Synopsis – ‘I know all your secrets, Lauren.’

Lauren has spent years running away from her home town, her childhood and the memories of her best friend, Hannah.

Until the tenth anniversary of Hannah’s death forces her to return home and to the group of friends she abandoned there. It should be a quick visit, just so Lauren can pay her respects.

At home, Lauren finds Hannah’s old diary. A diary full of secrets. The terrible things Lauren did, the lies she’s told, the reason she ran away. And she receives a message:

‘I don’t know why you’re back, but I know why you left.’

But no-one else has seen the diary, and Hannah’s dead, isn’t she?

Firstly a massive thank you to Noelle Holton at Bookouture for sending me a review copy of The Diary.

I don’t very often read thriller books but when I read the synopsis something about The Diary really intrigued me and it didn’t come across as a run of the mill thriller book. When I first started reading The Diary it was somewhat slow to start however I was immediately emotionally drawn towards to the main character Lauren.

One aspect I thoroughly enjoyed was how Vikki has written the story by switching from present to the past, this not only helps us experience Laurens past from her perspective but also helps us understand the person she has become. As you get further into the book this greatly helps the story develop from all aspects and based upon what happens in the past you start to piece together the mystery of the book and what is really going on.

Over the years I have read some good thrillers and they all had great moments but one aspect I find makes a thriller even better is when they add elements from other genres especially horror as I think they work very well together. So when I was reading The Diary and I came across moments like this I in awe at how errie Vikki has written these scenes and how they made great spine tingling moments, I truly enjoyed these scenes and I think their addition helped the book evolve into another level.

The one part of this book that impressed me the most is how Vikki has written Lauren. Over the course of the book Laurens story is filled with raw emotion from the entire spectrum and you are drawn into every one of them. There will be moments that will make you want to cry, shout and laugh all within a single chapter and this made everything feel so real which is way I think it was so easy to be drawn in.

Stories with this kind of depth and soul take a lot to write and I believe Vikki has taken a lot of herself, this to me makes the book all the more brilliant as it takes a lot of guts and courage to write like this. The Diary is the story of a tortured soul with all the brilliance and depth to back it up and I highly recommend readers all over try this book out even if you usually aren’t a fan of the genre.

I am one of many taking part in the blog tour for the release of The Diary. I hope the other blogs enjoyed The Diary as much as I did and I look forward to seeing their reviews. Below is list of the other blogs taking part with the associated dates for the tour.