Ashley is young and fiercely ambitious. When Helena hires her, she initially only sees the good in Ashley: the drive, the passion and the ‘can do’ attitude.

But Ashley wants more, she doesn’t want to be just Helena’s second in command. She wants David; the CEO, to notice her, she wants credit for her ideas and she wants more money… in a nutshell, she wants Helena’s job.

That was ‘then’, ‘now’ Helena seems to be losing her mind: she can’t remember what happened, she remembers being pregnant but there’s no baby in her home and, her husband is constantly looking at her wearily.

What happened?!?

The book flicks between ‘now’ and ‘then’, to allow the reader to piece together the facts… and I was definitely kept on my toes, because the facts were woven into the story with so many twists, that I hadn’t managed to get ahead of the story and so, the ending was a true surprise!!

The pace of this plot is phenomenal, it’s the definition of a page turner, my heart was racing the entire time… the adrenaline I felt when I finished the book was incredible – I was on a high for hours!

Duckworth has created two women who each have their flaws; one more than the other, but even when one of them does something selfishly, it’s hard to actually despise them… and I thought this showed Duckworth’s clever writing skills. Being able to sympathise with someone even when they aren’t the definition of a good person, shows a talented author, it means they can create all kinds of characters and know that a reader won’t be ‘put off’ by a less than perfect character.

And the ending… gosh this pulled at my heartstrings… things could have been so different…

I know I must say this a lot, because I’m always raving about books, but trust me… if you only take my advice once this year… grab this book!

Duckworth is a very talented author and I look forward to reading more from her.

The Rival is out NOW in all versions!

Thanks to Ella for organising this tour, if you’d like to hear some more on this book, check out the other great stops:

Until next time, Chloé x