Book Review: Before I Let You In by Jenny Blackhurst (Blog Tour!)

Format: Paperback, ARC
Links: Goodreads | Amazon UK
Blurb: Karen is meant to be the one who fixes problems.

It’s her job, as a psychiatrist – and it’s always been her role as a friend.

But Jessica is different. She should be the patient, the one that Karen helps.

But she knows things about Karen. Her friends, her personal life. Things no patient should know.

And Karen is starting to wonder if she should have let her in…

BEFORE I LET YOU IN is the brand new novel from Jenny Blackhurst, the #1 Kindle bestselling author of HOW I LOST YOU, which Clare Mackintosh called ‘utterly gripping’. If you don’t know who is walking through the door, how do you know if you should let them in?

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Review: Very clever Jenny Blackhurst. Ooh, very clever indeed *round of applause*. Maybe it’s your name that makes your so clever? *wink wink* Anyway! So I rarely, rarely take part in blog tours anymore, I just don’t have the time to read books under pressure, so this was a massive exception for me and there was no way I was going to commit to a review on a blog tour unless I was 100% certain it was my kinda book. And it was my kinda book. Karen is a psychiatrist and her world gets turned upside down when a new patient, Jessica Hamilton, enters her office. She’s suspicious of Jessica from the first meeting but when she finds out her friends might be in danger too, she has to take action and potentially breach the rules and break patient confidentiality. But as time goes on and more goes wrong, you have to wonder. Who exactly is in danger of whom?

Ooh that was a very sinister book description, wasn’t it? I absolutely freaking loved this book and I’m quite hard to please when it comes to thrillers. I’ve read so many amazing ones in the past if they’re not shocking enough or different enough then I just can’t. But Before I Let You In was totally up my street. Having unashamedly been to counselling before and also studied psychology in college, the overall themes and topics of the book really interested me from the get-go. I loved the little insights into Jessica’s personality and body language and how psychiatrist, Karen, psycho-analysed many things in her life. As annoying as that would probably be if you knew her in person!

This book had a very slow build up but on reflection, it just wouldn’t have worked as well if it didn’t. For example, we were about 50 pages from the end and I still didn’t know what was really going on or how it was going to end. It’s quite hard to review actually, without giving anything away and I sure as hell aren’t giving anything away! It’s also a very, very rare occurrence for me to literally gasp out loud at a book but this one definitely warranted a gasp or two. I just couldn’t believe I had been so blindsided by the information that Jenny drip-fed us throughout the book. But I suppose that marks a great book, doesn’t it?

As for the characters, of the three main characters and best friends: Karen (psychiatrist), Eleanor (mother) and Bea (single, fun-loving but also very damaged), I liked how wildly different they were. How they all had completely different lives and priorities. It definitely wasn’t like some books I’ve read where there have been so many similar friends it’s a nightmare to tell them apart and you have to make bloody fact-files on all of them before you can continue. These were very much individual and I think Bea was my favourite. I liked her story and felt that she was so under-estimated. The book tackles a couple of pretty serious topics too which definitely get darker as the book goes on.

For me, there were a couple of seriously shocking moments but again, I won’t say much else because I really don’t want to give anything away. This is my first Jenny Blackhurst novel I’ve read and it definitely, definitely won’t be my last. It was everything I love in a book; short chapters, mysterious, chilling, shocking, with twists and turns and an ending that requires you to take a moment and think about everything that you’ve just read. This book was so cleverly constructed and the world needs to watch out for Jenny Blackhurst. I’m thrilled I agreed to take part in this blog tour and with 5 enormous stars from me, I urge you to pick Before I Let You In up! (Check out the schedule below for the rest of the tour dates!)