Cross Her Heart By Sarah Pinborough
This is a dark British tale of family relationships.
It’s Ava’s sixteenth birthday, but a school day. Her mother,
Lisa, contemplates the time Ava will fly from the nest, and it will be too soon
for her. The first hint of shadows as they’re getting ready for the day is
Lisa’s alarm—almost panic—at an unfamiliar car coming up the street. She has to
tell herself that she and Ava are safe to calm her racing heart. At work, her
unease continues as she gears up for a presentation for a potential client,
Simon Manning. She feels an attraction developing between them that she doesn’t
know how to deal with.
Ava is involved with a good swim team consisting of three other
girls she has known for only ten months, but has bonded with. She feels closest
to Jodie, who is much older but likes swimming with them. They compare their
weird mothers. Ava’s hovers and is overprotective, Jodie’s is mostly absent.
Lisa and Ava alternate telling the story as it deepens and darkens. Ava has
started getting involved with an exciting romance online. She knows about the
dangers, but she’s smart and aware, right? Nothing bad will happen. She has to
keep this secret from her mother, though, because she would flip.
Meanwhile, Lisa is struggling to keep her sanity as mysterious
signs start popping up, reminding her of a life she thought she shed, and
making her physically sick to her stomach. The worst thing that could happen
would be for the people from her past to find her and Ava. Even Lisa’s best friend,
sunny and outgoing Marilyn, has her own dark secrets.
Mother and daughter, separately and together, head toward
disaster, both of them trusting the wrong people as the reader cringes for what
could be coming; not knowing what it is, but knowing it will be disastrous.
The past and the present speed to converge on an awful event
bringing about the startling, defining moment in their lives.
Reviewed by Kaye George, Editor of Day of the Dark: Eclipse Stories, for Suspense Magazine
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