from the roar of the water and the wind. This is not safe. She is not safe…
She realises then, only one of them is coming back out alive.
Sorcha thought her life was over when she discovered her husband’s affair. But somehow, she’s risen from the ashes of their divorce, and now she’s determined to give something back and help other women who need support.
Women like shy and isolated Tina, who has barely left her flat in the past year. Like Sorcha, Tina knows what it feels like to be betrayed by the man you love. But when Sorcha invites Tina into her life, and her home, she opens the door to much more than just friendship – and for these two women, nothing will be the same again.
Because one of them is hiding a dark secret – a secret they’ll do absolutely anything to keep…
My Review
Two women. Both destroyed by the same man. One his ex-wife. The other his former mistress. They share a hurt that bonds them as much as it divides them. When they finally meet, friendship and revenge collide in an explosive way you can’t imagine.
Meet the former mistress. Christina is an introvert. She works from home and rarely goes out. There was a time when she had friends and a life. But her old friends have started families of their own and moved away. And he — the one man she ever loved and still loves — left her two years ago. She’s been alone ever since. Unable to move past the pain, she seeks out the only person who will understand. His ex-wife. Sorcha.
Meet the ex-wife. Sorcha Hannon is a wildly popular social influencer and founder of the popular Facebook group, the Soul Sisterhood, which promotes female empowerment. From the outside, Sorcha’s life is perfect. She’s a beautiful, successful woman with a beautiful house and two beautiful daughters. Although she knows who Christina is when she joins her group, she feigns ignorance and welcomes her with open arms while she plots her revenge.
However, nothing goes as planned. Not for either woman. When Christina starts to receive threats, she contemplates leaving the group. Someone knows who she really is. Someone knows her secret. But leaving won’t be so easy. Not if Sorcha has anything to do with it.
Brilliantly addicting, completely engrossing, and seriously unputdownable, “The Affair” by Claire Allan is OMG great! It’s hands down the best thriller I’ve read so far in 2024. That’s no small feat either, considering the year is dang near halfway over and I’ve read some incredible books. Part of the reason it’s so amazing is the characters. They are developed with a depth and attention to detail that makes each one of them seem human. There’s Sorcha and Christina. There’s also Sorcha’s friends, children, and ex-husband who play parts in the story. All these characters will either grab you by your heart or raise your ire — sometimes both — but you won’t get away without feeling something about each and every one.
The plot is just as well developed as the characters. Let me be honest. I cringed when I saw the title of this book, because I’ve had a belly full of thrillers that revolve around extra-marital affairs. But “The Affair” is like nothing you’ve ever read. The plot is original. It’s intriguing and well-paced. Once you sink into it, you don’t want to resurface. When Christina starts receiving threats from a member of the Soul Sisterhood group, it’s easy to believe it’s Sorcha, but that might be too obvious to be true. There are just enough red herrings swimming through the chapters to keep you guessing. Dark secrets and deadly intentions abound in the book, but can the characters figure it out before it’s too late? Can you?
“The Affair” is written from both Christina and Sorcha’s points of view. As the story starts out, Christina is a sympathetic character even though she’s also the former mistress. She’s lonely and heart-broken, making it easy to root for her as she joins the Soul Sisterhood Facebook group to get to know Sorcha, but also to make new friends. She’s very much the protagonist, especially when Sorcha makes it clear she’s plotting her revenge on the vulnerable Christina. However, getting to know Sorcha through her point-of-view means also getting to like her just as much.
This book is filled with tension and suspense. There’s a sense of danger in the air that you start to feel early on in the story, then feel throughout. There are times when your heart will race as you wonder what will happen next. It’s one heck of a domestic thriller! But it will also tug at your heart at times, making you tear up a little or even cry as these two very different women (Christina and Sorcha) display their vulnerability and hearts.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, I loved this book. I loved every single page of it. It’s a tense domestic suspense novel in which friendship and revenge do a dangerous tango. Yet, it also has heart. It goes without saying that the ending is one you won’t see coming. It’s a mystery as much as it is a domestic thriller, after all. It’s remarkably satisfying, though. I loved it –and think you will too. From beginning to end, “The Affair” by Claire Allan is a well-written and captivating read that I couldn’t put down. Let me know what you think after you read it.
Thank you to Boldwood Books, Claire Allan, and Rachel’s Random Resources for the complimentary eARC in exchange for a fair and unbiased review, as well as for including me in the blog tour.
About the Author
Claire Allan is a bestselling author of pyschological thrillers and, in the past, women’s fiction.
A former reporter with the Derry Journal, she published eight contemporary women’s fiction novels with Poolbeg Press in Ireland before becoming a full time author, and switching genre to ‘unleash her darker side’
Her first domestic noir novel, Her Name Was Rose was published by Avon/ HarperCollins in 2018 and was an instant bestseller in several countries. Claire’s novels have been translated into multiple languages.
Latterly. Claire worked as a story consultant on series one of the huge successful BBC drama series ‘Blue Lights’ with Two Cities Productions. She has also written a number of rom-coms under the pen-name Freya Kennedy, and supported Sunday Times Bestseller Serena Terry while she was writing her Mammy Banter titles.
In 2023 Claire signed a multi-book deal with Boldwood Books to write four thrillers as Claire Allan, and three rom-coms as Freya Kennedy, securing her publishing into 2026.
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