Many thanks to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books and the author for the advanced reader’s copy of Hurry Home in exchange for my honest review.
- Title: Hurry Home
- Author: Roz Nay
- Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
- Pub. date: 7th July 2020
- Series: none
- Pages: 272
- Genre: mystery, thriller, contemporary, adult fiction
- Source: NetGalley
- Link:
From the bestselling author of Our Little Secret comes a suspenseful new thriller featuring two estranged sisters desperate to keep their deepest and darkest secret where it belongs—in the past.
When I open the door, I see a face more than anything, the paleness of it stark against the dark hair. Long hair, familiar. Blue, damaged eyes. Immediately, I feel my knees might give out, like I might fall to the ground. I cover my mouth with both hands and stare.
It’s her. It’s Ruth Van Ness. My sister.
Alexandra Van Ness has the perfect life. She lives in an idyllic resort town tucked away in the Rocky Mountains, shares a designer loft with her handsome boyfriend, Chase, and has her dream job working in child protection. Every day, Alex goes above and beyond to save children at risk.
But when her long-lost sister, Ruth, unexpectedly shows up at her door asking for help, Alex’s perfect life is upended. Growing up, Ruth was always the troublemaker, pulling Alex into her messes, and this time will be no different. Their relationship is fraught with hurts and regrets from their childhood that bind them to silence, but they can’t outrun them forever.
Alex lets Ruth stay under one condition: we will never, ever, talk about the past. But when a local child is in danger, Alex becomes very involved and the secrets from long ago come back to haunt her with terrible consequences for everyone.
A gripping look at the inescapable bond between sisters—and the devastating cost of a single mistake—Hurry Home will keep readers guessing who is telling the truth and who is lying until the very last page.
Content warnings: drug abuse, murder
I used to read many mystery/thrillers when I was younger but I just fell out of it (sadly) when I grew a bit older. I really wanted to remedy this and I saw Hurry Home and its absolutely attention-grabbing blurb, so I here we are!
Alex works in child protection, her dream job and passion. She has a local kid that she believes is in need of help and is trying to help. But then her sister Ruth, the ‘wild child’ sister, drops in at her doorstep with secrets and childhood troubles. Pretty soon, the Van Ness sisters stir up childhood hurts and questions as they try to co-exist. But like all good thrillers, nothing is as straightforward as it seems.
The two Van Ness sisters took centre stage throughout the whole book here. They were pretty much the most interesting and the most mysterious characters in the whole book. Alex is the first sister we meet and I actually liked her a lot, but a lot of her character doesn’t come out till the story reaches its climax. Ruth was the same as well; she was a mystery to me until maybe the 50% mark. But I liked them as sisters and the history that goes back years between them. Really the star of this whole story!
I liked that the author kept the side characters to a manageable number, and the ones that really caught my eye were Chase and Sully. They’re such opposites but I liked their interactions with each other as well as the Van Ness sisters. I’ll admit that Sully could get a bit annoying at times, but I still liked how he came around in the end and contributed a huge bit to the story. Chase is such an adorable guy that I felt so bad for him throughout the whole story!
I thought it was a great plot with some mind-boggling twists! I saw some of them coming, but that was all overshadowed by the really great plot twists that kept this story going.
The story had an obvious climax that kept me on the edge of my seat and awake into the next morning! This book is definitely nailed the thriller element of its story.
I am happy with how the story ended too. Everything that came up in memories or happened previously in the story was brought to a clean end. I was very happy for the characters and almost wished there was a sequel so I could see them living their new normal lives, but no. This story ended at the perfect moment.
The only bit that I was not happy with completely was that I felt the child care protection process was simplified a bit. It made things a little less believable, but in the end, I was just happy with the story anyway.
I really liked Roz Nay’s style of writing. It was very smooth and effectively conveyed moods of dread and anticipation throughout the story. She ramped up the suspense very well too. I couldn’t even swallow properly at the most intense moments; all I wanted was to get to the bottom of it ASAP!
The use of both sisters as main POVs is a genius idea! The story was pretty much centred around the two of them and their history, but there were no explanatory passages, so the reader was only privy to their present thoughts. The past was shown as memories but in either one of their POV. It really brought a new layer of complexity to this story, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
I think evaluating themes in Hurry Home is very complex since I do not want to spoil the story. But I’ll give it a go!
There is the ‘good vs. bad’ theme, which the sisters themselves represented. Their actions and what people believed of them all questioned what exactly makes someone good or bad, and the fact that calling it the grey in-between makes more sense. Even the case of the ‘local child’ brings questions as to how we label people ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
Also, ‘family’ plays a huge role in the plot. What the sisters were willing to do for and to each other, especially since they were at two extremes, was very interesting for me. The roles of ‘parents’ is a big deal here too because we have the child protection case that spans the whole story as well, and Ruth and Alex themselves who pretty much centre their actions on this one factor.
I thoroughly enjoyed Hurry Home. It was a great thriller with an amazing cast and well-driven plot. If I’m being honest, the significance of the book title devastated me! This book left me feeling raw and exhausted in a good way!
