The Rose Petal Beach by Dorothy Koomson

Tamia has a seemingly perfect marriage and home life but appearances can be deceiving. Everything starts to crumble when one night her husband is arrested for a shocking crime, but will Tamia believe his pleas of innocence. Their past and present is weaved throughout the book alongside the tale of The Rose Petal Beach, but is it a tale worth killing for.....

I like the way the novel is narrated by multiple women. Dorothy Koomson has written it in such a way that its like the characters are talking to you. The author has a talent for description and a great use of language. There are about 4 individual stories wrapped into the main plot all intertwining and connecting. I enjoyed finding out how they all fit together.

Overall the story had me hooked, there were moments of shock and sadness that had me sympathising with Tamia and plenty of irritation with some of the other characters. There are so many secrets and twists it keeps the book interesting despite its 657 page length (549 depending on which issue you have). The ending is definitely unexpected and I'm pleased that i didn't manage to guess the twist before it happened.

I would have rated the book higher than a 7 but there were some elements of the story that i felt were a bit long and drawn out and potentially didn't need to be there. I was so keen to find out the twist that some of the novel felt like a massive detour. This didn't deter from my enjoyment of the book and I would definitely recommend reading it and will most likely track down other novels by Dorothy Koomson.

7/10