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Together Again at the Cornish Country Hospital by Jo Barlett #Review

  Jo Bartlett's new series continues with Together Again at the Cornish Country Hospital . It was published by Boldwood Books on April 3rd. You can read my reviews of the others in the series here: Welcome to the Cornish Country Hospital and Finding Friends at the Cornish Country Hospital and  A Sound Family at the Cornish Country Hospital Lessons in Love at the Cornish Country Hospital A lost love... A&E Nurse Amy Spencer lives a very ordinary life in Port Kara. She loves her job at the hospital and has a great group of friends, but there is something or someone, missing from her life. Amyā€™s tried dating but no one ever compares with the one boy that got away ā€“Lijah Byrne. A surprise arrival... Lijahā€™s life since he left Port Kara has been what dreams are made of. But lately Lijah has started to feel hollow ā€“the fame and celebrity he once craved now makes him feel trapped. The only place heā€™s ever felt safe is Port Kara...so maybe itā€™s time to go back home? A reunion...

Lie With Me by Sabinne Durrant

     I love the way that Lie With Me by Sabinne Durrant  figures a central character who is such an anti-hero. Paul Morris, the narrator, is a would be author who has written one book in his early twenties and failed since to produce anything else worthy of publication. By chance he meets Alice, a widow, and sets about inveigling himself into her life, eventually getting himself invited to spend a holiday in Greece with her family and friends. In the heat of the sun, the lies he weaves close in on him. Sabinne Durrant conveys the claustrophobia he feels as he backs himself into a corner. We follow him through the story as he lies and manipulates. We begin to see how each lie is leading him further into trouble but he seems unable to stop himself. What is surprising is that although I could see how egotistical and self- serving Paul he is, I had sympathy for such a flawed individual.

    All the characters in Lie With Me have secrets. They seem to shadow box each other, each spinning their own facade. It is one of the pleasures of the book to try to second guess and to speculate as to what each person believes is going on. Paul is the ultimate unreliable witness. Alice's trip to Pyros is part of the annual visit she has made there following the disappearance of a young girl who was her friend. It seems that Paul was there at the time but says that he cannot remember anything about the time or indeed who he met or what he did. As we see him lie and invent his own backstory, everything he says is doubted. It is clear from early on in the book that he is a totally self-serving person. Of course of all the people he meets, he may not be the only one.  

    When the twist comes at the end, it did surprise me as I had been taking myself up a different path. It gave it a satisfying end and certainly repaid the reading of the book. 

In short: a clever and intriguing read with dark humour thrown in.

Thanks to the publisher, Mulholland Books for a copy of the book via Bookbridgr.   

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