About the Book

Sometimes your first love won’t let you go…

When Lou Wandsworth ran away to France with her teacher Mike Hughes, she thought he was the love of her life. But Mike wasn’t what he seemed and he left her life in pieces.

Now 32, Lou discovers that he is involved with teenager Chloe Meadows. Determined to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself, she returns home to confront him for the damage he’s caused.

But Mike is a predator of the worst kind, and as Lou tries to bring him to justice, it’s clear that she could once again become his prey…

My Thoughts

I am a huge fan of C. L Taylor’s novels; they’ve all been such brilliant reads but I have to start this review by saying The Fear is her best yet!

The Fear is the story of Lou who was groomed and kidnapped by a paedophile when she was 14 years old. It’s now 18 years later and Lou is still affected what happened to her; this is brought to the fore when she was to move back to her hometown to clear out the home of her late father. Lou finds out that Mike is now preying on another young teenage girl and she feels she must do something about it.

The Fear is a very prescient novel as it looks at young girls being groomed by a predatory man, and really makes you think about the fine line between protecting yourself and taking revenge. I loved the way this book made me think as well as being such a gripping thriller.

I picked this book up after having a few days where nothing was holding my attention and I felt I was heading for another reading slump but The Fear grabbed me from page one and I literally didn’t put it down until I’d finished it! There is a real undertone of menace in this book, it always felt like something awful was going to happen and it was tense waiting to see what that thing might be.

I found Lou to be a really intriguing character, and I hoped she would find some peace by the end of the novel. I know personally how the damage from your teenage years can be something that holds you back in some aspects of life until you’ve dealt with it. She is quite clearly damaged and this holds her back from forming relationships – both platonically and romantically. It was also interesting to see Mike’s wife’s perspective as the novel went along. I found her deeply unsympathetic and unlikeable for the attitude she held but I came to understand her thought process, and to see her grow too. By the end of the novel I felt like I’d come to know her and I had much more sympathy for her.

Some of the reveals in this book were things I’d guessed and others had me gobsmacked! I loved the way there were two parts to the ending of the novel: the first was satisfying and the second was a real shock! The novel is tied up perfectly though. It takes a great novel for me not to work out how it’s all going to end so it’s high praise for The Fear that it had me stunned as I read the final pages!

I highly recommend The Fear; it’s fast-paced, full of tension and it will keep you hooked until after you’ve turned the final page!

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts are my own.

The Fear is out now and available here.

About the Author

C.L. Taylor is the Sunday Times bestselling author of five gripping stand-alone psychological thrillers: THE ACCIDENT, THE LIE, THE MISSING, THE ESCAPE and THE FEAR. Her books have sold in excess of a million copies, been number one on Amazon Kindle, Kobo, iBooks and Google Play and have been translated into over 20 languages. THE ESCAPE won the Dead Good Books ‘Hidden Depths’ award for the Most Unreliable Narrator.

Cally Taylor was born in Worcester and spent her early years living in various army camps in the UK and Germany. She studied Psychology at the University of Northumbria and went on forge a career in instructional design and e-Learning before leaving to write full time in 2014.

She started writing short stories in 2005 and was published widely in literary and women’s magazines. She also won several short story competitions. In 2009 and 2011 her romantic comedy novels (as Cally Taylor) were published by Orion and translated into fourteen languages. HEAVEN CAN WAIT was a bestseller in Hungary and China and HOME FOR CHRISTMAS was made into a feature film by JumpStart Productions. Whilst on maternity leave with her son Cally had an idea for a psychological thriller and turned to crime. She has also written a Young Adult thriller, THE TREATMENT, published by HarperCollins HQ.

C.L. Taylor lives in Bristol with her partner and young son.

(Author bio taken from: cltaylorauthor.com)