The Temp - Kelly Florentia

 

What if your dream job became your worst nightmare?

Bella seems to have it all – a beautiful home, a brilliant career, a loving husband and teenage daughter, and supportive family and friends. The only thing missing is her body confidence.

So, when her PA goes on maternity leave, she decides against hiring a temporary assistant and employs a personal trainer instead. Why squander hard-earned cash on a temp when she could put the money to better use? Surely, she deserved some happiness after years of being a mum, wife, and housekeeper.

But little did she know Frank would want more than tightening her glutes and toning her biceps. Angry and frustrated for making the wrong choice, Bella sacks Frank and hires a temp, Daisy.

Daisy has settled in nicely. She thinks she’s landed a great job. But if Bella thinks she can happily move on, as if Frank never existed, she may have to think again…

What did I think?

Oh what a tangled web you weave, Ms Florentia!  The Temp had my brain twisting and turning so much it's a wonder I wasn't dizzy!

Bella appears to have the perfect marriage but it's a slippery slope when you start hiding things from your other half.  Tom is a bit of a scrooge when it comes to the family finances so Bella has to hide the fact that she has hired a personal trainer at the gym.  Bella wishes she hadn't hired Frank when he won't take no for an answer and she can't get rid of him.

As if Frank appearing everywhere Bella turns isn't enough to drive her mad, she now has to hire a temp to cover her assistant's maternity leave.  It just so happens that the perfect candidate turns up without Bella having to advertise the position.  Uh-oh the alarm bells were positively deafening in my head when Daisy turns up out of the blue.

The plot twists and turns as the reader tries to work out what's going on with both Frank and Daisy but I would have never worked it out in a million years.  Reading books such as this is the one occasion when I'm more than happy to be wrong!

Compulsive, twisty and incredibly gripping, The Temp is a fantastic thriller that entertained, shocked and surprised me.  I absolutely loved it and would definitely recommend giving it a read.

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

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon

BLOG TOUR: Killer Bodies - Heleen Kist

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

In a prestigious Edinburgh apartment building, gym receptionist Evie whiles away long hours doodling the deaths of residents who’ve annoyed her.

On her birthday of all days, a man slumps off the exercise bike — dead. She tries to get help, but someone has locked the doors and the phones are out of reach.

When another resident collapses inexplicably, Evie realises the deaths resemble those she drew … and her sketchbook is missing.

Was she framed...

... or is she next?

 

What did I think?

After reading Killer Bodies, I can say for certain that I won't be setting foot inside a gym...not that I would want to go anyway.  Exercise is bad for you and it's certainly lethal for some of the characters in Heleen Kist's new novel.

There are a lot of entitled and dislikeable characters in the book but I absolutely loved Evie, the gym receptionist.  Evie was supposed to be off work for her birthday but she is called in to work at the last minute and she finds herself locked in the gym with a bunch of residents whose deaths she has imagined and drawn in her sketchbook.  Then the residents start dying exactly how Evie imagined...

Yikes!  This is a pretty dark novel but it has a sprinkling of humour and some really funny drawings that had me laughing out loud.  I think I suspected every single character at one point or another as it really could have been any of them.  It's very cleverly done and impossible to work out as there are so many different (and dare I say, amusing) ways that people are killed.

Entertaining, imaginative and suspenseful, Killer Bodies is a brilliant locked room murder mystery that had my eyes glued to the page from start to finish.  It's so good that I want to read it again!  Very highly recommended.

I received a digital ARC to read and review for the blog tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon

About the author:

Heleen Kist is a Dutch, formerly globetrotting career woman who fell in love with a Scotsman and his country, and now writes about its (sometimes scary) people from her garden office in Glasgow. 'Killer Bodies' is her fourth novel, inspired by her hatred of exercise.

She was chosen as an up-and-coming new author at Bloody Scotland 2018. Her novels have been finalists in a variety of awards, both in the UK and USA, and she years to some day 'be the bride'.

Heleen hopes you enjoy her writing, and would love to hear from you on twitter (@hkist), Facebook (@heleenkistauthor) or Goodreads. You can also sign up to her newsletter on www.heleenkist.com

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