30 Sep ‘No Longer Safe’ by A. J. Waines – Blog Tour + Review

Hi guys,

today I have the pleasure to kick off A. J. Waines’ blog tour for her latest chilling psychlogical novel, ‘No Longer Safe’. The book is released today and I whole heartedly recommend it! Read on for my review and then immediately head to amazon to grab a copy, do not wait a minute longer! As always, I will leave the amazon buy links in the book info to make things easier for you. Big thanks to lovely A. J. Waines for the review copy and inviting me to take part in the blog tour, I can’t wait to read her previous novels!

I received this book for free from Author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

No Longer Safe by A. J. Waines
Published on 4.2.2016
Genres: thriller, psychological thriller
Pages: 305

She was your best friend. Now she’s your deadliest enemy – and there’s nowhere to run…

When Alice receives an invitation from Karen, her charismatic University friend, to stay in a remote cottage in Scotland, she can’t wait to rekindle their lost friendship. But two more former students arrive – never friends of Alice’s – and as the atmosphere chills, Karen isn’t the warm-hearted soulmate Alice remembers. Barely is the reunion underway before someone is dead and the fragile gathering is pushed to breaking point.

As the snow cuts them off from civilisation and accusations fly, Alice finds herself a pawn, sinking deeper into a deadly game she can’t escape.

NO LONGER SAFE is a chilling Psychological Thriller that delivers a delicious sting in the tail.

‘No Longer Safe’ is A. J. Waines’ fourth novel but the first by her I’ve read. However, after reading it I can promise it won’t be my last one and I’ll make sure I find the time to go through her backlog.

Not having read anything by A. J., I really didn’t have any expectations from ‘No Longer Safe’. I read the blurb which sounded interesting, found the cover a bit creepy and chilling and that’s about it. That was more than enough to make me want to read it. Half way through, and loads of jaw dropping moments later, I decided to go through other readers’ reviews, and found out A. J. used to work as a psychiatrist, dealing with all sorts of cases, and it was then that I understood where she got her inspiration and zest for psychological thrillers. I found it really fascinating the way she goes into exploring human nature, bringing her characters in such weird situations and making everything sound so real and authentic as it could happen to all of us.

After years of not having heard anything from her best friend, Alice suddenly receives an invitation from Karen to spend some time in Scotland, maybe to catch up on their lives, maybe to share some big news… Alice is really not sure why is she sent this call for reunion all of a sudden, and she’s not even sure if she wants to go in the first place. She’s been working a lot on her fragile personality (which I won’t go into details of explaining), however I will tell you Alice’s changed after university and she’s not sure her friendship with Karen will be the same after all these years of not seeing each other. She did try to keep in contact, but Karen somehow decided to stop calling, writing… and Alice doesn’t know the reason for this, yet she’s been thinking about her best friend a lot over the years, the reason for their sudden break up always a mystery to her. Well, seems now she finally has the chance to ask Karen why she decided to ditch their friendship, and maybe there are chances they could move on despite the time gap an catch up on everything they’ve missed on in their lives.

After debating if it’s worth going back to Scotland and releasing the skeleton of the past, Alice packs up and is off on this trip not knowing what is awaiting for her. They don’t say for no reason, some things should really stay buried in the past!

This is not the easiest book to review, as it’s really hard to say anything without giving the plot away. However, I will tell you that it’s full of unexpected twists that will keep you totally invested in the book. Told from different POVs (Karen and Alice) you get to see both of their sides to certain events and start digging into their relationship, peeling layer after layer till some shocking revelations. The writing style is brilliant and everything flows, past to present and POV switches are delivered with perfection. The only reason for me giving it 4.5/5 is the fact I didn’t fall for Alice completely. I liked her, but there were situations when she seemed very contradictory, her feelings were making me confused and I just wanted to give her a good shake. But it was still a solid psychological thriller that kept me entertained and was so addictive, I read it cover to cover in just one day. I simply couldn’t wait to find out the reasons for the sudden meeting, why Karen picked Scotland of all places, why was she MIA for so long…why, why, why? I got my answers at the end and I was really pleased with the ending.

Wrecked friendships, betrayal, chilling atmosphere – this book has it all! If you’re into psychological thrillers that will keep you guessing till the very last page, look no further. This is definitely the book for you!

About A. J. Waines

AJ Waines has sold over 100,000 books worldwide and topped the UK and Australian Kindle Charts in 2015 with her number one bestseller, Girl on a Train.Following fifteen years as a psychotherapist,she is now a full-time novelist with publishing deals in France, Germany (Penguin Random House) and USA (audiobooks).

In 2015, she was featured in The Wall Street Journal and The Times and was ranked in the Top 20 UK authors on Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing).Shelives in Southampton, UK, with her husband.