Book Review “Fields of lies”, Sabina Gabrielli Carrara

Writing a book is always a hard job. One is always tempted to limit oneself to dreaming it.  Gaston Bachelard

But she did it. From dream to reality is only ONE jump, but it is a damn hard one. Well done, Sabina!

The idea of the book: 

Cheat – Kill – Repeat… 

Just kidding. Here it is:

Some people are good at hiding their dark side,
and when we like (or love them),
we sometimes refuse to see the truth.
S. G. Carrara

The theme of the book is simple, but entertaining:

A love triangle ending in the murder of the inconvenient husband.
With a main question – who sacrifices more: Bernadette, Michael or Shane?

Opening scene: 

Bed, roses and dirty sweat.
Ok. I’m lying again. The opening scene is quiet and slow, but after listening to Dan Brown’s masterclass, I understood why we need those silent-peaceful-almost-still descriptions. Because we wanna make a BOOM! 
BOOOOOMMMM!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!
Yeah, that’s how you feel while reading this book.

The silence has an actual sound, the sound of murder…

Genre: a gripping emotional page turner with a twist OR contemporary romance with a pinch of thriller and crime. 

Plot and conflict:

On the surface, Michael and Bernadette have had the dream life. Married in a passionate whirlwind some years ago, the two have raised a loving family together, sticking with each other through thick and thin. While their strength as a family is unsurprising to anyone who knows them, to the two of them, it’s a miracle things haven’t totally fallen apart already. Especially now that they’ve moved long past the days of school runs and hectic family dinners, Michael and Bernadette’s lives now mostly revolve around each other. And that might no longer be enough…

The truly scary thing about undiscovered lies is that they have a greater capacity to diminish us than exposed ones. Cheryl Hughes

Great plot, but heroes are so stressed out, you just wanna take their hand, put them in the chair, and…  kill them 😂✌️ 

Heroes:

#1 Team Bernadette aka Bernie – I can’t fully relate to the hero, because she is all about LOVE. I love ‘love’, but still I’d kill my neighbour if I had to. Bernie is more ‘thinking’ and ‘hopeful’ type. She want to please her boring husband, her mad neighbour next door, that annoying policeman, the whole damn town.

Ah, Bernie, Bernie… move to the bigger city. #RaysAdvice

I love her ‘pure soul’ tho. She reminds me Emmy (Amelia) Sedley from “Vanity Fair”, Thackeray. 

#2 Team Michael – a perfect husband = liar, cunning, tired, quiet, smart, always horny. I simply think he deserves every trouble he’ve got himself into. 

I know one thing about men. They never die when you want them to. Suzanne Finnamore

#3 Team Libbie – greedy and stupid. Great body – Zero Minds. Looooong legs. When she swift her legs from left to right – the male part of that village (or town) is swooning. 

Women destroy me. I allow them to. Raquel Cepeda

#4 Team Shane – too nice. I understand, after all those years of loneliness all he want is …sex. But please, Shane, hold it at least for 5 sec. Your dream girl won’t go anywhere. She is full of guilt as well. 

#5 Team annoying old lady (don’t remember her name lol) – that kind who sees everything, probably hiding ‘binoculars’ in her bag (and the gun under her bed).

Flow: slow tornado 

Dialogue: meaningful

Writing style, craft, skills:

Truly Talented and Deliciously Entertaining!

The style of writing is very different from Rays*.  It’s glue-ish: it invites you in, it flows like a river between milky shores, it’s sweet and sour, and you want more & more & more. And when you are finally arriving at the end of the story, you are like – “WHAT? What just happened? I have to go visit those guys…” 😂 You truly believes they exists. 

Issues: 

• too much running to Shane’s house. I wanted to be there to stop Bernie lol but I couldn’t. Sigh. Stuck with that old lady across the road. Mmmm, tea and gossips. That’s how I roll…
• we need more pubs (remember your traditions, Ireland!)
• too much love (less romance, more – MURDER!)
• focused on females mostly, but males also can learn a lesson or two

Overall impression:

A great story that captures you right away! If you start this book you may not want to put down until you’re done. You are WARNED!

Ray’s notes: 

• 2 murders is only the beginning
• the book is twisty and suspenseful, but even more than that, it’s clever and nuanced… It has lots of ‘layers’.

Rate: 

It is thoughtful, romantic, disturbing, sad, beautiful, twisty, shocking, tragic, real, witty and funny story – the whole package filled with pages of love, family mystery (murder!), suspense and dirty secrets. Well done 👍

x x x 

The blog of the author (truly hilarious!) – follow the author

The goodreads page/book (follow or die!) –  check HERE

Amazon Kindle  (grab it now!) – E-book and print

 

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Next post – #takeaways from Dan Brown’s Masterclass (hopefully – tomorrow)