Introducing #YourHealthyReads with Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough

I love to read. I did English Literature in university and reading books is one of my earliest memories (I started writing stories at the age of 7 because I ran through books too fast and was too impatient to wait to for my parents to get me more!). Somewhere along the way though, real life intervened and I realized I wasn’t consuming writing in book form anymore. I was lucky if I got a few blog posts and some tweets read in a day.

So for the past few years my sister, aunt, mom and I have made a pact and we do annual reading challenges, often using cues set up by sites like PopSugar or Goodreads (this year we are doing the PopSugar one, but speaking of Goodreads – I keep track of all my reading on there, so friend me!). The goal is not just to get us reading again but to use these challenge cues to break us out of our reading ruts – with intense and often stressful work schedules I was picking up chick lit after chick lit and while I love that genre and see no shame in it, I know I was going for the easy option because I was in a bit of a rut. Doing this challenge has made me read more non-fiction, which I often enjoy but don’t naturally gravitate towards, and branch out of my current genre rut (it’s psychological thrillers now). Don’t get me wrong, I still get plenty of those in there, but every now and then it’s healthy to change it up!

Given how much I love to read I often make recommendations and share reviews with friends and family, but the blog and my social media channels seems the easiest spot to share them with you too. After all, reading is something I am always recommending to my clients as an excellent form of self-care and a great way to relax before bed (instead of looking at yet another screen – Kindle screens don’t count as most don’t have the glare that computers, phones and TVs have).

Thus welcome to #YourHealthyReads. Reading IS healthy! Follow me on social media for really succinct reviews of my fave books – on Instagram I do this on my Stories, which are then saved to a Book Recs highlight reel, and on Facebook I offer my thoughts in a post on my feed.

Sarah Pinborough – Behind Her Eyes

Beware of reading reviews of this book as it is a book that is very spoiler-sensitive: in that, if you hear the ending in advance I do think that would take away most of the fun of reading this book.

When I was first finished with it, I was pretty disappointed. But the more I sat with it I realized that a few years ago, had I read this book, I’d have thought the ending was brilliant – twisty and genius and thought-provoking – but with the recent psychological thriller trend taking plots on a fairly formulaic journey, if we are honest, I had come to expect something different and as a result found myself initially disappointed. No! That means we have been sucked into a trend and have become victims to it. So while I can’t say more without giving something crucial away, just go into this one with an open mind.

I felt the characters were fleshed out and lifelike, and an air of tension runs through the book, which keeps you turning pages, particularly as you approach the second half.

Be careful if, like me, you’re a soft touch when it comes to animals: there is talk of pet killing which is pretty graphically described at one point, so trigger warning for those of you who may want to avoid that part when you sense it getting near, or the book as a whole.

Overall, I give it 4/5 and would say it’s worth picking up when you want a holiday read or something that you will take a day or two to get into and then quickly devour!