The Dark Rose

 

The Dark Rose by Erin Kelly.

Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books (January 29, 2013)
ISBN-10: 0143122746

From Booklist

Kelly follows up her outstanding debut (The Poison Tree, 2010) with another suspenseful tale that keeps the reader on edge until the last page. Quiet and troubled teenager Paul has become tangled up with hooligan Daniel, and the two of them get rich selling scrap metal they’ve ripped off from construction sites around Essex. When a run goes bad, leaving a man dead, Paul rats out Daniel in exchange for community service. He’s placed with a social-services group renovating a public garden, where he meets the mysterious Louisa. Louisa is tormented by her past; as a goth teen, her volatile relationship with a musician ended badly, and she’s blamed herself for the past 20 years. Despite their age difference, Paul and Louisa start an affair. Trying to hide their relationship while escaping their pasts proves to be too challenging for the lovers; a bad end seems inevitable, but there is considerable tension as it approaches. Reminiscent of early Ruth Rendell, Kelly is a master at teasing her readers by doling out just enough backstory, a little bit at a time, to keep the suspense high. --Rebecca Vnuk

I'm not a lover of books that jump back and forth.  Although the chapter gave the year in which things take place, I always find them hard to follow until I am half way through the book!  That being said, the book gradually got more and more secrets to come out and you found yourself wanting to know answers to certain things.

The last number of chapters really pulled the story all together rather quickly and put some twists into it so that the ending wasn't quite what was expected.

It may not be my all time favorite book but I was pulled into the story, and having accomplished that, I read the book rather fast. 

I know I don't write my own "reviews" but I figure that most of the time it was Amazons review that made me want to read the book so it would most likely be the reason someone else reads it!