#BlogTour ‘Invite Me In’ by Emma Curtis

About the book…

‘Clever. Compulsive. Deliciously creepy. Invite me in? Yes, please. I didn’t want to leave.’

Jane Corry, author of ‘‘My Husband’s Wife’

To those who think they know her, Eliza Curran has it all: two healthy children, a stunning home and a wealthy, adoring husband. No one would guess the reality of her life: trapped in an unhappy marriage to a controlling man, she longs for a way out.

When she takes on a new tenant, her life changes unexpectedly. Dan Jones is charming and perceptive, and quickly becomes a close friend to the whole family.

But Dan’s arrival threatens to tip Eliza’s fragile world out of balance. And when someone has as many secrets as Eliza does, the smallest slip could destroy everything . . .

Hugest of thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things for the blogtour invite, and publishers, Random House, for the gifted paperback copy of ‘Invite Me In’

The ebook for this fantastic title is available from July 22nd and in paperback from 2nd September.

This is the first novel I have read by Emma and I can see myself quickly working through her back catalogue at speed after finishing ‘Invite Me In’. Who is inviting whom in is up for question, is it Eliza letting Dan rent a flat she hasn’t recently done up or is it Dan, inviting himself into Martin and Eliza’s life?

There is so much to pull apart in this psychological thriller, the principal narrator is Eliza so you need to decide how reliable and truthful her voice is. She alludes to her husband having some kind of hold over her, but not exactly what it is so you become desperate to find out just what keeps her in what is obviously, an unhappy marriage.

It must be something significant because by the time Martin is introduced, you already dislike him, and how he behaves is outrageous. Eliza quite clearly believes that whatever she has done is so hideous that the emotional and physical abuse is ‘deserved’, and you sit there quietly seething and wishing she would put a clamp on his wheelchair and run away from him. He is clearly gaslighting her, she is deeply unhappy unless preparing a home for someone else to live in whilst hers is firstly, the starkly named Winterbourne, and secondly, a perfectly lovely home that was demolished to make a house whose appearance belies who lives there. And then, at a dinner party, it becomes clear this is a luxury prison, a gilded birdcage for a marriage which is nothing but a sham.

The arrival of charismatic Dan as a lodger sends Eliza into a spin as he awakens parts of her I think she had forgotten were part of her circulatory system, and deserves her punishment of living to a heartless regime in which she is a mere cog, a trophy, whilst Martin is the one whose talent brings in the money. You want to scream ‘Take the kids and get out!’ but she is so deeply entrenched in her penance that it brings you full circle to her doubts that she is nothing without her husband.

The description of each of the characters is so richly detailed and yet not overdone so that you can visualise Isabel, the au pair, sister in law Ali and husband Pete, Eliza and the odious Martin. Their children , Lucas and Aurora, seem to take the rigidity of their home life as normal and it challenges what you would think is a ‘successful’ marriage and partnership. And also the social constructs which enforce this idyll of the owned home, careers, children and community standing.

But…. there is always a price to pay for the veneer of perfection, bite into the skin and the flesh of what appears a perfect piece of fruit is rotten underneath.

As Pete and Martin share concerns that they think Dan is not who exactly who is pretending to be , your mind is done up in knots trying to work out what angle he has, what he is up to or if he actually is just a nice bloke offering a trapped woman an attractive exit.

The twists and turns kept me up all night as I tried to second guess who meant what to whom, I loved it, it was a deeply satisfying read  which I would defy anyone to put down until they have breathlessly turned the last page!

About the author…

Emma Curtis was born in Brighton and now lives in London with her husband. After raising her two children and working various jobs, her fascination with the darker side of domestic life inspired her to write her acclaimed debut novel, ‘One Little Mistake’. ‘When I Find You’ is her second thriller.

Links-https://www.emmacurtis.co.uk/

Twitter @emmacurtisbooks @TransworldBooks @RandomTTours