Book Review: The Lodger by Valerie Keogh

Blurb

She’s in your home…

Leigh Simons can’t say for sure what made her do it. A moment of madness, perhaps, but when the young, loud and gorgeous waitress at her favorite coffee shop reveals she is homeless, Leigh offers her the empty room in her house.

In your head…

Gina is the perfect lodger; Leigh, lonely and frustrated with her life, becomes infatuated with the woman – her boldness, her zeal. If only Leigh could be more like Gina…

And missing without trace.

So when Leigh returns from a work trip she’s shocked to find Gina missing. Where could the young woman have gone…and why?

Leigh fears that something terrible has happened – why else would Gina leave her?

But as she sets out to find her missing lodger, what Leigh discovers changes everything she knows about Gina….and her own life, too.

Review

I’m not sure if it was the heat or this book that kept me up but I read over 60% of The Lodger in just one sitting. It has an interesting concept with a bunch of possible suspects, you just know which one will be the culprit. Gotta love a book that keeps you guessing.

My favourite part of the book was Leigh. Not necessarily because of her story, but what she represented. A vulnerable person punished for her kindness. A woman deemed “hysterical” by people unwilling to believe what was happening. An unhappy person living an unauthentic life. All of us have had similar experiences to Leigh at least once in our lives.

The story of The Lodger wasn’t predictable but wasn’t mind blowing either. But that’s ok. I got lost in it and forgot about the world for a while. That’s good enough for me.

Interested in reading it? Pick up a copy here.

I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.