Synopsis

At first glance you’d think Alison had it all. A loving husband, doting daughter and a good career as a barrister. But of course, things are never as they seem.

Alison stays out late, drinks too much and barely sees her family. On top of that she’s having an affair with a colleague who doesn’t seem to care what she’s risking to be with him whenever he fancies sex.

Yet secrets always come out and someone wants to make Alison pay for what she’s doing, and doesn’t care how they reach their goal…

Review

Harriet Tyce’s Blood Orange has been widely publicised and the hype was intense, with 5* reviews everywhere! Having studied law, I love a legal thriller, so was quite excited about reading it.

However, it was extremely disappointing.

Alison is extremely selfish, spending most of her time having drunken sex with a misogynistic man (she even gives him a blowjob in a train toilet – and we all know how rank they are), while her husband took care of their young daughter.

Any character that sounds too good to be true usually is; they’re either hiding a deep, dark secret, or are suddenly struck with a desire to murder. Needless to say, I was pretty confident about what was going to happen and (for the most part I was right); I tend to form a few theories and then narrow this down as the book continues. However, I always hope that my guesses are wrong and the ending surprises me.

Not in this case. Blood Orange was as predictable as I thought.

Not only that, but the characters were all so unlikeable that I wasn’t invested in their stories at all – in fact, I really didn’t care what happened to any of them. Once the book had ended, I actually felt that many characters had an almost unfair escape; Alison did not deserve to be happy and should’ve been punished for her actions.

The aspects about law were really interesting and the few moments in the courtroom were my favourite part of the book. If I’m honest, I almost didn’t bother finishing it!

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