Who I Am by Sarah Simpson #travelingsistersread #BookReview #BlogTour @Aria_Fiction @sarahsimpson

WHO I AM BY SARA SIMPSON BLOG TOUR

 

 

Hello everyone and thank you so much for stopping by! We are so excited and it’s our absolute pleasure to be a part of the blog tour for Who I Am by Sarah Simpson and share our individual reviews with you. Thank you so much to Victoria Joss at Aria for inviting us to be a part of this blog tour.

The Traveling Sisters ~ Norma, Brenda & Lindsay! xxoo

SARAH SIMPSON – About the author
Sarah Simpson has a first-class honours degree in Psychology and has experienced working at a Brain Rehabilitation Hospital. She has spent time as a family consultant for Warwickshire and Oxfordshire solicitors and gained knowledge of the Family Court System. She now lives in Cornwall with her husband, three children and animals.

Follow Sarah
Twitter handle: @sarahrsimpson
Facebook: @sarahsimpsoncornwall

About the book

I know everything about you

And you know everything about me… except

WHO I AM.

Andi met Camilla at university. Instantly best friends, they shared everything together. Until their long-planned graduation celebration ends in tragedy…

Years later, Andi is living a seemingly perfect life on the rugged Cornish Coast with her loving husband, happy children and dream home. Yet Andi is haunted by a secret she thought only she knew. Someone out there is bringing Andi’s deepest fears to life. And she knows there’s no escaping the past that has come back to haunt her…

You trusted me with your secrets, you told me everything, you thought I was your best friend… but you have no idea WHO I AM.

Gripping, unputdownable and packed with twists and turns from the first page to the very last, this stunning psychological thriller will make you question whether we can ever really trust the ones we love.

Norma’s Review

Gripping, twisty & totally mind-boggling!

WHO I AM by SARAH SIMPSON was quite the engrossing, intense, entertaining and unputdownable psychological thriller that necessarily didn’t grab my attention right away but it definitely had me totally consumed with curiosity in trying to figure out what the heck was actually going on with these characters.

I really struggled in the beginning because I didn’t really connect with the authors writing style but with that being said there was definitely a purpose for the way that this story was written which becomes quite apparent as the story progresses. Regardless of my struggles the storyline definitely was filled with lots of suspense which was so intense that I was anxiously swiping through those pages as fast as I possibly could.

SARAH SIMPSON delivers a dizzying, twisty, suspenseful, and well-written read here that had my head spinning in circles pretty much throughout most of this read. The story is told in multiple perspectives with a past and present timeline which definitely kept me on my toes in trying to figure out how all the perspectives were related. At times I was getting pretty frustrated and antsy eagerly awaiting for some of those subtle clues. But boy of boy it was definitely worth the wait!

As always I like to play detective and my detective skills were on the right track but let me tell you I had no idea how the author was going to pull it all off. Well, I am actually totally floored and truly impressed in the author’s ability to pull this one together in such a way that was so cleverly plotted bringing the whole story together in the end. This is one that those little pieces of puzzles definitely fit together perfectly. And those are probably one of my favourite techniques that an author chooses to use when telling their stories.

Brenda’s Review

Things started off a little rocky for me at first and I wasn’t sure if this one was going to be one that I read through quickly just to finish it.  Well things really started to pick up for me and I started to pick up on some of those clues and I raced through most of this one in one evening to find out how it ends.  I was completely engrossed and entertained in this story and nothing was stopping me till I found Who I Am really is in this story. Things got quite twisty as I tried to piece things together and my head started to spin and at times I forgot who I was while trying to figure out how everyone fitted into this story.

Sarah Simpson does a great job here developing some interesting characters and we were quite intrigued with one character who seemed to have some background to her. After we finished reading we realized there is a previous book Her Greatest Mistake with that character in it. We will be adding that one to our list in the new year and looking out for her next book I Know You’re There, that will be released April 16, 2019.

Now here is the best thing about this story for me I can’t say I really liked the ending but I sure enjoyed the story.  I don’t think I ever felt that way about an ending before. Usually, how I like the ending is deal breaking for me.  Well, this ending was just perfect and brilliantly written. We highly recommend.

Lindsay’s Review

Twisty, TWISTY, T W I S T Y!!!!!!!!!

Wow – this was really good! I devoured this delicious treat of a novel like a child eating candy. Sneaking in minutes here and there when I should have been doing household chores. It was a thrilling, edge-of-my-seat, highly entertaining adventure that left my brain spinning when finished.

Andi and Camilla, raised in opposite ends of society, meet in university and become roommates. Each girl finds intrigue and allure into the background and lifestyle of the other and they become best friends. The night of their graduation party ends in tragedy, ending the bond that held their loyal friendship. Twenty years later, Andi is living a privileged life but feels a creeping suspicion that something from her past is coming to threaten her. Will the secrets she thought were long ago buried come back to haunt her?

