Blog Tour: Sarah Bourne When Lives Collide @sarahbourne007 @lilmissmorfett #blogtour #newrelease 6th October

I’m thrilled to be reviewing Sarah Bourne’s psychological thriller When Lives Collide for the blog tour organised by Donna Morfett.

Blurb

A hit-and-run puts two women on a collision course with fate, in this mind-blowing psychological thriller from the author of Exile.
 
It only takes one second to change a life. Loretta Davidson learns this the hard way when, on a rainy afternoon, her car crashes into another vehicle at an intersection. Loretta survives with only a few stitches. Her four-year-old son is not so lucky. Falling into a coma, he soon succumbs to his injuries, leaving Loretta and her husband devastated.
 
Emma Elliot’s four-wheel drive glanced off the car she hit, and she left the scene of the accident convinced no one was hurt. She could not be late running errands for her partner—or there would be hell to pay. He had hit her before, and he would do it again.
 
In the months following the accident, Loretta struggles to survive her grief as her marriage crumbles. Emma gets engaged—and then pregnant. But the twists and turns life throws at the two women have a way of balancing things out, sending them straight into one another’s paths one more time.
 
“The novel does what fiction does best: exploring the small moments that can change lives for good.” —The Bookbag

My review:

This is an engaging tale with a fantastic premise. Two women’s lives collide after a terrible accident involving a fatality of a child. Emma is the younger of the two women. She is blindly in love and foolish in her choice of abusive partner, Derek. Loretta, the older and more assertive of the two takes Emma under her wing after an estrangement from her partner but is initially unaware of how their lives are so cruelly entwined.

There are several crucial similarities between the two women and a web of unspoken words envelopes them both hiding the shocking truth.

Whilst I was sympathetic to Emma’s plight, and her loss and Loretta’s tragedy I found it difficult to like Emma, though I sympathised with her. Her actions and her struggle to walk away do show just how powerful an abuser’s control can be on a woman and how hard it is to escape and behave and think logically.  Both women had undoubtedly suffered so much.

I enjoyed this and would read this author again.

Recommended for readers who enjoy psychological thrillers about women’s lives, abuse, and female relationships.

The clever ending wrapped everything up in a convincing way.

I won’t say anymore for fear of spoiling it for you!

I found this a difficult one to rate. The more I thought about the subtle intricacies in the story the more I liked it. Cleverly done.