(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).
(This review may contain spoilers).
This book was quite an intense read. It kind of thrust me straight into the action, giving me the opportunity to see the aftermath of Louise’s life falling apart.
From the very beginning of the book, it’s clear that Louise and Brooke are keeping a major secret. Although it wasn’t until much later that I was able to see Brooke and Louise before the events of that night, it was clear through dialogue and the thoughts of the characters that it had a major effect on them.
I didn’t like Michael as a character at all. Even though he did obviously care about his children, I lost any of my sympathy for him after the way he treated Brooke. And I had a lot of contempt for Denise in this book. There was nothing redeeming about her that I could see. I would have liked to see more background to Louise’s relationship with her parents and sister, since all I saw were reasons they shouldn’t have been close enough for Denise to be her bridesmaid.
I did like Dominic’s character. I felt really sorry for him, as an innocent who had no part in what was going on… but was badly affected by the actions of his family.
I didn’t really like Louise or feel much sympathy for her. While I did think the author did a good job of showing the despair and desire to give up and die she had, I also felt she came across as very selfish and that she didn’t care about her family.
I did have a lot of sympathy for Brooke. In the flashbacks, she came across as a character with more morals than her mother.
There was a lot of tension in this book. Although I did figure out the significance of the type of birds fairly early on, there was still a lot of mystery surrounding those and the glove.
The mystery and tension in this book was engaging enough to keep me reading. There were some really disturbing parts of the book, in particular towards the end.
The book was entertaining to read and did a good job of pulling me into the story, despite some of the characters being less than sympathetic.
Although I don’t intend to re-read this book, I would read other books by this author in the future.
Ink of Blood 