The Apartment by K.L. Slater
They say every cloud has a silver lining. . .
When Freya Miller is struck by tragedy, losing her husband and her home within a short time, she is burdened with many worries. The main one being where she and her five-year old daughter, Skye, are going to live. A chance meeting with the charismatic Dr. Marsden changes all that. He offers the young mother the most amazing opportunity; an apartment at one of London's most exclusive addresses for a fraction of the market rental cost. It's an offer Freya simply can't refuse. Within a couple of weeks, Freya and Skye are moving into Adder House and meeting the other welcoming residents. They very quickly feel part of the family.
But just when Freya truly believes all her problems are history, a series of strange, unexplained occurrences begin. It leaves Freya with the unshakeable feeling that even when their apartment door is securely locked, she and her daughter are not alone. Freya thought she'd left all her troubles behind her yet she soon realizes there are problems here that are far more terrifying than before.
For behind the doors of Adder House, everything is most definitely not as it seems.
Old secrets refuse to stay buried and someone is determined to keep a terrible past, very much alive.
About the author:
Kim is the million-copy best-selling author of eight standalone psychological crime thrillers. At the age of 40 Kim went back to university and now holds an MA in Creative Writing. Kim is a full-time writer and lives with her husband in Nottingham. She enjoys traveling, eating out, is an avid film fan and most of all, she loves reading across genres.
My Review
Although I ended the book feeling accomplished, like everything was explained and put back away after the toy box was flipped and all its contents spilled out, I didn’t get the book hangover I usually get after reading a good book.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Slater’s work I just didn’t love this one.
For one I felt disconnected from Freya despite feeling empathetic for her with having been strung through the foster care system. Normally, I would ache for her and I did, it just wasn’t the same. Although she wanted to do the right thing she would inevitably keep making the wrong choices even with all the red flags in her face.
A quick snippet; I won’t spoil it for you but the one part with the flies…if I KNEW I had seen something like that even though others were telling me I didn’t, I’d run as fast as I could keeping Adder House behind me!
Plus I never felt we dove into any of the backstories enough to understand what Freya was really going through. The husband’s affair and death, the Mardson’s, and even Freya and Skye. It was a story that wasn’t quite a story, yes an easy read that I’d say was quick and enjoyable, just lacked the substance I look for in K.L. Slater’s books.