Here To Stay by Mark Edwards #HereToStay #BookReview @mredwards @AmazonPub #MustRead

After spending two weeks in glorious Rhodes, I think I’ve had the holiday blues, and left my reading mojo on a beach somewhere in Greece. I’ve picked books up, read a chapter, and put them back down again! Not good when you run a book blog that mostly relies on reviews to keep it going! Thankfully as I scrolled through my kindle I spotted the recently published Psychological thriller Here To Stay by Mark Edwards. Did Here To Stay help me find my lost reading mojo?  Read on to find out, but first the book description……

A beautiful home. A loving wife. And in-laws to die for.

Gemma Robinson comes into Elliot’s life like a whirlwind, and they marry and settle into his home. When she asks him if her parents can come to stay for a couple of weeks, he is keen to oblige – he just doesn’t quite know what he’s signing up for.

The Robinsons arrive with Gemma’s sister, Chloe, a mysterious young woman who refuses to speak or leave her room. Elliot starts to suspect that the Robinsons are hiding a dark secret. And then there are the scars on his wife’s body that she won’t talk about . . .

As Elliot’s in-laws become more comfortable in his home, encroaching on all aspects of his life, it becomes clear that they have no intention of moving out. To protect Gemma, and their marriage, Elliot delves into the Robinsons’ past. But is he prepared for the truth?

From the two million copy bestselling author comes a tale about the chilling consequences of welcoming strangers into your home.

Once again Mark Edwards has written a scarily believable book, for me the authors strength lies in his ability to take the must ordinarily situations and turns them into something extraordinary, something horrifying, something chilling, but they make for the most brilliant reads. Here To Stay is the perfect example, in-laws moving in with you for a couple of weeks, ‘where’s the harm in that’? You might think but however much you love your in-laws I guarantee you will think twice or ban them from overnight visits for ever after reading this book! 

Elliot appears to have the perfect life. He runs a successful business teaching science to underprivileged children, married to Gemma Robinson who he adores. But when life appears to be perfect, there’s always a chance that fate will throw a curve ball, and that once perfect life becomes a distance memory. Everything changes for Elliot when he agrees to let Gemma’s parents stay for a few of weeks, unfortunately for Elliot his in-laws are the curve ball that turn his perfect life into his worse nightmare! 

The Robinsons what a family! Perfectly depicted by the author. At first they appear slightly odd, crass, bordering on the annoying, but within a few of chapters of being introduced to them, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up! It turns out the Robinson’s are the in-laws from hell, their conniving, secretive, parasites, and despicable. There’s something strange about the family, their behaviour, their actions and reactions all hint at the fact the family are hiding some terrible secret.  

Mark Edwards teases the reader, just revealing enough to leave the reader feeling an overwhelming sense of trepidation that is palatable throughout Here To Stay, you know something dreadful will happen, but what? Well, let’s just say you will race through the pages to find out! As the animosity and tension between Elliot and his in-laws increases I found my intense dislike of the Robinson family growing by the second, at the same time I had a great deal of sympathy for poor Elliot, a man who’s pushed to the limits by his in-laws behaviour. 

By the time I got to the second half of Here To Stay my nerves were frazzled, as the plot progresses Elliot’s home becomes a smouldering pot of mistrust, resentment and paranoia. As Elliot tries to take back control of his life and his home, the story takes an ominous turn, at this point I was reluctant to put this book down even for a few minutes. Like any good psychological thriller Here To Stay has more than its fair share of twist and turns, some are more obvious than others, but there were still enough surprises to keep me captivated. As psychological thrillers go this has to be one of my all-time favourites this year, and thanks to Mark Edwards my reading mojo has been found, hallelujah

• Print Length: 370 pages
• Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (1 Sept. 2019)

Buying links: Amazon UK 🇬🇧  Amazon US 🇺🇸