S. R. Masters

Elle had saved for a much-needed holiday, but her mother had some troubles with money and it led to Elle giving her mother the money to keep her safe. This was all a rouse and it isn’t long before Elle discovers this and is annoyed. She really wanted that holiday!
She applies when she sees an advert for a medical trial in the Canary Islands for 4 weeks and a payment of £20k at the end of it on her mother’s computer. The first application is turned down so she applies again tailoring her answers and she is accepted and she heads off for the trial.
This was a good book, I enjoyed reading it, there were a lot of twists and kept me guessing throughout. It was interesting too. The only thing I was disappointed with was the ending, which left me feeling a bit flat.
… (más)

TITLE: The Trial
AUTHOR: S.R. Masters
CW/TW: Violence, language, mental illness
RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
REVIEW: I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

This book was not for me. At the beginning, I was intrigued by the set up, it seemed interesting and not like anything I’ve ever read before. But then…literally nothing happened. We really got to hear almost nothing about what was happening to people other than that the were having headaches and some were acting a little funny. The places that were supposed to be tense and exciting simply weren’t, I think because we were never really given time to get any real connection to the characters.

Most disappointing was the last 10% of the book where we find out everything going on exposition style, and the very, very end which I hated.

This book does have potential though. The writing is good and it’s a very interesting type of story. I just wish more could have been done with it.… (más)

Elle is living at home and is smothered by an overbearing Mom, who steals from her. She’s unhappy with her job. She sees an opportunity to join a drug trial supposedly taking place in the Canary Islands, but doesn’t know what the drug or the side effects are, but completion of the trial means a 20,000 pound payoff, money she could really use. Once on the island, things start to go wrong, and eventually members of the trial either disappear or are killed. Will Elle survive?

I found the whole premise of the book implausible. Who’d seriously join such a drug trial, even for the money? The characters were poorly developed, the writing pedestrian, and I found the ending unsatisfactory.

My thanks to Harper 360 and to Netgalley for providing an ARC of the book.… (más)