The Beauty of the End - Debbie Howells

The Beauty of the End – Debbie Howells

(3 / 5)

Unfortunately although it showed a lot of promise, I was a bit underwhelmed by this one.

Noah receives a phone call from old friend Will, informing him that Noah’s ex fiance April is in hospital, in a coma, and is under suspicion of killing a man and then attempting suicide. Unable to believe his ex lover could do anything like what she is accused of, Noah makes the trip to his old home town. Secrets begin to surface and he begins to realise he never really knew April like he thought he did.

The story gradually starts to come together step after step like any good psychological thriller, however it was just a little too frustrating for me.

Generally unreliable characters can work really well, but in this one I found them extremely frustrating! Why wouldn’t they just tell him what the hell was going on!?? And Noah. What an idiot. I couldn’t warm to his character at all. The things he did, his naivety and decisions he made annoyed me every step of the way.

I understand he was love-struck, but I just couldn’t warm to his intentions or the fact that he was totally oblivious to so much that was going on throughout the book.

The book skipped back and forth in time to when Noah, April and Will were teenagers in high school, to a few years later, to even later, and then the present. It jumped around a little bit too much for my liking, however I didn’t have an issue with it the majority of the time.

The twists and turns were just way too unbelievable, yet I could obviously tell where the plot was going.

However, it was well written, and did keep me captivated until the end, despite my frustrations. I enjoyed it enough to happily finish it.