“As soon as she had spoken, she knew she’d made a mistake. She wanted to chase after the words and gobble them back up.”
Save Her was a breath-taking read, with many twists and turns. Flora, one of the main characters, is married to Sam, and her childhood friend Sophie is married to Sam’s brother, Greg. The brothers seem very much unlike each other, and so are Flora and Sophie.
Flora is struggling in this very rich family she has married into, but Sophie seems to lap it up. Everything is very settled until Flora announces that they will be moving. At the moment she lives next door to Sophie and Greg, close to the in-laws. This announcement has incredible consequences. How far will Cecelia, the mother in law, go to stop Sam and Flora from moving house?
The plot dashes along until it seems that Flora needs to choose between her life and her marriage. Or maybe choose between her friend’s life and her marriage? How much will Flora need to give up, and will she be willing to do so? And where does Sophie fit in? Sophie is the wonderful friend, who has always protected and helped Flora. Sophie has some dark secrets though, and it looks like her father in law knows some of them, or is he just trying to manipulate her?
Abigail Osborne, the author, has done a brilliant job with this book. For a long time, I thought the theme was domestic violence, and themes come and go in this psychological thriller. It really had me gripped to the end (and even then, I’m wondering if there will be a sequel!), and the changes in the characters are brilliantly done. Presuppositions and assumptions are not going to get you anywhere with this book!
Maybe Abigail’s love for board games comes out in this book, as it’s like a cat and mouse game. Every time I was waiting for something terrible to happen, and once I relaxed, something would happen! (I’m clearly no good at games!) We are given little hints and tiny clues all through the book, but not until the end did I piece them together. I did ask myself a few times, “Mmm, what about so and so?” but never added it up in my head.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I received a review copy but was under no pressure or obligation to write a favourable review. These views are my own.