Frailty by Betsy Reavley #BlogTour @Bloodhoundbook

Today I am delighted to be on the blog tour for Frailty and it’s a double celebration as today is also publication day! 

About this book…

How far would you go to protect your family?

Danny and Libby are about to face every parent’s worst nightmare.

When eight-year-old Hope Bird disappears without a trace, from the idyllic village where she lives, life for her family will never be the same again. Her parents know she would never have gone off alone and the police have no idea where she is. Then a child’s shoe is discovered and the case takes anunexpected turn. Soon a suspect is identified but this is only the beginning.

Will they ever find Hope? 

Frailty is a haunting, gritty, psychological page-turner about the choices we make.

My review…

I loved Betsy Reavleys last book The Opticians Wife which totally blew me away with its plot twists and shocking ending. So I was understandably curious about this new novel which seemed to follow a slightly different approach to the psychological thrillers that she had previously published. But I needn’t have worried as Frailty is now my most favourite of her books! I just loved it! It’s a brilliant emotionally charged look at one of the hardest things a parent would ever have to face-the abduction of their child. How do parents come back from something like that?  Yes, it’s tough to read at times and yes, you will probably end up sobbing  but it’s a must read that will stay with you long after you’ve put it down.

Libby is just a normal mum living in an ordinary village with her husband Danny and her girls, 8 year old Hope and 3 year old Gracie. She could be any one of us. Until one day her whole world collapses when Hope goes missing after a trip to the local shop. Everything then falls apart for both Libby and Danny and the book takes us through the different ways they cope with what  has happened to them. A missing child resonates not only through their family but also through the whole community where suspicion is rife. Interspersed with their story is a truly heart wrenching account from Hope, as she struggles to come to terms with her captivity and the terrible things that have happened to her. I did find this part especially difficult to read at times as it felt like I was living through my worst nightmare as a parent and I just wanted to grab Hope from the pages of the story and keep her safe with me! But I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the pages as the courage of that little girl started to shine through. It was just so beautifully written.

From beginning to end this storyline gripped me, shocked me, filled me with terror and pushed me over the edge until I was an emotional wreck. It reminded me of real abduction cases and how you search out every news story desperately hoping that the next one you read will bring the closure and happy ending that you have been praying for. You feel involved and connected just through that shared bond of parenthood. This book is full of that raw emotion and I am so very thankful that I have read it. It’s now one of my tops reads for 2016.

Thanks to the publisher Bloodhound Books for my review copy of Frailty.

Frailty: a haunting psychological page-turner is published by Bloodhound on November 15th and is available here to buy at Amazon UK

About the author…

Betsy Freeman Reavley is the author of the novels Beneath the Watery Moon and Carrion and the poetry collection The Worm in the Bottle. Her latest psychological thriller is The Quiet Ones, published by Bloodhound Books.
She was born in Hammersmith, London. As a child she moved around frequently with her family, spending time in London, Provence, Tuscany, Gloucestershire and Cambridgeshire.
She showed a flair for literature and writing from a young age and had a particular interest in poetry, of which she was a prolific consumer and producer.
In her early twenties she moved to Oxford, where she would eventually meet her husband. During her time in Oxford her interests turned from poetry to novels and she began to develop her own unique style of psychological thriller.
Beneath the Watery Moon is Betsy Reavley’s beautifully written first release and tells the macabre story of a young woman battling against mental illness.
Beneath the Watery Moon is published by Not So Noble Books and Joffe Books. It is available as an eBook from Amazon.
Betsy Reavley’s second novel Carrion is a psychological chiller that address the link between grief and fear. Carrion was published in 2014 by Bloodhound Books.
The Quiet Ones, published in February 2016 and is a kindle top 100 bestseller, carries on Reavley’s tradition of writing psychological thrillers in her own unique way.
The Optician’s Wife, was released in June 2016 to critical acclaim.
Frailty is Reavley’s newest release and is available on amazon now.
Reavley says “I think people are at their most fascinating when they are faced with life’s real horrors. This is what I love to write about.”
Betsy Reavley currently lives in Cambridge, with her husband, 2 children, dog and quail. She is working on her fifth novel.
You can follow her on Twitter @BetsyReavley