A big thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for the advanced copy of this book to read for free in return for an honest review.
The Couple on Maple Drive by Sam Carrington – read the synopsis here.
Overall rating – 3 out of 5 stars.
This book was not what I thought it was going to be, and I only rated it 3 stars because there wasn’t anything wrong with it, it just wasn’t wowing me, and I did (at points) find it really hard to read.
I feel as though The Couple on Maple Drive started off poor and then around the 60% mark everything about it got better.
The atmosphere, for example, was absent for the first section of the book but did pick up later on when things started to get more tense. The same with the intrigue, I wasn’t overly interested in the first half but things seemed to explode and it was as if I couldn’t get enough of the book, I had to keep reading. I NEEDED to know what was going to happen.
It was the same with the writing, which definitely seemed to pick up around the 60% mark as if the author had come into their own and really started to flourish.
And again, the same with the characters. To start with they were fairly non-descript and I found it hard to even stir up some kind of feeling towards them, but as we got more into the story I did find myself rooting for Isla and Jase.
The plot is the only bit I’m having a hard time deciding how I felt about it, I change from absolutely loving it to thinking it was a complete waste of time…
I did really enjoy the podcast element, I’d not read that in a book before and it really added something new to the story, and I liked how it didn’t just focus on Isla’s situation, it also spoke about other cases they were investigating.
However, towards the end of the book the plot did get a little unrealistic and a bit just WTF is going on. It felt too far fetched for me.
Overall, it wasn’t a bad read and I certainly enjoyed aspects of it. I just felt that some aspects could have been done better.
Happy reading bookworms! Until next time, Em xxx
What Em's Reading 