‘You Let Him In’ by J. A. Andrews

Synopsis

The only thing she was guilty of was trusting him

All Jenny Clifton ever wanted was to be the ideal wife and mother. When she married Michael in a fairytale wedding, followed by the birth of baby Daniel, her life was complete.

Yet just three years later, the shine has faded. Now, money is tight, and the occasional argument has become daily screaming matches between Jenny and Michael.

Something needs to change… and it does, when Michael is killed in a brutal hit and run, breathing his last with a stranger holding his hand.

Lonely and distraught, Jenny strikes up an unlikely friendship with the witness to the accident, clinging to the connection with the man who watched Michael die.

But as she uncovers the secrets that her husband was keeping, Jenny realises that her perfect life may have been a perfect lie – and worse, that her new friend may be harbouring dangerous secrets of his own…

My Review

I read and loved J. A. Andrews’ first book ‘Mummy’s Boy’ and I was eager to read his next book. Well the wait for his next book is over as ‘You Let Him In’ was released on 19th August 2020. It’s another cracking read from J. A. Andrews and I thoroughly enjoyed every single second of it but more about that in a bit.

I can honestly say that although I found the characters to be intriguing and interesting, I didn’t exactly warm to any of them. There was something about each character that irritated me somewhat. I could just be being too suspicious of people and their motivations. Michael was a bit of a control freak, who verged on the stalker sort of person. I didn’t really trust a word that came out of his mouth and it was obvious that he wasn’t being exactly truthful and that there were secrets that he wanted to remain hidden. I felt that Jenny was a bit too gullible for her own good and that she believed what Michael told her a bit too easily. They were just two of the characters.

It took me a little while for me to get into this book but that’s more to do with the fact that I was tired and finding it hard to concentrate when I started to read the book and it isn’t meant as a criticism of the author. Once I got into the story then that was it and I just couldn’t put the book down. The more of the book I read, the more intrigued I became and the more I had to read. I was so into the story that I lost track of time and just how quickly the pages were turning. All too quickly I reached the end of the book and I had to say goodbye to the characters.

‘You Let Him In’ was very well written. The author knows how to draw you into the story from pretty early on. The author has one of those easy going writing styles that is easy to get used to and easy to get along with. The story is actually written from the points of view of the different characters, with each chapter being written or narrated by a particular character. ‘You Let Him In’ was more of a slow burn kind of read but that helped the story if that makes sense, as the slower pace meant that the tension level could gradually grow and I got a greater appreciation of the feelings that the different characters were going through. I felt as though I was though I was part of the story myself and that’s down to this author’s very vivid and realistic storytelling. ‘You Let Him In’ certainly kept me guessing and kept me on the edge of my seat.

In short, I really enjoyed reading ‘You Let Him In’ and I would recommend it to other readers. I will certainly be reading more from this author in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 4* out of 5*.