Amanda Jennings

A tale of obsession, fraught with tension, tightly woven into this masterful plot.

Tamsyn has coveted The Cliff House for as long as she can remember, it is somewhere that was special between her and her father as well as the embodiment of everything she could wish for in life. As she watches the family that live there from her perch up on the cliffs, she imagines their perfect life and how happy they must be, how happy she would be if only she lived there in their world, where money isn’t a daily worry and everything is good. But things very rarely are as clear cut as they seem.

A chance encounter with the owner’s daughter opens up a doorway for Tamsyn into that world and into the house which she grabs with both hands. As a friendship blooms between herself and Edie, both Edie’s parents welcome her into their home and for once she feels like she belongs. But not everything that glitters is gold as the saying goes and piece by piece the glitter from the world, she has longed to be a part of starts to fade and the cracks begin to appear.

This may not be the fastest paced book in the world, and action packed it’s not, but it delivers a ratcheting feeling of unease, a building tension that just keeps on growing alongside the page numbers. This is a character driven novel with a protagonist that many will be able to relate to in some way and others that will exasperate you but inevitably they will all entertain you from the first page to the very last.

The Cliff House has been out for a while now but if like me you have had this buried in your to be read pile for ages I can’t recommend bringing it to the top of your pile straight away! It is worthy of being top of the pile!… (más)

I'm not a big reader of domestic and/or psychological thrillers, nor romance. I'm not dissing them; they're simply not my bag. I don't remember how this one came to my attention, but it was a long time ago, and I finally got my hands on it. I'm not sure what I expected of it, but I must of thought something about it would appeal to me.

These are things that did: I quite enjoyed Jennings writing, and I thought some of the turns of events made for a meaty story. Nothing felt overly contrived to me. Well, almost nothing. Most of the major plot points were predictable, but none of them happened in the way I expected, and that's what made it a pretty good read. Henry and Elaine are the characters with whom I took the biggest issue. Henry is a self-described weak-willed man, Elaine is criminally unstable. I've met couples like this. It makes the world a scary place.

Through her heroine, Jennings takes on the complex interplay of trust, identity, mental health, betrayal, family, ethics, and agency. Why are you who you are? What enables you, what frees you, what shackles you? In reading this, you may ask yourself, who do you think you are? When you've turned the last page, put on the Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime" and think about it.… (más)

Amanda Jennings is a new author for me, although I did buy a copy of In Her Wake quite some time ago; it's sitting in my bookcase winking at me right now and I'm silently promising to read it soon. I suppose I am in quite a good position to review The Cliff House as I cannot compare it to Amanda Jennings' previous works, but I'm struggling to start my review as I feel slightly breathless and completely bereft since turning the final page and the only word that comes to mind is 'WOW'. So here's my 'words fail me' review.

Set in 1986 with teenage main characters, this is a haunting tale of obsession and hidden envy that slowly creeps under your skin, inch by inch like the tide coming in. Tamsyn can only dream of living in The Cliff House until she meets Edie Davenport one day and is invited into their perfect world. Only it's not as perfect as it appears through Tamsyn's binoculars and she now has a front row seat as the idyllic lifestyle of the Davenports starts to implode.

Tamsyn is such a brilliant character; grieving from the death of her father, she is haunted by a raven that promises more death and destruction to follow. Tamsyn is written in such a way that she quickly swings from innocence to menace as the raven's prophesies play out in her mind. I loved these quick snapshots of darkness; they appeared out of nowhere and for a moment I felt myself straying into this dark alternate reality but then being snapped back almost in the blink of an eye.

Reading The Cliff House is like diving into a warm and inviting pool: smooth, immersive and all-encompassing to the point where I had to keep reminding myself to come up for air. It feels like an innocent story of a forgotten summer at first, but suddenly it has the feel of menace and danger but, by then, I was powerless to resist as I too had fallen in love with The Cliff House.

Amanda Jennings, what a disturbing and hauntingly beautiful tale you weave; The Cliff House is simply breathtaking with outstanding, evocative prose and vividly painted scenery that I can still close my eyes and bring to mind long after turning the final page. Completely stunning and highly recommended.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.… (más)

Warning: this review contains spoilers

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Bella Campbell has always lived in the shadow of others. Her mother was overprotective to the point of smothering, and once Bella finally left home, she ended up marrying one of her professors, who is just as suffocating an influence. Then her mother dies, and Bella’s family implodes—she discovers a long-held secret that sends her to Cornwall and to an entirely new identity.

At first I was kind of lukewarm about this story, mainly because of the two gratuitous-to-me sex scenes right at the beginning of the book, but eventually I was fully invested in the story. It helped that it was set in St. Ives, where I’ve been, so I could picture it very well. And while the plot could be considered a bit melodramatic at times, I was swept along, nearly yelling out loud in surprise at one point and being fully prepared to toss the book in the bin if Bella (as she is introduced) went back to that prick of a husband of hers. (Spoiler alert: she leaves him! Yaaaaaay! Good riddance to bad rubbish; he struck me as a control freak from page 1.)

The chapters are short and the book reads very quickly. These chapters do dart about a bit in time, but each chapter clearly indicates what time we’re in and whose POV we’re following.

All in all, I enjoyed this more than I thought I would.… (más)