Title: Deceived
Author: Heena Rathore P.
Published: Citrus Publishers, June 2017
Genre: Psychological thriller
How I got the book: I received a free digital copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Summary:
How well do you know your loved ones?
A young girl struggling to cope with the murders of her mother and five-year-old brother. A journalist chasing the ghost of a potential serial killer. A thirteen-year-old girl who slaughtered her parents.
And a revenge-driven psychopath who is about to destroy everyone’s life.
After 9 years, a young writer is still coping with the brutal murders of her mother and five-year-old brother, as she moves into a house of horrors, unwittingly to start a new life with her lover. Will friends and family be able to redeem Ally out of the impending doom in time? Will her infallible love become the key to the destruction of her already fragile world? Will madness prevail over love; true love over revenge?
My Review:
The author’s publisher contacted me about reading an eARC of the book among other things for the release. I was excited to work directly with the publicist and when I found out the book was a thriller, I was sold. I love mystery and suspense, so I was eager to give this one a try.
I have to admit that I wasn’t too thrilled with a lot of the characters. Ally was a good protagonist and I was able to relate to her through her anxiety. Her father, Stephen, was a great character too. I loved seeing the dynamic between father and daughter.
Steve, Ally’s cousin, appears to help solve the murders even though he stopped talking to Ally when it all happened. They make up after so many years lost, but that’s it. I expected the two of them to get close again, have a lot of scenes of the two of them figuring out the mystery together, but there was barely any of that. After they made up, they only spoke once in a while and that was it. I almost felt as though there was no point to having them be distant in the first place.
I absolutely love Sam, Ally’s roommate, and Max, Ally’s dog. They were the most loyal, trusting, and caring about Ally and everything else. They were crafted really well, as was the killer. His crazy tendencies was very well done.
One nitpick I have about the characters are the names. Ally’s father is named Stephen and her cousin is Steve. Ally’s boyfriend is named Danny while Steve’s assistant is named Donny. I got used to it after a while, but it did get confusing at times. I kept reading “Danny” as “Donny” if I went too fast and then I found myself wondering why Danny was helping Steve. Nothing major, but I felt as though better names could have been chosen.
We follow multiple characters throughout this story, each chapter being a different POV. However, the protagonist is Ally, a young woman still grieving over the murders of her mother and younger brother. She has her roommate and best friend and her father, but she’s mainly just trying to move on with her life.
She ends up meeting a guy, Danny, and moves in with him despite her friends not being too thrilled about it. She then begins to realize that he isn’t exactly who she thought he was.
I thought this was such a clever plot and an interesting twist on the typical stalker-killer. We saw through the eyes of the killer, yet that didn’t give anything away. It leaves room for the reader to figure it all out alongside the main characters.
With that said, I did still manage to figure it out long before the killer’s identity was revealed. Things were just a bit too fishy and there weren’t any red herrings. There wasn’t much else for me to go on so it was pretty easy to figure out who the culprit was long before it was revealed. It was predictable because that was the only lead that was given to us, but the author did a great job not revealing any information.
The author has a clever way of getting her words across. I found her writing to be easy to follow along and enjoyable to read.
Alternating POVs was a good choice as well. Sometimes they can get confusing when you’re following multiple characters. Not only were we following four characters-Ally, Steve, her journalist cousin, Elizabeth, the 13-year-old who killed her parents, and the killer himself. Elizabeth was from a different timeline. However, it was all well done and written in a certain order so that you wouldn’t feel lost.
I found this novel to be enjoyable and edge-of-your-seat gripping. The writing style and POVs really made the novel what it is and the killer was crafted so well. The novel ended up being much darker than I thought. Somethings the killer did bothered me a bit, but I also have a weak stomach. So take that as you will.
Deceived by Heena Rathore P. gets…
4 out of 5 stars
Favorite Quote:
“Denial. It’s the only thing that keeps most of us from losing our sanity.” –Heena Rathore P., Deceived
In other news, I’ve challenged myself to read five books between Sunday, February 19 and Sunday, February 26. Feel free to join me and check out my daily updates on Twitter, Tumblr, and my Bookstagram!
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