BLOG TOUR: Girl Targeted - Val Collins

A Psychological Thriller/Suspense set in Ireland. 

Office jobs can be stressful. Aoife’s may be lethal.

Aoife’s life is finally on track. She’s happily married, pregnant with her first child and has the world’s best mother-in-law. But when Aoife accepts a job as an office temp, her entire life begins to unravel. 

Is one of Aoife’s colleagues a murderer? Is Aoife the next target? Why is her husband unconcerned?

Can office politics lead to murder? Girl Targeted is a perfect read for fans of Behind Closed Doors, Girl on a Train and the Silent Wife.

What did I think?

I've seen the name 'Aoife' in books before and had no idea how to pronounce it, so I was thrilled that Val Collins popped a little note in the front of her book to tell is that this Irish name is pronounced 'Eee-fah'.  Sounds much better in my head now than 'Ay-oyfe'.

At the start of the book we are introduced to Delia.  What a horrible woman!  She is clearly unhinged and is a total bitch to everyone she comes into contact with.  Delia is a manager in an office in Dublin, so giving her a little bit of power makes her the worst boss ever.  Her staff HATE her and fear her at the same time.  The workplace would be a much better place without her, and the staff are about to see their dream come true.

Although heavily pregnant, Aoife gets a call from the temping agency about a vacancy in Delia's office.  Her controlling husband, Jason, would like to keep Aoife chained to the kitchen sink all day but Aoife takes the job and ventures into the city.  I felt as if Aoife hadn't been out of the house in ages as she felt danger on every street corner with hooded men seemingly ready to spring and attack her.  Aoife makes it safely to the office and has a first day she will never forget when she finds Delia's body hanging in her office.  It might look like suicide at first but it's definitely murder and absolutely ANYONE in Dublin, or even Ireland, could have had motive to kill Delia.

So we have all of the ingredients for a nail-biting whodunnit and like I said it could be absolutely anyone, so it was great fun to look suspiciously at each character.  Not only do we have Delia's murder to solve, but there is also backstabbing office politics, dodgy business dealings and Aoife's selfish and controlling husband in Girl Targeted.  With so much going on, it's such a fast-paced read and I had my heart in my mouth on many an occasion.

Girl Targeted is intense, suspenseful and totalling gripping; I was so enthralled that I read it cover to cover over one weekend.  I've always said that if I were to write a book it would be set in an office as there's a very good reason why people at work are called 'colleagues' and not 'friends'.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon


About Val Collins:

Val can’t remember a time when she didn’t love reading but writing is a pretty new adventure for her. 

Val wrote stories when she was very young but she was an impatient kid and had an unfortunate tendency towards perfectionism. When, at around the age of ten, she realised her attempts at writing dialogue were dire, her writing career came to an abrupt end. 

A few years ago Val decided to try her hand at writing again and Girl Targeted was the eventual result.

Girl Targeted is set in Ireland where Val has have lived all her life. It’s set in an office, an environment she know well as her entire working life has been spent doing office work. Val has worked for small and medium sized organisations, for multinationals and for many different business sectors. Unfortunately she never experienced anything as exciting as a murder so she had to resort to her imagination to create Aoife’s world.

Val really loved writing Girl Targeted and she hopes you enjoy reading it.

Find out more about Val:

Website: https://valcollinsbooks.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Val-Collins-Books-125273274834187/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/valcollinsbooks

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