By: Caleb Crowe
ISBN: 9781837565122
Publisher: Inkubator Books
Publication Date: 01/26/2025
Format: e-book
My Rating: 5 Stars (ARC)
Obsession is forever.
When 17-year-old Ariana runs away from her foster home she finds herself living with the Willens family and looking after Daniel, their 12-year-old son.
Daniel is sensitive and brilliant - the most brilliant person Ariana has ever met. The two of them forge an extraordinary bond – and Ariana vows she will protect Daniel, now and forever.
But then their lives are torn apart by a horrifying tragedy. Forcibly separated, they do not see each other for ten years.
Now Daniel has come back into Ariana’s life and the dark secrets they share begin to surface, threatening to destroy everything she has built for herself.
Can Ariana escape the ghosts of the past? Or does Daniel’s reappearance mean that deeds long buried must now play out to their terrifying conclusion - plunging her into a waking nightmare from which there may be no escape?
Never Let You Go – the stunning new psychological thriller from the best-selling author of The Wrong Neighbour and The Girl in the Painting.
My Review
The British author of the smashing debut, The Girl in the Painting, Caleb Crowe, returns with another twisty psychological thriller of obsession, NEVER LET YOU GO where 'obsession has no expiration date.'
About...
Ariana's journey is one of resilience and survival. She runs away from her foster home at age 17, with no place to go, and lands a job at the Willens house, looking after Daniel, age 12. Her character development is strong, and you can't help but feel connected to her plight.
Daniel seems brilliant, and Ariana feels sorry for him. She thinks the dad is abusive and violent and worries for the boy, and the mother drinks a lot.
Then Ariana begins dating Henry, who runs an art gallery. He has paintings from a famous artist. She does not want him to know about her poor past, but she desperately wants to escape this family. How will she protect Daniel?
Later, something happened to Henry, and she had to try to keep the art gallery afloat as a widow.
Then Daniel comes back into her life. There was a fire. He has scars. He seems clever and always has an answer to her problems. Can she trust him? She wants to help him.
But is Daniel as innocent as he appears?
Is he obsessed with her, and how far will he go?
What happened years ago, including the fire?
Can Ariana escape the demons of her past?
She finds herself in the middle of a nightmare.
My thoughts...
I am so happy Crowe is back with a thriller in line with his debut, The Girl in the Painting (top books of my 2023 list), and I love the art connections. Unfortunately, I did not care for his last book, The Wrong Neighbour (some books are not for everyone); however, NEVER LET YOU GO is more my style and another 5 Stars.
The author keeps you guessing with an unreliable narrator and a woman caught up in a desperate situation with nowhere to go. She is manipulated and has no clue about the twisted dark web of deceit and lies she is involved in until it may be too late.
I enjoyed how some of the clever chapters began with the same few words from the previous chapter. Adored Ariana's character.
With dual timelines, NEVER LET YOU GO is an artfully crafted, sinister, wickedly smart thriller that keeps you glued to the pages. With complex characters, the past and present converge, and the suspense builds, leading to a shocking twist that will leave you reeling.
Recs...
NEVER LET YOU GO is for fans of the author and those who enjoy works by Daniel Hurst, Emily Shiner, Miranda Rijks, Kaira Rouda, and Freida McFadden.
Thanks to Inkubator Books for a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 5 Stars
Pub Date: Jan 26, 2025
About the Author
Caleb Crowe is a British writer of psychological thrillers, and is fascinated by stories where extraordinary things happen to ordinary people, and the mundane is transformed into the menacing.
He’s afraid of the sea, fearful in the countryside, panicky in large open spaces and terrified of small, confined spaces. He finds eerily quiet villages and bustling impersonal cities equally unsettling. There’s nowhere, and no one, that doesn’t possess some kind of dark, brooding anxiety just waiting to have the lid prised open and turned into a twisty, suspenseful, nerve-shredding story.
He lives in Manchester with his partner, two children and two cats, who probably have their own mysterious agendas. Whether he's navigating the urban jungle or wrestling with the daily challenges of family life, Caleb draws inspiration from the unpredictability of everyday existence.