I was glued to the pages of this clever, tension-filled thrilling ride! The story unfolds through multiple characters perspectives with Past and Present timelines which kept me engrossed and anxious from start to finish. There were times that I had to pause to reassess which character’s perspective I was reading, however, this didn’t deter from my overall enjoyment. (This confusion was most likely due to the author being so clever and brilliantly worded that things slipped by my not-so-clever brain). The writing was excellent! Some of the characters’ inner thoughts had a brilliant snarkiness that had me giggling to myself. The conclusion is a twisty, mind blowing whirlwind of pieces of an intricate puzzle being put together. Loved it!

This was a Traveling Sister read with Brenda and Norma which we all really enjoyed. It was an excellent book to discuss and try to figure out. Norma and Brenda’s detective skills far surpassed mine (no surprise there!).

Norma’s Stats:
Cover: Eerie, forbidding, gloomy, suspenseful, intriguing and a fitting representation to storyline.
Title: Intriguing, impressive, suspenseful, and an excellent and fitting representation to storyline.
Writing/Prose: Well-written, engaging, captivating, and mysterious.
Plot: Complex, suspenseful, twisty, bewildering, engrossing, fast-paced, held my attention and extremely entertaining.
Ending: An intricately plotted ending that left me feeling totally satisfied, elated and thoroughly impressed.
Overall: The psychological aspects, revelations, suspense and thrills along with those shocking twists and turns definitely made me one happy and totally satisfied reader upon finishing this book. Would recommend!

Thank you so much to Victoria Joss at Aria and Sarah Simpson for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

Who I Am is available now!

CONNECT WEBSITE – AUTHOR Q&A

1. Tell us about your novel, Who I Am.
Who I Am, is my second novel, it’s a dark character driven psychological thriller which plays on the old adage – the grass is always greener on the other side. Isn’t so easy for us all to believe this, especially when times are, let’s say – challenging. I have two main female protagonists who first meet at Edinburgh University, they form a tightly knit relationship very quickly. The novel is set over two time periods so it leads us from these university days in the 1990’s up to the present day. The two characters couldn’t be more different in terms of their backgrounds and their means but when it comes to their emotional needs, they have much in common. Both seek to make fundamental changes to reflect their discontentment which leads them along a twisted, tragic path. They struggle to come to terms with the consequences of some life defining events. This novel also deals with issues of alcoholism, anxiety and depression and their far reaching consequences.

2. What was the most difficult part about writing this book? And what was the most fun part?
Hmm… this is a difficult one to answer without giving the twists away. But fundamentally it was – providing the reader with enough information without revealing the main plot, I know this is true of most psychological thrillers but it was particularly difficult with this one, for reasons I cannot say – sorry. The most fun part has to be visiting some of Cornwall’s most beautiful spots where I set the scenes for my characters. Gosh – this was hard work, to wander the beaches with my imagination 😉

3. Did you do any specific research for the book?
Who I Am is set between Edinburgh and Cornwall, Edinburgh is a city I love and I have had the pleasure of visiting many times and Cornwall is where I live – so the location research was relatively easy. The psychological aspects were very much dependent on my background and experience as a psychologist to be honest. Other technical content (again I can’t be too specific) I mainly researched online, hoping to goodness – no one ever checks my hard drive as it doesn’t make for a sound mind.

4. Do you see yourself in any of the characters in your novel?
Interestingly, no not in this novel, and as I did with Her Greatest Mistake. I certainly recognised the characters traits in other people I know, or have met though as is usually the case with all fictional characters.

5. Can you describe Who I Am in 3 adjectives?
Evocative, twisted and delusive.

6. How long did it take to write the novel and how many drafts did you write?
I began this novel last year but then put it down for quite a while to concentrate on Her Greatest Mistake. I would say about six months and a lot longer in my mind. I edit as I write so it’s difficult to say how many true drafts my novels go through. I would say I did four rigorous edits and then a lot of tweaking.

7. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life which book would it be?
This is such a difficult question to answer because I have read so many fantastic books. So, I guess I have to say those books that made a difference at certain times of my life. And books feel different depending on our stage and state of life at the time, but for now I will say – The Song of Pentecost W.J. Corbett.

8. When did you decide to write and what prompted you to start?
I decided to write when I was little more than eight years old, and I used to write all the time at this age and into my teens. For some reason that I still trying to fathom I then followed a totally different life path which took me away from my writing on paper at least. So it was many, many more years before I began writing again which wasn’t until two years ago.

9. Can you tell us a little about yourself?
I now live in Cornwall with my husband, three children (not so little anymore),German Shepherd – Arthur and moggy cat – Thomas. I love the simple things in life. Being with my family and being outdoors, walking the coastlines and anything really to with and being close to the sea. I probably, no definitely think too much and I’m a terrible people watcher!

10. What projects are you working on now?
I am currently half way through my third book which is set mostly in St. Ives in Cornwall. This is another character driven, taut, dark and twisted psychological thriller. But it’s all top secret at the moment…

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If you would like to read a copy of the book for yourself, it is available now from the following retailers:

Kobo  iBooks  Amazon  Google Play

Follow Aria
Website: http://www.ariafiction.com
Twitter: @aria_fiction
Facebook: @ariafiction
Instagram: @ariafiction

Please check out these other fantastic blogs that are participating in the blog tour!