THE COFFIN CLUB
JACQUELINE SUTHERLAND
***
Everyone deserves a second chance. Don't they?
Kat is rebuilding her life. After losing her husband in a tragic accident, moving to the countryside is her chance to start again.
Encouraged by her new and only friend Ginny, Kat joins Young and Widowed, dubbed the Coffin Club by its members. And that’s how she meets Nico. Instantly drawn to each other, Nico seems like Kat’s perfect match. He is kind, caring, handsome and, most importantly, a father to five-year-old Magdalena. This could be Kat’s shot at the one thing she has always wanted: to be a mother.
BUT SOMETIMES BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR…
MY REVIEW ***
I’m not really a fan of romance stories, but something about The Coffin Club really drew me in particularly with its dark promise of a suitor that isn’t quite all he seems. The first few chapters are quite a hard read, especially as I’m due to get married myself next year, as it focuses on Kat and how she loses her husband in a tragic accident. A lot of the book is written in the style of her telling the story to her deceased husband which worked well and made for a hard-hitting narrative style.
We join Kat on her quest for a new family and most importantly for her - a child, as she meets the mysterious Nico and tries to start a new life. If you are under the illusion that this is a romance book this is soon shattered as we get a lot of foreshadowing and hints that something bad is about to happen. Although this can sometimes work well to build pace in a book, it felt a little too heavy handed here and made me frustrated rather than intrigued. The book itself is very slowly paced and the events that are foreshadowed only really happen right at the end. I had pretty much guessed what was happening although I didn’t quite understand the motivations until they were revealed.
I loved Kat’s character arc and the twist at the end, and I do really love books that are bold enough to pull off this kind of a reveal and follow it through. That said, I didn’t really feel like I empathised with her all that much and I also didn’t really like anyone else in the book which made it hard to relate to and probably contributed to the book feeling like it dragged at times.
Overall, The Coffin Club has a great final twist but is very slowly paced in its build up with unrelatable characters. Thank you to NetGalley & Oneworld Publications – Point Blank for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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