The Split by S.E. Lynes

Blog tour: 8 to 14 March 2024

Synopsis

The end of our marriage was only the beginning …

Last night, we celebrated our anniversary. Over candlelight, we talked about the children, our work, and I was so happy, and felt so loved.

But the next morning, when I check my phone, there is a message. From a friend. And a string of photos appear of my husband, Will, with another woman: walking along the street holding hands. Going into fancy hotels. Standing at a window, his arms around her, her head on his shoulder …

I beg Will to tell me what’s going on. But all he can say is that it’s not what I think. As if the betrayal wasn’t bad enough, he won’t even be honest with me.

And now there’s someone watching our house. Will is acting like a stranger and I think he’s following me. I can’t trust him anymore, and I desperately need to know who sent me those photos and why.

But maybe Will is telling the truth.
Maybe it’s not what I think.

Because the more our pain stops us talking, and the more the two of us tear each other apart, the more I wonder if I ever knew him at all – and what I’ll have to risk to protect my children.

And when at last the secrets are revealed, will the truth save our family, or destroy us all?

A thrilling, gripping page-turner about a marriage falling apart and the darkness love can contain. Readers who love Lisa Jewell, Ruth Ware and Shari Lapena will be hooked by The Split.

My review

The night after celebrating their seventh anniversary, Jessica discovers husband, Will, has been cheating when ‘a friend’ messages her a whole series of photos of him with another woman. The marriage is over as far as she’s concerned, and she asks him to leave. There’s no coming back, especially as her father was a cheat too.

Will swears that things aren’t what they seem and it appears that this isn’t your average affair but Jessica is adamant that she’s not giving him a second chance.

The couple have been together for 15 years and have two young children, Cassie (6) and Charlie (4). Will is a house husband and also works part time as a life coach, while Jessica works full time in London, doing 12-hour days, attending meetings and going out for drinks after work.

After their split, Will is staying at a local Travelodge in Brentford when he meets a man called Ian Robbins, who offers him a place to stay, but right from the start I was rather suspicious and wary of him. Things all seemed too good to be true and it felt like Robbins was grooming him for something!

The novel is told from Will and Jessica’s points of view and alternates between the two and, as the story progresses, things just seem to get worse and worse for them both! Jessica spots someone watching their house and struggles to do her demanding job and look after the children, even with help from her mum and best friend, Lena.

Lena acts like she is supportive but I had my doubts at times and wondered if she had feelings for Will. Also, several of the mums from school keep appearing throughout and I was curious if they were involved somehow. It all made for fascinating reading!

Will and Jessica make some awful decisions. Will is naive and far too trusting. They’re both really stubborn and don’t communicate properly at all. If they’d sat down and talked properly about things, they could have avoided a lot of the heartache that followed, but the novel would have been a lot shorter!

Overall, this was a gripping and well-plotted read, with multiple twists and turns! It’s fast paced, tense and intense and kept my interest throughout as I was trying to second guess what on earth was going on with all the characters. I was suspicious of everyone and kept thinking of lots of different scenarios but could never quite figure out what was going on – the author was always one step ahead!

I was genuinely quite scared for several characters at various points and was wondering how everything was going to be resolved in this intriguing tale. The story was a little far-fetched at times but I liked that – I’m always happy to suspend disbelief while reading!

I’ve read four of the author’s books now and they’re always entertaining and engaging reads that have me turning the pages quickly and I don’t want to put them down!

Buy the book

The Split by S.E. Lynes can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback. See also Ethical Book Search.

About the author

S.E. Lynes is the author of Amazon number one best seller, The Housewarming, plus best-selling psychological suspense novels such as Valentina, Mother, The Women, Her Sister’s Secret, The Baby Shower, The Ex, The Summer Holiday and many more!

A former BBC producer, she has lived in France, Spain, Scotland and Italy and is now settled with her family in Greater London. After completing her MA, S.E. Lynes taught creative writing at Richmond Adult Community College for 10 years. She now combines writing, mentoring and lecturing in Richmond Borough.

Lynes has also published thrillers in Italy, Germany, Poland and Croatia, and has also published three children’s books in Italy: Il Leopardo Lampo, La Coccodrilla Ingamba and the bilingual La Scimmia Spiritosa/The Funny Monkey.

Twitter: @SELynesAuthor
Facebook: @susie.lynes
Instagram: @selynesauthor
Website: susielynes.wixsite.com/website
Bookouture email sign up: bookouture.com/se-lynes

Blog tour

Thanks to Sarah Hardy and Noelle Holten at Bookouture for my digital copy of The Split and for my place on the blog tour.

See the banner below for more stops on the #blogtour.